5 years, 2 months & 2 years, 11 months

Holy cow! We almost forgot monthly pictures! Dad was reading us bedtime books and it suddenly dawned on him that it was the 29th. We hurriedly took a few photos and then we cobbled together a list of quick questions.

Mom and Dad continue to be concerned about both of us growing up too fast. John seems to get taller by the day lately. As for me, I asked to go to bed at 7:00 last night. Winter break is tiring! I need my sleep!

Grandpa Rick and Grandma Candy were in Conifer at Jeff and Jill's this past week and Grandma Linda arrives on Sunday for a week. We are all having a ton of fun on break. Now we just need a snow storm so we can have some outside winter fun!

The questions:

Favorite Christmas present?

Tess: I cannot choose. Actually, all of them!

John: Trucks! (he received about 20 of them ranging from large garbage trucks to farm equipment to matchbox sized ones)

Who is your favorite superhero?

John: Alejo (friend at school)

Tess: Superman

What friends or teachers from school do you miss the most during Christmas break?

Tess: Abby and Maddie

John: Fredrick, Maria, and Amy (Maria and Amy are the teachers)

What's your favorite holiday dessert?

John: Cake (for the record, we have not had this recently)

Tess: Fudge

Favorite Christmas-related activity?

John: Going to church

Tess: Going to Jeff and Jill's the day after Christmas

Favorite movie watched during break?

John: Star Wars - Empire Strikes Back

Tess: Daniel Tiger (not a movie, but it was bedtime so we had to wrap things up)

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A shepherd chatting with Joseph while Mary smiles nicely.

Mary and Joseph sharing a laugh.

Tradition

Hockey

Mom got us free tickets to watch the Colorado Avalanche last weekend. It was amazing. We got the VIP treatment and went down to the ice before warm-ups. And then we got to watch the teams warm up while sitting in the penalty box!

One of the players (Landeskog for you locals) thought he would have some fun and flipped a puck right at the plexiglass in front of my face. Mom and Dad laughed. I cried. The player circled around expecting to see me laughing and he felt really bad when he saw me crying. So he flipped a puck over the glass for Dad to catch. That cheered me up.

When Dad asked about our favorite thing at the game, I said the blimps that flew around the arena between periods and the parachutes with prizes that they dropped from the rafters. To absolutely no one's surprise, John said the Zamboni.  

Along with Mom's friend from work and her family.

Penalty box.

Better than the zoo

The background: Dad and I took John shoe shopping on Saturday. It took us the whole morning. To celebrate, Dad took us to McDonald's for lunch. While looking out the window at McDonald's, Dad noticed some wildlife outside the Colorado BLM building across the street. We had to check it out...

Navigator

Whenever John is in charge of picking directions over on campus it's guaranteed that he'll lead us to the maintenance equipment area...

Tools

Uncle Jeff recommended the free monthly kid building sessions at Home Depot a few months ago, but it took us a while to try it for ourselves. We all loved it and are looking forward to going back next month!

We had to let the paint dry so stickers went on once we got home...

Basketball

We know you've seen a version of this shot before, but Dad wanted to document the fact that after watching the women's game on Saturday, I asked to stay for the men's game. That's a lot of basketball!

There may have been some popcorn bribing involved.

Ballet

We made our fourth annual trip to The Nutcracker last week. It was too dark to take decent pictures, but John was so excited to wear a button-down shirt that we had to document the occasion.

He hardly moved on Dad's lap during the first half and even pretended to play some instruments along with the real orchestra (violins and drums).

Snuggling

Tiger

One more from the zoo. This tiger allowed Dad to get super close before it started to growl at him!

Polar bears

From a trip to the zoo last week...