We have been trying to keep our whiteboard calendar updated for all the family to see, and Annie has taken up the duty of putting on all the lessons throughout the week. I noticed she put g-tics, and I asked her what is that supposed to stand for. “Gymnastics. Duh, Mom!” Apparently, my brain isn’t fast enough these days to process high-tech abbreviations.

A few weeks ago the girls had a family day at their gymnastics lesson. Family was encouraged to attend and take as many pictures as they wanted. Of course, I went into mamarazzi mode and began snapping away as soon as we set foot on the property. The teachers made sure to have the girls work on each area in the gym, and I made sure to get PLENTY of pictures to share.

The girls always start out with a warm-up and stretching session. I’m so proud of my Strech Armstrongs (ha, who gets that?).

The girls work on their vault and flippy work. That’s a technical term, you know.

Then they move onto the floor and work on handstands, cartwheels, round-offs, back walkovers, and back extensions. I’m impressed with how well the girls are able to do these things now after only started the lessons a couple of months ago.

Onto the beam. They worked on walking with fancy kicks and jumps and also practiced cartwheels and handstands while being spotted. Notice how Annie sticks her tongue out when she’s concentrating. I keep hearing one of her teachers get on her about it and told her one time that she’s going to bite it off one of these days. That would be something to see, looking for Annie’s tongue in the foam pit…haha!

And last the bars. I think the girls treat this area more like a jungle gym.

At the end of the lesson they had all the girls sit in a line on the floor and demonstrate to the parents some of the moves they’ve been learning. Then they received their certificate showing they completed that session and what level(s) they are testing at.

The girls are really having a lot of fun. I’m amazed at how much they have learned in such little time. I can’t wait to see how much more they’ve progressed this time next year. Mike was reluctant at first to sign them up, but he’s really been supportive of them. He’s even the one who insisted we sign the girls up for a second class each week. The second class takes place in Watertown which is a much bigger and more equipped gym.

In other news our chickens finally started laying eggs this past weekend. The first batches of eggs, I’m told by Mike, are going to be of various sizes since the chickens are still getting used to the concept. They probably won’t be full size for a few more rounds. Mike even found a shell-less egg earlier this week. We are very excited to have eggs at last.

First off, I’ll just quickly say sorry for the long length between posts. Life has gotten a little bit busier around here. The girls are taking an extra day of gymnastics lessons each week, and Annie has started up piano lessons again with a local instructor. We’ve also had a few sickly bugs travel through our home. Annie stayed home one day from school while Mike was sick the week before last, and then Violet and I both were sick last week and continue to fight it off even today. In fact, Violet has had a fever since the middle of last night.

Now on to the reason for this post. Our nephew, Jimmy, is getting ready to go on his church mission to Tijuana, Mexico. This is very exciting for our family because he is the first of his generation in our extended family to go on a mission. I think this is a great opportunity for his brothers, sisters and cousins to be so close to a full-time missionary. I’m very excited for my girls to keep track of their cousin while he is on his mission. He’s a warning for Jimmy: expect lots of letters from your cousins, uncle, anut. We hope he will reciprocate.

This weekend we traveled back to Minnesota to see Jimmy off at his farewell party. There are actually three missionaries in his ward that are leaving around the same time, so they had a group party at their church building. It was a huge turnout, and the parents did not disapoint with lots of good eats.

Here is Jimmy posing with authentic Mexican items such as a piñata (of course), Mexican sodas called Boing and Jarritos, and very spicy candy (yuck). According to Jimmy’s ma he is very excited about his upcoming mission. He’s been spending lots of time with the full-time missionaries in his own ward. When Jimmy and his dad helped move us into our house this summer the full-time missionaries from our local church also helped. I could definitely see anticipation in Jimmy’s eyes as he talked to them.

This is the area of Mexico where Jimmy’s mission will cover (see the black marker lines at the top and bottom).

Sara and Jim were very busy getting ready for the party which included making 10 pans of enchiladas and a few tres leches cakes. They are very proud of their son, and they have every reason to be. He has grown into such a nice, hardworking man. The tres leches cake was so good! It’s basically white cake soaked in 3 different milks: sweetened condensed, evaporated milk, and heavy whipping cream. My seams are busting just thinking about eating another slice.

Jimmy was well-represented at the party with lots of his family in attendance including us, Uncle Dave, Uncle Jake and family, his siblings, parents, and two grandparents.

Here’s Grandma and Dylan with Annie in the background doing only what we can guess.

Aunt Stephanie claims she had to bribe Violet with her iPod to get Violet in her lap, but I know that Violet is smitten with her aunt without any coaxing.

