Finger Painting fun!

 

 

 

Just wait until we teach Teya how to do this!!! We LOVE to finger paint!

Christmas Day

 

 

 

We celebrated Christmas this morning with our three girls and their Uncle Kurt and his girls Katya and Sonya! The big cousins spent the night and actually waited until 7:30 to wake up! The girls all opened stockings one at a time and the Big girls really were wonderful and enthusiastic about what the little girls got in the stockings from Santa...Mommy and Daddy got special gifts from Santa too:-) We ate breakfast (caramel apple french toast), then we read the Christmas Story from the book of Luke, while the big girls acted it out using our Little People Natvity set...that was pretty fun! Then we all opened our presents! Some of the fun gifts included my childhood doll house (Yes! my Mom made it for me when I was little and you can see it in the picture of Addy feeding Abby Cadabby...pretty impressive), a kitchen set for the house, a new BIG RED bean bag for Maya to lounge in, Addy received an Abby Cadabby doll and Maya a Grover doll (their favorite Sesame characters), Dora Jammies...baby Teya Jammies...Elmo and Jungle Book videos from Babu, new pairs of shoes for Addy and Maya, and Dean and I are super excited about our new video camera and work out gear from our folks! Tomorrow we will have Christmas with Auntie Holly and Uncle Matt and then Next week in Portland with my Parents if the snow decides to melt! We have been VERY blessed this year and are most thankful for health and our three beautiful girls. Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!

Christmas Eve

 

What a wonderful time we had at our Christmas Eve Service. We arrived bright and early with some of our neighbors and sat right up front to watch the Christmas story acted out. It was only about 40 minutes so our three girls were able to watch it. Maya was wonderful as ussual, and enjoyed the lights and decorations of the sanctuary. For a 2 year old Addy did well too...she spent some time on my lap, on Dean's lap, on the floor rolling around, AND refused to take off her jacket (she can be very particular about the strangest things), and she did a lovely commentary of the scene that was acted out before us..."Those aren't angles...they don't have wings!" "Where's Baby Jesus?" "Where's Bethelem?" "I wanna go HOME!" And Teya, well she very happily played on the pew next to Dean. I could not understand why no one sat next to us!?!?! Anyways, the girls looked beautiful in their Christmas dresses, and it was so fun to enjoy the service all together (especially without the noise of a suction machine!...which is what we had to use with Maya's trach)!

Winter Storm 2008 maya Pics

 

 

Winter Storm 2008

 

 

 

 

We have had a lot of fun enjoying the 6" of snow here in Tacoma. While my parents were bombarded with 24" in Portland and a 4 day power outage (Thank you Mattis Family for taking them in, and celebrating Christmas with them:-)!!!), our family has been out enjoying the snow! Addy has a new found love of sledding and tromping through the "crunchy snow"! Maya is okay with the snow if and only if she is pulled in a sled around the neighborhood on flat surfaces that do not cause her to have to lean too much...she likes slight down hills, but NO BUMPS PLEASE! Her difficulty with balance has been very obvious in the snow...walking in it causes tears and grouchy noises to come from her, and she has fallen more than once getting to the car from the house....life is much better now that Daddy shoveled the walk ways..."Thanks Daddy!"

Teya is Eating solids!

 

 

 

We are excited to announce that Miss Teya is enjoying her new found love of solid food. She has perfected the art of eating rice cereal, bananas, and sweet potatoes. I am thrilled to be able to use my Vita-Mix (the machine I use to blenderize Maya's food, so that real food can go through her tummy tube...Maya does not tolerate formula nearly as well), for Teya as well. It really is easy for me to make a batch of baby food and freeze it and then pull out a cube or two for Teya to eat! Every now and again I can even sneak a taste of baby food into Maya's mouth. It is such a miracle, that MOST children just figure out eating orally like it is no big deal, when it really is a VERY complex skill...for Maya we still hope an pray she will aquire this skill when it is safe for her to do so.In the mean time, Maya has two little oral eaters to watch each day and hopefully motivate her to join them...Go Teya and Addy!