That's what Valentine's Day is all about. 

Grandma Newell made the girls each a pair of adorable mittens for Valentine's Day.  They were thrilled opening up their packages.


We don't celebrate Valentine's Day, traditionally.  So, the partying for the girls occurs at school.  Each of their schools had a small Valentine's Day celebration.  At Abby's school, nothing sweet was allowed, so Valentine's contained an extra dose of stickers, tattoos, erasers, pencils, and notepads. 

This is how the girls looked at the end of the day.

Last year we had a fun blizzard in February where schools were closed and most people took the day off from work or worked from home. 

This year, we were rewarded with another beautiful, heavy snow fall out of nowhere in February.  We had been experiencing beautiful weather and then one morning, we woke up to this.

The snow was a bit dry for building snow creatures, which was what the girls wanted to do, but they still had a great time playing in the snow.  Paul towed them around in sleds and they tubed down the driveway and on the empty street.  

And to think that the day before Kayleigh was in a sleeveless dress!  Love this crazy Colorado weather!

We ended up with over a foot of snow, which promptly melted the next day.

Paul has been playing racquetball leagues since last year. This year, he has played a few tournaments. During a recent doubles tournament, Abby, Kayleigh, and I got to go to the rec center and watch.

Paul didn't place in this doubles tournament, but placed 3rd in his singles tournament.




Have you seen the movie, Wreck-It Ralph?  It's one of the girls' favorite movies right now.  Kayleigh made a funny one Monday when Paul was at racquetball by saying, "Daddy playing wreck-it ball?"  Followed by a huge grin because she was so proud of herself for her little joke.

Abby is really lucky and has inherited Paul's thick, thick hair. With her ringlets, though, the hair gets really tangled and unruly when it gets long.

Up until recently, I've trimmed her hair and she's gotten some fun styles done during hair salon birthday parties, but nothing professionally done.  So a few weeks ago, we made an appointment for her to see Tess, the stylist who cuts Paul's and my hair. Abby got a trim and some heavy layering. She loved the whole experience, especially the hair wash and scalp massage!  The final style looked amazing! She retains her ringlets and the knots are a lot more manageable.

The first big thing that happened in 2013 was that I broke my second toe pretty dramatically during my first Aikido class of the year (2 Jan 2013). During a simple attack around my opponent's back, I stepped one way and he another. Somehow my second toe got caught under his foot and as he stepped, the toe snapped.


As you can see from the x-ray, the break was at a sharp angle, which made setting the toe very difficult.  I left the emergency room with the toe set as well as the ER doc could do and a follow up with an orthopedic doctor because he thought I would probably need surgery to get a pin inserted in the toe in order for it to heal properly.

This is the photo that's painful for me to look at!

It took 4 injections of lidocaine to numb my toes enough for the manipulation.  I must say the needles hurt far more than the toe fracture!

I was in a cast boot for 6 weeks and wore an ortho shoe around the house for the same amount of time.  The broken toe remained "buddy-taped" to my middle toe the whole time.  As the toe healed, though, my hips and back must have gone out of alignment because the boot/shoe.  So that 2 and a half months later I'm still fighting pain in my neck, back, and hips.

In the meantime, I continued to attend Aikido classes every week.  There is a lot to be taken from observing others perform the techniques and watching allowed me to take notes on techniques, which become valuable leading up to rank testing.

On February 10th, our dojo hosted a seminar with three guest instructors.  I didn't get to participate, but I did observe for two and a half hours of the 5 hour seminar.  It's always fascinating to hear how different instructors approach this martial art.  One of the Senseis is a cop and his views on how to apply any martial arts in a real-life situation is always interesting.

I am now back on the mat, but the toe remains buddy-taped.  My fellow students are even more conscious of protecting each other now.  Apparently the class after I broke my toe, the owner of the dojo also fractured his pinky toe in class. 

Even though aikido isn't a kicking sport, the techniques we are practicing can be devastating, so we need to keep in mind it's still a martial art and the potential for injuring ourselves or each other is quite present.

Mmm, the Holiday bread for breakfast was pretty delicious, but Kayleigh much preferred to get back to playing with her gifts.

Kayleigh was in heaven playing with all the "My Little Pony" she received...

...Ok, which BOTH girls received!

Our eldest always in search of a warm patch of sunlight to lay in.  Lucky for him we had a warm, sunny Christmas Day.

Puck's very first Christmas.  Despite claws and an exceptional fascination with tiny silver ornaments, the tree stayed upright and most of the ornaments stayed on the tree!

The girls had a tiny table just their size set for a fancy dinner.

Adorable centerpiece for the girls' table, don't you think?!

The adult's dinner table.

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These are the before pictures of their outdated '70s style kitchen - what you don't really see are the avocado green dishwasher and cooking range!

This is the drawing for the remodeled kitchen. The soffits above the cabinets were taken out so that taller cabinets could be fitted. The entire row of upper cabinets on either side of the range hood was taken out, opening the kitchen up to the family room.  An island style range hood would replace the old one.  A raised bar would be installed on the other side of the range, with a row of cabinets underneath for storage.

Several configurations of the kitchen were considered, but in the end, the original U-shaped kitchen was the most practical, given the space.

And this is how it turned out!  Dark cabinets plus a lighter, warm brown granite countertop looks amazing.

My parents used to have dark wood paneling in the family room.  When they considered getting the dark kitchen cabinets, they decided that they wanted the paneling removed.  New dry-wall and crown moulding were added to the family room.

Paul, Allen, and I installed Brazilian Teak flooring throughout the family room and kitchen.

The vinyl flooring underneath the carpet of the kitchen/family-room area.

Allen standing in a much, much brighter family room now that the wood paneling has been removed!

Working late into the evening we got a lot accomplished in just one day, which started with the tearing up of carpet and putting down the underlayment.

The kitchen would be the last bit of flooring to do.

Set up of the power tools in the garage - chop saw and band saw were needed for the floor install.

We finished day one with flooring all the way up to the bar cabinets.

Paul being watched by everyone as he slips in the last row of flooring for the day.

My dad chose a white trim to go around the family room.  I was very proud of my excellent caulking job!

Their entire kitchen/family room remodel took about 1 month.  In the end, they got brand new, updated kitchen cabinets, all new appliances (range, range hood, dishwasher), new sink and granite countertop, new walls with dark wood paneling removed in the family room, fixed window on the south side of the room which had never been quite complete, recessed lighting in the family room, and new floors throughout family room and kitchen.

I love the new look!  Without those upper cabinets between the kitchen and family room the whole space looks so open and refreshing.  The granite is very striking and they seem to have gained a lot more counter and cabinet space.  Despite their small space, the dark floors and cabinets actually make the living space feel warm and inviting. 

I think I may have mentioned that Kayleigh doesn't enjoy having her picture taken. She is actually very, very shy around new situations.

Around Christmas time, the Castle Rock Outlets had a Santa house where kids could get their pictures taken with Santa. While Christmas shopping, I thought I might try to see if the girls would like to meet Santa. Abby was thrilled. Kayleigh was not so much.

I didn't want to force the issue, so instead of taking pictures with Santa, the girls grabbed some free cardboard Santa hats and let me take some photos around the Christmas decorations as we shopped. They did look like they were having fun, so that's all that matters.