Merry Christmas!!!

We had so much fun this Christmas!  The kids were so excited about Santa coming to our house.  Santa brought a purse and balance bike (no training wheels or pedals) for Wendy and some balls and a truck for Kyle.  Wendy was sooooo excited and was ready to ride her bike all day.

Grandma Wendy passed on one of my old Cabbage Patch kids to Wendy so I made matching dresses for Wendy and her new baby.  She thought that was super cool.

 The new baby is awfully fussy so Wendy is comforting her constantly.

 Santa brought me this amazing beaded wall hanging from Chattuchak market.

 The kids are so cute in their matching Christmas PJs!  Kyle and Wendy both love Kyle's new truck from Grandma Perdue.

 Wendy's testing out her new skates.

 Kyle's trying to sneak some loose wrapping paper into his mouth.  It's amazing how quick he is!

 We got Wendy a reversible doll from the Fatima Project (where they give women in poverty the skill of sewing and make many fabulous handmade crafts.)  Wendy was so excited when she turned over her princess and found not only a prince, but a froggy too!

 We made a framed PERDUE wall hanging.  You can see the kids formed each letter.

We made quite a mess!

 Christmas with kids is so much fun!!!  We are so grateful for our young family and the time we have to be together!!  We are also so grateful for so many grandparents who sent so much love and gifts to us this Christmas!

Christmas Eve

This year, we had some friends over for Christmas Eve to share some "Sharp Family Traditions."  We had a blast!  We made pizza, played, acted out the Nativity story, sang Happy Birthday to baby Jesus, ate Birthday cake, and gave heart-felt presents to baby Jesus.  Here are some pictures of the star performers of our nativity.

Christmas Toes

Now we are officially ready for Christmas!

Santa in Thailand

We got to go to a Traditional Thai Holiday party sponsored by the Embassy.  We were there early, so we visited the elephants.

 And walked with the elephants to the theater.

 We can't wait to go back to the night cultural event.  But, there were several of the actors in their costumes for the party.

 Wendy was not a fan of the feathers being behind her.

 I think a major highlight for both kids was the ice cream.

 They put a hat on the elephant

 Santa visited Thailand on an Elephant!!!

 The kids did great on Santa's lap!  I was shocked!!

Wendy even told Santa she wants a purse.  As we were getting the kids off, we gave Wendy a candy cane and she snuggled into Santa.  She would have stayed there and finished her candy cane I think.

Trouble with a capital T

Our little man is quite busy now that he's mobile!  This week's favorite toy is the stairs.  He can now pull up to standing position by the stairs.  We are in trouble now!  He also crawls with his hands and feet as often as he can.  He can pull himself up on some things and is working on it constantly.  I am definitely a little busier and unable to leave him sitting surrounded by toys in the living room for long.  But, he is so thrilled with his mobility that it's hard to be anything but thrilled about it as well.

 Wendy has to have her picture taken whenever Kyle is getting his picture taken.  She would prefer to have no clothes on and a necklace.  Funny girl.

 Last week's favorite spot was under the dining room table.

 He has the greatest expressions.  It is definitely easy to tell how this little man feels about things.

 And what baby doesn't love to be under the Christmas tree?!?

Safari World Adventures

This week, some new friends moved into our neighborhood.  They go to our church and have young kids, so  it is very exciting for us.  We took them to one of our favorite places: Safari World.  First, we drove around the park to check out the animals.  Some were wandering freely.

Wendy was in heaven with all of these animals!

Some animals were gated off from the rest of the tame animals.  Warnings were displayed everywhere to remind us to stay in our cars!  Lions....

 And Tigers....

And Bears....Oh my!

Then we went into the second half of the park.

 We started off at the Elephant Show.  Kyle thought it was pretty cool and Wendy loved watching the elephants....especially since she got to eat popcorn during the show.  Major plus for her!

 The elephant on the tight wire,

 Elephants playing music.

 I bought Wendy a stuffed elephant for $10 and discovered that included a little ride around the arena.  Score!  Wendy wasn't sure what to think, but I was just proud of her for staying up there.

After I got off, the trainer told me to wrap my arm around the elephant's trunk securely.  When I did this, to my great surprise, the elephant wrapped his trunk around my legs and swung me into the air.

 We got to feed more giraffes.

 This is the Phillips family.  Eric and Wendi are awesome and we really like Pearce and Emry as well.

 We also saw the dolphin show.  It was awesome!

 Wendy and I went into a tunnel so we could stand in a little glass house in the tiger den.  Wendy was just excited about the stairs leading to the tunnel.  You can see the tiger pacing the fence and Wendy's pink shirt in the house.  The tigers were a little too excited to have our kids by the fence and followed them.

What a fun day!