preschool Christmas program

today was jake's preschool program.

so fun!

 

he waited so patiently for the parents to arrive.

i was so proud of him!

 

 

this is his teacher, diana.

she is so wonderful!

so kind, so loving and so musically talented.

jake loves her.

he calls her "grandma"

and she loves that he calls her that.

she has even persuaded jake to sing.

he comes home from school singing songs.

this is something that i have never been able to get him interested in so as far as i am concerned, she is a miracle worker. 

 

his other teacher is angie (diana's daughter).

darn.  i only got a picture of her back, but she is also wonderful! 

 

proof that jake sings!

yay! 

 

they had also prepared a play.

this is where things started to go downhill.

see all the smiling happy kiddos?

they are all kneeling around/looking at baby Jesus.

they were each little animals that had come in one at a time to see him.

when it was jake's turn, he was supposed to be a tortoise.

instead of crawling in and going to baby jesus like he was supposed to,

he walked in slowly with his head down and went to the corner and sat with his back to the audience.

not sure what happened, but he stayed that way throughout the rest of the play.

funny kiddo! 

 

then it was time for the Christmas music performance.

the teachers handed out cute scarves (which they hadn't rehearsed with)

and it was all over for jake.

he didn't sing a word.

his scarf was much too interesting.

he LOVES anything that is a long strip of material.

rope, carpet remnants, toilet paper, etc.

at one point he moved to a boy sitting a few kids away and used his scarf to whip him.

i wasn't sure what to do.

luckily the program was about over.

i could really feel the peace and the joy of the holiday season. 

 

sweet little guy made me this snowman ornament and wrapped it up in gift wrap.

so cute! 

 

i love this sweet little angel.

despite the fact that he doesn't always comply with things such as Christmas programs, there isn't a thing that i would change about him!

he is my sunshine!

i love you jakie!

Victoria

sweet james picked us up from the train station (in vancouver) in a 15 passenger van, wearing a chauffer outfit.

he took good care of us, driving us where ever we needed to go.

 

we loaded the van onto a ferry and took off to victoria (on vancouver island).

the ferry trip was beautiful.

 

 

all the girls...

michelle, me, kristy, mom, chris and deb 

 

once we got to victoria, we went first to butchart gardens.

wow.

really beautiful.

 

matt made me laugh really hard.

he spent the whole time making up names for all the flowers.

it was hillarious. 

 

he is so cute. 

 

ron and michelle spent a lot of time posing for pictures.

 

matt spent a lot of time thinking up everyday names for the botanical bounty around us. 

 

this flower was his favorite. 

 

after the gardens, we headed to our bed and breakfast.

we stayed at the beaconsfield inn.

here mom and dad are posing in the arbor outside.

 

mike and kristy in front of our humble abode. 

 

we liked to sit and read the newspaper in the library because it made us feel fancy.

 

 

on sunday, we had a picnic at the beach.

dad made friends with a one legged seagull.

 

matt and i check out the architecture where ever we go.

 

on our last day, we went to a castle

 

and did some shopping.

 

back to the mainland.

Vancouver (finally)

back to the anniversary trip...

you know, the one that we took back in the end of may.

i think i left off with meeting matt's family at the seattle temple.

after doing a session there, we had a very late bite to eat at a denny's and then drove to bellingham, where chris and james live.

we slept at their house and woke up the next morning to catch the train to vancouver.

the train ride was fun.

 

 

vancouver was beautiful.

we saw a little of the sites

 

and then went to capilano suspension bridge.

 

you may think me somewhat of a sissy, that's okay, but this thing made me a little nervous.

it wasn't so much how high it was above the river below (230 feet), but more how much it moved as we walked across it. 

 

we did it though. 

 

we also did a cliff walk, which was a glass walkway along a cliff side, over the gorge.

pretty cool.

i was glad this was stationary.



we enjoyed the sunset on the beach

 

along with a lot of other people.. 

Christmas pictures

matt and i recently reupholstered this chair for the play room.

i love it!

i had a brilliant idea to take a quick picture of the boys in it for Christmas cards.

nothing fancy.

i just needed them to be next to each other, both look at me,

and if we were lucky,

maybe a smile :)

 

whatever.

what was i thinking?

whenever i dress them in these red pants, matt says, "i am so glad that you got them red pants because they are little devils."

we love our little devils.

i just don't love trying to take posed pictures of them.

this is how it went.

 

 

a very short moment of serenity...treasure it.

 

and they're off....

wait!!! i didn't get a picture of both of you looking at me!

 

maybe i can get a picture of both of them on the slide.

 

nope.

a favorite moment...

jake being "dead" or "asleep" or something and refusing to move.

"sam, why can't you smile like this when you are next to your brother?"

sam landing on the body at the bottom of the slide.

not a great place to be "asleep."

 

me:  "jake please hold sam on your lap for just a second."

jake heard:  "squeeze sam really tight until he is really mad."

 

when sam got away, it was straight back to the relative safety of the slide.

 

do you see a little mischievious smirk as if jake is somewhat enjoying this?

i sure wasn't.

 

another attempt.

 

once more the "hug" (translation - squeeze).

 

sam is thinking "how and when can i get away?"

 

jake's patience has worn thin so he decides to hide.

do you see jake's red face and sweaty hair?

yep. that is from running around.

 

do you see the look on jake's face?

that is from his mom trying to persuade him to smile, with an angry tone and at a very high volume.

 

jake is not exactly happy with me,

but i refuse to give up.

jake becoming very exasperated.

 

jake's thoughts: "okay crazy lady.  you want me to smile. i will give you a smile.  how do you like this????"

 

"and this????  i'm still smiling, crazy lady."

 

and i give up!