Let Them Eat Cake

I think that frivolous French queen may have been on to something with that statement. We are partial to the deliciousness of cake, and look for every opportunity to consume it. The past few weeks gave us plenty of chances! We celebrated Grant's 6th birthday!!! And while I like to think of Dave and I as equal opportunity parental figures, we had a slip of the brain and failed to take many pictures. It really is a travesty because his celebration was such a success! Grant opted for a Star Wars birthday...shocker, I know. He invited some friends and had a jedi training experience with pizza, Yoda sodas and games. After their master/trainer (aka known as Master Kara the Wise, dressed in my father's ever so handy brown robe) had assessed they were prepared for full jedi status, we went to our garage. I had all the boys try to FORCE up the garage and somehow...they did!! No one was standing by the garage door button, but it surely did arise and there on our driveway was DARTH VADER! The entire pack of boys attacked as only jedi's can. It was fabulous. We love our little Star Warrior. Brenna, the wild child, the crazy climbing animal of the house, turned 1 last week!! She loved her toy and loved her cake, as displayed in the series of pictures to follow, tenderly entitled "Progression of Cake Consumption"

.Roll her out, she is done. Cake=yummy; result=sugar overload!

Birthday Extraordinare...(it's a lengthy post, you may want to just skim through!)

This week was momentous for me. I entered a new decade and I embarked on a collaborative celebration for my birthday, my sister's and my dear friend Alisha's. My mom also accompanied us on the amazing vacation. We have always wanted to go sky-diving (with the exception of Shannon!) and flew down to Arizona to fulfill our dream! Quite a few months back, Alisha and I were discussing what to do for our entrance to the "30's." We were then informed by my travel planning and superior surprising husband that he was already arranging something. He planned our entire trip and had started it without our knowledge. We had to fly to Arizona because it is way too cold to do that here in the winter! As soon as we got off the plane we headed to our jumping destination. We received little instruction...pretty much the standard harnassing and the mention that you need to "arch or die." Not the most encouraging of words when you consider falling 10,000 feet. Before I left, Grant had wished me a happy birthday with one request, "don't die, Mom." I figured that was valid. After being hooked we walked onto our luxurious plane (heavy sarcasm here) that would carry us into the horizon. I had joked all along in our trip preparations that I would be fine with the jump as long as we weren't in a dinky plane that was put together with duct tape. Alisha kindly pointed out the adhesive tape was in fact used inside the plane. Scary. Dave had assured me that this was a legitimate company he had researched, but he also told me he had increased my life insurance, so I wasn't convinced on that! Alisha went first, then my mom, then I scooted out to the open door and fell through the air with the greatest of ease and exhilaration like none I have experienced before. I LOVED it and the landing went smoothly (for me)...Alisha looked like she was kneeling over her lunch that came back up, but she just couldn't get back on her feet and my mom walked like a drunken sailor, which she attributed to bad knees) but all in all, it was AMAZING!!

.. ..

We stayed a night at a fanciful desert retreat, had an incredible dinner at McCormick and Schmick's, came back to the room to rose petals and chocolate strawberries (arranged by previously mentioned husband of the year). The next morning we had massages and explored downtown Scottsdale. It was PERFECT. Dave did an unbelievable job with my birthday. It was so special, and while I will get an earful for mentioning this, I appreciate how he got us there as much as the trip. He sold items on ebay, negotiated gift cards from work and donated his plasma (his specialty for those of you who know us well), to fund parts of the extravaganza.

As I enter a new decade, I reflect back on my last 30 years. I guess my hope and aspiration is that with each decade, each year, each day really I am getting better. I want to be getting closer to becoming the woman I want to be and know I have the potential to be. I don't want anyone to see me or think my name and have the thought cross their mind, "boy, Kara, she has really gone down hill..." While all of our lives are a journey and experience to test our character, I find that my greatest growth periods have come in situations I didn't necessarily want to be in. If I get a choice, I would like to cap out at 80, so for the next 50 years, I want to choose to not only look for the best in the things, but make the best out of everything. But, with this particular birthday, I didn't need to put in any effort, it just truly was THE BEST.

Superpowers

Sometimes I think members of my family have abnormal abilites. For example, Dave can sleep through anything, anywhere, anytime. From family movie nights, to ringing in the New Year, to being dragged out of a rainstorm in a sleeping bag, he can stay in a peaceful slumber.

Grant can see things the normal eye can not perceive. The other day he told me, as his finger was poking into his eyeball, that when he did that he was able to see me and my spirit. Fascinating...

Katelee can control objects without any contact, apparently. When asked if Brenna was awake in her crib, Katelee answered that indeed she was and all of Brenna's toys had "magically gone into the crib and buried" the baby.

Is Brenna swollen and bloody in that photo? Yes, she had previously run into my metal bed frame. She has a great healing power, as well as an uncanny stamina...pushing sleep away when a regular human would cave with exhaustion. Brenna has been working on surprise tactics as she demonstrated here. I opened my kitchen drawer to find a small child...clever girl. Now, all I have to do is learn how to fly or continue my quest for super strength and we will be a family of super heroes!

Holiday Highlights

We don't take enough pictures. I am certain we had good holiday fun, but not many photos to show it! Some of our memorable moments include:

--seeing the lights at Temple Square

--Christmas Eve party with family, doing the nativity, singing songs and eating food...Christmas breakfast (quiche-YUM!), Christmas Day fun.

--Discovering a crazy coincidence: After a night of assembly a few days before Christmas, some busy elves left a big empty box in our kitchen. Grant walked downstairs and peeked around and we reasoned that it was a box from some of the toys that were donated from our neighborhood party. The strangest part is that Katelee got the same toy from Santa on Christmas Day! I don't know if that incident would fly very well in a few years!

--Brenna finding her stocking and toys and gravitating to everyone's little Debbie Cakes. She snatched them up and ran around the house like she had discovered sweet manna from heaven...she did recieve a toy or two, but couldn't have cared less.

--Talking to my awesome sister on a mission in Argentina

--Grant would say the best part of the holiday vacation was playing lots and lots of Lego Star Wars...he and Katelee were sick, so most of the week was spent on the couch.

--New Years Eve fun: playing games with friends, and then turning on a movie to pass the time until midnight. Dave fell asleep by 10:45, but Grant, Katelee and I counted down, toasted our Martinelli's at midnight accompanied by the sweet snores of their Daddy.

Here's to a great 2011!

Dancing Queen

This little beauty had her first dance recital last week. As many of you may be aware, Miss Katelee is extremely accident prone, whether it be falling at random or running into very visible walls/doors, etc. She has issues. We were encouraged by our pediatrician to enroll her in a dance class or something of the sort to assist in her coordination and she has LOVED it! My personal favorite portion of the evening was after her dance they invited all the girls in the classes to come up and bow and Santa came to visit. While most little gals were gathering around the big man, Katelee took the opportunity to find the front of the stage and jump and bounce and take her moment to shine. It was adorable. She has come a long way from just shaking her booty in the corner of the studio to learning all the steps, without too many tumbles! We may have a lot to worry about with this one as these last two weeks she has told me 1) "I am going to do something that will knock your sock off," and 2) that she is "not going to have a modest butt." Please excuse her if you see some unwanted skin, we are working on it!!