Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!

So, it's Liv's 10th birthday...

10 years old, holy cow! I can't believe my baby girl is a decade old. Seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital wondering what we would ever do with a baby...

Ah, memories. It has been such a decade of change for us and I feel so blessed to have a daughter such as Olivia to have shared it with me. She is such a genuinely good person and truly brings so much joy to my life.

This years birthday was a little crazy. We spend the actual day driving from Moab to Lehi to have a birthday party before we left the next day for a flight to California to be with my family at Disneyland for Spring Break (but that's another post).

Birthday parties at Jann's house are always awesome. She carries on Lisa's tradition of wonderful family parties and we value them even more now that we don't get to participate in them as often as we would like. Thank you Jann for helping my baby girl feel special on her special day.

We took off the next day for some time in Disneyland to celebrate my Dad's 50th birthday and spend some time with Chrys before he left to serve a mission for 2 years. While in California we got to have an amazing family party to celebrate birthdays and a general get together. Special thanks to Grandma Cheryl for such a great time!

So much activity left no time before Spring Break for Liv to have a party with her friends so once we returned we picked a weekend and had Liv invite some of her friends for a party at the local rock climbing gym.

Liv had the chance to attend a birthday party last year at this gym, called Stone Age, and really liked it so when she asked if she could have her party there we said yes.

With that I will now switch to picture mode and will count each as around 1000 words (that should meet Jaime's word count quota that she gave me)

Liv opening gifts the 2 days before her birthday (she had school the next day and we were leaving right after for Moab and then Lehi on her actual birth day)

Party time with the fam!

Liv enjoying getting gifts.

In California the next day at a party with my family and extended family.  It was awesome!

Liv climbing high!

Harris climbing high!

Chet climbing.  (so it doesn't look high because of the zoom but I was actually, at least, 4 feet or so up in the air)

Liv and Jaime decided on cupcakes instead of the traditional cake.  We get these at a place called Cake Fetish here in ABQ and they are fantastic.

Group action photo of the festivities.

Me lighting the...cupcakes.  It was pretty hilarious (apparently).

I think that people were laughing because the candles were "sparkler" ones and kept shooting sparks into the air.

Group picture of all the friends.  So fun!

Another Trip to the Zoo

On Saturday, the weather was so nice that we wanted to get out and do something. So we headed to our favorite place, the zoo. We always have a fabulous time there and this time was no exception. Of course we made our way to all of our favorites like the polar bears and the big cats. At the end of the "Catwalk" we stopped at the duck pond to feed the ducks. While we were feeding them Liv and Harris discovered that the ducks would eat out of your hands. They thought it was so fun.



After feeding the ducks we went to see the seals. Olivia loves seals and often wishes she could swim like one. ;) Exiting the seal area leads to "Australia". There were several new animals there, one of which was a wombat! Which I have decided is one of my new favorite animals! SOOOO cute! I just wanted to snuggle with him!

 SO CUTE!

There was also a Kookaburra. I remember watching Zoboomafoo with Liv on time and there was a kookaburra on the show and they said that the only way to get them to sing is for them to hear other kookaburras. Thinking this would be a cool thing for the kids to hear I looked up the sound they make on my phone and played it for the bird. And what do you know, he sang!



The kids really got a kick out of this and wanted me to do it again. We tried several more times but he just wouldn't sing again. We finally gave up and continued on our way to Africa.

Whenever we are in "Africa" the hippos are always underwater sleeping. This time however they weren't! It was so cool to see them actually doing something. Harris, of course, was terrified. He has always hated hippos. I think that he has heard (more than once) on a certain ride that hippos don't attack unless they wiggle their ears and blow bubbles. Which they always do when they come out of the water. So he didn't think it was as cool as the rest of us did. ;)



It was another great afternoon at the zoo!

A New President for President's Day

A couple weeks ago, Olivia let me know that her class had been studying government and had decided they wanted to form their own class government complete with Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches.  She further informed me that she wanted to be president of said government...President Olivia P. Robinson... I liked the sound of that.

As Olivia began to make plans for speeches and campaign advertisements I was immediately reminded of my various attempts at student government during my days at Mountain View High School...ah, youth...

Anyway, I was successful as a sophomore in getting elected Junior Class Secretary and had a great time doing things like... planning proms... and as a Senior I tried my darnedest to make a good showing for some sort of "President" job (student body or class) but was nowhere near cool or interesting enough to garner the votes required. 

