A current family picture

This is what we looked like on Christmas eve 2007. Those are adorable kids. Elaine loved to prance around in her Christmas dress.

Auntie fun!

Auntie JJ came all the way from Scotland just to decorate sugar cookies with Henry and Elaine this Christmas.

Auntie Kristi only had to drive here from Redmond, not such a long trip.






Henry and Elaine had such a good time getting frosting all over their fingers. The best part is eating the cookies after you've loaded it with gooey sweet frosting.


Everyone got in on the action! It was fun to have both Aunties here at the same time.

Here are Henry's comments...

JJ and Kristi came over (Is that them?) Kristi has Elaine. There's JJ and she's making cookies. I'm making cookies too.

We are painting cookies with frosting. I really enjoyed it. Painting candy canes was my favorite thing. I enjoyed painting the candy canes. I really love it.

Mommy baked the cookies.

The cookies tasted like dirt. I love dirt to eat and snow to eat. They tasted like snow. They were good, no they were delicious. Cookies!

Nanette is all dressed up...

Here is our fully ornanated Christmas tree, Nanette the noble.

She does look lovely.

In case you're wondering...ornanated is a word for decorated with ornaments. Henry made it up.

Snow?!

Yes, we had snow in Maple Valley, WA on December 2nd. Josh was out putting up the Christmas lights while Candi, Henry and Elaine were out shopping with Grandma. When they got home from shopping they had to search the house for hats, gloves and boots for the kids. Then it was outside into the snow. They ran around, but it was so cold.

As you can tell from the expression on Elaine's face, she loved it! She was bouncing up and down and screaming. Henry and Daddy tried to build a snowman, but the snow just wasn't sticky.

Henry: Daddy and me tried to make a snowman, but the snow fell apart so we stepped on it. The snow fell when I was in bed, so I don't see it. I go on a walk in it and I throwed it in peoples driveways. The snow just covered everything. There was snow everywhere, snow on the mountains, snow on the houses, snow on the trees. We play in the snow with Moka.

Searching for the perfect Christmas tree

On Friday, December 7th, the Jack family went in search of the family Christmas tree. They visited Westover Farms in Maple Valley, WA. Josh, Candi, Henry and Elaine walked all over the farm searching for that perfect tree to put in their living room for those who visit to see. Henry liked the tree branches and thought those would look nice.

Elaine focused on keeping herself upright, it's hard to avoid triping on the long grass when you're very little.

Elaine was dressed in her cute pink coat, a mariner's hat and a pink scarf made by Auntie Jennie. The scarf belongs to her Mommy. It helped to keep her warm in the cold.

This is Candi's peacock tree. Unfortunately, this angle doesn't do it justice. She even suggested bringing it home. Have you ever heard of a peacock Christmas tree. It would look cool.

Here she is...Nanette the Noble. This is the tree that was chosen by the family after walking around the tree farm twice. The other option was Donnie the Douglas.

Here are Josh and Elaine with the peacock tree. Gotta love it!

Henry supervised the cutting of Nanette the Noble. He made sure Daddy didn't cut his arm off or anything gross like that. She fell without much effort. Henry didn't help Daddy carry the tree. He went to the gift shop to get warm

Sugar cookies

This December Elaine got her first taste of our family favorite, sour cream sugar cookies. Like the rest of us, one just wasn't enough. She would watch them baking in the oven and push Henry away if he came to look. She figured out they were on the counter and would come in the kitchen point up and scream at us. Elaine likes her sugar cookies. The entire cookie would disappear with one bite.

Henry got to help decorate the cookies with sugar this year. He liked to use all the colored sugar, red, green and blue. He also ate his cookies in one bite. We kept telling him that it was okay to take bites. After another cookie vanished we had the following conversation.

Candi - Henry did you take bites?

Henry - Yes, I took one bite and then put the whole cookie in my mouth.

No Fear

While Daddy and Mommy were busy putting up the Christmas tree, Elaine found something to do. Up the ladder she goes. Henry is not so sure about having his feet off the ground. Elaine didn't think twice about going up. Over and over she went up the ladder. Of course, going down is a different issue. Once she got up there she couldn't get down.

Elaine is getting bigger!

Elaine had her 15 month check up on Saturday November 24th. She weighs in at 20 pounds 4 ounces and is 29 inches long. She is a healthy little girl who likes to be busy. She gets to face forwards in her carseat now, no more looking out the back window. She is sliding backwards down the stairs and chatters all day long. She says, dada, mama, hi, hey, and bye. Most of the other words we can't understand, but Henry does. He knows when she wants to play upstairs or play with cars. It's really cute to watch them together. They are getting along so well now. They like to drive cars in the kitchen. Yesterday they were playing "Fred Meyer" together. That's when you go shopping for toys in the living room and you use a credit card to pay for everything. They also play legos and make food together. It's such a joy to see them building a friendship that will last a lifetime. Josh and I are so blessed.