Rachel's Birthday

I had a fun 27th birthday this year. Brian and Annelise sang to me in the morning, brought me a doughnut, and we opened presents. In the evening I fed the kids pasta early (since our restaurant food was not DEF=dairy and egg free) and then Brian brought back TGIFridays to-go for our eat in celebration. We still lit a candle in the Reese's peanut butter pie since Annelise kept asking about the birthday cake. After dinner we put Nathan to bed and Annelise stayed up with us and watched WallE. I didn't think I'd like this movie, but it was actually very good. I recommend this one at the Redbox.

Matching

I just love this picture. This is Annelise and Nathan wearing matching clothes for the first time! Annelise is also very aware of "matching" things right now. If I'm helping Annelise into her carseat and Brian is helping Nathan into his, Annelise says we are matching. At this point for her matching means being grouped by gender.

Merry Christmas

We had a super fun christmas this year and are enjoying playing with lots of plastic toys. Here are a couple of highlight pics.

The dollhouse was the very best present Annelise received from Santa. She kept saying all day, "this is just what I asked for!"

Wearing her new ballet costume. Also a big hit.

Nathan and his new race track. This toy makes him laugh a lot.

Naughty or Nice

Meet Dusty the Talking Vacuum. He definitely will not be joining us for christmas this year. Annelise is absolutely terrified of this toy. It seems nearly every house we've been to in the past three months owns it. This toy causes her to go completely hysterical and she begs me "to go home now" if she sees it or even after it has been hidden in another room. One of the mothers that teaches Joy School told Annelise that she gave hers away (even though she just hides it in her house) and for weeks Annelise would say in her prayers, "thankful that Phoenix's mom gave away the vacuum toy". So we know that in our house Dusty=coal for christmas and if Annelise ever misbehaves you can threaten that Santa may bring it if she's naughty. This is not very nice of us as her parents but we've had a little fun teasing her.

Joy School Christmas Party

Last night was Annelise's Joy School christmas party. The families were invited to watch the kids perform the things they learned this month. Annelise loved this night! We watched her perform as the angel in the nativity story, sing the christmas song she learned, receive her super service award for the "good deeds" she did during preschool this month, give us a christmas picture she made for us, give and receive a present for her "secret buddy", and eat dessert. The kids decorated gingerbreadmen with frosting. Since Annelise was allergic to this project, I made frosted dairy free rice crispy bars with sprinkles for her and others to eat during this time. This seemed to work well and kept her from feeling left out. We figure she ate at least three of them during this time.

The angel visiting the shepherds.

(the four on the right are the preschool kids)

Annelise receiving her Super Service Award.

Eating Dessert.

What will we do?

The other night Brian was helping Annelise wash her hands after using the bathroom and she asks him, "What will we do if the world runs out of toilet paper?" This kid definitely thinks big.