Nya & Me

You would never believe what I woke up to on St. Patrick's Day. Nya must have somehow been walking in her sleep and playing with her toys. Her stuffed animals were strewn down the hallway. I kept walking and found her shoes lined up in a row as well. That is weird, then I found the lollipops spilled onto the floor. Hmmm. I asked Nya if she had made the mess. She said No. Then we concluded she must have been sleep walking, until Nya found a clue. She found a gold chocolate coin. She then realized that it must have been leprechauns. Leprechauns like to cause a lot of mischief, and that was just the beginning. When we got to school, my kindergarten classroom had been trashed and the leprechauns left shamrock clues and cookies for the class. My class built traps to try and catch the leprechauns and we searched the school for more clues. When we got back to the classroom, the leprechauns had been there, but escaped every single trap and tipped over all the chairs and took all the backpacks off the hooks! It was a fun day. The first graders had plenty of problems with leprechauns as well including, green hair, green nail polish on boys, green milk, green lunches... Phew, glad that day is over and the pesky little leprechauns gone!

We made a trip to Knott's Berry Farm.

And we visited some old friends:

The time has come for us to bid farewell to our beloved dog Daisy. We had Daisy for 7 1/2 years and she was definitely a part of our family. We loved her very much and miss her very much. Even though she did not like to play catch, she was always making sure everyone was safe, very much focused on catching the little red light that always seemed just out of reach, and enjoyed her walks and especially her midnight runs. Daisy suffers from thunderstorm anxiety. But it is not just thunderstorms she is afraid of, but also fireworks, snowplows, dynamite, and avalanches. Living so close to the mountains, the winter was a difficult time for Daisy as we hear low rumbling noises very often. As a result Daisy became destructive (trying to find a way to be free from the assumed danger) if she did not have her medicine. I started giving Daisy medicine more often, but I was not always home when she began to feel her anxiety. Daisy needed to go to a new home on the other side of the valley away from these frightful sounds. Daisy is such a good dog and it was really hard to give her away. I totally cried, even though I thought I could be strong for Nya. Matt did not express his feelings because he is a man, but we know he misses Daisy. Nya broke down later as she cried for Daisy. It has taken several months for Nya to stop crying for Daisy. She keeps a few pictures of Daisy in special toy dog carrier and still has Daisy collar and tags. We will always remember Daisy!

Ahhh, Christmas again. This year we spent Christmas away from home in So. California. But the good thing is we were with Scott and Christina's family. We was a very peaceful and pleasant Christmas. It is wonderful to celebrate the birth of Christ every year with loved ones. Here are just a few pictures. Nya's big request was a laptop and an American Girl Doll. She received the doll, but she is going to have to wait for a laptop until she is much older.

Christina and the girls found these peace sign boots. Of course Nya loved them because she is obsessed with peace signs. She is also wearing her new pajamas which are also adorned with peace signs. Conan those specifically for Nya and we got Sophie a matching pair. Nya forgot to pack pajamas for this trip, so we had her open up the pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Scott and Christina

Nya and her "siblings" Emilie, Maria, Conan, Sophie, Natalie

Nya and Rebekah with the necklace that Nya picked out with her birthstone.

Nya with her American girl doll

Matt, Nya, Rebekah

Sophie and Nya

Christmas Dinner with Amy, Dave, Jethro, Stacie, Katya, Cali, and Tenzing

Notice the Santa Clause has his own chair.

In November 2010, Matthew was baptized. Unfortunately, Nya was very ill and was not able to go. On the same day Conan had a championship football game. Nya was very sad to miss that as well because she loves being his personal cheerleader. She even made posters (one for her and one for Sophie) with his name and his number.

Sophie and Grandpa

Conan

Sophie, Emilie, Maria, Natalie - oh, how sweet!

Uncle John and Matthew

The whole family excluding Rebekah and Nya

Matt was in charge of marking the yardage at Conan's game.

November 20, 2010

Nya's birthday was quite a bit low key this year. We got tickets to see Disney on Ice. Nya chose to take 2 cousins and 3 friends. It was really hard to decide who to take and Nya felt really bad that she could not invite more of her friends and cousins. Nya did not want to have a cake but chose to have pumpkin cookies instead. The girls came over right after school, had bagel bites and cookies. They then gave Nya her presents and we loaded up in the car to go to the show downtown. It was a lot of fun.

Riley (Nya's BFF), Sophie J. Sophie C., Maria

and Natalie

Maria, Nya, Riley, Natalie, Sophie J., Sophie C.