Eventually I'll stop being amazed

Here are a few more pieces of art from Annie the Amazing! (that's her new name:-) The first two were done at art lessons. The teacher puts an object in the middle of the room and the children sketch them. Usually it takes Annie about three lessons to complete one. (Each lesson is 2 hours long) The third picture I found in her back pack. She told me that she drew it at school during some free time. I will sell anyone these pictures for $10,000. Come on, this is a steal considering she is sure to be famous some day. :-)

She was embarassed to get her picture taken infront of EVERYONE!

Annie is not the only ULTRA talented child in the family. :-) We had fun watching Ellie in her First Grade Christmas program this year. The funnest part was hearing her practice at home. She regularly performed for us while I cooked dinner, before scripture study and after family prayer. Boy did she know her songs! She told me her teacher wanted her to know the songs so well that she could sing them in the shower. (Yes, she performed there too.) My personal favorite was called "Pablo, the Reindeer from Mexico. " At one point in the song all the first graders yelled, "Ay, yi, yi, yi!" I loved it. :-) I also loved watching Ellie look at me during the program. Because she had sung her songs so much for me at home, she knew what my favorite parts were. Each time the first graders got to one of those parts, Ellie would look at me and give me an adorable knowing smile. What a cutie she is!

Another of Ellie's gifts is her ability to make friends. Here are a few of her BFF's doing a very sassy "handshake".

Annie and Ellie are not the only SUPER ULTRA talented children in the family. Casie tried out for Aladdin Jr. last week. She did a great job, and got a small speaking part. (That's pretty good considering the cast is over 80 kids!) Casie is also an amazing babysitter. She is so sweet to baby J, and actually gets her sisters to go to bed. ( Although I don't know what she will do when Christmas is over and she can't threaten to take away presents from them) She is such a good girl and is learning patience and self control....she also learned to curl her own bangs!!! :-) I wish I would have taken a picture of her first successful bang curl. Luckily there was no blood, but it took a lot of long suffering, sweat and even a few tears to achieve her goal. We ended up laughing and cheering when she finally got it right!

Jack is as adorable as ever! We all absolutely ADORE this little guy. His new trick is finding places to hide. He loves to crawl under Mike's desk. It's so funny to see a mischievous little smile creep across his face when he hears me "looking" for him. ( "Dad, have you seen Jack? I can't find him...Jack...Jack...where are you?") It's funny because he just sits there as silent as a mouse with a huge grin. I love it! (I should mention that when I do make eye contact with him and he knows he's "caught" he pats the floor and invites me into his secret little club. We've had some good little times under Dad's desk.) ( I should also mention that Mike is working during all of this....sorry hon. :-)

With Christmas in the house, he has a whole new set of hiding places. See if you can find him!!!

Caught ya again Jack!!!