December Happenings

It has been a crazy busy December hence I'm just now getting around to blogging about it (or I've just been lazy, you decide). A few weeks ago Evelyn's preschool had a yummy Krispie Kreme tour where they dipped their own chocolate sprinkle donut.

We went to the library (I LOVE that place!) and watched a performance by Dr. Noize. One word--banana--look it up.

Let the Christmas festivities begin! Evelyn joined Rachel for her school Christmas party and felt like such a big girl.

Elizabeth did party dress attires for her class Christmas party.

Now we're on break for FIVE (gasp) weeks due to track off after Christmas so if you have any great ideas to keep the kiddos entertained indoors, I'd love to here them!

I was in charge of the ward Christmas party for about 250 people and we did "A Night of Lights" with ham dinner, program, and nativity scene. Poor Rachel got the stomach bug so Eric stayed home with her. I'm tentatively in charge again for next year so let the ulcer begin now.
We, I mean Eric and girls, decorated a gingerbread house. We will never go back to a put your own house together again. This one was already assembled and fabulous!

Rachel and Elizabeth both performed at our piano recital. It was fun to hear five little girls play Christmas songs (mine plus 3 others).

It SNOWED this week about a foot so we went and played in it. I realized I hadn't taken the girls sledding, like ever, so we quickly remedied that and had a blast just walking down our street to a great sledding hill.

Stay tuned for a Christmas post.

Sawing Logs

Poor Elizabeth. We've asked the ear, nose, and throat doctor about her snoring but he looked at her throat and said things were okay. Granted, this is an extreme case, she's a little congested and very tired. But even so, most nights I check on her she's snoring to some extent. I hear you have to worry about snoring, could be an indicator of sleep apnea. At any rate, other than an uber expensive all night sleep study I'm not sure what to do at this point.

Thanksgiving Trip

Eric posted about his century ride which gave us the perfect excuse to spend Thanksgiving in Arizona. Some pictures while we were waiting for Eric to finish. We went to the "nicest" park in Tucson and needless to say I was disappointed but it was fun to people watch some of the different groups taking interesting pictures.

Proud of their awesome (and very tired) dad

I have a sister in Queen Creek and another sister in Mesa and my parents drove out from California to spend the weekend with everyone. Eric's brother was also spending the weekend in Mesa so it was a family filled Thanksgiving. We tried to get the most out of the warmer weather and sunshine with outdoor activities everyday since we have come back to snow and cold in Colorado.

Monday we went to the Botanical Gardens and I must admit that when you put all the beautiful desert landscaping together, it does have an aesthetic appeal. Arizona is part of the only "living desert" and it can be pretty. The girls were very excited to see cactus but may of gotten too much of it at the gardens. I loved these huge sculptures they had all over.

Tuesday we went to the Goldfield Ghost town and had fun looking at reptiles, riding a train, going on a "mine" tour, and going in a sideways house.
This picture with the Superstition mountains in the background just reminds me of the many trips we made out to Apache Junction to visit my grandparents who lived out there. I have fond memories (some maybe not too fond) of waking up early and going running with my dad around the Superstition mountains.
Wednesday we attempted to go on a hike which ended up being a whine fest walk at best. The picture says a thousand words.

We then joined Aunt Tricia for some turkey crafts.

Thursday (turkey day) I ran a 10k and it felt great! We then stuffed our face with all the traditional Thanksgiving foods and watched some football. Friday we just hung out together. Saturday Eric and I went on a 30 mile bike ride with his brother and then we watched the Muppet Movie and went to the lights at the Mesa temple.

Yes we can get a group shot

Thanks Theresa for letting us crash at your place all week and letting my children incessantly bother JJ (the dog).
And to Tricia for making yummy food, entertaining my children while I took a nap (I was just giving you experience for you little one coming) and letting me stay over one night. Let's do it again sometime, next time here in Colorado--see you in three and a half weeks!

A Pink Birthday

My middle child is 6 years old now! Rachel loves pink and she was so excited to have a pink birthday and a pink party. Thanks to great aunts (my sisters, not my parents aunts :), she had a great pink birthday away from home as we were in Arizona.

