Dear January

Hey, Jan, how the heck are you? Can I call you Jan? "January" seems so formal, and seeing as we're such old friends, I figured we could cut the formalities. After all, I was born during your reign. Speaking of precipitation, what's with the lack of snow? And the absurdly warm temperatures? Are you trying out for Summer? Don't hold your breath; summertime already has two J's. And while you can make the claim of "First!!1!", you can't even begin passing yourself off as a warm-weather guy.

Though you've dropped some snow recently, the kids found time earlier to play some soccer on the brown grass.

And when your true season peaks out from behind the clouds, the kids will find enough to do indoors too.

So, Jan, when your shortened brother comes around in a few days, I'll give him your best. And I think he's grown this year! You guys always seem to miss each other somehow - such is the life of a one-twelfth-er, huh?

Regards,
Torey

Christmas 2011

We started Christmas a little early at our house this year. Because we traveled over the actual holiday, we wanted to give the kids our own Christmas before the rush of the relatives started (Nothing negative aimed at hangin' with the relatives! That was enjoyable too, just very busy.). So Santa came to our house on Friday and then we left town to head to Central WI on Saturday. It wasn't quite as smooth as that though - our original plan was to leave Friday, but Amanda was sick so we pushed it back til the next day. Then, as we were loading the car, Skippy peed on the driver's seat. And on the way out of town we had a tire issue. But we made it there and back again and had a great time!

Now here it is with some pictures added in...

The kids made gingerbread houses and cookies so that they could leave decorations out for Santa.

Finn checking out the little tree in the kitchen. Julia gets mad and says,
"I keep finding ornaments hanging off of other ornaments and I just KNOW that Finn did it and he shouldn't!"
I suspect he's getting ready to do such a thing in this picture.

Julia wrote Santa a letter while Finn posed with his house.

The Kauth Family Christmas morning a few days early.

Julia tried out some new stencils amidst the chaos of the living room, post present opening.

Finn ate his gingerbread house for breakfast that morning. And continued munching on it days later.

The kids enjoyed the newly arranged downstairs at Grandma Beth and Grandpa Duane's house.

My Grandma Laverne always has a huge spread of Christmas cookies and sweets. On Christmas Eve, Julia and her Grandpa Dayton sat for quite awhile sampling and re-sampling.

Finn had some assistance from two pups while opening presents on Christmas morning at Grandma Beth and Grandpa Duane's.

The kids posed next to the tree at (Great) Aunt Cheryl's house for the family gathering there, later on Christmas day.

Julia and Aunt Ginny tried out a new game before the kids headed to bed.

Back at home in River Falls, Julia tried out a new crafting experience - making beaded bracelets.

Finn was excited to try out his new drum set. Julia is excited for him to start taking lessons (which is not even being seriously planned (yet)) so that she will have the makings of a band.

A year ago at this time, Julia was in the hospital for her first of four, week-long inpatient chemo extravaganzas. We're glad to be at the point we're at now. Julia had her second three-month scans this morning (so she's now six months out from the end of her treatment). Everything was clear and lookin' good! She had her last followup PT appointment to finish up a study she was a part of too.

Decorating Ears, House, and Hair

The holidays at relatives' houses make for opportunities for Julia to play guitar in front of an audience.

That experience helped when she participated in her first recital. She played "Jingle Bells." Here she is getting set up to play, with help from her teacher.

I made a video of the recital, but the sound is really quiet. This video that I posted last time shows her playing the same song at home.

We spent last weekend putting up the big Christmas tree in the living room, the little one in the kitchen, and all the other decorations throughout the house.

Finn likes to wrestle. One afternoon we both shoved pillows in our clothes and did some massive belly bounces. Skippy, in the background, was the referee.

Julia got her first hair cut in about a year. Her last one was when she decided to get her hair cut short before it all fell out. She also got a pink hair extension.

Swinging, Dancing, and Plucking

The kids had their dance recital last Monday. I didn't get many pictures, but I got a lot of videos. Before we get those though, I'll share one from a few days prior.