So, back to the present.  When Olivia came to me about her desire to become class president I had a number of conflicting emotions; excitement mixed with trepidation, hope mixed with fear, a strong desire to see her succeed but an irrational desire to shield her from failure...you know, basic parent kind of stuff.  In the end, it wasn't really all about me (what?!) and she entered the primary election, made a speech and won the primary!  A runoff happened to choose her competitors but she took the primaries by a landslide.

As we discussed plans for the actual election she asked about what kind of campaigning she should do, I suggested a humorous video (know your audience, right?) and she agreed.  She got the blessing of her teacher and we made plans.  Now, back to the past for a minute.  I remember one particular election video in High School that caught my attention and thought we could borrow the general theme and put our own spin on it.  The video in high school was from a kid whose dad worked as a sheriff or something and it featured him running from the police at night with calls from the officers chasing him of "what are you running for?", when they finally caught him he informed the officers that he was running for some sort of class office (get it?). 

Once again in the present, Olivia and I decided on a similar theme of running but more "marathon running" vs. "running from the authorities"...

Below, I present the final edit of said video.  It took us a couple days and many, many laughs to complete but was overall a very fun project.

In the end, all our efforts paid off and our dear Olivia was elected class president!  No small feat for a 4th grader in a mixed class of 4th, 5th and 6th graders.  I am very proud of her for many things, not least of which is not being afraid to try while knowing that she could fail but doing everything in her power to succeed. 

Love you, President Baby Girl!

First Lost Tooth

On Valentine's Day while Chet and I were at dinner, Harris lost his first tooth! I know that this is going to sound dramatic but it made me sad that he lost a tooth. I mean how can my baby be losing teeth?! He's not that big is he? I guess he is...

Adorable!

Any way... The next morning Harris had forgotten that the Tooth Fairy had come! When we reminded him he ran down to his bedroom and found a crisp 10 dollar bill under his pillow (that's what happens when the Tooth Fairy is out to dinner and comes home late and only has a 10 in her wallet). Lucky boy!

He actually has 2 more that are ready to fall out any day! So I guess the Tooth Fairy will be back again soon and will hopefully be more prepared next time. ;)

Yellow Belt

On Thursday, Harris was tested to see if he was ready to promote to yellow belt. At our new studio it is quite the process to promote.  We've found that at most places you promote based on how many classes you have attended (regardless of what you have actually learned).  That is part of it at Blackman but it is also based on the students knowledge of the moves and their ability to do them correctly. So, on Thursday for almost 2 hours he was tested and graded on his skills. He did great!

Master Blackman (a 5th degree Black Belt) watching the kids do their front falls. I just love that he says "niiice!" to Harris after his turn. :)

Testing kicks now.

He passed!

After the test on Thursday there was a belt ceremony Saturday morning to receive their belts. Harris was so excited for this that on Friday he woke up at 6 thinking it was Saturday! I'm so glad that he loves it so much!

My little yellow belt! Way to go Harris!!!

Expander

Just before Christmas we took Liv to the orthodontist to see when would be the best time to get her braces. After several x-rays and a consult with the doctor we learned that the sooner we did it the better. The reason being that she still has 13 teeth that need to grow in! 13! Her mouth is so crowded already that there is absolutely no room. So we set up an appointment for the first of the year to get started.

Last week we went in to have her molds done and to have one more look at her teeth. After she got the molds done they gave her a bunch of sticky candy (Starburst, Skittles, Laffy Taffy, etc.) that she wouldn't be able to eat while she has her expander and braces. It was really cute.

That brings us to today. Today we went back again but this time we finally got started. The first step in the process of braces for her is an expander. Which does exactly what the name implies. For the next 3 months it will spread apart all of her teeth so that the 13 that haven't grown in yet can. When those three months are done she will get her braces on. The whole process is only going to take about a year.

 Can you see her white knuckle grip on the chair? She was so nervous that it was going to hurt even though I kept telling her it wouldn't. 

No, she wasn't scared to death. ;) They are drying her teeth to cement the expander in.



All done! And it didn't even hurt!


