When Nora was about a year old she used to pull out her own hair. She would pull it out and then roll it around in her fingers and suck her thumb. She did it so much that she had bald spots on her head. I kept trying to find dolls with hair to encourage her to pull out the dolls hair, instead of her own. She never really pulled the dolls hair, but she eventually stopped pulling out her own. Soon after that she started getting really attached to stuffed animals, and she started pulling the fur out of them, instead. I was going through my old emails today and I found this video that Scott’s mom sent me. I just had to share it!

A new bowling alley just opened up in Park City. We decided it would be a fun place to have Ian’s birthday party. We had a small party, and he just invited some of his best friends. It was the first time any of my kids had been bowling and they really had a great time. It was a perfect place for a party!

Check out Ian’s bowling style. I love how he is totally off the ground in the last photo!

The kids had lots of fun bowling, eating chips and candy, and then we finished off with pizza and cake.

I can’t believe that Ian turned 6 this week!

His birthday was on a Friday this year, and he doesn’t have school on Friday’s. I decided to make him a nice breakfast for his birthday. A few months ago I painted a birthday plate at Color Me Mine. I wanted to start a new tradition of having a special plate for the birthday child to use. Ian was the first one to get to use it, and he was really excited about it.

One of our favorite things to do in Maui, is to go to the Gazebo for breakfast. They have the most amazing pancakes. This year we asked about their recipe and they actually told us. They said the delicious topping was Dream Whip, butterscotch, and maple syrup. We decided to try to make them to celebrate Ian’s birthday. I think we did a pretty good job. They turned out delicious.

I really don’t know where the time has gone, and I can’t believe that Ian is 6. As we put him to bed Scott and I told him the story of his birth, and how we almost didn’t make it to the birth center on time. He was really interested and he asked a lot of questions. He was pretty amazed!

Here are a few things about Ian as he turns six:
-He is in Kindergarten at Soaring Wings Montessori School. He has a wonderful teacher named Kim who we all adore.
-He is still a ball of energy.
-He is an orange belt in karate at Bobby Lawrence Karate.
-He loves to practice his karate moves…..all the time, even ones he makes up
-He started playing hockey this year and he loves it.
-He likes ski racing and he won a bronze medal in Nastar this week.
-He learned to really swim this year and he was totally self sufficient in the pool in Maui
-He is still a little sweetheart. He looks at me all the time and says “I love you, Mom” and gives me the best hugs! I hope that never changes.
-He loves to play Wii.
-He loves Legos and anything Star Wars.

We are so lucky to have such a smart, charming, sweet little boy. I am savoring these moments while he is still a little boy. He is turning into a big boy before my eyes. Happy birthday, big guy!

I love this song. I can’t get it out of my head lately. Even my kids have been singing it Today in the car Nora asked me to turn on the “Oh, Oh, Oh song.” How cute is that?

Thanks to Martin Luther King, Jr. Scott and I were able to get married. At least, according to Emma.

She has been learning about Martin Luther King, Jr in honor of his recent birthday. Everyday she comes home from school with more stories about him. Earlier in the week she named all the kids in her class that wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for Martin Luther King, Jr.

Then, this weekend we were having lunch at my parents house. She started talking about him again. She talked about how people of different races were not allowed to be married before. She looked at Scott and I and said “It is a good thing for you that Martin Luther King, Jr. did what he did. Because if he didn’t you wouldn’t be able to be married.” We both looked at her confused and asked “Why?” She looked at Scott and whispered “Because you are black.”

We tried not to laugh, because she is really sensitive about that lately, but I have no idea where she got the idea that Scott is African American! Maybe because he is tan???

So, in honor of Emma, I want to say Thank you to Dr. King for allowing Scott and I to get married

Last winter I got a flyer about a free skate ski clinic in January. I really wanted to try it. But January came and went, and I never did it. Then the same happened with February, March, and April and I never did make it out there.

This year I made it a goal to take a lesson and try it. Today I accomplished that goal and I took a group lesson with White Pine Touring. I knew it was going to be hard, so at least I went into it expecting that.

We started out just working on the skating part without poles. We skated back and forth practicing the push and glide. Once we got that down (Ha!) then we added the poles. I actually picked up the technique fairly quickly, but the balance and timing took more practice. We just kept going back and forth. Thankfully, we got to take a few breaks. I was exhausted about half way through the lesson. I could feel the sweat just dripping off me! But I was really enjoying it.

Once the lesson was over I thought I would try out the 3K track to practice what I had learned. I knew that I would be tired, but I wanted to try it anyway. It went even better than I expected. But I couldn’t believe how sore my arms were. They felt like wet noodles by the time I was done.

I am happy that I got out there and tried it. It is definitely something that I want to keep doing. There is a women’s group lesson starting on Tuesday for the next few weeks. I just might sign up for it.

Here is my fix for the week. I didn’t do much to this one. Since this photo was underexposed it had quite a bit of noise. I ran Noiseware and it did a pretty good job of fixing it. Then I adjusted the white balance and changed the crop a bit. That’s about it!

Go check out I ♥ Faces to see all the other Fix-it Friday participants!

While we were in Maui, Ian had a few classic moments. I already wrote about the pajama incident, but there were so many more that I don’t want to forget. One particularly memorable one involved Ian at the pool with a few of his friends.

There was one family staying at our complex that Ian and Emma spent quite a bit of time with. They had two kids–a boy about 12 and a girl about 10. They were both really nice to our kids. Ian had a great time with Robert and Emma had lots of fun with Amanda. Robert was great with all the kids. He was like the entertainment director of the group and all the kids loved him. Some days I felt like I should be paying him because he spent so much time playing with the kids.

They were a really nice family and they happened to be a little bit overweight.

Ian once referred to Robert as “puffy”. But the grand daddy of them all was another day when Ian saw Robert’s mother.

All the kids were in the pool together. Robert’s mom came up from the beach and walked up to the fence around the pool. As she walked up Ian looked over at her and said “Oh great, a whole family of chubby people, just keeps on getting chubbier”. I almost died! Luckily the mom took it in stride and started laughing. I was mortified, but what could I say? I got Ian out of the pool and talked to him about it. Hopefully it sunk in a little bit.

It isn’t the first time he has embarrassed us, and I am sure it won’t be the last!

I had such a great vacation in Maui. It was extremely relaxing. I enjoyed being away from the computer and all the new responsibilities that I have lately with my new photography business. I enjoyed just taking a few photos for fun. I really enjoyed playing with my new Canon G11 camera, too. Here are a few snapshots from our trip to the Maui Ocean Center.

And here is my last sunset of the year:

Please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom to view all the Weekly Winners participants.