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!

E.T. phone home

Jack had a great time playing in Katya's room one night...

Jack's school pics

We were able to get Jack's school pics on a disc this year. I will be sending many of you his picture in the coming month, but I'm sure I won't have enough for everyone, so you can see it here! I thought the background was really pretty.

Girl Scouts

Katya had her pinning ceremony - I think it is called founder's ceremony or something like that - for girl scouts last week. She was quite excited to finally get her smock and patches and pins. I really need to get better at sewing these patches. Not the easiest thing to do in my book! The circle in the middle is the middle of her daisy. She is in the daisy age group. Every week they talk about a different part of the girl scout law and get a petal that represents that standard or goal. Jack likes going because he can horse around with the girls and he gets to watch men's softball at the rec fields behind the building during the meetings. A Papa's grandson come true!

Just horsin' around

Katya loves to play outside with her donkey given to her by her grandmommy. It is a cute donkey with a wagon behind it that we use as a planter. Katya got some crazy glasses in her Halloween candy and decided to let the donkey try some on with her.

I love this picture of Jack. I thought the lighting was really good that day. I couldn't get any great pictures of him because every time he sees the camera, he wants to look at the pictures on it instead of posing for a picture. Curse the digital camera age! Just kidding, of course, because I wouldn't be blogging right now without them - and I'm quite sure most of you wouldn't have a clue what the kids look like now because I'm so bad at sending letters!

Katya's Fall Drama Class

Grandmommy and Papa were able to come over to join me and Jack for Katya's fall drama class performance. They did a short skit loosely based on Little Red Riding Hood - as far as I could tell. I spent most of the time outside with Jack who really just wanted to be in the play. Then they dressed up in crazy outfits and were interviewed by their teacher and classmates about their character. Katya was a star named Dairy Queen - or Dairy for short. Katya has a great time in her drama classes and is currently in an older class that is a Christmas music review where they are singing and dancing to Christmas songs. Her teacher is always amazed at her imagination - as are the rest of us. Where does she come up with some of that stuff? It really makes her unique and is one of my favorite things about her.

Scents and Scentsibility

As many of you know, I've become a consultant for a company called Scentsy, based in Idaho. They manufacture safe candle alternatives and have so many delicious scents. I've always like candles, but never been crazy about them. This is really fun and a great challenge, though. It's totally different from any other endeavor I've been involved with before. I'm having a good time, and Scott is being very patient with my girly time! Here's my website.

Pawfest

The day after Halloween, we spent over at Beth's farm and then attended Pawfest, an event for Beth's rescue group held by the club at Oxford College that fosters dogs for them. I think this is a totally cool group for a college to sponsor. Here's a link:http://170.140.54.92:8088/OXFORD/Publications/News/POOCH/25greendog.html. Katya and Fergie won the costume contest. Katya went as Cinderella, and Fergie was Snow White. Scott came close to winning the slolum race with a foster dog - no we did not get a new dog! It was a beautiful day, and Jack was happy because he finally got to wear the cougar costume!

Halloween!!

Well, we're glad Jack is secure in his manhood, which you've already guessed from the dress up pictures previously posted and the posts about his Barbie dolls. He is so secure that he wanted to dress up in a princess dress for Halloween. He was supposed to be a chicken, and I even suggested superman, cowboy, bunny, angel, but in the end I was just glad he dressed up at all. We had a great time going to the Methodist Church trunk or treat and walking through downtown - man there are lots of trick-or-treaters downtown - we skipped that part! The we went to a fancy pants neighborhood for trick-or-treating. The kids did not want to go home, but people were turning off their lights!

Burt's Pumpkin Farm

Apparently a staple for any child or otherwise in Dahlonega. Burt's was a beautiful place with a fun hayride and giant pumpkins! We had a good time on a cold, gorgeous morning with his preschool. I think a lot of these pictures turned out well because of the great lighting there that day! Afterward, we headed over to City Park for a Halloween party and then to Fun Friday at Katya's school.

Hillcrest Orchards

Jack and I went to Hillcrest Orchards with some friends from church. He had a great time petting all the baby goats, sheep, and milking the cow. He wasn't too excited about the baby chick, so mommy had to hold it for him - but she didn't mind! We also went for a wagon ride, saw funny pig races (Jack's favorite - he cried when they were done), and Jack slid down a giant slide over and over! It was a fun day!

Other random pics

The first picture here is of Jack, the master builder. I swear he's going to be an engineer some day. I couldn't believe it when I looked over the other day, and he had built this all by himself. He builds with his blocks almost every day. He says he is building castles. He loves to build them and then knock them down with his other favorite toy - his matchbox cars. The next two are of Katya's Tiki Tea party for girl scouts. Jack dressed up in her gear when she got home. The last two are of Jack in our whirlpool tub. This is another favorite of his. And yes, he plays with his Barbies (he calls them Cassie) in the tub.

October 2008

Well all the fall break shots were October as well, but these are some random Oct shots. The first is just one of Jack being cute. Then there is a pretty good pic of grandparents on both sides with us at Katya's primary program. I was so proud of her. She did a great job! She sang almost the whole time and said her line very well. She also was very reverent sitting in the choir loft the whole time. Quite the contrast from last year, when her mommy was actually in charge of the program and she didn't want to participate at the last minute. I think Jack and Scott missed it too because Jack was not happy to have mommy up front that day instead of sitting with him. This year was such a nice change! I'm so glad we were in Washington last year so I didn't waste grandparent's time. I'm so glad they could all come this year. Mil and Fil stayed for lunch and we had a fun day together. The other pics are from Gold Rush - a major fair in Dahlonega each year. Katya rode in the parade with the Girl Scouts - she's a daisy this year. Then we got free flower balloon hats afterward.

Chattanooga trip

For fall break this year, we visited the beautiful Chattanooga, TN. We went camping at Harrison Bay State Park, which is very pretty with a gorgeous sunset over the bay in the evenings. The weather was perfect! We went to the aquarium, IMAX theater, and children's museum the first day. The children's museum is fantastic! The second day we went by Papa's alma mater, and then spent the day at Lookout Mtn riding the incline train, and visiting Ruby Falls and Rock City. I was very impressed with Rock City - it was very beautiful with huge rocks formations and beautiful views. And the best part is - it was only a 2 hour drive home!