Christmas Card 2008

2008 Has been a great year for the Terry’s. Here are a few highlights:

In April we took the kids to Disneyland with some friends in our ward. I thought that the kids were too young and that we should wait another year but this trip will go down in history as one of the greatest! The highlight for me as a dad was to wait in the Princess line so that Kaitlyn could see Cinderella! You think I am joking but I would wait in that line for half a day to see Kate’s eyes light up like that again! Michael had fun too! - Or at least he didn’t cry!

Michael, who celebrated his first birthday in October, has been a near perfect baby. He rarely cries, always has a laugh and a smile, and eats well too. He loves to wave and say, “Hi!”.

In March Heidi and Steve participated in a half marathon… Heidi finished the race… however sub-Alpine temps and wind were not in Steve’s plans.

Kaitlyn, who will be three on December 28th, is on her way to becoming the next American Idol. She is probably signing as you read this--she never stops. We love to hear her sing. She has developed a near perfect pitch too--she can match Heidi’s pitch with impressive accuracy! Her favorite songs are “I am a child of God”, “Doe a Deer a Female Deer” from the Sound of Music and the “Monkey/Alligator” song! She is also a constant talker and can even say the Pledge of Allegiance!

Heidi is teaching preschool this year with Miss Pennie, our sister-in-law, and is really enjoying it. Heidi teaches the 3-year old class. Kaitlyn loves to go, although she gets confused whether to call her mom Ms. Heidi, Heidi, mom or Mother! Thanks to Steve’s mom and sister for watching Michael during pre-school hours!

The extended Terry Family had our bi-annual reunion this summer in Island Park. We were in charge of organizing this event! We found a couple of houses in Island Park that were able to accommodate 45 people (which was the hardest part). Once we got there we played games, ate food, went to Yellowstone, floated the river, participated in a Special Olympics… not THE Special Olympics, just A Special Olympics, organized by Steve’s dad… hence the Special! It was great fun!

Steve enjoyed a few fun projects this year too! He tore out some trees in the front yard and put in a fake stream… mostly to cut down the area that needed to be weeded! But it looks nice too! He also knocked out a wall between the master bathroom and the master closet to connect the two. He tore out the bathroom carpet and put in tile. It was a great improvement.

We are thankful for our family and friends and hope you enjoy this wonderful season.

The Terry Family
Steve, Heidi, Kaitlyn, Michael

Kaitlyn's 3rd Birthday!

Kaitlyn had a few milestones in her life today. First of all, she turned 3 years old! She also went to her last day of nursery at church. She's now a sumbeam! And this will also be her last day in diapers! Kaitlyn is a happy little (and yes, she is very petite) girl. She LOVES to sing and talk about pretty much anything. She has a great memory, has a talent for putting puzzles together, and loves books. She still takes a nap every day, loves to watch princess movies and Curious George on PBS. She's always entertaining to have around and we love her to death!
We started Kaitlyn's big day with a present from her aunt Natalie. She loved the princess book and princess shirt (this seemed to start a princess gift frenzy!)

We went to church today and she had a graduation from Nursery into Sumbeams! After church she got to help her dad make her birthday cake.


We decorated the table while she was down for a nap. Kaitlyn loves pink and princesses! She woke up from her nap a little groggy, came down the stairs and saw all the decorations and just stared for a minute. Then she ran back upstairs yelling, "There's presents!" to Steve. We had our own little party just with the four of us. Kaitlyn gave lots of great reactions to her presents.

We even had a little "Tea Party" with her new princess tea set!

We had Brett & Allison's family over for cake and ice cream. Kaitlyn blew out her candle 3 times over the course of the day and all she wanted was cake for dinner!

The birthday ended with Kaitlyn reading a book with her daddy.

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! My parents (Grammy & Grampy) and my sister Natalie and brother Jon came Christmas Eve and slept over. Lori & Todd weren't here Christmas Eve because they just had a new baby! We started the evening with one of our Albuquerque Christmas traditions of lighting luminarias. For my neighbor gifts this year I gave a luminaria kit to each of the people on our street. It was really neat to see some of our neighbors put out the luminarias when it got dark on Christmas Eve.

This is the Luminaria kit I gave to our neighbors. It explains what Luminarias are and the meaning behind them.
For Christmas Eve dinner we had ham, potatoes, jello pretzel salad, green salad, a yummy drink, and pie. We talked about Christmas: Steve shared a story about Christ as the carpenter, my dad talked about the Savior's atonement and we watched "The Nativity" a five-minute video about Christ being born. I'm so thankful for Christ and the gift he gave to each one of us. My mom talked about how he is the "bread of life" and the manger is where the food is put to feed the animals and that is where Christ was born because he is the "bread of life" and he offers Himself to each one of us if we will each but accept Him.

