Snowmen::Courage

I see SIX snowmen dancing in our front yard. Okay, so they're not actually dancing but they could be...if they were Frosty the Snowmen.
This is what happens when there is absolutely-perfect-snowman-making snow. The entire family goes outside and makes snowmen!

Most of them are missing are missing their carrot noses or eyes now. And yet they still stand proudly at attention.

Annika hard at work....it's fun building things with your own hands.

Ava standing next to "her" snowman (that Mommy made). This one is standing guard over the swing set. Cool candy cane arms... Annika's first snow man. He's got sunflower stick arms and dried, old tiny sunflower blossoms for eyes. Mark's life size snowman....
Annika hard at work after school on Monday.

I think you can see three of the snowmen here...

Ummm...Annika, what happened to this snowman's head? He seems a little squished...wonder if he's got a pressing headache. Ha ha ha! (very funny, I know).
I love how proudly they stand. Nearly straight (okay, a few are leaning over) and tall. Courage. That must take courage, no?

Now that's something I feel I could use more of in my life.... {Courage}.

Do you speak your mind? Do you let your feelings known?

I don't. At least not at the appropriate time. Perhaps it's because (as a good friend put it) I'm polite; perhaps too polite. I suppose being polite has it's place in the world but so does speaking up for one's self.

Perhaps it's time to allow {Courage} into my life and not be afraid to speak my mind (politely of course!).

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Ava's Fourth Birthday Party ::Part Deux

An alternate title to this post could have been, "Mission Impossible: Taking Photos of Kids in Bounce Houses".

And here I thought all along that Bounce Houses were supposed to be Houses that Bounce.

Just kidding! (bet I had you fooled there for a second, right?)

The girls and their friends, Wynne, Paige and Shae, had a BLAST!

We took all the girls to a place called Jumping Janes. It's loaded with all sorts of bounce house and arcade activities that any child could possibly to dream of playing with.


Funny thing...our birthday girl...the one who chose Jumping Janes over other options... didn't play much in the actual bounce houses. She liked this climbing "rock", air hockey and the miniature merry-go-round ride. However, Annika wasn't afraid! She whizzed around with her friends...they were mostly a blur (running, bouncing, laughing...). Notice the skirt (skort actually) she's wearing. WOW! She's not wearing pants!

Ava and her best friend Wynne.... Wynne was NOT afraid of the bounce houses. She just LOOOOVED them.

See...Ava did bounce...however she didn't want to go up the steps (in the back of the photo) to the big slide. In the end, she had an awesome time and that's what matters the most!

What's for dinner? How about yummy sausage pizza and Canadian bacon with pineapple pizza? The best part...No cooking or cleaning! Yippee for the parents!

Remember the birthday cupcakes I showed you in an earlier post? Here they are again... "Happy Birthday dear Ava...Happy Birthday to You!"
(with a Scooby Doo paper plates and napkins theme going on)

It took her several tries to blow out those candles but she did it!

Digging in. Oh gosh...those cupcakes were sugar bombs! I'm glad that none of the girls finished theirs.

All the girls got a turn playing air hockey. Here Ava is playing against Wynne. With the help of the big sisters. Naturally.

Ava and Wynne loved this miniature merry-go-round.

Annika said that we couldn't have a birthday party without these blow toys. Agreed! What a fun night!

We decided to open gifts after we got home from the party. Yes, it was late. Yes it was past the girls' bedtime...it's just the way it worked out. Ava was thrilled with all her gifts. She was so happy! (we did have to deal with Annika's jealousy. sigh.)

Here's an adorable skirt Auntie Margaret made. It's got "cotton"balls in it (those are Ava's words). Isn't it adorable? Is that bag awesome or what? Wynne, Paige and Shae gave this to Ava. We can always use more bags!

They also gave her a spray bottle (among other items). I think that's a clever gift! Ava was really excited to get it! My friend Amy is really clever in coming up with fun gifts that kids actually like to play with.

Ava is now the proud owner of a "laptop". Just like Mommy's baby laptop. Well, almost. :)

A HUGE thank you to our friends Wynne, Paige and Shae (and their mom, Amy) for helping us celebrate Ava's birthday. We had so much fun and we were so glad that you could come. Also many thanks to Aunt Margaret, Grandma, Grandpa and Oma for all the wonderful and thoughtful gifts.

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Happy Fourth Birthday Ava!!

Can you believe it???? This baby is FOUR YEARS OLD TODAY!!!!! Happy Birthday Ava!
Good Morning Ava! Happy Fourth Birthday! Here's your Birthday Crown.... Oh! Ava holding her Wedding Dress...and she sees her special balloon bouquet! Ava has been asking for months for balloons (and a new helium tank to make them) for her birthday (ever since we got rid of the old tank). Of course I couldn't let her down!!! We even got her a Scooby Doo balloon. Look at that happy girl!
Oh so excited! Can you tell that she saying, "Scooby Doo!" in this photo? The girls are REALLY into Scooby Doo right now. I seem to remember enjoying watching it as a child too.