The new addition to our family. Rachel only wanted this toy dog that walks and barks and she named her Sparkles. Hopefully that will appease the girl's wish for a real dog that won't happen anytime soon.
Yesterday we had Rachel's pink party with a group of very fun girls. It was pinkalicious with pin the cherry on the cupcake, balloon dance, making glow-in-the-dark necklaces/bracelets, pink fingernail polish, making pink lollipops, and of course pink cake (carrot cake with pink frosting) and strawberry ice cream. I forgot to take a picture but for the party favors I made pink hairties and pink flower pens.

Even Eric got in on the pink action

It was fun planning and carrying out but I'm not going to make a career out of it, once every two years I can handle.

What we love about Rachel:

• She loves to read and is doing fabulous in kindergarten
  
• She is a great sister to both Elizabeth and Evelyn
• She is very confident and independent
• She loves the outdoors and going camping or hiking
• She definitely knows her mind and right now loves pink
  

What not to do on your first century ride

I rode El Tour de Tucson yesterday and generally enjoyed it and had a good time. It could have been even better though if some things had been diferent. Here's my list of obstacles:

1. Don't get a new job a few months before, leaving you with no vacation and little training time due to needing to work longer hours in the beginning.
2. Don't get sick starting the week before the ride.
3. Don't take ibuprofen to help with the headache at night from the cold, at least for me I become dependent and can't sleep without it. And I wake up once it wears off at 3:30 in the morning and can't go back to sleep. Like happened to me on Thursday night.
4. Don't eat something that makes you sick the day before the ride. Nausea, dizziness, fatigue, and a splitting headache. Combined with the Motrin problem, which I couldn't take because of the nausea, that lead me to the next problem:
5. Don't get 3 hours of sleep the night before the ride.
6. The other problem with being sick the day before was that I barely ate anything. We went out to eat and all I could stomach was a little Minestrone soup and a few stuffed ravioli's.
7. Don't stay at a hotel RIGHT by the train tracks. Not just by the train tracks though, because it was near dowtown the trains were coming all night and the horns would blare for about a full minute. No joke.
8. Don't make the first time you ride 100 miles (a century) also be the first time you ride 111 miles. I'm tempted to say the extra 11 miles made a big difference, and I think they did. Honestly miles 90 to 100 were the hardest (headwind and slight incline). The last 11 miles were after a rest stop, had less wind, and the adrenaline of being near the finish kicked in.
   

Even after all those problems though it was a good ride. I did it in about 7.5 hours total. I took my time at a few of the stops and felt like I still had some left in the tank at the end. Hopefully next year now that I know what I can do I can prepare better and improve my time substantially.

Catching Up (again)

It has been a busy past couple of weeks but don't ask me exactly what we did besides what I have pictures for.

First off, as per Carlsen tradition, Evelyn found the scissors and cut a big chunk out of her hair so I had to chop it to make it look decent. Eric was out of town and was just about devastated that his little girl lost her long hair. It grows back, right?
After all our pre-Halloween celebration, we actually did go out trick-or-treating at a friends house where the school a block away had a trunk-or-treat and then we went around the neighborhood. The girls hit the jackpot with candy and I'm still reaping the consequences! Next year I will take the dentist office or school up on giving them leftover candy.
The haunted house at my friends house, the boys really went crazy on this thing and loved scaring the teenagers that dared enter.
Two days later we had our first snow day off of school. It was a very pretty powdery snow and I let the girls stay in their pajamas all day, watch movies, and drink hot chocolate by the fire. Rachel was my helper shoveling snow as Eric was still out of town. I still enjoy the task and it's a good chance to talk with the neighbors who are also out shoveling.
The girls had crazy hair day at school so I did the funky ponytail thing and got some color spray.
Last Saturday one of Elizabeth's friends was baptized and here are the three girls with birthdays within two months of each other and in the same class at school and church.

We also went to the Lion King. We had pretty good seats for the cheap ones as the elephant and hyenas and other animals walk into the theatre right behind our seats.

Rachel lost another tooth and the big ones are already growing in.

Guess who got her cast off? It's amazing how quickly children's bones heal, if only our adult muscles and bones healed as quickly.

Before going into the doctor

After
Elizabeth also became an official Brownie Girl Scout. Anyone want to buy cookies from us in February?

Whew, I'm tired just thinking about the last two weeks. Good thing we leave on Thursday for our extended Thanksgiving vacation in Arizona for Eric's century bike ride and eating turkey with my sisters and parents. It better be in the 70s the whole time we're there :)