Ponyo

I have been a terrible terrible blogger lately. I'm going to chalk it up to first trimester ennui. All I want to do is curl up and gestate.
I saw this image recently and related with it so completely:

Anyway, we are very excited to have a new addition in the fall. Some of us are more excited than others...I detect a little ambivalence in little Kateri, who I think is excited to be a big sister, but senses that she is going to be kicked out of the baby spot. There is no ambivalence, however, in her preference for baby names. She is 100% convinced that the baby is a girl and will be named Ponyo, from the Hayao Miyazaki film:
I guess it fits with the image created in her little brain by my inept and probably confusing attempts to explain the baby at this stage of development.

Audrey is going for full-blown Catholic names. Her favorite at the moment is Philomena: (they had a priest from St. Philomena's shrine in Italy come speak to them this year at school, so she has been on Audrey's radar ever since.

Hopefully she won't start campaigning for St. Ergnand or St. Sexburga (they are real...look them up!)

For now, we are calling the baby Ponyo (mostly due to Kateri's very vocal protestation when anyone dares to suggest something different.)

Luckily we have until September to figure it out.

We're open to suggestions.

The gifts that keep on giving

Now that we're a few weeks out from Christmas, it's fun to see which gifts have had the most staying power with the kids. For Kateri, it seems to be her Solar System floor puzzle from Nanny. She has to put it together at least twice a day, and then she usually sings the little planet song Miss Emily taught Lili when she was three. All of my kids have gone through an "Outer Space" phase at around this age, but Kateri's seems to be lasting the longest:



As for Audrey, the gift she seems to be getting the most use out of is the mix CD her uncle Joe made her. I sneakily set up the camera to record one of her intense lip-syncing sessions, but hesitated to post the video below. Hopefully she won't hate me later for it, but it was just too funny how Lili is humoring her by watching the show, but you can tell she just really wants to get back to her book.



I'm pretty sure Lili has her own dance sessions, she just does it behind closed doors.

An added benefit of Uncle Joe's CDs: both Lili and Audrey all three of the girls know the Flight of the Conchords song "Carol Brown" by heart in its entirety. Thanks, Uncle Joe.

My New Year's Resolution

Is to try and follow the wonderfully simple advice of this wonderfully simple man:

"Pray, Hope, and Don't Worry"

"Pray" and "Hope" are easy enough...it's the last one that gives me trouble. We're only one week into 2012, and I have already had ample opportunities to put it to practice. On such occasions I find myself repeating it desperately over and over to myself like a mantra.

Like when I catch Kateri covertly sucking on the edge of the (undoubtedly germ-infested) shopping cart.

Pray, Hope, and Don't Worry.

Or when Audrey, (my SIX year old) declares to me that the only jeans she can possibly wear are skinny jeans, because "I just look SO much better in them."

Pray, Hope, and Don't Worry.

Or when the school calls to tell me that my second born has lost her lunch in class and the thought of her waiting miserably in the office causes me to rush a bit more than is prudent and the speed trap photo radar van flashes me...

Pray, Hope, and.... spend the next 2-6 weeks in a state of painful suspense frantically checking the mailbox to see if I have in fact received a citation.

Christmas redux

I know, I know! Christmas is not over until Twelfth Night, but I thought I would post a recap with the pitifully small batch of nice photos I have.
I thought maybe this year I could possibly get it together enough to send out a Christmas card on time. I had an extra few minutes after getting the girls ready for their Christmas Program and had high hopes of snapping at least one decent shot of them all looking nice.

It was not to be.


The excitement levels were running a bit too high. Lili was the only one with a remotely normal smile. I think the look Audrey was going for was "hopped-up Cheshire Cat." Kateri...I don't even know...
....she spent most of the shoot trying to perfect her Jack Nicholson impression.

Finally, even Lili gave up...

She had been such a good sport, so I'm happy I got a nice one of her by herself. Oh, and see that beautiful, freshly-trimmed and curled hair? It caught fire later that night thanks to a carelessly-held candle during the Nativity play. The quick action of one of the teachers saved her from disfigurement, luckily.

Both of the girls did us proud at their Christmas Program. They definitely did not inherit their stage presence from me, so it is always fun to see how much they enjoy public performances.

One of the best gifts we got this year was the presence of Nanny and Papa! For weeks, the girls had been praying that Papa's back would be healed enough to afford a trip out to Phoenix, and luckily, it was! I was anxious for them to come as well. The only other Christmas we have spent with them since we moved to Phoenix was two years ago, when our family was blessed with a gift that kept right on giving: a stomach flu that took its inexorable toll on one after another of us. Seriously, Christmas 2009 lives in Lili's memory as the great tragedy of her young life: She woke up on Christmas morning to see if Santa had visited, and promptly leaned over her bed and well, you know...it wasn't pretty.

Needless to say, I was anxious to redeem Speier Family Christmases for my parents, and 2011 did not disappoint.

Nanny came early to help us get ready and have excited sleepovers in her room with the girls.

