Someday.

Posted on January 30, 2013 by carrie

My little ballerina after her class…

…gazing longingly at her idol Yvette and the “big girl ballerinas.”

She loves to tell me “only 4 or 5 years til I get to dance in pointe shoes, like Yvette!” Yes, this is the same girl who sobbed throughout her entire first ballet recital.

She is currently prepping for two roles in the much anticipated Peter Pan
at the end of next month and I think ballet has become “her thing.”

I’m glad she’s stuck it out so far. And I may be incredibly biased,
but she makes the most beautiful ballerina.

Caught Up At 40.

Posted on January 30, 2013 by carrie

My sweet husband joins me at 40 today. (Uncle Jeff does too…obviously. Happy Birthday Jeff!)

I can often be heard saying that I have not two, but THREE children. But it is his complete joy at the smallest of pleasures and when J acts like “one of the kids” that makes me love him so.

I love that he is the one I can’t wait to wake up to in the morning and the last one I see when I close my eyes to sleep.

He is always there to share in the big news, the little stuff, and even my Lucy & Ethel schemes.

He’s my shoulder to lean on or my comic relief when I need that instead.

I love that he knows when to reach over to take my hand during the sad parts of Downton Abbey, or shoots me a look that doesn’t even need words, yet we understand each other perfectly.

He’s my forever date, my Valentine, the love-of-my-life and I’m so happy he is mine.

(And just a little bit happy that he is now 40, too. Come on in, babe, the water is fine.)

Happy Birthday, J.
Love you with all my heart.

Look at all the pretty horses.

Posted on January 26, 2013 by carrie

It was food truck day at the Santa Anita Park today, so Addie and I met Daddy and Uncle Jeff there for the lunch. (It was also free hat day – how awesome are these hats for gardening?) And then we stayed around for the racing. For a little bit at least.

Of course we just picked the horses with our favorite names. They may have had the best names, but they had the worst odds. A few of them may or may not have even come in dead last. Eh, whatever.It turned into an unexpected fun excursion. Recently Addie and her friend Francesca have been planning their lives after they get out of school…yes, they are 2nd graders. It is good to be such great planners, don’t you think? Anyway, they are going to live on a farm together and Francesca is going to take care of the horses and pigs and Addie is going to garden and take care of the…cats!

On our way out of the track today, Addie decided that horses were allowed to move up on her list of favorite animals. I think they are now number 4. But, up to this point she has been completely scared of horses, so I think we made quite a breakthrough today.

Flashback 7 years or so.

Posted on January 24, 2013 by carrie

After our Winter in Cali post yesterday I got these lovely photos in my inbox and a little note from my Dad. I didn’t “clear” this with him, but I figure he won’t mind me featuring him as a “guest blogger” today and sharing his lovely flashback of our sweet (only 2 1/2 year-old!) Em. Although, I think the photo credits must go to Nana since Papa is in some of the photos. Addie must have been only a few months old? I *think* J and I went to a Michigan football game. I don’t know…honestly, it was 7 1/2 years ago, who has that kind of memory?

Care –
I thought of these pics as soon as I saw your post today.

They only feature Emma, cuz Addie was in the house with Nana having a bottle (Addie that is, not Nana).

Love,
Dad

I can barely stand the cuteness. I had almost forgotten the crazy fly-away orangutan hair she was always sporting, too! Thanks for this step back in time, Dad.
xo

Winter in Cali.

Posted on January 23, 2013 by carrie

I know that none of our East coast/Midwest friends and family want to see these photos right now, but….it is my blog and I want to put them up here anyways. So, try not to get too discouraged and remember that we have plenty of room out here. You are all invited to come soak up some sunshine with us – any time!

This is the pile, rather the SECOND pile, of leaves from our ash tree last week. Two FULL bins of leaves were recycled on Sunday, and on Monday Daddy raked again. As he was raking it was literally “raining” leaves.

Jumping in leaves provided nearly two hours of extreme joy for the girls and our neighbor friends.

