It's all in the family

I have always thought Elli looks the most like an Orthner of all our girls.

Well today when GP (Karl's father) walked in the door, he immediately commented how much Elli is starting to look like an Orthner and that she really favors his brother, David, as a young kid. Well I don't have a picture of Uncle David as a kid but here is from our wedding in 2004 next to Elli now.

What do you think? yeah or nah?

lip-reading

This post is for my dad. If you aren't Pop Pop, you may read on, but don't blame me if you don't appreciate it.

There is a book that my dad loves; well he loves it when I read it to the kids. It is a barnyard animal book that has holes in the mouth. He cracks up when I stick my lips through the holes.

We were reading the book today with my three girls and our neighbor...

So lets see if you can NAME THOSE LIPS!

Is that your final answer?

Reese says oink, Brady says neigh, Jack says cockadoodledoo, and I bet you would never guess that Elli says moo. 

We are having fun over here if you couldn't tell!

Orthnerisms: The Red Carpet Premeire

When we put our heads together...

Brady, Reese and Jack (our neighbor, a very loyal Star Wars fan) were discussing the makes of the family cars. Brady states her family only owns Honda. Then reminds Jack his mom's van is a Honda as well. Then Brady inquired about the make of Jack's dad's truck. His response "ummm, uhh, um oh yeah, it is a Toyota. I like that because it is like Yoda." Brady exclaims "mom, that is a another compound word, TOY-YODA!!!!"

Brady-ism:

Driving in the car, Brady and Reese are coloring pictures from a princess coloring book. Out of the blue "mom, what size clothes do you wear?" I hesitantly reply "eight". Brady says, "oh this girl wears a four then."

Reese-ism:

One night my friend was coming over after the girls' bedtime to visit and just chat. I informed the girls of the visit at bedtime so they wouldn't be confused when they heard the talking while they were trying to fall asleep.

Reese: "But why is she coming over?"
Me: "We like to talk to each other."
Reese: blank stare of confusion
Me: " You know how you like to talk with your friends and play with them, it is like that."
Reese: "but parents aren't friends"

Elli-ism:

Yes, this is the premiere of Elli on the Orthnerism posts...and boy is it a doosey.

This has happened three times now, so it is not a coincidence.

Elli passes gas, looks at me, points to her diaper between her legs and says "Uh-oh!"



That's all for tonight folks...until next time...

The good life

You know those moments, where everything is falling into place. The moments when the weather is just right. The moments when all the littles are happy. The moments when you pat yourself on the back for doing the right thing to teach your family about fitness being fun. Yeah, I love those moments. I always think "this is the good life."

Then literally five seconds after you complete your internal happy dance, the middlest turns around and says "I'm finished"

Well she powered through. The evening turned into a lesson on pacing, stamina, endurance and powering through in the weak moments. That, and watching while you bike. The middlest tumbled into a gutter ditch by getting too close to the edge of the sidewalk.

After all was said and done, they biked over a mile! This IS the good life!

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Outside Oath

This morning, before breakfast was even served, Brady went outside and declared "Today is a really nice day, the weather is perfect, I think we should spend ALL day out here"

So from there on out, the two older girls spent ALL day outside, yes, they even ate all three meals on the outside. Well, they did go inside to potty and wash hands.

I tried to intervene on a minimum. I want the girls to know how to pass a day away with their imagination. I did interact with them though, I mean they wanted to do my hair and makeup, how could I pass on that. Also, look at this scrumptious meal that was served to me. 

 I also, per Reese's request, mix up some sidewalk paint. That is always a huge hit.

 Breakfast was eaten at the picnic table portion of the playset, lunch in the clubhouse portion and dinner in the neighbor's yard.

 The circus came to town. again.

 Spa treatments were free of charge.

 Face painting for the patient.

Just plain pure fun. Time honestly flew by. I thought several times...this is the good life! Brady stated at bedtime, I want to spend all day outside tomorrow.

Never Say Never

75 degrees, blue skies, happy baby, happy momma, trip to the beach, happy big sisters.

The weather was prefect for our first, and most likely last, trip to the beach this year. Too cold to swim in the water, which meant I didn't have to stress about watching the bigs in the water while I made sure the lil didn't eat sand, or constantly try to wave surf with the bigs.

We had a BLAST! Reese and Elli played in the sand...

...while Brady did a little bit of everything.

A ice cream truck even stopped by, and for the second time EVER, I allowed the girls to pick something out. Not that I hate the idea of ice cream, it is the extreme price tag attached to it.

But $8.25 was worth these smiles. 

Elli had to get in on the fun too, luckily they had the semi-healthy option of a pickle!

Life was good, great really. Then I forgot to use my brain.

Yep, you know those lessons you learn as a kid. Things you know that will never happen to you because your parents made sure you understood what not to do as an adult. Yah, that happened. Yah, never say never.

