She whistles!

Can a 3 year old ice skate?

To continue the "Going North" vacation/holiday experience, I thought it would be a good idea to go from the snow to the ice skating rink. Since Jade handled the snow so well, she should be great on the ice, right? My friend Sarah (who brought her 4 year old son Coen) started out by saying, "I hope they last more than 5 minutes." In my head, I'm thinking, "I hope we can get them off the ice." Needless to say, she was much closer to being right than I was. I believe Jade made it around the rink twice, which did take about 45 minutes.

This is exactly how our two trips around the rink looked. I had some bad back pain.

Sarah and Coen make it look like its so easy... (Don't be fooled, I think he's hanging onto the wall.)

Coen showing off his skating legs and his "It's a Snow Day" T-shirt.

Here Comes The Snow!

The plan was to go to the mountains so Jade could see some snow. The day before the mountain trip it started snowing in Portland. We thought for sure it wouldn't stick. But it kept snowing, and snowing and snowing. It stuck, and we were able to play in the snow! And she LOVED the snow. It was her favorite thing and she did not get cold for one second.

Here's Jade posing in her new snow gear.

This was the snowman we made in the afternoon, but the picture was taken when we went back outside at night and there was more snow. As you can see the snowman got snowed on.

Here's Jade making a snow angel.

Here is Jade with snowman #1.

Again, making a snow angel.

And here is snowman #2. Bigger and Better! He is also sportin the Mazatlan hat.

Jade posing in her ski bib.

Jade and me posing in our ski bibs. Mine is actually my dads. But, it kept me warm.

"Up" with the Rogers.

On December 25th, Jade and I took a trip to Oregon to spend the holidays with family and friends. I didn't take many pictures, but a few times I did pop open the camera. The first time I opened the camera was because of these two thumbsuckers below. The Rogers came over after Sunday morning church, had lunch with us at one of my favorite restaurants "Red Robin". Then we headed back home to watch "Up" in the basement.

Here is thumbsucker 1 to the left - Jade and thumbsucker 2 to the right - Coen. Also, if you look closely you will notice each is holding their blankies with their other fingers. Pink for girls, and blue for boys. But Coen's blankie is called, Mikey. I believe.

Here is Coen allowing Jade to love on him for a little bit. He is smiling though... For now.

Here are the Rogers! And poor Eli that is probably miserably hot from the furnace.

Grandmommy and Jade.

Santa came to Ballet!!!!

So its typical, but I'm a little behind. I figured I would update a little every couple days, since after my 10 day trip, I have lots of pictures to share. But first, I'm going to start with the visit from Santa to Ballet practice.

I love the little girl to the right. She is such a cute dancer.

Jade dancing. Somewhat similar to dog paddling.

Gaby showing her graceful dance moves.

Jade is opening her present from Santa!

Here's Jade and her best friend/neighbor Gaby.

Above is a group picture including Santa and the teachers. Jade is on the right in the front row. Her best friend Gaby is in blue second row second from left.