Mary's Lesser Know Special Job

We were reading a Bible story the other night about the angel appearing to Mary to tell her she would be the mother of the Messiah.  The pictures in the story showed the angel and Mary, but the last page of the story just showed Mary in a field of flowers with a bouquet in her hand (as it was describing her pondering what had just happened).  After reading the story, there were questions at the end.

Me: What special job did God want Mary to do?
Grant: Hmmmm...pick flowers?
Me: No.  Remember, the angel came and told her there was a special job God wanted her to do?
Grant: (thinking and concentrating on the picture of Mary and the flowers) Was it decorate?

So we decided we'd better read the story again and listen a little better the second time.

Random Quotes

Grant's trying to be more multicultural, but he's got a little ways to go:

"Do you speak England?  Hola!"

"I'm going to get on a plane and fly to Chinese."

"I like Mexago.  What's Mexago?"

Tickle Tickle

Kate has been so much fun lately.  She's so happy and gives lots of smiles and kisses.  One of her new favorite things is to tickle us.  As she does it she says, "Tickle tickle tickle tickle..." in her funny little voice.  I got a little video of her in the bathtub and you can her her saying it after I tickle her.

Kate's Favorite Way to Wear Bows

Nate figured this one out.  Only a dad would think of putting bows on the toes but Kate thought it was GREAT.

The Great Toy Clean Out of 2012

Grant has WAY too many toys.  While cleaning his room this weekend, I asked him to find any toys he no longer wanted or needed and put them in the hall.  At the end, this is what I found...

I'm so glad we got that out of the house.  It will feel so much cleaner in his room from now on.

Sharing a Snack

"More"

Kate started saying a new word today..."more."  We were pretty sure that her next word would be something related to food.  She would do the sign for "more" and say something close to it then laugh and cheer.  It was a fun day.

Christmas Afternoon

A Visit from Jill and the Kids

Jill and the kids came to visit right after Christmas.  It was so fun to have them at our new house and finally have room for everyone to sit down at the same time if we wanted.  :-)

Eating pizza for dinner 

Kegan is always so helpful!

Kate Kate and Auntie Jill--she warmed up to Jill really fast.

Jared was so gentle with Kate!

Kate and the Piano

Kate loves music.  She will dance whenever she hears music and when I start to play the piano she comes over and wants to join me.  I sit her on the bench next to me and she plays along and will try to sing with me if I'm singing.

Here's a little video of her playing:
Kate and the Piano

First Homework

Grant got his first homework assignment right before Christmas.  He sat down and diligently worked on it.  By the end he'd decided it was "too much work" and was no longer excited about homework.  That didn't take long, did it?  I opted not to tell him he had another 12+ years of homework to go...or that it got harder than writing his name.

Kate's First Trip to Disneyland

 We love to visit Disneyland during the Christmas season and it was fun to take Kate for the first time.  It was a beautiful day and we had a great time together.

Sickies

We were all sick up until Christmas.  Most of our time was spent like this:

Fortunately it was just colds so we weren't too miserable.  It was actually really nice to just all lounge around as a family and snuggle with the kids.  But I still vote for no colds next Christmas.

Grant started feeling better first and took over picture taking for us.  Here is part of his documentation:

Me and Kate Kate (you have to look hard to see her peeking behind me).  And yes those are footy pajamas...don't knock em' till you've tried them.

Kate Kate eating lunch and wondering, "Why does HE get to touch the camera?"

Snuggling

There are always quite a few foot pictures when Grant is in charge of the camera.

Can you guess what we were watching?  Grant didn't like the movie and decided that "the green guy" (Buddy) was the bad guy.  He's clearly not ready to appreciate "Elf."

Jesus' Birthday Cake

Grant was adamant this year that he wanted to have a birthday cake for Jesus.  I picked up a small cake from the bakery and some icing for him to decorate it.  Then this happened...

...and that was the end of the cake decorating.

He was a bit dismayed about the size of the cake.  "Jesus' birthday cake is smaller to mine."  He didn't understand  why Jesus would have a smaller cake than he had on his birthday.  It was wonderful to see his enthusiasm and excitement over celebrating Christmas as Jesus' birthday.

Through the Glass

Kate can't really play outside yet since she's not walking.  So when Grant goes out she frequently stands at the door and knocks on it until he notices her.  She gets so excited, giggling loudly and waving vigorously.  Makes me laugh every time.  And is there anything cuter than a little girl with pigtails?!?

Snowflakes

Grant's favorite activity of the holiday season was making snowflakes.  We must have gone through half a pack of computer paper.  Then he would find random pieces of paper (candy wrappers, paper bags, napkins, etc.) that he thought would make a nice snowflake and started cutting those.  It was a lot of fun and a HUGE mess...but he couldn't have been happier.