Snow Valley in Running Springs CA

This past weekend we went skiing in Snow Valley, CA. It was SO MUCH FUN! They had a ton of new snow due to all of the storms we've been getting. We enrolled Tyler and Elise is ski school and at the end of the day they felt confident enough to go out again, and again. On the lift Tyler said, "Mom, why is skiing so much fun?" Wayne and I were thrilled that they had such a blast. Here's a video of them. Wayne fell down a couple of times on this little flat area. In his defense, he's great at snowboarding. Anyone who boards at all knows how hard it is to keep standing while going so slowly on almost flat terrain :).

Funny girl

I had to post this comment, it was so funny and I'm afraid I'll forget it.

Here's the back story. Elise has an aversion to flushing toilets due to an unfortunate overflow incident. Understandable. She's finally comfortable using our toilets again without someone there to rescue her should the water level rise uncomfortably high, but this is not the case at school. As a result, she's had a couple of accidents, but has been able to hide them from her teacher. Just the other day she had her second accident which prompted a conversation where I told her that she needed to talk to her teacher if it happened, and that I sent extra clothes to school in the event of an accident, etc., etc.
I talked with her teacher the next day about her toilet aversion and we made a game plan. Then after school I told Elise that I talked to Mrs. Hernando. Then I asked her what made her uncomfortable going to the potty at school. She looked at me and smiled and then...she waved her hand...the fingers spread...in front of her face and while gazing upward with a dreamy look on her face said in a sing-song voice, "It ALL began" then a pause "last Thursday. Or maybe last Tuesday." As she's saying this she's kind of shaking her head, smiling, and babbling on and on...never once mentioning her fear of potties or the last accident she just had. It was all I could do to not burst out laughing. Ahhh, my funny girl. I wish I could've caught it on video.

Random Pics

Here are some random pics that I thought I'd post just to give some idea as to the goings on in the Dahl household this fall.

First:

Soccer, soccer, soccer!



Second:

We lost some teeth at our house:

Tyler and Elise actually lost teeth on the very same day! Elise is missing her two bottom teeth...I couldn't find a good pic with those teeth missing. All you can see is her top teeth! You can see that Tyler is missing one top tooth and one bottom tooth.

Not necessarily third:

Here are some pics of Sienna growing up:


I think I'd better hurry and publish this. The natives are getting restless.

New Family Pictures

We decided to get family pictures taken as a gift for my parents...we haven't had a picture of my side of the family in about 10 years. Here are some of our favorites:
















It was a VERY cold day, but we think the pics turned out great and are so excited to finally have them!

Tyler's 7th birthday!

I can't believe he's seven already. How time flies! And boy did we ever celebrate. First, we went as a family to Disneyland. Here's a pic of Tyler with his presents there in the park.

Then, later that week, we had his birthday party at a very fun place called Kid Concepts. It was seriously one of the best birthday parties we've had. The host was absolutely hysterical and the kids just loved him. He had them playing all sorts of silly games. During dinner he asked them questions about Tyler (favorite t.v. show, favorite color, etc.) and if they answered correctly, they got prizes. He also had them do silly things if they won, like writing Tyler's name on their forehead or pouring ice down someone's back. They just loved it. It was truly very, very fun. And easy! Which is what we needed during this busy, crazy time!
Here's Tyler and his friends at his party.

And here's Tyler with his haul at home.

Sienna's blessing

Sienna's blessing was really special. Wayne's mom found a good deal on a plane ticket and was able to come down, which was so wonderful. Additionally, Brian and Julie were able to come. They initially had plans to go to Sacramento, but thankfully, things were rearranged so they could be there. Hurray for family, whether small or large!
Here's our family. Believe it or not, this was one of the best pictures.

Mommy, daddy and Sienna

The boys.

All of the boys.

All of the girls.

Big sister and Sienna in her blessing dress.

Sienna...

Sienna and more

I'm going to slowly update our blog. I'm going to try and go from oldest to newest so that they post in order!

Here's a pic of Sienna with big Sister:

And another shot of Sienna

Here's a picture of my birthday dessert. My mom, dad, Brian and Julie came up for dinner at our house. It was so fun to have them all there! Sadly, I have no pics of everyone, but here's one of our family. How lame was that???!!!