Christmas Eve Family Service

Ryan the shepherd

Katie the angel

The children's choir

Before we left for church

A Visit from the Tooth Fairy

Last Sunday, while in church, Ryan lost his first tooth! It had been loose for what seemed like an eternity, but was a few months. The bottom one next to it is loose too, but it will be a while before that one comes out. The tooth fairy visited and left $1.00 for his tooth. He is very excited and loves to show off his new hole in his mouth!

Bethlehem Choir Concert

This past Sunday, Ryan and Katie took part in the choir concert at our church. They were wearing their new blue robes (donated by their Grandpa and Rydell Cadillac) and did a fabulous job singing! Here is a link to the concert: http://bethlehemsblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/choir-concert-was-really-special.html. The total time is a little over two minutes and you will be able to see Ryan and Katie about 1:15 into the video. They will be in the front row, third and fourth from the right. The kids will be singing again on Christmas Eve at 5:00 at our Family Christmas Service. All are invited to attend!

Our Day at Disneyland

What a great day we had at Disneyland! There is something about the holiday season at Disneyland. The lights, the decorations and the snow. Yes, it snows at Disneyland a few times each night before the parade begins and also during the fireworks. As we were waiting for the parade to start, they started a light show on the outside of It's a Small World. During the light show, it started to snow. The kids had such a good time trying to catch the snow! The parade was fabulous and it was fun to see the kids excited when their favorite characters came down the parade route. Ryan had on his birthday button, and even got a "Happy Birthday" from some of the characters in the parade! I love Disneyland, always have since I was a little kid when my mom worked for Disney. It's great to be able to share all those great memories with my own kids.

Happy 7th Birthday Ryan!

We spent Ryan's birthday at Disneyland. I had made a reservation for us at the Plaza Inn for their special birthday celebration. We were each given a cake to decorate and then Ryan and all the other birthday kids got to go up so we all could sing happy birthday. Then they were greeted with a visit from Mickey and Minnie. It was a cute celebration lasting for about 40 minutes and Ryan was certainly surprised!

San Francisco Zoo

Last Friday, we got to spend a good part of the day at the San Francisco Zoo. It was a great zoo and had some really nice exhibits. Katie's favorite was the zebras, Ryan's was the tigers and Natalie liked the monkeys. They have a great children's exhibit with a petting zoo and an insect house, along with some really neat owls and birds that they had outside on display. My favorite were the bears, both the polar bears and grizzlies (who were sisters). It was fun to spend the day with our family!

Daddy and Natalie

Katie brushing one of the goats in the petting zoo

Katie with the flamingos

Ryan & Katie pretend they're prairie dogs

The grizzly sisters

Thanksgiving with the Cousins

We spent this Thanksgiving it in the Bay Area with Steve's sisters, Christine, Frankie and Alex, and with Uncle Kevin, Uncle Bar, Max, Ally, Sammy, Barrett and Harrison. It was a short trip for us, but it was a lot of fun! We had all the Nakata family kids under one roof, so we were able to get some great pictures. It was great to be with all of the aunties, uncles and cousins for a few days!

The Girls - Ally, Sammy, Katie & Natalie

The Guys -Max, Barrett, Harrison & Ryan

As Ally stated, "We are a good-looking bunch!"

I happen to agree!