Sledding

It snowed today and Jared didn't have any school. We hung out around the house most of the morning, but in the afternoon we went sledding. We went to Jared's elementary school and had a blast.

Kevin pushed the kids down the hill and I took the pictures. Jared got going pretty far.


We thought Anna would be too scared to go down, but she is fearless!

Getting Out of Town

We went to Virginia this weekend to take a break from the city. Saturday morning we packed up and got on our way. We drove in to Buena Vista around 1:00pm and dropped our stuff off at our good friends, the Gibbons. We then went up to our other friends the Jaques and let the kids play with Sydney, McKenna, and Natalie. Jared and Anna had so much fun playing with their old friends. Later that evening we went to watch a men's basketball game at SVU and then we went back to the Gibbons for dinner with the Drydens. Jared and Anna again had a great time playing with friends and the Gibbons' English bull dog Hobbes. Sunday we went to church and visited with some more friends. Monday Kevin found some old science professors and Jared, Anna, and I went to see the new institute building the church built next to campus. It was beautiful! I can't believe how much SVU has changed since 1998. We use to meet in the one room modular building, Landrum, for institute for years and we met in the Ballroom or Chandler Hall for church. Now they have their own building with several classrooms for institute and a chapel that will house all 5 student wards. As it turns out a picture of the institute building and the new dorm in the background is the only picture I took all weekend (oops)

The Kids did not want to leave, but life must go on and we started to drive back to Baltimore that afternoon. On the drive back Kevin and I decided that our second vehicle will need a DVD player or we will have to start sedating our kids on long drives. They did just fine, but tended to get on each others nerves and a little loud at times.

Another trip to Port Discovery

We took some friends to Port Discovery last weekend and had a lot of fun. This was our first time on the Metro without Kevin and we did pretty well. My friend and I got split up for a few moments when I got off the train a little early, but we all ended up in the right place in the end. Kevin of course shook his head at me and sighed, but was able to laugh with/at me since we all made it back home safely. Anyway here are some pictures of the kids looking at mummies, playing games, and playing in their favorite the water room.

Christmas Break

We have been enjoying a nice two weeks free of school and studying and full of playing. We spent Christmas Eve with some friends from church eating yummy food and caroling to some of their neighbors. They had a nativity scene with all the kids that were there. Jared was a wise man and Anna was the donkey. Christmas morning we opened presents and had some friends over for the afternoon to play and (grumble grumble) watch Basketball games. The kids were excited for all their presents. Here are some pictures of the morning:
Santa's handy work

Waiting at the top of the stairs for the OK from dad

Jared really wanted a nutcracker for Christmas from Santa. I think he must have been exposed to the ballet in some form at school. On the bottom of these nutcrackers it says "limited edition" Jared asked what that meant and I told him it meant that there are only so many of these nutcrackers made in the world. He thought that was pretty special that Santa would give him a "limited edition" nutcracker.

Anna decided to ask Santa for a Hippo. I have no idea why or where she got that idea from, but in the end Santa delivered. Kevin heard an old Shirley Temple song called "All I want for Christmas is a Hippopotamus" and it soon became our seasonal theme song. Jared and Anna both know all the words to the song and sang it over the phone to both sets of grandparents.

This was my favorite part about Christmas this year. The kids are old enough to get involved in the gift giving. It was so much fun watching Anna put together pillows out of scrap material for Jared and watch Jared bring home special art projects made just for Anna. This picture was taken just after Anna opened a gift from Jared. They can be so sweet sometimes.

Ok so I'm putting this picture in just to give Kevin a hard time. Anna got a princess dress up game from Grandpa and Grandma Alaska and it was a hit. You move your princess around the game board and done the jewelry/crown that you land on. A winner is proclaimed when that player has gotten all their jewelry and the crown. Anna made us all play (Kevin and Jared included). I snapped a picture of Anna with the boys and their jewelry, but Kevin made me promise not put up the picture on the blog. So just look at the box and visualize us all gathered around this game with various plastic necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and rings on. Then call Kevin and request that he email you the real picture (ha ha ha)

Later the next week we traveled into downtown Baltimore and bought a family season pass to Port Discovery children's museum. Grandma and Grandpa California had taken the kids over Thanksgiving and we thought it would be a fun thing to do. We catch the Metro and ride it all the way into downtown and the museum is just next door to the exit of the Metro. The kids had fun.



Anyway a fun vacation. Monday school starts up again and we are back in the routine till June. Hope you all had a great Holiday break!