Love is in the Air

Our Valentine's celebrating actually about a week early with helping Sycely work her way through writing out Valentine's cards for everyone in her class. It felt like such a big-kid project and I'm soooo thrilled to look forward to doing that again every year for the next 7 years or so! On Thursday, Sycely's class celebrating Valentine's Day by having special cookie treats to decorate and distributing Valentine's to the mailboxes they'd decorated earlier in the week. Sycely also got special hershey kiss treats from Miss Theresa at ballet school on Saturday.

Valentine's Day started off with pink, heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast. The girls got dressed in their matching Valentine's Day outfits and we headed off to church where Sycely enjoyed yet more special treates-pink frosting filled cookies. After church we had lunch and got Ella (and Mommy) down for a nap and finished our last minute packing for the big V-day Sleepovers. Nanny and Papa came to pick up the girls for their Valentine's Sleepover Party with Nanny. It was Ella's first sleepover, and though I was really excited to get to have a night away during which we could actually finish more than one sentence uninterrupted, the Mommy part of my heart was just a little sad to be leaving my tiny Roo Bug overnight for the first time. But her big sister was with her and she's a pro at this sleepover business!

Lem and I checked into our hotel, the Captain Cook and got settled in our corner room on the 15th floor. We had city/mountain and ocean views-yay! We headed off to Simon's for dinner and drinks then went back to our room for a little downtime, exchanging presents and some olympics viewing until it was time for our dessert resevation. It was super cool to have time enjoy each other's company without being rushed to get back to the girls and we got to watch a lovely sunset over the city and inlet.

We had dessert at the Glacier Brewhouse, where I savored every morsel of my peanut butter pie and Lem sipped a scrumptious something or other margarita. It was super convenient that we were staying at the hotel and didn't have to worry about downtown parking and it was fun to be able to enjoy a leisurely walk to the restuarants. The weather cooperated and even warmed up into the 30s so we weren't totally freezing and miserable!

The next morning we enjoyed breakfast in bed courtesy of room service and lounged around in our plush, snuggly hotel robes til it was time to check out. We grabbed some Starbucks a few blocks down after another downtown stroll and then had to head back home (and back to reality) to get our girls. We had such a great time and the girls had so much fun with Nanny (despite Ella not sleeping well) and brought home lots of Valentine treasures from their sleepover.

Playing Dress-Up

At the end of January Sycely and I had the opportunity to be in a wedding fashion show with my friend Renee Scott, Mrs. Alaska! Renee and I went into Anderson's Bride to get fitted for the dresses we were going to model and I took Sycely in the next day to try on the flower girl dresses she would wear. The day of the show we had to be at a local salon super early to get our hair done so Sycely joined Renee and I there when we were ready to head downtown to the convention center for our rehearsal. Renee and I modeled a variety of dresses including bridal gowns, bridesmaid dresses and evening wea. Sycely got to show off in 3 different flower girl dresses. She even built her own little nest to hang out in backstage made out of all the dress bags! Sycely turned out to be not only confident and comfortable being on a stage in front of a couple hundred people, but quite a ham. After we'd been out on the stage a few times she started blowing one finger kisses to our family in the audience (Lem, Nanny and Papa and Ella) and extended that cuteness to the generally audience on our next walk out. It was such a fun time of dressing up and looking pretty for all us girls.
Here's some pictures of our fun time at the fashion show!

So far this decade...

Well, January saw Lem back off to school (and back to playing hockey on Friday nights) and the girls and I back into our normal swing of things during the week. Winter Break wrapped up and now Special O is back on the ice, I'm back to my workout routine and going to Mom's Club on Fridays, Sycely's back to ballet school (they're working on their dance for their spring recital) and Pre-school, and as usual, Ella's along for the ride most of the time :) January also brought along Nanny and Uncle Ian's birthdays so there were extra family dinners and no shortage of desserts! In addition to that, I'm on my sixth round of delicious cinnamon Frienship Bread. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, each "starter" you receive makes two loaves of bread and gives you 4 more "starters" to share with friends, or in my case, friends, family, or anyone else who I can possibly pawn them off on. Ella has become very involved in the project too, playing the role of Mommy's little mixer. Anyway, it's been a fun and very yummy project. I've also got some sewing projects in the works. Ella got herself a new blanket (we need a back-up we do have to wash that thing SOMETIME!) and I have 3 friends whose little ones will be getting their own pretty soon.

High School hockey was back on and Dimond has had a rollercoaster of a season, starting off strong and looking promising, dropping several games in a row, then swinging back up to finish off the season with a strong showing and 2nd place finish at Regions and State. Sycely is becoming quite the cheerleader and she's not shy about it either! Her new favorite is "Dimond Lynx what time is it? Time to get loud, time to represent!" Ella chimes in with her own fave, "DHS!" sometimes at very unexpected times, expecially in the car.