So now every night for the next 6-8 weeks we will turn that little wheel in the middle of the expander to spread her teeth apart enough for the others to grow in. As we were leaving the doctor told her, "It's like working out. At first you hate it but when you are finished you love the results." :)

Day 7- Our Last Day at Magic Kingdom

When we found out that we were going to Disney World I knew that there were 2 places I wanted to eat, the Coral Reef Cafe and Cinderellas Royal Table inside Cinderella Castle. I was able to secure reservations for the Coral Reef Cafe but not the Castle. The dining reservation cast member told me that my best bet at getting in was to call everyday we were there and see if there had been any cancellations. So we did. We called everyday and nothing. Finally on our last night there we got lucky. They'd had a cancellation for 8:30 the next morning! Yes! There was a problem however. When you make reservations at the Castle it is prepay only and we had left our Visa's in our hotel room because when you are in the park you only need your "key to the world" which pays for everything. Now normally this wouldn't be a problem because we have our Visa numbers memorized but just before we left for the trip we were notified by our bank that our information had been stolen and they issued us a new account with new cards and new numbers (that we still hadn't memorized). There was also one other small problem. We weren't at our hotel. We were standing in line for the shuttle back to the hotel though so we asked the cast member we were on the phone with if she could hang on while we took the 10 minute shuttle ride back. We wanted these reservations bad! She agreed and hung on the line. For some reason however our bus driver went a different way back to the hotel and instead of being the first stop we were the very last stop! Ugggg! After 35 minutes we were finally back at our hotel and were able to secure the reservation. Hooray! What a sweet lady for waiting on the line for that long for us.

We were up bright and early (6 am which was 4 am UT time) to make sure we were on time to our breakfast reservation. We had to get up that early to get ready but it was also our last day at Disney World so we had to get packed up, checked-out of the hotel and checked-in to the airline. It was hectic but worth it to be able to eat in the castle!

When you walk in the castle you are greeted by non other than Cinderella herself.

Sitting at our royal table.

The ceiling of the castle. Can you see the Hidden Mickeys? :)

As part of the breakfast package you get to meet the Princesses, like I said before the princesses are way more accessible than at Disneyland.

The kids had to sit on the outside of the table so the princesses could get to them more easily. Unfortunately it made taking good pictures more difficult because the window was behind them.

In between the princesses they take a break to give the girls a wand and the boys a sword and a wishing star. When they are all passed out they do a little rhyme and make the kids close their eyes and make a wish. As you can see Harris was really into the wishing part. ;)

So sweet!

This Ariel was the prettiest and sassiest ;) that we have met.

For some reason they only have peasant Belle at Disney World.

After a fabulous breakfast of deep fried cream cheese danish :) we set out to find more characters. Our first stop was to see Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder from Tangled. At this point it was only about 9:15 and the characters weren't scheduled to come out until 10. So I stood in line while Chet and the kids went in search of hot chocolate. You see, over night a cold front moved into Orlando and it was freezing! While I was standing in line freezing my butt off I checked Weather Channel and it said that the temperature was 24 degrees! So cold. So cold.

Finally we were let into the area where the characters were going to be. They had the parents line up against the wall and the kids were all around a big table set up with crayons and coloring paper. When the kids finished coloring, Rapunzel and Flynn finally came out. Liv was dying because they came out and wanted to do a dance with all the kids. She was so embarrassed! Fortunately, it didn't last very long. :)



Poor Liv! I just love watching her face she looks like she is going to die of embarrassment!

Rapunzel and Flynn

This is right next to where you stand in line to see Flynn and Rapunzel and the kids wanted to pose for the camera. You don't say no when the kids want to pose. ;)

After meeting and dancing with Flynn and Rapunzel we wanted to go find Davy Crockett Donald in Frontierland and do Big Thunder and Splash Mountain.

This was a cool character find. For some reason Donald is very hard to see. He is hardly ever out so to see him and have him be in a new costume was awesome!

After riding Jungle Cruise (which got a +3) we wandered through Frontierland and came upon our family treehouse! ;)

It was almost time to head out but there was one more character that we wanted to see. So we headed back to Main Street to meet Daisy.

Surprisingly enough this is the first time we have ever seen Daisy. You think she would be out more with the other main characters. Maybe she is just elusive like Donald.

After our final character meeting at Disney World it was time to say goodbye. We had an amazing time and look forward to our next visit!

Goodbye Disney World we will see you in 2012!

P.S. Are you ready? ;)

This was at the exit where Santa had been.