Merry Christmas!

I just have a smattering of pictures from Christmas day.  We had a wonderful, relaxing morning here at home.  Then Alan spent a lot of time shoveling snow before we could drive up to visit Alan's parents.  Then we drove back to our neck of the woods for Christmas dinner at my mom's house.  

Maggie wanted an Anna dress from Frozen

Jared got a fancy Harry Potter wand from Santa

Maggie and Evelyn each got their own Barbie houses with furniture from Santa (Santa bought them for only $10 and decided they each needed their own at that fabulous price)

Evy got a Cinderella barbie and matching dress up, and Maggie got a Tiana barbie and matching dress up from Grandma and Grandpa Smith

Dollar store wings are always a hit with the girls

We had such a fabulous Christmas day.  It was probably our most magical yet!  All three kids still believe in Santa, so that was really fun.  Jared is teetering on the edge, so next year might be different. We had so much fun with all our traditions and are grateful for all of our blessings.  

Christmas Eve

We spent a fun day with the Stouts playing games and cooking delicious food.  Then we went to my brother Matt's house for our annual Christmas Eve nativity with the Curtis cousins.  

Jared decided to be a wise man, and Evelyn and Maggie were angels.  

The "multitude of heavenly hosts"

Maggie and her cousin Summer

The wise men offering gifts

Some December Photos

Alan and I were on the planning committee for our ward Christmas party.  Alan helped with set up the night before, and I helped organize all the kids games and activities for the Christmas carnival.  Unfortunately Alan and I had a conflict the same morning as the party and could not attend.  My mom was really nice to take Jared and Maggie to the party so that they could enjoy the games while we were gone.  This was Maggie's butterfly face painting.  

I found Evelyn like this in her crib one morning.  She can now climb freely in and out of her crib, so she loads it full of toys and books when she is supposed to be napping.  It is super frustrating for me, but at least she is quiet and stays in her room.  Soon we will move her to a new bedroom with a new big girl bed.  Then...I will think about potty training.  Ugh.

 The kids were excited to play in the snow.  Jared really enjoys pulling Maggie and Evelyn around the yard in our toboggan.  They wanted me to come out and help me build a snowman, but I just wasn't up to it that day.  Ha ha.

It was fun to hear and see TWO kids this year at the Christmas sing at the elementary school.  These videos were lousy because I couldn't really see my kids, so I stopped filming after a few seconds.  

Third grade:

Kindergarten:  (Maggie is in the green shirt and the pink pants (????) I don't argue with what she wants to wear to school.)

Maggie's Christmas Ballet Recital

Maggie had her in-class Christmas recital for her little ballet class this week.  She was so cute and has greatly improved over the past year.  

Plies in 2nd position

Battements across the floor

November Wrap-up

Evelyn was so excited to play in the snow on the day of the first real snowfall

Jared had a snake on his face from a Cub Scout Carnival.  

Jared has been working soooo hard on the piano lately.  He just finished level 2 and has begun level 3 in the Bastien books.  Here he is playing a simplified form of The Entertainer, several days before I passed it off.  

This picture was taken on the last Sunday in November.  Grandma Stout bought the girls cute new Christmas dresses, and Jared reluctantly agreed to wear his suit jacket.  I see he is not wearing the tie, however.

Maggie is a superb reader now and isn't too bad with her phonetic spelling, either:

Alan and I went to an adult masquerade ball in November for a birthday party for Alan's friend Jeremy.  We had fun dressing up (I wore my old choir dress from high school.) Darth Vader came as a special guest.  He was so tall, and the voice-changer in his mask was extremely realistic!

 A couple of days after Thanksgiving we met up for dinner with two of Alan's best friends from high school and their wives, Ammon and Jes, and Matt and Kat.  It was super fun to catch up with them again.

Vacation to Washington

Wow, 2015 has definitely been the year of vacations for us!  We took one last trip this year.  We drove the 12 1/2 hours to go visit Alan's other dad and step-mom in Washington for Thanksgiving break. Jared and Maggie both missed two additional days of school so we could make the trip a bit longer.  It was definitely worth it.  Well, we had never driven farther than Yellowstone with our kids before, so this certainly was an adventure.  We spent a night in a hotel in Boise on both the way there and the way back, so that made the drive a bit more manageable.  (We also got to go swimming in the hotel's toasty indoor swimming pool--bonus!)

One day we drove to Seattle and then took the ferry to Bainbridge Island to meet up with Alan's cousin and best friend Ben and his family.  I was excited to meet their newest baby, Henry!

On the ferry to Bainbridge Island.  It was super cold, but Evelyn especially loved being on the boat!!

 We enjoyed crepes at a yummy restaurant with Ben and Jamie and then did some window shopping at the cute stores.

 One boutique we went to had a pet bunny hopping around.  Maggie and Evy loved petting it.

Alan and Dr. Benny Boy.  We miss them now that they live in Washington.  

I tried to get a good picture of the night lights while we were on the ferry back to Seattle.  Blurry.

Our new Christmas ornament--the Bainbridge Island ferry!  Thanks, Ben!

The next day we took the walking tour of the Seattle underground.  As a quick background, Seattle burned to the ground in the late 1880's, and when they rebuilt the city, they made "street level" up one floor from where it had previously been (to fix flooding issues and plumbing issues).  But the current sidewalks are hollow underneath, and now you can walk below and see remains of old hotels and other things.  It was extremely interesting for adults, but very boring for Maggie and Evelyn.  I thought I took several pictures, but it looks like there is just two.  Ha ha.

In front of an old store-front

This is an old sink and toilet.  Jared was attempting a photo-bomb.

 Kent and Janice have Wall-E and Eva robots that interact with each other.  The kids loved playing with them.

Silly pictures Alan must have taken on his phone???

Alan's bro. Paul and Court joined us for Thanksgiving day, as well as Kent and Janice's son Brett and his fiancee.  We had a delicious turkey dinner.  Yum! I was sad I didn't get any leftovers, because we left the day after Thanksgiving to come back home.

+

We mostly had a great time visiting with Kent and Janice.  We miss them already and can't wait to see them again!

Silly faces

4. Out of the Mouths of Babes

• We spent the night in a Best Western hotel on the way to Washington for Thanksgiving. When we had breakfast in the hotel the next morning, Maggie tasted some 2% milk--we usually just do skim--Maggie exclaimed, "It tastes so white!"
• During the same breakfast mentioned above, Maggie requested poison berry syrup for her waffle. "No Maggie, it's boysenberry, not poison berry."
• On a related note, Jenny and I had to laugh when Evelyn requested buckleberry ice cream at the local sweets shop in Snoqualmie. "No, Evy, it's huckleberry, not buckleberry."
• While staying at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house the week of Thanksgiving, our kids watched far more movies than they ought to have done. But whatever. Evelyn especially enjoyed watching the American classic film "The Lizard of Oz."
• Jared can say a few select words and phrases in various languages and, as a result, is convinced that he is fluent in all of them: Spanish, English, Portuguese, German, Snakelish, and Snakese. Presumably those last two languages are spoken by snakes, including his stuffed animals, who are named Slither (rather appropriately named) and Bob (rather randomly named). 
• Maggie, not to be outdone by Jared's linguistic abilities, informed us that she can speak Spanish, Portuguese, and Nice Witch Language. I'm not sure what Nice Witch Language sounds like, but that is the language commonly spoken by... nice witches. By the way, she was "born a nice witch."