It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Actually, it looks nothing like Christmas.  It's beautiful outside, the weather is warm, and we'd rather have ice cream than hot cocoa.  But at this point we've been to enough holiday parties to believe that it is in fact Christmas.

I wrote an overly sentimental caption for a Facebook photo (the first on this post) because like every Christmas, we wish we could be with family.  I do look at my kids and realize how perfect the holidays are even with just the four of us.

Kate had her first ballet performance last weekend.  She was so excited to get her make up and hair done, she couldn't sleep the night before.  She was less excited about her hair when she realized how much digging and pulling it involved, but she only shed a few silent tears throughout the process.

Kate dances every day and shows off her moves during family night.  Brady was excited to see her on stage, performing the moves in context.

"Up and down and up and down…hands clap-clap, hands clap-clap, rise up, and turn around."

Plie, stretch...

 "Point and point and point, shut the gate."

 Painting the sky.

 Gallops followed by the friendly thank-you hugs.

Ballet is fun because it is joy for a three-year-old.  I'm not sure where I stand on the dance scene.  Right now, I think it is a darling way for a little girl to express herself, learn from an instructor, and follow directions.  Kate's been taking dance almost a a year now, and I don't see us quitting anytime soon.

 Miss Hilary, her teacher most weeks (and also our good friend):

 Daysha, Kate's Tutu and Me friend that introduced us to this studio.

I mentioned last post that Brady ran off to Maui for a basketball tourney and then to Kalalau with some friends.  I used my leverage and took a quick trip to Oahu to run an XTerra race.  It's something I've wanted to do for a long time, but never had anyone interested in going with me.  It's against all my rules to run a race I didn't train for, but with our IVF and my bum knee all year, I decided to go for it anyway.  I've sat out on so many races in 2014, and this was the only window I could see to run a race for the next few months.

 I went with my friend Kat, a workout queen who has run races at Kualoa Ranch before.  This was my first experience back in the mountains of Oahu, and I was shocked at the beauty.

Even the porta potties were pretty.

The options were a 10k or half marathon.  10k is a wimpy distance to travel to Oahu for, but with my still-bad knee, I didn't dare run a half marathon trail race.  Next year?

The race was packed with people.  I went out conservatively, like I do with most races.  I used to kill it in the first mile but the lactic acid catches up and the rest of the race is miserable, so now I take it slower than I want and then pick up the pace each mile.  I almost always end up with a faster time that way.  Well, this is one instance I should have gone back to my high school racing strategy and gone all out at the beginning, because after the first mile, the trail bottle necked and was single track for stretches of time where you couldn't pass.  Once I realized this was going to kill my time, I decided to stop obsessing over my pace and started enjoying the tricky footing, mud, steep hills and (gasp) incredible landscape.  There was one point at about mile 4 that I came over a ridge, and saw huge mountains, cows, green everywhere, and the ocean.  Unreal.

After mile 4, the trail opened up a bit more and I was able to make up for some of the 10 and 11 minute miles I clocked earlier.  In the end, I finished 6th overall for women and 1st in my age group (out of 50).  My time was slow at 8:30s, but I was happy enough.  I still think that distance is too short to jump on a plane over, and I also still think racing without training is lame, but hey, it was a fun experience.

 The following Monday, I had my best mommy moment of 2014.  Kate woke me up and said, "Mommy, can you please take me on a hike?"  Yes, little lady, always.

 Brady looked at these pictures and said he was jealous.  I think there are a lot of moments in parenting that are unfair to the working spouse.  It definitely goes both ways if you want to start keeping track, but these precious hours outdoors with my kids are golden.  (Don't feel too bad for him.  I also spent 20 hours cleaning blinds and windows in our house this week.)

Kate watching whales.

 Kate threw rocks, stepped in water, pointed out seashells, and hung off branches.  I loved this so much.

 I also loved the thoughtful flowers that came in the mail this week.  They touched my heart.

 Dentist pics, because they are hilarious.  Did you know that Hawaii is #50 in the US for dental health? Awesome.  So far, my kids are doing well with oral hygiene.  (Whew.)

 Rodent problems.  They are solved.  Ew.  I screamed like a little girl and raced upstairs when I saw this little guy in my kitchen.  He came in through the open door on our back lanai.

 Beach outing with friends.

 Saturday, we were anticipating some much needed family time.  We started off attending the pancake breakfast fundraiser at Zachary's school.  Afterwards, we opted for projects around the house because the weather was awful.  All week, it was sunny and beautiful, but it rained all weekend.  Boo!  We made the best of it--some mint brownies, playtime with friends, the gingerbread house and to-do lists.

 Crafts and projects are important to Zac and he is meticulous and careful, which makes a gingerbread house with two three-year-olds a little tricky.  He was fairly patient with them, and the end result is cute.

 I love Zac's concern in this shot.

 A few more random shots:

 We had our ward Christmas party yesterday.  These pics from the photo booth warm my heart.

 …and make me laugh.  I look like a Christmas Effie Trinket.

 Photo bomber.

 I love candy-cane Marissa.

 I participated in the nativity production this year.  It was introduced by Santa.  I loved Santa's role in setting the stage for the real meaning of Christmas.  The kids were attentive.  I did the part of Mary, which was intimidating but I think went okay.  (This picture looks like it's all about the brownie, though…)

 Our Elf, Ralphie has been casually exciting this year.  He doesn't do anything that requires more than 2 minutes of set up.  The kids love him so much.  We love the magic.