what a difference a few months can make. Since I last reported, Amelie has learned to tie her shoes (and double knot) - need I mention she is only 4?!! She has become very interested in reading and writing. We have since gotten to ride with Emerson in the mornings and some afternoons and the 2 of them are avid readers, writers and artists. Amelie's focus and attention span is growing by leaps and bounds and we are finally getting a lot of use out of the coloring books, paints and other art materials around the house. She is so proud of coloring in the lines and recognizing site words and being able to draw hearts and stars. It's priceless to watch her concentrate so intently and proudly on what she is working on. 
A few things we have gotten to do since the end of the year:
Our big ski trip to Park City, UT with Micah and Katie. We had a GREAT time and Amelie loved ski school. It was somewhat surreal to see her go on the lift with the instructor and make her way down the mountain with her classmates. It snowed about 2 feet while we were there and Amelie had a great time just walking around in the new fallen snow, building snowballs and even a tiny snowman. She happily got rocks and mulch to help make buttons and arms. We spent our
days skiing followed by dips in the pool and hot tub in the snow. What a novelty to sit in the hot tub during a heavy snow! She has since mentioned several times that she misses Utah. So do we!We also got to go on a field trip to see Jack Hartman in concert. Jack Hartman sings over 600 songs that children absolutely love and Amelie and Emerson even got to get their photo with him.
Let's not forget our new Evergreen camper which we've already gotten to go on a couple of trips.
Amelie is definitely a trooper for any of these trips and loves to help set up. Luckily, this one is easier to setup than the popup (although we'll always have fond memories of that one!). We did 
our maiden voyage during an unnamed storm over to Hillsborough River State Park and one that was a bit more relaxing over to Ft. Wilderness. How lucky are we? Granny Great stayed with us on that venture and Nana and Papa met us out for the day. We all got to enjoy a cookout and roasting marshmallows with Chip and Dale followed by some pretty cool fireworks over at the beach.
our maiden voyage during an unnamed storm over to Hillsborough River State Park and one that was a bit more relaxing over to Ft. Wilderness. How lucky are we? Granny Great stayed with us on that venture and Nana and Papa met us out for the day. We all got to enjoy a cookout and roasting marshmallows with Chip and Dale followed by some pretty cool fireworks over at the beach.In February, we were blessed with a visit from Micah and Katie and a birthday party for Cole. We also got to go to a pretty cool Chinese New Year celebration to help bring in the year of the 
Tiger.
Tiger.In January, we were wowed by performances of Amelie and Emerson in the Multicultural Festival and had a blast at Pirate Day at Disney where the girls got pirate princess makeovers and were the hit of the Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day. Amelie's pirate name was Meg Damploather and Emerson was Jean Shipmonk.