The kids and I went to Glen Park for a hike. The hike was nice but the kids were more drawn to toys in the park. Julia's talked about swinging on the monkey bars but I had never seen her do it. I remember first seeing her try some time ago and she couldn't get far. I'm not sure if she was determined to learn how or felt some positive peer pressure from seeing her friends swinging with ease, but either way, I'm proud of her. Especially after this past year of being physically inactive as much as she was.

Finn is in the background in the green jacket. At the end of swinging, Julia would always want to know how long it took her make it across. So maybe it was the competition amongst friends that drove her.


My favorite part of Finn's first dance is when he shakes the scarves up and down at the end.


The followup of Twinkle, Twinkle.


Finn's tap routine.


Julia danced to Party in the USA. She's in black with pink tights.


For her tapping, she starts in the back row.


There are a few more videos from the recital that can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/user/onetwothreeman There are a ton of other videos of the kids there too.

And finally, Julia has been practicing for a guitar recital coming up soon. Here's one of her practice sessions.

From One Month to Another

Finn had two costumes for Halloween this year. When he was indoors, he wore his pirate costume, like for their costume day at preschool.

Julia had just one costume, but that was enough for her. She was a Pop Star! and would announce it just like that at random times. People frequently asked Julia which pop star she was and she soon got sick of the question, because she wasn't any particular one.

Finn's second costume was Julia's old homemade Care Bear costume from several years ago. It was the warmer of the two, so he wore it for trick-or-treating and for handing out the treats.

The kids got to wear their costumes at the River Falls Business Expo. We talked to this woman about possibilities for Julia's hair and it turns out she is also a Wilms tumor survivor from when she was three! It was awesome on so many levels!

The kids had fun carving pumpkins and afterward they helped to make roasted pumpkin seeds.

A trip to the Walker Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis was well received by the kids (and the dog).

A large cardboard box was transformed into a TV and has provided lots of entertainment for all four of us.

We took a Fall hike along the Kinni below Glen Park.

And I'll leave you with some funny faces and a moment of the kids getting along.

Make-A-Wish Trip, Day 6: To the Beach!

We ended our week in Florida by staying away from the theme parks and heading to the ocean. But...we had to start the day with a dose of toon with Scooby Doo at the Give Kids the World village.

It was an hour drive to the Atlantic. Along the way, Julia did homework while I looked for gators on the flat Florida landscape. She got her work done, but I didn't see any reptiles. We passed a cruise ship after driving over one of the causeways leading to Cocoa Beach, our sandy destination. Near the pier at the beach was a good place to spend the afternoon; it had bathrooms, a couple of restaurants, and beach umbrella rentals.

Amanda and I weren't sure what the kids would think. Julia has twice visited the Pacific on the Oregon coast, but those shorelines are rocky and picturesque rather than the sunny and sandy one we had just arrived at. Finn had never seen either coastline.

Needless to say, they loved it. They were happy running in and out of the surf, digging holes in the sand watching the tide fill them, and finding seashells.

Since we stayed longer than we had planned, our snacks weren't sufficient to feed us. We took advantage of one of the restaurants on the pier and got some food to go and ate it on our towels on the sand, sitting under our rented umbrella.

Like my daughter, I've been to the Pacific coast a number of times, but haven't really had an opportunity to swim and submerge myself in the salty water. I was thrilled to get that opportunity this time. I'm not a big swimmer and have little interest in most water activities, but there has always been something about the ocean that has drawn me to it. The endlessness and the all-natural cacophony. The unthinkable amount of water, while what we see from the shore has a feeling of sparseness of life, the pieces of shells give hints about the life that's there.

Several times I went out a ways and floated on my back. It was pretty amazing, slowly moving as the waves lifted me up and gently lowered me back down. It was interesting comparing that sort of ease of movement compared to standing upright and feeling those same waves shoving me towards the shore.

Julia had a fun idea and added shells to the outside of one of her sand creations.

Eventually we gathered up the kids, washed off as much sand as we could and headed back to central Florida. That evening at GKTW, there was a princesses and pirates party. There were activities, dancing, and pirates and princesses everywhere. Finn got his picture taken with a very exciting pirate.