family heirloom

 My great grandfather Swanty William Nelson made a toy hutch for his daughter, my grandma, when she was a little girl.  My mom contacted the LDS Church History Museum and asked if they might use it.  They put it on display on the second floor in an exhibit about children.  It looks great, so if you get a chance, go see it.

ABCs in ASL

Kian loves watching Signing Time and has even been known to throw ABC tantrums (screaming the alphabet while wailing in protest when he is unhappy about anything).  We'd love to record that, but you know how that goes.  Here he is demonstrating his abbreviated version of the ASL ABCs.

Christmas 2012

 On Christmas Eve we did our traditional re-enactment of the nativity story.  Kian graduated to a shepherd this year, and we had to do it twice to Lily and Kate could both be Mary and the angel.

 Our ingenious solution to our yearly problem of where to put the stockings.

 And the traditional Parkinson family photo of the kids on the stairs Christmas morning.  Lily and Kate surprised us by getting dressed first.

  

 Kian shaking his Tic-tacs that he got in his stocking. 

 My present from Chris:  and electric griddle.  Yay!  I used it to make our Christmas morning french toast.

Lily trying out Kate's roller skates.

Kian sporting his new bow-tie.

Photos of the kids before church one Sunday

 And that's all I think I need to say.

 

Museum at Thanksgiving Point

Chris's sister and brother-in-law came to visit in December, and we got to go with them to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, or as it is known at our house, the other dinosaur museum.  We are lucky to have 2 so close to home.

 There are lots of play areas for kids, which was a good break for our girls.

 And lots of big dinosaur bones.  And lots of little bones, too.

 They had a special exhibit there on sound with lots of fun hands-on activities that we all really enjoyed, too.