Daddy kept raking, Mommy kept snapping photos. My favorite of Emma for the day.

And of Ad.

Although this Sweet Sassy Mol-Addie pose is more of what we’ve been seeing around these parts lately.

After we had thoroughly jumped the heck out of the leaves, we bundled them up into FOUR bins and recycled them off.

(The leaves, not the children.)
The sad thing is that our entire lawn is covered once again and it doesn’t look like we’ve raked a day in our life. And the ash tree has probably only dropped 60% of its leaves.

Still. I’d take leaves any day over snow.

Crafty Tuesday

Posted on January 21, 2013 by carrie

Last week’s Crafty Tuesday is courtesy of a little baby shower we threw together for Kaori, our pianist that helps out during the girls’ choir practices. She is due in a week with a little girl and we wanted to put together a little quick, after-choir celebration from the kids.

Her nursery is yellow and gray (LOVE!) and since we had to have the shower at church, and after choir (before dinner) it was just a little “quickie” shower where everyone brought munchies.

I found some yellow and gray paper and made a little bunting – my new favorite things. I cut the flags out of paper and tied them together with some baby yellow yarn.

I made some tissue paper flowers – which are TOTALLY easy to do (learn how here!)…

But we had a few difficulties with the space and planning. I had intended on all of the tissue flowers to hang over the table at various heights, but the 20 foot ceilings in the hall didn’t allow for us to hang anything from the ceilings.

My “baby clothesline” didn’t quite work as envisioned either…there really wasn’t any place to hang it, or the bunting…we just made do.

My favorite was the onesie that Jamie and I put together for the future little chorister…

That, and watching the kids get so excited when Kaori opened the box o’ baby things that the choir gave her.

Sprinting out of the gate…or under the net…or something.

Posted on January 13, 2013 by carrie

So much for “new & improved” and “more frequent blogging!”

Pssstthh. Also so much for “easing back into” the school/work/chaos routine.

Last week was a lost cause. But tomorrow is a brand-spanking new Monday and a new week. And tomorrow…tomorrow, it is all going to get done.

I did finally get the NEW YEAR’S EVE photos off of my camera, onto my computer and into a usable format. Now if I just had some place to put them and document it all.

Oh, right. Here. That would be a good start.

Our lovely New Year’s Eve crew who we love spending the evening with.

This year we made it til midnight…Chicago’s midnight that is. I just told the girls – it really is “your midnight since you were born in Chicago!”

I also made them do a little homework. They wrote about their favorite parts of 2012, and what they’d like to accomplish in 2013. And then they read them aloud to all of the grown-ups. (That part I didn’t make them do, but they were all very keen on sharing!)

Fast forward a few days, we decided to take the Girl Scout troop ice skating. We took the metro downtown to the Pershing Square outdoor ice skating rink. The train ride alone was quite the experience for our little sheltered girls – but we had a blast! Are they the cutest bunch or what?

The weather has been awesome here. VERY wintery and excellent because we’ve been rocking our hats, sweaters and “jackets,” and it was perfect for skating.

And believe it or not, most of the girls even ventured “off the rail” after a little while.

Then…fast forward to last week. Which was supposed to be a nice, simple, easy week. Em has been asking me if she could try out for the club volleyball team for a few months. Her PE teacher, who also happens to be the 7th/8th grade volleyball coach at the middle school, has made it clear that she has “promise” and should look into the club.

So she wore me down and I took her to try-out and ‘lo and behold – we are now a lucky member of the Starlings volleyball team. Which entails Wednesday and Friday practices from 6-8pm (remember my girls hit bed at 7:30-45!) and tournaments like their first one today. Where the whole family trekked to Anaheim before the sun came up and sat in the Sports Complex for 7 hours. The Sports Complex that has no heat and it was 34-40 degrees for most of the morning.

But was it worth it? Yes, I think it will be. I just keep telling myself – “this might be her thing.” And what if it is that one thing that she is really good at? I can’t deny her that. And…well, she loves it. So we are trying very hard to remind her gently that it is a sacrifice for the whole family and she needs to appreciate it.