The beach on base has a part of the dune cut away for the parking lot. So storms constantly wash sand all over the parking lot. You park at the edge of the sand wherever it happens to be that day. So, lets say when you want to leave, you assume that the patch of sand to your immediate left has tar right underneath it. I think you know where this is going. Yep, I, Christy Orthner, got my vehicle stuck in the sand today.

 I four wheeled in sand my whole childhood, I laughed at the stupid people that got their two wheel drive vehicles stuck in the sand my whole childhood. I got my two wheel drive vehicle stuck in the sand in my adulthood. All I could think was, I can't believe I was that stupid. Thankfully, I did know the basics, like as soon as you are stuck, stop pressing the gas, you will only get more stuck, also to let the air out of your tires to create more traction. Five VERY generous people came to my rescue, while they all pushed with all their might, I was able to reverse my way out of there. (Now while I summarized that in a brief sentence, don't think it didn't take like 10 minutes of digging and trying and digging and trying)

The skid plate did take a hit, so I drove straight to the dealership to have them pop it back in. Check out this awful bill I got for the work they had to do!

I couldn't believe my luck! It didn't cost an arm and leg to repair the car, they didn't charge a cent for labor. 

Now, if only I can repair my ego. 

THIS tooth

Let me tell you about THIS tooth. I had no clue that THIS tooth could cause so much. So much emotion. So many tears, THIS tooth. Blood soaked washcloths, THIS TOOTH. Arguments, slamming doors, THIS tooth. But really THIS tooth was about control. A lesson to mom and dad about control. Lesson,you don't always have control, even if you are the adult!

THIS tooth was to fall out on its own. THIS tooth has been wiggly for about 8 months. THIS tooth has been on the verge of falling out since mid July, or so we thought.

We could see the top of THIS tooth hanging out of the gum for at least a week. 

If you asked to pull THIS tooth, you would immediately get this reaction.

 Even on a day when THIS tooth looked like THIS, it hung on for dear life (literally)

 THIS tooth caused two skipped meals in one day, and extremely bad breath.

I wasn't allowed to touch THIS tooth. I had to sit on my hands to even look at THIS tooth. 

Lucky for me, Brady is a mouth breather when she sleeps. 

And even if you put THIS tooth out for the tooth fairy at 10 pm, she makes a special trip. 

GOOD RIDDANCE this tooth.... you will not be missed!

Game Night Liar

Game night is our Friday night tradition. We have been going at it for about a year now. The girls really do look forward to it, but they refuse to have game night when Daddy is out at sea. They say we aren't a family when daddy is not here.

As a preface to this story. I believe heavily in making sure that my girls lose games on a regular basis. I rarely 'let the girls win.' The only time I will purposely mess up to give a daughter advantage is when the game skews constantly to one kid so I will set the other kid up for success. For example, in memory if one girl gets all the matches for the 5th game in a row, I will try to show the other where her card is through a pretend mismatch. Anywho...

Last weekend, we played Brady and Reese's all time favorite game night game...Life. At the end we were counting money, First Karl announced how many 100,000 bills he had: "13" then Brady speedily proclaims "I have 19!" Reese jumps in with "I do too" (I thought I heard her count only 18, but I think it was an honest mistake). There I sat with 21 100,000 bills in my hand (yes I know that is 2.1 million but I am working with 4 and 6 year olds). No one looked my way, but I was completely okay. No need to claim victory here. I am not competitive and what ensued is much better then claiming victory. The girls SQUEALED in delight that they had "the same exact money and they BOTH are the winners". They danced around for at least 15 minutes singing the victory song of the dual champions. I cleaned up the game with Karl and then snapped pictures of the closing ceremonies in the game night festivities. They were so excited about the tied 'wins'...now who could break the news to them with faces like these. So, yes, on this night I 'let them win'!

Virginia is for Lovers

I am cooking ground beef for dinner one night, the older two girls are outside playing and Karl is still at work. Elli is in the playroom that is adjacent to the kitchen but there is only a tiny corner that I can see while standing at the stove. She catches my eye, but she doesn't notice me standing there. I just had to grab this video of her. 

This is what Elli does when she is in a room by herself...

 I swell with pride, even now as I rewatch this video. I think "Well, I must be doing something right!"

My little Helper

Have I told you yet this girl likes to clean up?

This is the series of actions I get when I say "elli, clean up" after a meal!

Or she steals a rag out of my hand so she can do it instead!

She may not walk but she carries her load!

Bargain Hunters

One thing I have passed on to Karl is my love to bargain shop. He now loves to cruise from clearance end cap to clearance end cap at Target. One time at the NEX (military version of Target) Karl came across a $300 point and shoot camera for $50. Now while we didn't really need this small digital camera, there one feature that he couldn't pass up, it is completely waterproof. 

We finally got to put it to use. Here are the best shoots we got last weekend. 

I can't wait to try it out again! Maybe I need to take a trip to Great Wolf Lodge just to see how well it works! ;)