After we put the kids to bed we played the board game "Ticket to Ride". With all but one of us playing the game for the first time, the game took way longer than we thought it would, but we had a lot of fun!

Christmas morning the presents were stacked high with presents from Santa and presents to and from Heidi, Steve, Kaitlyn, Michael, Natalie, Jon, Grammy, Grampy, Lori, Todd, Brooklyn, & Savannah. I think the top 10 memorable gifts of 2008 were as follows (in no particular order):

1. New flat screen TV & Blu-Ray for Heidi & Steve

2. Nauvoo book from Natalie to Mom and Dad (it brought tears)

3. Hale Center Theater tickets from Dad to all of us

4. Little Polly Pocket Dolls from Grammy to Kaitlyn (she played with them for hours)

5. Electric Blanket from Steve to Heidi

6. Painting of the pioneer trek from Sam/John to Mom & Dad (it brought more tears)

7. Guitar for Kaitlyn from Santa

8. Jewelry Box from Mom to Heidi

9. Blu-Ray movies to Steve (he was like a little school girl watching them)

10. "Mr. Fuzzy" from Jon to Natalie & Heidi (Jon totally got ripped off!)

Natalie & Mom both got MP3 players and Natalie got a new camera too! Jon got an i-pod dock. The kids got lots of toys (courtesy of going to the Grand-opening of D.I. and courtesy of a neighbor dejunking exchange!) We were really blessed this year! Lori & Todd made it over in time to talk on the phone to our brother, Michael, who is serving a mission in Argentina. It was great to hear how he was doing and to hear his voice! Less than a year left and he'll be back home for next Christmas!

Christmas night there was a crazy snow storm resulting in my parents sleeping over another night. We had our annual Christmas treasure hunt where my dad puts together rhyming clues to different places in and around the house. The final gift was tickets to the 2009 Hale Theater. We each get to go to 2 shows with mom & dad! The treasure hunt is one of my favorite traditions.

Michael's First Time Playing in the Snow!

With the snow coming down here in Utah, Steve took the kids outside to build a snowman. This was Michael's first time playing in the snow and he loved it! It was fun to see him waddling around in his snow clothes like a cute little round ball of joy!

Michael's First Hair Cut!

Michael had his first hair cut! The hair on the top of his head wasn't bad, but he was starting to look like he was sporting a mullet, and his hair was growing over his ears. I held his head while my mom got out the clippers and the scissors and went to work! He would actually hold really still as soon as the clippers touched his head. He has the softest red hair and now it looks great!

BEFORE... DURING...
AFTER...

Savannah!

I have a new niece! Her name is Savannah and she is a cutie!! She has black hair and she weighs 8 lbs. 6 oz. We went to see her at the hospital today and she seemed so tiny! I can't believe Kaitlyn was almost 3 pounds smaller than her when she was born. My sister Lori looked great too!

We had fun visiting, holding the baby, and Kaitlyn even got to swing!

Christmas at Preschool

We had a "Polar Express" day at preschool. All the kids wore their pj's and we drank hot chocolate and ate cookies. The kids thought our "train" was so much fun. They even pretended they were going uphill.

Our preschool Christmas party was a lot of fun! We played pin the nose on the reindeer, had a gift exchange, sang songs, and made chocolate trains. Kaitlyn got a cute little apron and chef's hat for her gift.

Found It!

While I was laying on the couch feeling sick today I was halfway between awake and asleep and I was kind of dreaming about this stack of cd's that i always have to move when I'm dusting on the shelf of my entertainment center. At that second I woke up, walked over to the shelf, moved the picture frame hiding the stack of cd's and yes--it was my Christmas music!! I was so excited I called Steve at work. I think I'll have to extend the Christmas music listening into January to make up for my lost time!

Sitting on Santa's Lap

Notice Kaitlyn looking admiring Santa from a distance in the bottom right hand corner...

We had our ward Christmas party breakfast this morning. Santa came and Kaitlyn loved watching from a distance but absolutely did not want to sit on his lap! After all the other kids in the ward took their turn on Santa's lap I drug Kate up there with Michael and we got our picture taken. Michael was all smiles but Kaitlyn sat on my knee close to Santa.