Kaleidoscope

The other day Sophie found a Kaleidoscope in one of the many boxes in my bedroom that is yet to be fully unpacked. (I need some more shelves but need to wait to spend the money on them yet)  She had a good time looking at the world through the glass ball at the end of a tube with some mirrors inside. It is amazing how fun the world looks through this new lens! She made the comment that she wished she could take a picture of the image inside the scope.  So we experimented a little and found that our little point and shoot could do it quite well. 

 Can you tell what the subject is that she was looking at?

Maybe these ones are a little easier to see the face?

Sophie loves her kitty and she has added a lot of fun to our home. 

 Peezy loves to sit up in this sunny window each morning looking out over our backyard and trampoline.

Animal prints

Sophie is and has been an animal lover forever. She prefers cats to all other animals. This is why she got to finally have a cat now that we have a house with space enough for a pet.

She is always pointing out the animal print items whenever we pass them in the store. When I asked her a few months ago what she would like for Christmas she requested leopard print clothes.  I am not a big fan of animal prints and so have refrained from purchasing such articles for her in the past but she has been somewhat insistant. She is at an age where clothing is starting to be more important and she is growing more and more particular about them.

I mentioned the animal prints to my Mother and set her to work on the leopard print clothes idea for Sophie.  She came through very nicely. Thanks Grandma!

Look at how lovely Sophie looked this morning when she wore her new outfit to church this morning.

She looked great and was very happy to finally have a leopard print shirt. 

Time to hang with the Fam.

Almost the whole gang was at Grandmas house on Christmas. 

 Is that more Legos I see!

 Molly loved the new princess dress Grandma made her. She said this one is her Merida dress.

The Ladies taking a break!

The men folk watching a bit of television.

Henry showed off his yoyo skills.

 Oh my are there two Meridas? Molly and her couin loved being twins with their beautiful green princess dresses.

 After a hearty Christmas dinner we all headed out for the walk.

 These kids always complain when it is time to leave but they have such a great time walking up and down the neighborhood together.

 Molly was carried on one cousin or another's shoulder. She kept swinging her leg over so she was sitting on one side and and with her hands in "namaste" possition she was say "I am your shoulder angel". I wonder where that one came from? All these kids know Studio C and all got a good laugh at Molly.

 So the day was full of food, fun and lots of family. It was a great way to spend Christmas day!

We missed you Auntie Karen and crew! It was fun to facetime with you all!

A Very Lego Christmas Morning!

I figure it is time to post some Christmas pictures. Here are a few from Christmas morning. The kids woke up at about 6:30 which is better than the 5:00a.m wake up last year.

 They quickly found their stockings and started to dig through. Molly found some princesses in her stocking.

 Sophie found a leopard print scarf.  Each of the kids also got a new (used) ipod along with a book and some candies in their stockings.
Then the presents under the tree were pulled out.

 Henry was way excited about the Minecraft magnents that he unwraped!
 But Ian was thrilled when he opened his big gift.

 Molly unwrapped a new pair of inline skates.

Even Peezy got a little mouse toy to play with. 

The rest of our Christmas was pretty much legos, legos and more legos. 

Ian kicked off the lego binge by opening up a Mindstorms EV3. He was certainly spoiled by getting a new robot for Christmas!

 There were a few Lego Friend sets that made their way to our house. I guess we didn't have enough pink legos around here!

And this is what the kids did with the rest of their morning.

The entire downstairs was covered with legos.

Ian set to work building a new robot and getting all the EV3 pieces put in his new Technic lego bin.

Interesting to see that Sophie wasn't involved in much of the lego building. I don't know what she was busy doing but my guess is that she was buried in a new Warriors book that she made its way to our house for her.

It was a busy morning. But we still had to head to Grandmas house so our lego building had to be put on hold.

Parties and Lights

We haven't been doing all our usual Christmas activites.  In the past there were things we just always expected to do when Christmas time rolled around again. With our move we are having to give up some of the old yearly activities and find some new things to add to our celebration at this time of year. 

We did drive down to attend our former ward's Christmas Dinner. 

 The boys quickly joined their friends and Sophie jumped up with the youth when they got up to sing.

Molly was excited to see her friends there too. It was fun to be there with all the people of our old ward again. It felt just like home.

When we attended our new ward's Christmas dinner I forgot to take the camera so I don't have pictures but the we had fun there too. We sang and ate and meet even more new people.

We attended a bell choir concert that was given on Temple hill in Oakland. It was a great opportunity to go and see the grounds all lit up for Christmas.

 They did have a live nativity where perodically they would read and act out the story of Mary, Joseph, and the babe being visited by the shepherds and wisemen.

 They had the statue nativity as well.

 And we always have to go tour the visitor's center.

I didn't realize we hadn't ever taken the kids to the gardens up on the temple. The lower level has some lovely gardens and great view of the bay.

 They got a good look at the freeze on the front of the temple. This is Christ with his apostles in Jerusalem. And is accompanied by a verse from the New Testament.

And they realized that the freeze on the back of the temple isn't the same. The back of the temple has Christ with his apostles in the Americas when he comes in the Book of Mormon.

Here is a view of the grounds from up in the gardens on the temple.

 Yes there was a lot of running around and some silliness from our Molly girl. She refused to wear her coat even though it was cold and windy.

 One of the best parts of the evening was getting to hand out with friends in our ward. Several families took the short drive to Oakland to attend the concert and tour the lights together. It was a fun evening. The kids loved running around with some of their new friends.

Here is Molly with a girl from her Sunbeam class. These two were keeping us all busy chasing after them. They wanted their picture taken over and over again everywhere we went.

It was a fun event!