Ava's muffin tin lunch: corn dog, orange slices, pineapple chunks, black olives and edamame. Here are the cupcakes Ava picked out. Weeks previously she wanted the penguins. Then she wanted the bowling pins and ball. Apparently she likes bowling?! So this is what they're supposed to look like....

Here's the cute book they're from...

And here's what I made last night. Misshapen bowling pins. LOL! Ava was beyond thrilled to see them though. :) That always makes a Mommy happy!

I can't believe our Baby Girl is FOUR years old today! Time just whizzes by, doesn't it?!

Today we're taking the girls and a few of their friends to a bounce house place. Hopefully they'll have a great time and will be good and tired tonight! Nothing like lots of jumping to celebrate a birthday! (and beating the winter time blues)

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In a Nutshell...

Eep.

This is supposed to be a family scrapbook...a way of documenting our daily lives...but it seems lately that I haven't been doing a good job writing posts.

I guess exercising in the mornings at the YMCA hasn't helped my blogging cause. LOL!

What's new around here? Let's see...

Mark took Annika and Ava to their very first Daddy and Daughter(s) Dance which our local YMCA hosted. They had a great time dancing! I also enjoyed having a few hours to myself. :)

Valentine's Day was lots of fun. Annika created flowers from all the silk flower petals she picked up from the Daddy and Daughter Dance the previous evening. She also drew out a diagram to illustrate how she made them (I tried to correct her spelling). Sweet!

I just love the Valentine's Day cards Annika made for us.

Then this past Saturday we attended the Winter Carnival put on as a community-wide effort. It was lots of fun! I "manned" the booth for Family Connections of Southwest Wisconsin. We made colorful pasta necklaces. :) The kids (especially the toddlers) just loved touching and feeling the dry, colorful pasta. Kids and adults alike enjoyed creating their own necklaces. I made one too! I couldn't tell you what else was at the Winter Carnival as my efforts were focused on my booth. I know my friend Amy had musical chairs going on as part of her VBS booth. I also know that there was face painting, balloon animals, cookie decorating & of course eating, and bean bag throwing happening at the Carnival. It was lots of fun and it was a great snowy day for it too. Certainly an awesome way to beat the winter blues. I hope they do this again next year.


Okay...here are lots of photos. Naturally I loaded them backwards...so we'll have to start with the most recent and work backwards. Sigh. Some day I'll get the hang of this blogging business.

Ava ....asleep. On the couch. Mark had just finished reading to Annika (in a chair close to the couch) but he didn't see her slip on to the couch while he was reading. We put Annika to bed and he couldn't find Ava. We looked in her room, in Annika's room...and we found her. She'd fallen fast asleep on the couch and hadn't made a peep. A long day of playing at the Winter Carnival will make a little, almost four-year old, drowsy.
Ava getting her face painted. Her entire face!

Balloon butterfly!

Annika and her yummy cookie. I didn't get a cookie. I got a rootbeer float instead! Yum.
Please ignore my big fat arms. I swear I work-out! I swear they're not that fat in real life! Anyway...the cuteness here is Ava...Butterfly Ava.

Annika and Shae (I think this is Shae) at the bean bag toss.

Silly little Ava with the cookie she decorated. I heard she promptly ate all the candies off her cookie and left the cookie.

And this is Ava decorating her cookie...

Here's me at the Pasta Necklace booth. The kids really did enjoy making the necklaces.

Annika in her cute March hat (not sure what it's supposed to be but it's cute) and coloring...

The sweetest Valentine's Day cards that Mark and I have ever gotten:

Instructions on how to make a flower.....

(the small print is me trying to correct her spelling mistakes)

The finished flowers:

These flowers were made from silk flower petals she picked up from the Daddy & Daughter Dance. We used a hole punch to make a hole close to the base of the petal and then she strung the petals on to the pipe cleaner (do they really still call these pipe cleaners?). I made the first one and she made the rest.

Mark, Ava and Annika getting ready to leave for the Daddy and Daughter(s) Dance hosted by our YMCA. (lookie: Annika is wearing a dress!)

The girls getting ready to dance....twirling with their toys. Ava really wanted to wear her "wedding dress". In other news...

In a crazy moment in my life I signed up for the Mad City Half Marathon (Madison, WI) which is at the end of May.

Nuts. I know. Just nuts.

Yesterday I managed to jog 6 miles so naturally I can do a half marathon, right? We'll see. I'm obviously going to train up for it. I'd just love to cross that Life Goal off my list, know what I mean?

We still don't know any more about our car (as I mentioned in a previous post). I know should be extremely thankful that the car issue is our biggest problem and that many people out there are going through worse ordeals but it is taking a toll on us. We're trying very hard to remain calm and positive- even though I really want to SCREAM! Mark did speak to the General Manager so perhaps something will happen now.

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{Car Troubles Galore}

Since this is a family blog/scrapbook I really feel the need to share with you some of the troubling issues we're dealing with. I'm at my wit's end. Perhaps some of you will have some advice for us.

