Walking in a winter wonderland-kind of

The world has been turned up side down in Hot-lanta because it snowed. It snowed just enough to build a snow man and for church to be cancelled. Yep, that’s right cancelled, it was cancelled for the whole stake (which is all of metro Atlanta) we have enjoyed our quiet Sunday here at home. Both the kids enjoyed playing in the snow. It was the perfect amount of snow, just enough to make everything white and to play in. Best of all, it will be gone by tomorrow and hopefully won’t to back for a few years. It was actually the perfect time to be able to stay home because our kids are just getting over being sick.

Frosty the snow man.


Jensen and Siesa watching it snow.

Remodel

The past few weeks we have been working on doing some remodeling to our house. We sheet-rocked the ceiling and walls in our family room. They were covered with yucky ceiling tiles and wood paneling. We also widened a couple of doorways to make our house feel more open. We were supposed to be done by the new year but it's taken quite a bit longer than we thought. Sheet-rocking takes more work than we thought. But it's looking really good and we are so excited. Once it's all done I'll post some pictures of the finished product.

Japanese Tradition

Happy New Year! For the New Year we did our traditional Japanese meal(we didn’t actually cook traditional food for the new Year but just food that we like). We found a great market to get lots of good food and tried a few new things.


We made udon soup, yakisoba, crouquettes, gyoza, curry rice, tempura vegetables and shrimp and, of course, rice.

It was soo, soo yummy.

Christmas Fun

We had a wonderful Chritmas. Jensen was very excited about getting presents and Siesa of course loved all the wraping paper the best. Jensen got a drum, rain boots(now hopefully he won't always have wet shoes, what little kid can't help jumping into puddles?)books, cars and clothes. Siesa got a push/ride toy, clothes, a doll (the doll was more for Jensen's sake, he has been saying for weeks that Santa was going to bring her one, he was quite happy when she did) and a stacking musical toy. Derek and I got sheet rock for Christmas. We have been doing some remodeling while Derek has some time off work. We also got an Ikea gift card, books, and board games from family.



It took us 4 1/2 hours to open all our gifts. It took so long because every gift we opened Jensen wanted to play with.

Siesa loves her push toy. This is of her Christmas morning. As of today she still can't steer very well but is learning.

Siesa 9 Months (last week)

We took these pictues out in our yard. It was a beautiful day and we took advantage of it and played out side all day.

Siesa learned to clap. She can even make a noise when she does. The other day she was sitting looking up at the Christmas tree and started clapping with the biggest smile. This is of her clapping when we were eating dinner so she is a little dirty.

-Siesa has 4 teeth 2 on top and 2 on bottom.

-Siesa loves to eat vegetables. She especially loves sweet potatoes, carrots and cauliflower. For the first month of giving her solid food she didn’t like any fruits, but now she likes them OK. She wants to feed her self and always seems to get very, very messy trying to eat.

-Siesa recognizes her name. She also knows the meaning of the word no.

-She still loves to suck my thumb

-She can wave.

-She still loves to take a bath. As soon as I turn on the water she leans over the tub trying to get in. The whole time she splashes very happily.

-She doesn’t like getting her diaper changed or getting dressed. I think because she has to stop playing it is very inconvenient and she gets mad.

-She has learned how to climb up stairs, unfortunately not how to get down with out falling.

Masquerade Ball

Friday night we went to Derek’s work party. It was crazy fun. It was a semi-formal Masquerade ball so we got all dressed up and I made masks for us to wear. They were having a competition for the most creative, mysterious and elaborate masks. I won first prize for the most creative. I won a two hundred dollar American express gift card. Too cool! We felt like we were living the high life. It was at a huge hotel and there were probably a couple thousand people there. We even got to valet park our car for free. There was lots of yummy food and a big buffet. For the entertainment there was dancing, casino room, and lots of drunk people. We were given some fake money for the casino room where we played a little black jack. I quickly lost all of my money; Derek did a little better than I did. We had a great time but were out way too late

It is kind of hard to tell but I decorated our masks mostly with beans so now Derek is officially a bean counter.

Early Christmas

We had an early Christmas. Bryce and Debbie came to visit for a few days. Of course they wanted to see Jensen and Siesa open their gifts so we had an early Christmas. It was fun because in 3 weeks we will get to have Christmas again. I can’t really tell you what we got because it is very similar to what the rest of the Drysdales will get and I don’t want to spoil the surprise. But here are some picture of the day.

We went to dinner at Huoston’s to celebrate Derek passing the CPA exam. It was soooo yummy. Derek had a very yummy stake and I had fish (I think it was striped bass) and shrimp. When we left the restaurant Jensen started to tell us what his favorite part was. He first said that he really liked the ice cream, French fries, and ketchup. Then he said, “Oh and I really liked my grilled cheese sandwich, oh and the brownie was really good, too.” In other words, Jensen’s favorite part was everything.

Siesa got her first taste of BBQ ribs yum, yum.