Mini Mounties!

Yesterday the girls participated in the "Mini Mounties" cheer and dance camp.  It was through Eastern Oregon University here in town.  The university dance team and cheerleading squad put on this camp every year.  They started out with the camp which was all morning long and they learned some routines.

Then they were able to perform their routines at the Womens' Basketball game that night.  Here are Emma and Sam sitting with their group getting ready to go onto the court for halftime.

The theme was 80's night so they danced to some songs from the 80's and did a couple of cheers.

They had a really wonderful time participating and it was fun for Mark and I to watch them enjoy themselves.  This was a perfect activity for Samantha and she has already asked me for some pom-poms!

 What sweet girls I have!!!

Christmas Morning!

Christmas finally arrived in the Perry home!  With a couple of very anxious little girls, it couldn't have come soon enough!  Of course they both had a hard time going to bed the night before and were early risers come morning.  They are awfully cute after just waking up, aren't they?

Samantha was ecstatic because all she really wanted from Santa Claus was a pair of boots!  She told everybody that she just knew Santa would bring her the boots because the year before all she wanted was a Pillow Pet and that's what she got.  It's a good thing that Santa came through!

Hooray!  We finally broke down and got a Wii - we are probably the only family left who didn't already have a gaming system so the girls were super excited!  They didn't waste much time before puting their "Just Dance Kids" game to work!

It was Clara's first Christmas!  Of course she didn't understand what was going on but she did receive a few gifts herself.

Samantha also received the Crayola Crayon Maker.  She was really happy about this but the next week we ended up taking it back and getting something different.  It sure wasn't "user-friendly."  It's the thought that counts, right?

Santa also brought both girls a new bike!  Even though it's the middle of winter, they still enjoy going outside in the cold to ride their bikes.

Christmas fell on a Sunday this year so we still had to make it to Church.  What sweet daughters we have.

It was a special day for us.  We hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas season with your families!

Christmas Activities

This year I decided to make our own Christmas Advent Calendar for the girls.  I came up with an activity for each day of December leading up to Christmas.  Every morning the girls would wake up and tear off a tag to see what activity was in store for them that day.  We colored pictures, read Christmas books, cut out snow flakes, and went to the Live Nativity to name just a few.  Not every activity was over-the-top fun but we had a good time keeping the Spirit of Christmas in our home.

One of the first things we did was to attend our Ward Christmas Party.  Emma and Samantha were asked to play shepherds in the Nativity play.  They were adorable in their robes standing up on the stage.

Of course we had to take the opportunity to have a visit with Santa as well.  I wonder what Samantha asked him for.....

Here is Clara's first time with Santa.  I thought she would have issues with sitting on his lap, but she did just fine and didn't shed a tear.  Of course we only left her there long enough to take her picture.

One night we made popcorn garlands to hang on our tree.  I thought it was going to be a lot easier than it was.  It was actually pretty messy and time consuming.  I think we'll have to rethink that activity next year.

Another evening we got together with some friends and had pizza and made candy houses.  Emma, Samantha, and myself each made one.  Can you guess which one belongs to each of us?

One thing we always look forward to seeing is the Elementary School Christmas Program.  Emma and Samantha did so great singing with their respective classes.  You could actually here them singing from our seats.  They practiced for several weeks for their program and we were very impressed.

I also tried to include Church related activities on our calendar.  We watched the First Presidency devotional, we did Secret Service, and we made sure to watch the Christmas classics - "Mr. Krueger's Christmas" and "Joy to the World."  Our calendar was completed on December 24th with Daddy reading us the Christmas story from Luke.  It was the perfect ending and hopefully our 24 days of Christmas created some special memories!

Happy Birthday Emma!

On December 3rd, Emma turned 9 years old!  I can't believe how fast the time has gone by.  She is such a good kid and we are lucky to have her in our family!!!  We started out our day of celebrating by riding the "Santa Train" in Elgin.  It wasn't the most interactive train ride out there but we had a great time being together as a family and enjoying Emma's special day.  Plus the girls got to see Santa Claus and come home with a yummy candy cane.

We capped the evening off with an "Almost Slumber Party" at our house with a few of Emma's friends.  They laughed and danced, painted nails and played games, and had lots of pizza and birthday cake.  We did all the things that would happen at a normal slumber party but instead of staying over night the girls went home before bed time.  Overall everyone had a great time but boy was I absolutely EXHAUSTED by the time the girls left.

Hope you had a great day Emma!  We love you very much!