Our Shining Star

Henry was chosen to be be on of the Shining Stars at his school this week. It is such a cool new thing that they started at his school. They have the kids fill out a form that tells them about the kid -- their favorite food, favorite subject in school, favorite color, etc. Then the principal calls up each kid and highlights things on the sheet and then asks for a round of applause. It is such a lovely way to highlight the unique and wonderful things about the child. I, of course, cried.  Henry made sure to point out that he loved football and basketball (the principal noted that throughout his sheet she noted a theme....that he LOVED sports). He also said that Math was his favorite subject. Shocking, right?

Maggie and her Godfather

My cousin Jeffrey is Maggie's godfather. He wasn't able to be here for her baptism as he is interviewing for residency programs right now. He was here last weekend to interview at OHSU so they got to bond. Apparently he has already started some lesson plans for her. Amen.

7 Month Old Maggie

Maggie turned seven months while I was on a business trip in Denver. 


Her new things are some incoming top teeth, an unquenchable desire to stand and pull up on things, a LOVE of food (hmm....wonder who that is like) and a whole lot of verbal activity. She also is REALLY in to sticking her tongue...ala Michael Jordan style...which is pretty ironic given her initials are MJ.


She is like walking around with a burst of sunshine...she makes everyone smile and we adore her. 


My mom came with me to Denver and the two Joan's (Maggie's middle name is Joan) had fun bonding. Maggie LOVED that Joanie would let her go through her purse and chew on her Kindle. Joanie loved that the hotel had a free wine hour and that Maggie fell in love with her Grandma.


Here is Henry at 7 Months:

 And Frances:

Frances Ensures Life is Not Dull

This is the kind of get up that Frances routinely puts on as part of her imaginative play. 

The girl continually cracks me up.

Frances Skiing

Here is the video of Frances's skiing. In typical Frances form...she wanted to "DO IT HERSELF". When Mark tried to help her or guide her, she basically threw it down and did a number of arm flailing, head shaking moves that made me and my sister nearly pee our pants. Hilarious.

Sorry for the video being sideways.

Alaska = Winter Wonderland Bliss

On Christmas night we joyfully flew up to Alaska. We had a premonition that the trip would be fantastic when all three kids fell asleep on take off....and remained asleep. We had wonderful, unforgettable week.  The kids adore their cousins and from the moment they see each other it is fun central. There are many stories to tell....that I have a feeling we will be telling in our golden years...but the thing I loved the most was just having the time to hang out. We didn't necessarily do a lot, which was the best part of the trip, because we were all together. My sister and I can talk for hours...and that is what we did. The snow was beautiful and we got to biking, running and hiking in it. Frances tried skiing for the first time...which was HILARIOUS...and Mark even got some runs in. Overall, it was the perfect way to end 2011.

Christmas

I know I say this every year, but I LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!! Christmas as a parent. There is nothing better than the ear to ear joy and the anticipation of running downstairs. Highlights for Frances were that she actually got a Water Buffallo and that Santa remembered to get Maggie the Johnny Jump Up. Henry was elated to get an Itouch.....and he proceeded to check the weather of every city he knew and to time all of his imaginary football games. 


We spent the am playing with our toys and then headed to Gertie's house and the rehab hospital to visit Gordon....all before we needed to catch a plane to Alaska. It was a pretty comical Christmas of lots of places to go, all in one day. 

Christmas Eve

We stuck with our tradition of going to the Christmas Eve - Family mass at Cathedral.The day before my mom had given the kids their presents, so they were busy putting together the Lego set (all 874 pieces) and building mountains. Henry also decided to use Sharpie on face to help "spice up" his pretend football game -- really fun to clean up before mass. 


As always, mass was ADORABLE with the kids from the Cathedral school acting out the story of Christmas. The baby Jesus was so cute....and then what was even cuter is how everyone we sat next to told us that Maggie should have been baby Jesus as she was "so cute, you could eat her". Hilarious. 


Given my parents were in AK, Gordon was in the hospital, and my grandma had sent me a card in the mail to let me know that she wasn't coming to Christmas Eve dinner (nice direct mode of conversation)-- we decided to go out. Yummy. We ended the night with having Brookie and her family over for Christmas Eve dessert. Frances had the whole crowd laughing pretty hard with her P90X impressions and her bad ass jumping jacks. She also got Aaron - Brookie's brother - to wear the Elf hat....Santa's little helper.