Merry Christmas!!!!

I was just sitting here enjoying a quiet Christmas afternoon when Katie started singing..."Away in a manger no crib for his light the little Lord Jesus asleep in the hair." She has her father's gift for lyrics.

We have had a wonderful couple of days...Friday we had our big Christmas dinner since we were going out of town tomorrow and didn't want to leave a pile of leftovers to rot. We had Scott and his girlfriend Janet over for dinner and spent the weekend having re-runs of a yummy turkey dinner. Last night we acted out the nativity three times so each of the girls could be Mary, they also took turns being the angel. Dad was the donkey and Joseph and Sam was a sheep (he just wouldn't stop crawling around so he was a bad baby Jesus--we had to use a doll instead). Mom played the various other parts. It was fun and sweet, as always. The girls really look forward to it each year.

The girls hit the sack early--right after some elves left us some PJ's--but heard mysterious Jingle Bells outside their window and saw a red nose in the sky so it was nearly impossible for them to go to sleep. When they finally did sleep, it wasn't for long!!!

We have had a wonderful and happy and EARLY Christmas...it started at 4:00 this morning when I heard little Hannah-feet storming down the hall and her wisper-shouting to her sisters..."HE CAME!!!!" which was, of course followed by a series of shrieks that woke up Sam...so the girls went in to get him and by the time the resident old folks made it down the hall, they were ready to dive in...

By five we had opened all the gifts and the girls spent the rest of the morning playing with their loot. Mom took a nap and dad made breakfast. The girls rode their skates and we went on a bike ride through the neighborhood. It has been a great Christmas day.

p.s. The girls just told me their friends next door woke up at 2:00. Their parents sent them back to bed.

It's Fall In San Francisco

Fall is here! Fall in San Francisco is characterized by the changing colors of the leaves, shorter days, and slightly cooler temperatures. Most days are still warm enough for shorts and t-shirts, but we have to wear our sweaters and pants now and then.

The girls have been busy playing in the yard with the mountain of leaves that have fallen. The three of them teamed up with their friends Bella and Sophie to rake up our leaves and the neighbor's leaves. When they were done, you couldn't find a leaf on Don's lawn (our neighbor to the West), but our yard now had twice as many leaves. They raked them into a huge pile and spent the rest of the afternoon jumping into the pile. Night finally came and the kids came inside to warm their bones (it got to be a chilly 45 degrees).

But, it warmed back up, and this last weekend Daddy took the girls down to Rodeo beach (about 1/2 mile north of Point Bonita lighthouse by the Golden Gate bridge) to play in the sand and the sun. The girls spent time digging a giant hole to fill with water (they told me it was suppose to be a lake), climbing on the sand dunes, and wading in the cool water. Daddy took the two oldest out 10 yards into the water to a sand bar where the water was only a couple of inches deep. Katie is still afraid of the "big water," and she stayed on the shore holding dad's shirt.


Here are some photos of our day at the beach and of playing in the leaves:

Chugga, Chugga, Choo, Choo

Here is our little Sam playing with his toy train that he recieved from Grandma and Grandpa Berger. He must be taking after his Great Grandpa Berger (a huge train fan). Believe it or not, this little guy can crawl and sit up all by himself. And, just within the last few days, he's taken to standing. He's keeping us on our toes!

Happy Birthday Katie!!!

She is 3 years old, and we can hardly believe it. When she was born, we had just decided to return to school to pursue dentistry. And, now here she is as big as life. We had many of her friends from church and the neighborhood over for a big party in the backyard. The theme of the party was "Belly Button Beach," based on a book by one of Annie's favorite children's book authors Sandra Boynton. All had a great time. She really enjoyed everyone's gifts and has a hard time deciding which of her new things she will use and which she will let her sisters use. And, whoever sent her the CD of music about a moose....thannks. The girls love it...too much! You made her daddy so very pleased to listen to that music non-stop all weekend long. Just remember payback can be nasty!

Happy Birthday Carolyn

Lucky number 7! Can you believe it? She is growing almost as fast as the mountain of debt I'm establishing with Uncle Sam by attending dental school. This birthday has been a little bit of transition for mom and dad. Instead of wanting toys for her birthday, she wanted to have her ears pierced, some lip gloss, and new clothes. She says she feels very beautiful now.

Grandma Fitzgerald has been in town, and was here to celebrate Carolyn's birthday. We had some great cake that mom made, and then opened up some presents afterwards. This coming Friday, we'll be having Carolyn's friends over for a movie party to watch "Cheaper By the Dozen."