Three peas in a pod, Mimi, Maya, and Annie.

I decided to track down Jimmy’s siblings for quick snaps.
Matt looks a little taken aback by my camera, but that’ll never stop me.

Hayley has gotten a lot more outgoing in her “old” age and hammed it right up for the camera.

This was as close as I was going to get to Paul who was busy hacky-sacking.

Mike chattin’ it up with his dad and stepmom.

We can’t forget the silly uncles.

Us old folks with the young, spry missionary.

Mimi and Daddy.

Apparently, there is a new game of tag in our family where the one who is “it” has to tag the other person on the forehead with their pointer finger for 10 seconds. Don’t ask!

We wish the best to Jimmy on his mission and are really looking forward to hearing lots of news about his adventures down there. Good luck, Jimmy!

Violet’s hair perplexes me. To be honest it has from day one. You all remember the mustache, right? As proud as her father was of this fact, I foresaw a bangless, middle-part future for Violet. This could possibly mean many bad hair days when Violet is old enough to fix her own hair. Sorry Violet.

Now two years later Violet’s hair doesn’t seem to have made much progress. It’s sparse and is taking FOREVER to fill in and grow long.

She is now approximately 2 years, 5 months old. I try to remain positive and thought I remembered that her sisters were in the same situation at that age. To help Violet’s case I decided to find pictures of her big sisters at the same age. Unfortunately, I discovered that both sisters already had great heads of hair at that point.

Annie’s locks look short because of the tight curls. However, when I gave her a bath her hair came down well beyond halfway down her back.

In Mimi’s case her mane was already long and flowing.

I don’t know what Violet’s hair future holds, but we still love her no matter what. I suppose I should try to get better at French braiding and other cute styles to help her out.

Well, Christmas is all put away, and Grandma left not long before. The girls were sad to see her go, but I think Grandma was glad to get back to her warm, beachy weather (no fair). We spent most of the week showing Grandma the sites around town. A couple of trips to Brookings for shopping (not the girls’ favorite) and visiting the Children’s Museum (not the adults’ favorite–was too crowded). Here are some pictures on our various excursions. The pictures are all from my camera phone. Shame on me for not bringing the “real” camera.

At the museum.

Violet went missing for a couple of minutes and freaked us adults out. She suddenly peaked her little face around the corner at the top of the stairs. That sneaky toddler.

Of course, we couldn’t leave the museum without our traditional pose in front on the sign display.

Earlier in the week we took Grandma to the Watertown Mall. Mainly, the girls wanted to go to Claire’s. What is it about little girls loving Claire’s? Grandma let each girl pick something out. Annie picked out the glasses. No, not sunglasses. Just glasses.

Mimi got a pair of sunglasses, and Violet got some hair thingies. I was tempted to get these.

Grandma also treated the girls to a ride.

We really enjoyed our visit with Grandma and hope that the cold didn’t scare her off for good. Maybe a summer trip next time.

My mom arrived yesterday. I went to pick her up solo so that we could have a quiet lunch together and get some grocery shopping done. Here we are after peaceful meal.

When the girls finally saw Grandma they were very excited. I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since the last time we saw her. Of course, Violet needed some time to get warmed up to her, but Annie and Mimi immediately were all over Grandma. Grandma had sent two big boxes of presents for the kids to open when she got there. It wasn’t always easy convincing the girls that the huge boxes in the laundry room were for Daddy’s work, but it managed to keep them at bay long enough. The girls were quite ecstatic when they realized that the boxes were full of LOTS of presents for them. They got a 2nd Christmas! Grandma showered the girls with p.j.’s for the big girls and matching ones for their AG dolls, blankets crocheted by Grandma (also matching ones for the AG dolls), wicker chairs for the AG dolls, and much more.

Even though Violet also was showered with lots of gifts it was the $3 tiara/jewelry set that bonded Grandma and Violet together forever.

The girls were very happy with all their gifts from Grandma! Thanks Grandma!

We surprised Grandma with a Kindle for her gift. She’s very excited but has no idea how to use it yet.

In other news, I’m following through on my promise to post pictures of the bunnies.

There are two chocolate brown bunnies named Chocolate (of course) and Jumper. They are both boys.

And the white bunnies are Skittles and Fritzy. These are the ladies.

Each bunny has to have its own cage because they will apparently attack each other. Yikes! However, the girls were letting a brown and white hop around on the floor, and the brown bunny started to “attack” the white bunny. The only difference with this attack is that there may be baby bunnies in the future as a result. We shall see. Mike built a shelf for the bunny cages to go on so that they are easy to access.