Here goes...

We bought a beautiful, brand new Volvo XC60 last August (August 10, 2009 to be exact). Loved it! It was everything we wanted...AWD, comfortable ride, SUV cross-over. Perfect for snowy and icy conditions!

My first visit to the dealership was about a month after we'd purchased it. We wanted a hitch installed to tow a trailer. Also, the sales rep who had helped us told me that my cargo cover was in and I could pick it up. Since the hitch installing would take most of the day they gave me a loaner car. Great! However, when I went to install Ava's car seat in the loaner I was having lots of trouble. The service writer/manager just stood there and watched me struggle...all he could say was that he wasn't allowed to help. Okay...I was slightly annoyed and irritated (especially since I got oil or something on my pants. Grr). Then when I went to pick up the car I asked the service writer about the whereabouts of my cargo cover. He yelled at me! He said he didn't know anything about it and why hadn't I mentioned it before? Ummmm... Hmm.

I had to take the car in again for a recall. At that point Mark decided that the tires should be rotated (based on the tire manufacturer recommendation). I did ask the service writer in advance to make sure he knew I wanted to have the tires rotated (and not get yelled at again!). He said, "are you sure?" That's all he asked. Of course I was sure since Mark had asked me to have that done. After they finished the car (which took longer than their original estimate) he said I could pay out at the cashier. Ummm? Pay for what? Nobody had mentioned that any of the services performed on that day would cost anything. As he turned and walked away from me, he put his hands up in the air and said, "I don't think I could have been any more clear."

I'm not sure about you but I can think of one very good way to have made it clear. (by telling me in advance). Fortunately for me the tire rotation fee wasn't unmanageable BUT it was unexpected.

After that I told Mark that I would no longer take the car in to the dealership. Would you? I don't like being yelled at.

Mark took the Volvo in to have the electrics installed for the hitch we'd had them put on earlier. They gave Mark a loaner vehicle (not AWD though). It took them one week to get the car back to us since they ordered the wrong wire harness! It should have only taken a day (maybe two at the very most). During this fiasco we got our first snow storm- we had bought the AWD car so that I could safely shuttle our girls around on snowy and icy roads. And we didn't have our car!

We also noticed that the car had a steering fluid leak but they couldn't find the source of the leak.

We knew that we'd gone for a week so we decided to drop off the car at the dealership and give them that week to find the steering fluid leak. I also had an alarming electrical glitch happen that we wanted them to check out. First, they did find the leak and they also discovered that a mouse had chewed through one of the wires! Argh! Not a great thing to hear on what was supposed to be my mini-vacation. Fortunately, insurance would pick up most of the tab and we would only have to pay the deductible (the first estimate I heard was $3800!). Whew. Since the car was still under warranty they refused to just fix the wire. They decided to replace the entire wire harness. Still, that seems quite reasonable, right? Well, the first wire harness they received wasn't the right one. Four weeks have passed and they receive another wire harness...and guess what? It's the wrong one! Now five full weeks have passed and we're not sure when we'll get our car back. They have an estimate of 7 days (item is being shipped from Sweden). So it will be at least SIX weeks before we get our car back!!!!

Does anybody else think this is obnoxious? They've ordered the wrong parts, Volvo doesn't even have service parts available in the US for the vehicles they're selling here and I've been treated rather rudely (by one person at the dealership; I've heard he's been let go).

I'm not sure where to go from here. Sadly, there isn't another dealership that we can take the car to. I've lost all my faith and patience with this dealership. We've made payments on a car we can't drive. We only got to enjoy our six month free Sirius XM radio trial for 5 months. At this point they said they're paying for the wire harness and labor costs to replace it. Some how that just doesn't seem like enough to me. They did loan us a vehicle but I mentioned earlier it's not AWD. Over the past month we've had a great need for an AWD car (and yes, I do know about driving on snow and ice having been taught how to drive in Alaska). Also, we haven't been able to use our trailer and pick up home improvement items.

Where can we go from here? What can we do? Any advice? I'm at a loss.

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Snow Day= Fun in the Snow!

Here's what the girls did on our Snow Day today.

(the sledding lasted about 20 minutes...and we did several craft projects!)

Perhaps this one should be titled, "How Not To Get On a Sled"

Yes, I'd say we got some fluffy new snow.
The girls (okay, Ava in particular) were asking when they could play in their sandbox. Can you tell that it's ummmm...frozen solid? Well, that didn't stop my girls. They were using rocks to chip at the ice. They worked at it for a long time- until I called them inside for lunch. Did they make a dent in the ice? No. But at least Annika worked up an appetite and ate up her entire lunch! (we're still working on getting Ava to eat her meals. sigh.)

I was informed that one of the plastic toys was destroyed in the process of rescuing the sandbox from all the ice. Oops. RIP sandbox toy.

What did I do?

I got to snow blow the driveway. I'm thankful that we have that Trusty Ol' Snowblower and that it still starts up for me. Even though it's NO FUN wrestling it.

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