First trip to the dentist

Yesterday,

London went with me

while I got my teeth cleaned

at the dentist.

She watched with great interest

everything the hygienist did

and seemed excited when I said,

"Maybe we could get your teeth cleaned sometime, too."

Well, they had an opening today,

so I thought it would be a good idea

to take her in while she was still interested.

I told her about the appointment this morning,

and she was happy.

But after she started thinking about it,

she changed her mind.

Soon, she did not want to go to the dentist after all.

In fact, as I was making lunch,

she thought she would be smart

and barricade me into the kitchen.

She told me I was going to just stay in there

until it was time to go get the girls

after school.

I said, "What if I need to use the bathroom?"

Then she showed me how I could

just step over the shortest pillow.

That was nice.

When her wall was finished, she came in,

folded her arms and said,

"You're not going anywhere, ha ha."

OK then.
Well, as we all know,
moms usually win these kinds of debates.
I finally talked her into going.
I used the old bribe trick of
"You'll get a cool bag to take home,
like I got."
So off we went.

She did wonderful.
She got right up in the chair
and the hygienist made it fun.
She let her pick out
her favorite flavor of toothpaste
and tell the chair to move up and down.

She got to wear
cool shades.

And the toy of choice?

A punch-balloon.

That made it all worthwhile.

Not to mention

the sparkling smile she got

as an added benefit.

I think she changed her mind

about the dentist,

and may even look forward to

the next time she goes.

Weekend away

Last Friday,

we were reminded

that it is still winter

as we made our way

down to Denver.

This is what it was like.

White-knuckle at times,

but we made it!

Doug and I had tickets

to watch the Nuggets play the Lakers.

We had a blast!

And the Nuggets had one of their best

defensive games ever.

It was so fun to watch them win!

We had a great time

visiting with Grandma and Grandpa

who were so great to let us stay with them.

Grandma took me to get my first pedicure

on Saturday! It was divine.

I think I'm going to need

one of those again sometime.

We took the kids downtown

for some fun

before heading out.

London was amazed

at how tall the buildings were.

We walked down to

16th Street and had lunch

at Rock Bottom. Mmmmm!

Then we

headed over to the Aquarium

for a couple hours of

fun.

It's always so great

to get away

once in awhile!

We had such a fun weekend.

Budding authoress

Jordan has recently discovered

a new love.

She set up her own little desk

in a corner of the house

and started writing.

Over the weekend, she spent

several hours at that desk.

Before I knew it, she had written 6

of her own short stories

to give her teacher.

I was so proud of her!

She compiled them into a book.

Here's one of them, which I share with permission,

for your reading enjoyment.

THE PRINCESS GOES TO THE BALL

One day a lovley princess lay on her bed. She was so lovley her mother did not want her to have a prince. One bright sunny day there was a terrible storm that knocked down the castle! The Queen died, the king died, but the princess survived. What should the princess do without her parents! She thought and thought but did not know what to do. So the princess lived her life out on the streets. Until she met a charming prince. So they got merried and they settled into their lives. And one day a terrible thing happened, the prince broke-up with the princess. But the princess did not brake up. She told the prince he could not brake up with her because they had already gotten married so they stayed merried. And they go to the ball and they have a great time exept for the princess. She had a great halftime. And then they bought a house.

Larger than life

When I made that

phone call

to Doug a couple of weeks ago

to tell him I had had an

incident

with the car,

our nicest, newest, only-one-working-right car,

it reminded me all too well

of that time when I was 16

and had to call my dad

to tell him about that fender-bender

in our family's new mini-van.

He had reacted kindly to my tearful news,

making me feel better

instead of worse.

And that day, in my eyes,

my dad was larger than life.

So when I called Doug

to tell him what had happened the other day,

that I had made a mistake

that tore the front bumper off the car,

I was tearful as well.

And his reaction, much like my dad's,

was kind and understanding.

Yesterday he spent a couple of hours

fixing my mistake.

I watched him and thought

what a man I had married.

He's so handy

and can fix just about anything.

Like my dad,

I thought he was larger than life.

But not just because he's

good at that manly stuff.

Because he was compassionate and kind.

Because he knew I felt bad

and that it could be fixed.

Because he knew that

people mean more than things.

Boy, am I lucky, to have a man like that.

Going crazy

Today is

crazy hair day

at school.

This was the craziest hair

we could come up with.

Lots of ponytails

streaked orange to match her shirt.

Syd likes to live on the edge a little.

She was loving it.

Jordan's crazy hair

consisted of 2 ponytails

(with different color rubber bands!)

and red streaks.

She's a crazy girl.

Look out, school --

here they come!

Passion for fashion

Sydney's teacher this year

has been great about

encouraging Sydney to

follow her dreams.

She had her start a "Passion project"

of her choosing to work on.

So Sydney has begun keeping

a portfolio of her fashion designs.

These are a couple she created this weekend:

Syd's teacher also has a sister

in the fashion industry

who has agreed to be Sydney's pen-pal.

They write back and forth

and share ideas with each other,

and she encourages Sydney

and tells her her designs are

fabulous.

I agree, they are pretty good!

Who knows, maybe someday she'll be famous. :)

I love valentines!

There was lots of love

to go around

at our house tonight!

The kids each sneaked off to their rooms today,

making their own special cards

for each other.

All on their own! It was so fun to watch.

Jordan made 3 or 4 cute notes for each of us.

Sydney made scrapbook-type cards

with envelopes.

And Austin made an

origami box

in which he shared

some candy hearts

with us.

Doug outdid himself

and gave me a

gorgeous rose necklace,

in keeping with his sweet

rose tradition.

He is so romantic!

We hope you had a

Happy Valentine's Day, too!