Christmas at the Perry's

We spent Christmas night and the next two days at the Perry's. Here is a picture of the 3 Musketeers and of Katya Sat morning after her makeover! It was a very relaxing time and good to finally be able to spend some time with Beth and the girls. That about does it for our Christmas news. Only a few more weeks until our wonderful addition graces us. We have been told it's a girl now, so we're still trying to finalize a name. We'll be taking down Christmas decorations this week and pulling all the old baby stuff out of the basement. Happy New Year to all!

Christmas morning

We spent Christmas morning with the Mildenhalls. They were so excited to have little kids again this year. It does make Christmas morning so much more fun! Jack loves his new basketball goal and guitar. And Santa remembered to bring Katya a transformer! She also loves her new puppy that moves and barks and has been enjoying lots of artsy things to help her create. Jack has been more into coloring these days and was entertained all Sacrament meeting today coloring with Katya! Yahoo! Charlotte and fam also gave us the coolest I Spy pillow. Thanks so much! Did you make it? We returned Sat night to the Mildenhalls and had birthday dinner for Grandpa Sunday. Sorry, we forgot to take pics of that!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas eve at the Mildenhall's and enjoyed their annual dramatic interpretation of the Christmas Story. Isn't Grandma a grand angel? And Katya insisted that she and Nick were Mary and Joseph. Nick was a good sport all weekend to let Katya hang on his every word and movement. She has been so excited to see him and still prays for him every night even though he is no longer on his mission. The costumes for the play were great - I especially love all the animal costumes made out of towels. So cute and creative!

Christmas fun!

I got this gingerbread house kit for the kids to decorate, and we all had fun one Sunday afternoon with it. I'm glad we got the pics when we did, because very soon after, it started falling apart. I'm sure it was due to the massive amounts of candy applied to the roof. Icing is only so strong. When I tried to hold it back together, I broke one of the roof pieces in half and then it was definitely downhill after that. Jack enjoyed eating the candy off of it still - until I decided to finally throw it away!

Katya's drama class

Katya was with older kids this time in her drama class. It was totally different - mostly singing and dancing. She had a great time as usual. We have also decided to take a break from drama for a little while to simplify our lives for a change. Hopefully Katya will not notice too much.

Jack's last day

This is a picture from Jack's Christmas program at school. They sang Jingle Bells and a couple of others. Jack loves to sing and ring his bells. I'm so impressed he knows most of the words to Jingle Bells now. We have decided to skip preschool this next semester to make things a little easier on all of us. Hopefully Jack will not be too crushed. He does love playing with his friends!

Santa Claus

The kids had a couple of opportunities to see Santa Claus this Christmas. The first was at our ward Christmas party. They were so excited, especially Jack, who went right up and put his hand over his mouth to suppress his excited grin! I was so glad he wasn't scared of him this year. The only thing Katya told Santa she wanted this year was a transformer!

For Kristen

Katya's fabulous, generous, and talented Aunt Kristen made this skirt, which Katya loves to wear. This is a picture of her wearing it the first time to school. Thanks, Kristen!!

Bath Art

Jack and Katya have enjoyed painting in the bath tub. It doesn't get them very clean, but it sure is fun. Jack's favorite things to paint are his Cassies (aka Barbies). Here is one fine example. Who needs to visit the museum when you have this at home? Musee d'Orsay, here we come!