Happy Birthday Mark!

On March 3rd we celebrated Mark's birthday!  It fell on a Saturday this year so we were excited to be able to spend the whole day together as a family.  First thing that morning, the girls woke him up with breakfast in bed and a homemade candy bar card that they made.  It turned out really cute and Mark thought it was a wonderful gift.  Of course, the first thing that they asked him was if they could each have some of the candy bars.

We decided to drive to Baker City to see the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.  It has been years since we went there so it was something Emma and Samantha were looking forward to doing.

The Interpretive Center follows the history of the Oregon Trail and sits on the actual trail.  There are lots of displays about the pioneers and how they traveled, which routes they took, and the many hardships they faced.

The girls thought that this handcard was pretty impressive.......

....as well as the giant, stuffed buffalo!  We had a really nice time and before leaving town we grabbed some milkshakes for the ride home.

One of the things that Mark is very proud of is that he has an ancestor who was in the Willie Handcart Company that crossed the plains in 1856.  Her name was Martha Webb Campkin.  She was a widow with five young children and they all made it to the Salt Lake Valley which was a miracle considering the dire circumstances they were in.  Flash forward to 2009 when we have a senior couple from our ward who served their mission at Six Crossing.  During their service they came across a book that a good sister from Utah had written.  She compiled the history of all of the Saints who were in the Handcart Companies.  Unfortunately, there wasn't a record of Martha or her second husband, Thomas Young.  We gave that information to Brother and Sister Brown who forwarded it to the book's author.  There are several editions of the book published and each time there is more history added.  Flash forward to 2012 - I was able to get in touch with the author and we had a wonderful discussion over the phone and she sent me her most recent edition of the book which now has Martha and Thomas included!  The book is entitled "Tell My Story, Too" and it is a precious resource to learn about the lives of these devoted Saints.

During our discussion, Sister Alphin told me that she had learned during her research that two sisters, Emily and Julia Hill, had traveled with Martha and assisted her with the children along the trail.  They became dear friends.  Emily eventually wrote the words to the hymn, "As Sisters In Zion" and one of her descendents wrote a book about the lives of Emily and Julia.  This story intrigued me and I thought about maybe getting the book.  Well, two days later, I received my weekly email from Deseret Book listing their specials on books.  It just so happened that their special for the week was this particular book!  I knew it was meant to be and I quickly purchased a copy to give to Mark.  The book is wonderful and talks in great depth about Martha and her family.  Both books are now family treasures!!!!

Hopefully Mark enjoyed his birthday gifts and felt how much we love and appreciate him.  Happy Birthday!!!!

Isaac's Baptism

A couple of weeks ago we were very happy to attend our nephew's baptism.  Isaac is such a good kid and we were super proud of him.  He asked his Uncle Mark to speak on the Holy Ghost which he was honored to do.  It was a lovely day being with family and being able to support Isaac.

Cousin time is ALWAYS great fun.  Here are Emma and Samantha with Isaac and Karlie.

Even Miss Lillie was happy to have her picture taken.  We hadn't been to Hermiston since before Christmas so it was really great to visit with everyone and catch up on everything happening within our family.

These are just a few quick pictures of Clara enjoying her Exersaucer and her bouncer.

She has the sweetest smile - man, I love this kid!

Learning New Things

One of the many new things that Clara has been doing is eating solid foods.  We started out for a couple of weeks or so with just plain rice cereal.  It was different for her to get used to but she eventually began to enjoy it and got used to using a spoon.  For the past couple of weeks we have been introducing her to yummy vegetables.

We have done sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, and sweet peas - all of which were pretty successful.  The green beans, however, did NOT go over well.  Clara would gag the whole time so I finally gave up.

Even Emma and Samantha got in on the fun. 

Clara's other new toy is her Exersaucer!  Grandma and Grandpa brought it to us and she is loving it!  She bounces up and down and plays with the many activities.  It's so wonderful to have something for her to be entertained with - it allows me to get more things done around the house which I am grateful for.

I love seeing all of these moments.

Six Months Old!

It doesn't seem possible, but Clara turned six months old a few days ago.  Our sweet baby girl gets bigger  by the day!  She is learning lots of new things and it is so much fun to see her develop.  She loves to grab onto toys and roll around on the floor.  She loves to play with her crazy big sisters and her daddy.  She loves Baby Einstein.

She is so sweet and lovable.  I love watching how curious she is and new things are a wonder to her.  She can sit really good in her Bumbo chair now, although she can pretty much fly out of her bouncer if she wasn't buckled in.

Today  we put her in the high chair to have her first bowl of rice cereal. 

While we didn't get a whole lot of cereal in the tummy, overall it was a positive experience.  She was all smiles and is learning a new taste!  She is learning to hold her bottle by herself so that's a big step, too.  Pretty soon she will be feeding herself.

I think at this point she was more interested in the spoon that I was using.

What a joy Clara is to our family - we love her so very much!

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!