But…it was kinda fun to see the very few minutes she got to play today. And the whole team aspect and watching her with her new teammates – it is a good thing.

Go #7! (We might have our work cut out for us!)

Crafty Tuesday

Posted on January 7, 2013 by carrie

I know, I know…don’t fall off your chair. We are back with a few crafts. The first craft is a little holiday-ish, but we had so much fun making it.

Of course we “borrowed” the idea from the lovely HowDoesShe? blog and I thought since our friends here in California wouldn’t have a white Christmas they really could use a little snow!

So we set about making some. Cornstarch, kosher salt and lots of glitter. We learned after the first batch that this is best mixed up OUTside.

Of course, if you need to “make” snow where you live, it is probably nice enough to make the mess out in the courtyard.

We packaged it up in empty paint cans (we got ours from Ganahl for a few bucks each) –

Downloaded the label from HowDoesShe and added the paint can opener and a bow –

And, voila! Fun little gifts that were so much fun to give.

And we brought out Eva and the heat press for a few other gifts to give as well.

A little (pink glitter!) princess tee for a sweet niece –

And a new logo and some “work” shirts for Mom & Dad –

I’m antsy to get started on some other projects around here.

Of course, if you are following me on Instagram/Facebook you already know my newest passion…baking BREAD!

My first batch was for our New Year’s Eve dinner with our good friends. I got the recipe from King Arthur’s Flour and I used herbs de Provence and butter in between each “slab.” It was really pretty good.

And then I decided that I was going to try my hand at sandwich bread since the girls headed back to school this week and would need lunches every day. The sandwich bread has been a huge hit.

I love the fact that the bread is really only 4 or 5 ingredients. No high fructose corn syrups, no preservatives I can’t pronounce. It makes me feel better to have control over one small part of our every day eating.

Tonight I tried Kaiser rolls since we were having pulled pork sandwiches and I didn’t have any rolls. They were really good – nice and dense and able to withstand a big helping of meat.

I’ve been using Nick Malieri’s Bread book. It is so easy to follow and has all kinds of other recipes. I’m sure the book and I will become great friends.

So that is a few things that have been going on around here. Tell me what great Christmas crafting you all did over our break?

New Year’s Resolutions

Posted on January 6, 2013 by carrie

This year I resolve…no more resolutions.

The “goals” that I worked on last year, seemed to do alright by me, and those that didn’t can stick around this year and we’ll see if we can make them work. Let’s take a peek back and see how well we did:

(If you remember I was trying to make all my goals fit into the three categories of Connect, Improve and Focus.)

12 for 2012

1. Spend some time catching up with old friends. I have really enjoyed re-connecting with my high school friends this past year and have many other old friends who deserve at the very least a phone call or email this year. (Connect) – Success! I feel like I managed to connect and spend time with lots of old (and new!) friends over the year. Still a goal I’d like to keep in this year’s lineup.

2. Schedule a one-on-one date with Emma and Addie and Daddy at least once a month so I can really focus on each of them and give them their own time. (Connect and Focus) – OH, so failed. We had some date nights but so did not get a once monthly in. Has to stay on this year’s list.

3. Run more. Sign up for a half-marathon in May (and maybe a 2nd in October) which will force me to train. (Focus and Improve) – Eh, sort of half and half. I did run, but that “more” part didn’t really happen. I’ve signed up for a couple races, so this should force the “more” part to happen this year.

4. Up my yoga to 2-3 days a week, mostly to combat the increase in running on my joints & muscles, but also to help find my happy place. (Focus and Improve) I didn’t up my yoga – but I was consistent on at least one class each week. So I call that a success.

5. Try a new recipe/cooking technique once a week. I was going to say healthy but – that might not always be a goal that I can follow. (Improve) – Fail. I definitely branched “out” – I learned to use my pressure cooker, found some great new slow cooker recipes, and am learning to be a bread baker right now, but that “once a week” might need to be changed to maybe “once a month!”

