Christmas is almost here!

Thursday night was the big Christmas Pageant at Open Arms and we were so excited to see our little angels! They were wheeled in on the carts that seat 6 babies. The carts were covered in white and all of the babies were in white. They were all so very cute! Unfortunately I don't have many photos to show, but they were so so cute - you'll just have to take my word for it. We tried to put them back on the cart for a photo when it was over, but they were having no part of that. So you see 2 crying angels...ready for bed.

They are really enjoying Play2Grow. Now that they are in the big room and have the ability to move around very easily they love all of the obstacle courses and things to climb on. They aren't so sure about the organized activities like puzzles and picking up objects and bringing them to the teachers, but they LOVE the free play. I love this photo I snapped of Ryan admiring himself in the mirror. He loves to climb up this wedge toward the wall that is covered with a mirror. We've caught him banging his head fairly hard on it several times. I'm not sure what all that means, but he enjoys it and we enjoy watching him. There is this red bridge that most of the kids spend most of the time on. They fight over who can be at the top and spend most of their time jockeying for position. With all of the wonderful things to play with, we can't figure out why this simple bridge is so popular. I'm guessing because it has some small stairs and we allow them to walk on them - most houses have gates and the kids are kept away from any and all stairwells, but who knows?!?!

We went to see Gramma and Grandaddy for a nice pot roast dinner on Saturday night. Gramma had new Christmas bibs for them and they even ate brownies and ice cream for dinner - what a treat! They played the piano and played with Gramma's bell collection before changing into the pajamas for the ride home. It was a quick visit, but it was nice to see them.

After church today, we drove up to Big Canoe to see Jeannie and her 2 boys Cal and Brennan. They are here visiting from New York and staying at her parents house. We had hoped to do some exploring on their 3 acres of land, but it was just too windy and cold for that, so we stayed inside by the fire and played. Brennan is just about 6 months older than Riley and Ryan so they had fun playing together. We interrupted his nap time and Riley and Ryan's nap was only an hour in the car, but all things considered they all behaved very well. It was nice to catch up with Jeannie and her parents. Thanks for having us! Riley, Ryan and I all fell asleep in the car on the way home and after a quick dinner and bath they were happy to go back to sleep. I'm hoping I'm not too far behind them.

Grandma Hutchinson arrives tomorrow and Uncle Scott arrives on Tuesday. We are looking forward to a few days with them for Christmas and then we are off for our adventure to California for a week. I can't imagine what I'll be posting this time next week from California! :)

Web Albums Added: http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081218ChristmasPageant#
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081220Play2Grow#
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081220VisitWithGrammaGrandaddy#
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081221VisitWithJeannie#