We had a congregation play party gathering in early November. Our family did a play of Noah's ark. We all had a blast and loved seeing other's plays. (To respect other's privacy, we are only showing some photos of our family there.)
The kids had fun dressing up in the different props everyone brought. Here's Rosa being silly:
Corbin tried out some ancient Roman garb.
Ella wasn't sure about dressing up, but she found a froggy to snuggle with.
Here's Anna as a Caesar.
We enjoyed the food and fellowship; and hope to do it again next year. Here's a final photo of Caleb and a sleeping Ella.
We hadn't had a nice family professional portrait done in several years, so we went to Target and got some nice family shots done in mid-November. Here are some of the results:
By 10 months Ella decided baby food was no good; big people food was where it's at! Here she is scarfing down some mashed potatoes.
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Our bath-loving baby also quickly figured out if she put said potatoes in her hair, she would be rewarded with a bath! Talk about a win-win situation for her.
Corbin was excited to be assigned his first number 3 talk in the Theocratic Ministry School.
The girls also went to Disney On Ice again this year. Corbin also tagged along to see what a live show was like. My camera was too low on batteries to take many pictures, but I got this one of them eagerly awaiting it to start.
As the winter dragged on with nary a snowflake, the girls became more and more creative with playtime. One afternoon they decided to lay out all their stuffed animals. The following pictures are the result:
Here's Rosa:
Nora, Ella, and Anna:
One last shot of the four:
Here's some shots of Ella at 11 months old.
She had a silly way of scrunching up her nose, snorting in and out, and dancing back and forth. Big brother Alex was so proud!
Proud of what? Ella's favorite music cd that would get her dancing and scrunching up her nose happened to also be Alex's favorite: Caramelldansen. Here's the two of them with the cd.
We ended the year with a trip to the Science Museum of Minnesota. We all were amazed by the natural disasters exhibit. The kids each built their own digital volcano. Anna evidently thought Rosa's volcano looked pretty scary.
Our family is all familiar with Tim Samaras' work as a tornado chaser, so we thought it was cool to see one of his probes that captured data from inside a tornado.
At the body exhibit, we discovered fun facts about our own human bodies. Here's Rosa seeing about how much blood is in her body.
at the Human Behavior exhibit, we explored different personalities and what makes us unique. Rosa and Nora had fun getting in others space bubbles in an interactive display.
Did you know that how tall you are is usually how far apart your arms can stretch from your sides? Here Corbin shows proof of concept:
No museum visit would be complete without seeing the dinosaurs. The girls were aastonished at how tall some of them were.
Caleb found a bird-like one, of course.
Corbin thought an ancient crocodile was awesome.
We finally got some snow! The kids ran out in full gear, even though plenty of grass could still be seen. Ella wasn't sure what to think of her snowsuit.
Nora managed to make a small snowcat.
Ella loved being pulled around in the sled. (Especially since she could hardly move in that snowsuit!)
Anna helped Corbin round up snow.
The snow was gone within a couple days, but the happy memories lasted much longer.
Here are some more around the house shots. Ella at almost one:
We busted some after school boredom by making sugar cookies one afternoon. Nora made a Hello Kitty one.
Finally, we got some real snow at the end of January. We left the books on the desks and had a blast outside. Rosa made a snowman walking a snowdog.
Anna made a snow-Ella.
Nora helped Anna make a snowstitch, too. (As in Stitch, from Lilo and Stitch fame.)
Nora made a snowcat she could ride. It has one ear down, just like our cat, Luigi.
Alex made a snow-Sonic.
Caleb made one of his comic characters, Jay.
Here are some shots of Ella at age one.
By mid-Febuary Anna was begging me to put some snow in the freezer to save it.
A friend cut Rosa's hair. Rosa loves it! Here she is post-cut.
On leap-year day we had enough snow to build a sledding hill in the backyard. Here's Anna trying out the hill:
Even the kids' ol' Mom gave it a try.
Here's Anna again.
Crazy Corbin is always fun to watch in action.
Nora is getting quite good on the snowboard.
A Mom always lets the kids get a headstart when racing, right?
Little did we know this would be the last of the snow! Spring was right at the door. We will leave winter behind with one last picture of the happy sledders.