Lastly, I've put some pictures up at http://www.cyrusandannie.com of Katie playing in the backyard with a flower. Love ya all!

Little Princess?? Now I Need to Rename the Site!

Well, here he is....Samuel Joseph Javadi! We are very proud parents. He weighs 7lbs 8ozs, measures 19 inches in length, and, well, you can see the rest in this picture. This was taken a little bit after his first bath. He'd only been out of the womb for 30 minutes, and he was pretty active--probably looking for some food. He spent another 30 minutes in the nursery under the heat lamp so we could get him one of those nice Javadi tans, and then he was off to see mom in post-op. He's been eating really well, and sleeping a lot (so mom is getting plenty of rest). I brought Janice and the girls to visit, and everyone had an opportunity to hold the baby. I'll post more pictures tomorrow. I'm just not sure if I'll use this site (which is a little awkward to use when I want to post a lot of pictures) or another site. In either event, I'll make sure to let you all know. And, if I choose another site to host the pictures, I'll leave a clickable link for you to follow to get to the pictures easily.

A Little Bit of Sunshine

Spring is here! At least for today. We are supposed to be getting some more rain tomorrow (which I guess is characteristic of Spring), but today is sunny and beautiful. We've really been spoiled here with nice weather. The kids are able to go outside in their swimsuits, but in a place like Utah or Idaho, we'd be bundled up in our winter gear still.

We decided to take advantage of the good weather about 2 weeks ago and go on a hike. Mom had to go to a scrapbooking party, so we went without her. These pictures are from our hike. There is a big hill (Californians would be so bold to call it a mountain) behind our house. I was a little skeptical about how far we would make it, but the girls apparently inherited some form of mountain goat gene because they left me in the dust. We made it about 3/4 of the way to the top before I made them stop and take a rest under a nice tree. We unpacked some sandwiches and strawberries that mom had given us and had a nice lunch. Katie still talks about how much fun it was that day!

This last week, the girls were busy with school. They finished up their 2nd trimester and brought home their report cards. Carolyn and Hannah did very well. The only place were Hannah needed to improve was with using her loud voice. Apparently, the teacher thinks sweet, shy Hannah needs to talk a little bit louder. In my opinion, that teacher needs to come stay out our house for a week so she can see how loud Hannah's voice can get, and then maybe she'll appreciate how nice it is to have a soft voice come out of Hannah's mouth.

Hannah learned to ride her bike! Dad was so busy with school that he wasn't able to help. It only took mom about 1hour to get Hannah up and going (we are confident it would have taken dad 12 hours). She is very excited about her new skill. And we are proud of her accomplishment.

We love you all!

Divas

Annie captured this photo the other night right after bath time. The girls thought it was funny to have towels wrapped around their heads. So sweet!

School is going well for the girls. Hannah is becoming a magnificent reader! She can easily read Dr. Seuss, Junie B. Jones, and verses from the scripture (to name just a few). She is also reallly enjoying school. She started art class this last week, and had a lot of fun.

Carolyn made a new friend that she met on the school bus that lives just behind our backyard fence. She and her sister go and play with Hailey on a regular basis. I think the two big sisters were ready to add a friend to the mix, so that their play would be more fun.

Kathryn is crazy as ever! She and mommy are little buddies--they do everything together. Kate especially loves her stroller right now, and with the good weather, she is being spoiled with daily walks. Yesterday, she went out with her daddy for over an hour while he practiced his photography skills at a nearby park.

Hope all is going well for you! Love ya!

Any Room On Your Ark?

The Christmas break from school was great, except for the unbelieveably large amount of rain we got during those 2 weeks! Streets only one block away from us were covered by mud slides from the hills behind our home. We were lucky that we didn't have any problems. One day, we were going a bit stir crazy (all except Daddy, who just wanted to sit on his bean bag for the whole break), so we went on a walk through a park across the road. The girls loved it! Carolyn and Hannah got to try out their new rain boots, but poor Katie didn't have boots. Ms. Katie can't stand getting things wet that should be dry--she made sure mom and dad understood (that is a picture of her foot that she HAD to show us). The break is over and so is the rain. We've had sunny skies for the last week, and on Friday, it was warm enough for the girls to be outside in their swimsuits. Ahhh, California in January...sure beats Idaho's frigid tundra weather!