Sweet Annie

Annie is seeming more and more like a big kid. Here she is, in a picture sent from her preschool teachers today, she's sliding on the "Otter Slide" that the nature center had created for their Frosty Fun Festival last Saturday. She is a trooper with all the snow gear, putting it on at least three times a week (for preschool) if not more. We all attended the Frosty Fun Festival (I'll post pictures soon, I promise) and Annie enjoyed showing us the kick sleds they use, and we all did snowshoeing and watched a few puppet shows, and roasted marshmallows.
She told Siri the other day that the way to get bigger was to eat good foods and have birthday parties. The motivation to grow is amazing in her right now, if we're trying to convince her to eat something, we simply have to say "it'll help you grow"and she'll at least try it.
She had some sun glasses on the other day while Siri was playing a guitar. I was busy in the kitchen, so Eric was encouraging them to leave the kitchen to play. He said "let's be rock stars in the living room." That seemed to get them out of the kitchen. When I looked up, Annie had retrieved her rock collection and was showing them all to Eric. She didn't know what a rock star was, but was certain that, quite logically, it should involve her rocks. It is amazing to see her brain making all sorts of new connections, and to observe her problem-solving and discovering and wondering at the world. She continues to delight us!

Siri Girl

Siri is at such a fun stage. Her vocabulary is amazing, and she is always ready to tell us exactly what she's thinking. She sings songs, plays the piano, and dances endlessly. She loves books, blocks, and running. She has quite an independent streak going, and--while it does often cause frustration for her and us--it is wonderful to see her learn to do so much on her own. She loves to help with anything around the house, and is getting quite adept at cleaning up. Siri is very nuturing, and takes wonderful care of her dolls, stuffed animals, and any baby she encounters. She loves to be with Annie, and has learned to stand up for herself with her. She is a beautiful, sweet little girl. The other night, as she gave her hugs "good night," she gave Annie a hug and kiss and said "I love you."She makes us smile.

Arizona

We spent three weeks in Arizona around Christmas. It was wonderful to be with our family there, and to be in the sunshine, and to meet our newest cousin Lenny. The girls loves playing with all their cousins, aunts and uncles, Grandpa and Grandma, extended family, and friends. They loved playing at the park, visiting the zoo, and simply being together. We rode merry-go-rounds, roller coasters, trains, and boats; ate lots of delicious (of "de-lil-lilicous" as Siri says) food; celebrated birthdays, Christmas, New Year's...It was full, it was chaotic, it was wonderful!

Siri at the park

Siri and Lenny playing

Jenia and Lenny at the park

Annie with Lenny's drum, and wearing her headlamp, and new face crayons (her she had declared she was a monster)

Sweet Siri

Annie and Kate enjoying rides at a local amusement park

Our Little Calf

Here's Annie in the Christmas Pageant.  She loved practicing with singing with "Miss Sue" and was the only child in the class who actually did the motions they had learned. Yeah, we were a little proud...and, she was pretty cute. She is going to be a performer.
As much as she enjoyed getting to sing, her favorite part of the pageant was that the high schoolers --as camels-- sat right in front of her at the end.

The Holidays

 From mid-November through mid-December our lives were filled with the preparations for and celebrations of Christmas time.  Annie did a great job singing "Away in the Manger" in her first Christmas Pageant, we celebrated Christmas with Eric's family, we celebrated with Friends, Annie enjoyed a lot of snow play at preschool, and generally we had a wonderful time. Before we knew it, it was time to head to Arizona. Here are just a few pictures from that month:

In front of our tree, the night before we headed to Arizona.

Annie after waking Dad and Siri up on St. Lucia Day. It was our first year of this tradition, and she loved it. We didn't do the traditional  St. Lucia song, but a Swedish classmate has promised to help her learn it for next year.

Siri was excited to be woken by Annie, and to pose for pictures, too. She likes to do whatever  Annie is doing. We hear "My turn! My turn!" quite often.

The girls loved extra playtime with our friend Ella, as her mom was on maternity leave.
They also loved helping to take care of baby Jack.

The girls were quite excited about all the snow that fell in December, and are getting quite skilled and the whole bundling up process, though Siri likes to remind us that she is also very good at taking things off.

They both have cultivated their "cheese" face (or "cheeseburger" as we often say) for pictures. Unfortunately, this often means we don't see their beautiful eyes in pictures, but we still think they're pretty cute!


Besides play with friends at and around home, we also filled our days with holiday fun. We baked cookies, planned/made/wrapped gifts, visited Santaland, went to the Holidazzle Parade, and have several visits with Santa.

Our First Snow

We had our first snow of the season this past weekend.  It was already a pretty crazy weekend, and this was a good reminder to slow down and enjoy things at the girls' pace.
So, after taking me to spend the day at an event at church, Eric came home and played with the girls outside, including building a snowman.

Of course, it wasn't all fun and games.  The heavy, wet snow knocked out power lines all over the city.  Ours went out about 9 am and didn't come back on until 20 hours later.  The girls enjoyed our dinner by candlelight, bathing by candlelight, bedtime stories by candlelight, and were in bed nice and early!  We were bundled up and stayed toasty warm, and were happy to see power returned when we woke up in the morning.

Yesterday afternoon we celebrated Thanksgiving with Friends...I'll post pictures of that soon!!

Fall

We've been enjoying fall.  We enjoyed a visit from my mom for most of October, and my dad, sister and her family for a long weekend.  We've enjoyed playing with friends.  We've enjoyed welcoming new friends into the world.  We've enjoyed planting trees.  We've enjoyed playing.  We've enjoyed being together and watching our girls grow.