Look Who's Four!

At the beginning of the year we started Aliyah in gymnastics.  We had watched gymnastics on the Olympics and she said she wanted to try it but the day of her first class she was crying and didn't want to go.  I started to wonder, maybe she thought she would be high up on the beam or flying across the bars like the Olympic gymnists?  Nick and Noah went along to show her it wasn't scary and after the first few minutes she was fine.  Now she LOVES gymnastics and usually around Wednesday starts asking how many more days until her class on Saturday.

We decided to have her fourth birthday party at her gym and she had a blast.  She got to be the star for the day and do all of her favorite things at the gym.  Four is starting off to be a great year for this very special little girl!

Sunny San Francisco

I finally got around to downloading pictures.  I love this shot of Noah and Aliyah.  They really do get along great and with Aliyah, Noah gets to be a little kid for awhile longer rather than always trying to follow in Nick's foot steps. 

 

Three kids all looking at the camera and smiling, success!

Anniversary

It's hard to believe that ten years have gone by since we lost our first child, our sweet Jack.

Every year right around the anniversary our Magnolia tree blooms.  Those first blooms and signs of life on our otherwise bare tree in the cold of winter always bring a smile to my heart.  The tree was a gift to us by our dear friends and it is absolutely the most meaningful gift we have ever received.

 

But as sad as the anniversary is as a reminder of the son we never got to know, we feel so blessed to have the three always energetic, usually sweet, sometimes thoughtful and occassionally downright frustrating children that we do.  When we lost Jack and our house felt so empty, what we have now, with all the chaos and noise, is what we longed for.  Sometimes it's hard to remember that in our day to day crazy lives so the anniversary of Jack's birth and death is a wonderful reminder to us of how truly lucky we are.

Snow Weekend

The boys school had a random Monday and Tuesday off for teacher collaboration days so we decided to take advantage of the four day weekend and head to the snow.  We rented a condo in Bear Valley and were very pleasantly surprised to find some school friends in the condo right next to us.  The kids all had fun playing in the snow and building a great snowman together. 

Nick and Noah took two full days of ski lessons and by the end of the second day were skiing really well.  Aliyah took one half day lesson and had great balance and on the other ski day we had a baby sitter so Pete and I were actually able to ski together for the first time in years.  It was a great trip and hopefully the first of many memorable ski adventures as a family.

Christmas

The kids are at that age where Christmas is really exciting for them and therefore really fun for us as parents.  Nick was in on the santa secret this year but he did a great job keeping the magic for his younger siblings.

 A rare out hair style.  What a pretty girl in her Christmas dress :)

Catch Up Time!

We do things.  I take pictures.  I'm on the computer all the time.  So why don't I manage to blog more?  Downloading the pictures.  So simple but it's that one little extra step that makes me put it off another day.

Anyhow, I have now downloaded pictures so it's catch up time! Here are some pictures from our fun annual SF trip right before Christmas.

Noah

It seems that Noah is making a lot of new friends in Kindergarten including his friend Olivia who gave him this picture that she drew for him.  Cuteness abounds :)