Jane's Christmas Program

Jane attends preschool on Thursday mornings. Today being the last Thursday before Christmas break, families were invited to the last 30 minutes of class for some singing and games. Here are a few pictures and a snippet of the kids. Jane is my camera-lover. If you say "Cheese", she will (usually) smile despite the chaos around her :-)




Joy (and Will who didn't want to be in the picture) waiting to go into Jane's class. Will was very excited that he got to leave school early so he could come watch:

Jane's present to me: a home-made snow globe

Mabes and Joy enjoying the toys

Simon/Farley Christmas

We will be spread around the country on Christmas, so we celebrated early with John's family last night. Even though Dirk is only a few days post-op from his knee surgery, he still brought out the guitar to sing a few carols. Another highlight from the night was that the "big kids" all received bikes from Grandpa and Grandma.

Jeepers Creepers

Jane continues to love going to ballet class. She had her Winter Recital last weekend and the girls danced to "Jeepers Creepers." It was, of course, adorable. I didn't have the best vantage point as I filmed the dance because Jane was behind one of her taller classmates for most of the performance. Plus, Joy kept trying to break free of my grip and get on stage with Jane so I was a little distracted while fiming (multi-tasking). Still, what's not to like about 3 yr olds dancing? Cousin Clara exits mid-performance for a potty break to add a little extra excitement to the performance. Classic 3 yr-old move.

Christmas Preparations

I'm trying to work with Will on fine motor activities a little bit every day to build those little muscles up. Placing his fingers on a pencil independently, gripping it and manipulating it to go where he wants it to go is the goal.
Tonight I let Will stay up past his bed time so we could wrap Christmas presents and write people's names on them. Will was quite proud of writing BUBBY (His Grandma Melissa) as "B" has been an especially difficult letter to master. The letter "Y" has also been tough, but tonight we decided that to remember "Y", think of a person standing up with their arms held high "Praising the Lord." Will loved this visual picture and now can remember how to do a "Y":

Also, check out our tree, decorated by Will and Jane. It's about 12 inches tall but big on personality (and necklaces, silly bands, tassles and stickers). We decided not to get a tree since we're going to be in California for the majority of the month.

Joy's 12/15 month appointment

I have been procrastinating taking Joy in for her 12 month well-baby check (she is almost 15 months old) and finally took her in today. The upside to this was that Dr. Roskin said this could be a combined 12/15 month visit and that she could wait to come in again until she's 18 months. Downside: Joy got 6 shots today. She is currently passed out (probably for the night) at 5:21 pm as I type.
She is 25 # and almost 32 inches. Healthy and Happy!! Loves to dance, can say "Dada, Ball, Wow and Mama," blows kisses, gives nice open-mouthed kisses and likes high-fives. She is a huge Mama's girl but loves Daddy and her brother and sister, too :-)

Tubing at Snoqualmie Pass to celebrate Mabel's #1 Bday

The kids LOVED every minute of it. Great activity!

Small Group

We hosted our small group Christmas party last weekend and had a great time. Somehow we managed to feed 21 kids and 14 adults, do a gift exchange and actually have nice conversation! We are so thankful for our group and their dedication to the Lord and each other. They're always such an encouragement to us!