6. Picking up my camera and taking an “OMG, this is my fave photo of the week!” photo every single week. – (Improve) – EPIC fail. I can’t believe how few photos I took this year. I did a lot of iphone shooting, Instagramming and such but when I went through Flickr to get photos for the calendar…yikes! We had slim pickings. I’m definitely keeping this one on 2013’s list.

7. Organize the sewing/craft/spare bedroom so I can make some time for some creating. (Focus and Improve) – Success! The sewing and crafts are back down in the playroom, but we are organized and we created a lot of great things this year! But let’s keep the momentum going and leave it on the list.

8. Paint our kitchen cabinets and blinds. (IMPROVE) – Success!! Happily can remove that one from the list. Hopefully forever.

9. Read (and blog about) one book each month for the year. (Improve) – I read far more than a book each month. But didn’t really blog about any of them. Maybe we could do a little online book club? Anyone interested in that?

10. Turn 40 gracefully. (Hmmm…Improve, I guess?) – Oaf. I guess I was somewhat graceful when I turned 40? It was a great year, so I’m not complaining about 40. Yet.

11. Take a cruise with my family and r-e-l-a-x during a massage on the beach. (Connect) Success! How I’d love to keep this on the list, but since we are celebrating our 20 year anniversary in August, I think our family vacation is going to head down to Key West instead.

and

12. Ask myself “Does this help me connect, focus or improve myself or my family?” before I say yes to ANY volunteer activities this year. – I think that I succeeded here. I really did say NO to a lot of things that didn’t “work” for us this year. And although our life is crazy most days and full of chaos, I think it is all for the good of our family and I know the girls will look back on their childhood years and remember all of the great things we got to do and experience.

I really liked our goals from last year, and so a lot of these I’m just going to cruise on into 2013 and continue to work on. Anything on your list that I should be considering??

Christmas Coma

Posted on January 3, 2013 by carrie

Thought that I’d better wrap it up over here before Christmas got too far away from me. Does it feel like Christmas was weeks ago to anyone else but me? I’ve been meaning to revisit old resolutions and make some new ones since I’m very excited for 2013, but I need to get Christmas 2012 documented and packed away (just like our decorations that are finally all put up!).

Let’s see, when we last left off we were crafting up a storm to try to get all of our Boutique orders fulfilled. We did and I think Birdie #2 and I learned some very valuable lessons. 1. Stock up on supplies when they are on sale (and available!) and 2. start in about July for Christmas items. It is just a little bit too much to be trying to get orders done and our own Christmas stuff done. Lessons learned. And thankfully we are smart Birdies and we learn our lessons well…might be the hard way, but we do learn them.

And I fully realize that I’ve skipped about a dozen Crafty Tuesdays, but I will have many CTs in the upcoming weeks, so it is back on. Next week.

(Christmas card photo reject.)

Amidst all of the boutique stuff, we had the normal end of term chaos, teacher gifts, appreciation lunches, holiday parties at school and with ballet classes and friends, Christmas cards, and a ride through our town with Santa on an old fire engine. It pays to know the fire chief. (He is one of my Girl Scout’s dad and he’s fantastic!)

Then it was time for the grand-daddy of all Christmas pageants! Em had a little solo bit as one of the three kings. She was “really nervous” but did a fantastic job. I was really proud of her. We have the whole pageant on video…but it is far too long to put up here on the web. I’ll just post the highlights….and a few other pics, of course.

The cutest barncat in the stable.

Our “Kings” getting into their kingly groove.

And Em’s song.

COS Christmas Pageant 2012 from carrie voris on Vimeo.

I need to get a few other clips of some of the songs they did as a group. I love to watch Addie sing…she just belts it out and I can always hear her over all the other kids in the pack.

After the pageant, we raced home to get ready for Santa! We were frosting cookies pretty much an hour before it was time to put them out for him, but the big man did get some tasty cookies!