Papa was there to make his delicious shrimp on Christmas Eve, when we had a great time with Steve and Cindy.

We even had a little impromptu dance party...

...it got a little crazy, thanks to Abby.

And it was so fun to have Nanny and Papa there on Christmas morning. The above shot captures the moment of terribly intense apprehension just before the girls were cleared to come out. Did Santa come or didn't he?!?! The suspense!!!

I didn't get any pictures, but not to worry, Santa came and was very good to the girls. We had a lovely relaxing Christmas Day and had the Speier fam over for dessert that evening.

We were so lucky to have all of Luke's brothers and Brittany in town. Justin and Cole made the drive out from California, and Travis brought his girlfriend Stephanie and PROPOSED to her on Christmas Eve! So we got a new member of the family for Christmas, and we are so excited!

The only picture I snapped of that evening was the Speier family tradition of singing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus, but it was a great evening around the fire pit in the back yard.

We sure were blessed to be able to share Christmas with our wonderful families.

It was a great way to close out 2011.

Here's to a great 2012!

Sedona

Last weekend we took a 24 hour trip to Sedona to take advantage of Nona's spare night in her timeshare. We went to a light festival at one of the resorts up there, which the kids loved.

Santa was there, but there were very few children around. As we approached him, a young preschooler came streaking past us in tears as Santa called out to her, "Hey, come and sit on my lap!" Apparently, Audrey thought he was talking to her, because she promptly sprinted the twenty feet or so between them, and leaped up onto his lap, where she sat unabashedly chatting and absentmindedly petting his beard with her mittened hand. He didn't seem to mind. Our other two children were either too embarrassed or too terrified to approach him, so I guess this is our one "Picture with Santa" for the year.

The next morning we decided to take advantage of the indoor pool, even though to get to the pool we had to dash through the frosty morning air with inadequate cover-ups. I'm afraid the rest of us didn't look quite as adorable as Kateri.

I just had to include the back view.

After breakfast at a great spot I highly recommend: http://www.mesagrillsedona.com/
We had a fun day of hiking and sightseeing before heading back to Phoenix.

It was great to have some fun family time together!

Thanks, Nona!

Dallas!

Kateri and I went to Dallas for the weekend. It was Jon's birthday, and I had been missing my family a lot.

Plus, I had been dying to meet this little guy since he made his appearance into the world last July. He did not disappoint. My sweet nephew was so happy and smiley and easy to make laugh.
And I fell in love all over again with my goddaughter Evie.

Kateri had the time of her life running around with her little cousins. They spent a whole evening playing our family's version of hide and seek.

They had to go find the scary uncles hiding in the back rooms.



This is what happened when they found him.

It was so much fun watching these three play together...

...and no one makes my face hurt from laughing like these two gentlemen. I have more videos starring them that I could post, but I think I'll save them for blackmail.

After all the craziness, Kateri snuggled with all of her aunts and uncles in turn until finally she passed out.

We even got a (too-brief) visit with Genny and Maggie!

It was way too short of a trip all around, but it was so lovely spending that rainy weekend with my family, laughing at my brothers, eating too much delicious food and sipping coffee with my wonderful sisters-in-law.

During bedtime prayers, Kateri's intention continues to be "That I can go to Dallas another day."

I hope so!

How to Train Your Dragon Halloween

Or, "The Best Day of Kateri's Life."




It's not often that the three-year-old of the family gets to call the shots when it comes to something as crucial as Halloween costumes. We were worried that our annual tradition with the Burch Jerks of all sticking to one movie theme was coming to an end, but a post-soccer brainstorming session in the car led Kateri to suggest her most favorite movie of all time: How to Train Your Dragon.









This was her face when it all came to fruition. (She hadn't even had any candy yet.)

These were the characters we had to work with. Lili declined to be the heavyset chap on the left and decided to be a generic Viking girl instead. (Can you blame her?)

I don't know what was the deal with Lili's sassy Viking poses...I'm sorry, I must not be raising her right...

Audrey's were far more authentic.

Here's Astrid and Hiccup working the sweet shields the Burch clan came up with.

Finn and Lili must have gone to the same school of sassy posing...

Audrey and Lucy were the squabbling twins: Ruffnut and Tuffnut.

They really got into character...it was awesome.

Lucy's faces were the best.

And then there was Lili and Jack.

These two make me laugh. They had really been pulling for Willow as this year's movie, but they both wanted to be Mad Martigan. (True story. My nine year old daughter's first choice of Halloween costumes was a Val Kilmar character from the late eighties. I'm so proud)

Here's another shot of the shields...the designs are copied from the movie.
We spent a fun evening painting them all together.


We had a surprise Viking join the fun. Crazy Uncle Justin showed up in full Viking garb to lead the horde of trick-or-treaters around the neighborhood. He stayed in character the whole time, threatening to pillage the houses we stopped at if they didn't give us enough candy.

The kids thought it was hilarious, as did most of the homeowners he threatened.

Best Halloween ever? I think so.