We've finally gotten to put our backyard sledding hill to use and the girls have LOVED it. Lem carved us out two tracks which were in really great shape until we got another 8 inches of snow and then encountered a fake spring warming trend. Lem's re-groomed them a little and they're back in action again now. Sycely and Ella both squeal with joyful delight on the way down and it's a sound that warms your heart, no matter the chilly temperatures. Our girls have such a fun time together and are so loving toward each other. I'm so blessed by their sibling-ship.

Sycely's gotten to go on some dates with her Uncle Ian lately and she's so proud to be such a big girl that she gets to do fun things with him like going to paint pottery at Color Me Mine or going on an ice cream date (the secret's out, he lets her get TWO scoops!) Sycely went on a Nanny date to a carnival they were having a Dimond as a fundraiser. They played lots of fun games (including Duck Hunt-who knew?!) and Sycely was decked out in her stash of prizes when she got home. She had a great time and was so excited to tell us all about it.

Sycely's flair for performing continues and we're still being offered daily shows, most recently, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty "on ice" all of which involve the creation of show specific scenery. Most of her day is filled with making costumes, preparing scenery and practicing for her shows, but, hey, she's engaged and content so I can't complain too much.

Ella cracks us up pretty much constantly. Her giggle is so infectious and so prevalent. She's just a silly girl and loves playing tag with her sister, Mommy "getting her gizzard" and anything related to puppies. She's a bumbling bundle of joy for sure, but she's also a little snugglebug. Every morning I start my day with a good, hour long snuggle with her and some blankies on the couch. She's recently fallen in love with Elmo, too, so though Sycely's out of that phase, Ella's just moving into it...here we go again :) Ella has so many new phrases I can't even keep track of them all, but she's pretty cute singing happy birthday and pretty much anything that sweet little voice says melts my heart. Some of my current favorites are: princess, I see it!, no thank-you, ladybug (which comes out bakey bug) fire-on (first thing in the mornings) and okee dokee. She's very generous with her hugs, kisses and "pats" on the back and she lavishes those not only on us, but on all her babies too. She's very dedicated to making sure they are adequately snuggled and tucked in when she puts them in "bed, go night night."

This month also brought about an exciting decision for me. I submitted my official application and paid my first fee to compete for the title of Mrs. Alaska United States 2010. I had such a rewarding experience and did so well last year that I've decided to use all the experience I gained this year. Because I have most of the required wardrobe from last year and can use much of it again for this year's competition, I won't be encountering quite so many expenses, but my search for sponsors has already started. If you or someone you know might be interested in sponsoring me a service or through a monetary donation, please let me know. I appreciated all the people and businesses God has nurtured relationships with through this experience and look forward to competing on May 26th and 27th!

Lem and I went on a (supposed to be) surprise date to Suite 100, a local restaurant for a special Alaska Aces fundraiser called Tips for Kids. The players work as the servers for the night and all the tips go to help fund the Aces' summer camp for kids. We had a yummy dinner and it was nice to know our money was going to a good cause, too. Speaking of hockey, there's been some major changes (not for the better!) around our rink as well. Recently a new mall manager was hired and so far she hasn't made a single good business decision regarding the rink. Her first act was to fire the manager who's been running the rink quite successfully for the last 15 years, and her loyal staff all turned in their two weeks notice on one piece of paper. So, the rink is now using a shared staff with the bowling alley, including the manager, who has no knowledge about bowling alleys, let along skating rinks! So, needless to say, things have been a mess. New policies are flying around, offending and soliciting protest from the coaches and families, just to be retracted a few days later. The doors may or may not be open during regular business and ice hours. Two days this week they had to hand out free passes because they couldn't open the rink beause they didn't have anyone who could zam the ice or work the cash register-seriously!!! When we got to freestyle ice this weekend to coach, there was a hockey team (who did not reserve or pay for the ice) practicing on our ice! We're doing our best to help the new rink manager transition and learn about how things run at the rink, but the mall manager keeps throwing a wrench in his efforts to do his job, so it may be a while before things are running smoothly again and something tells me it'll never be quite the same.

So far February has brought more snow and lots of overtime for Papa. The state Model UN conference is coming up for Lem. Aunti Eris and Papa both had birthdays this month, too. We're all enjoying lost of family fun this winter, but are definitely looking forward to spring. It'll be our first sunshiney season in our new house! Hope you have all had a joyous January and that your February is Fabulous!