2010 Christmas Letter

Greetings. The Cains are doing awesomely!! Thanks for asking.
First things first. Lanie Vaea Cain joined our family this year. She is the sweetest baby in the world and shares her perfect smile with everyone, even the people that we don’t like. More importantly, our family is now big enough to start its own basketball team. Go Cains!
Sadie has been in preschool, primary, soccer and dance. She’s pretty good at kicking the ball, but better at kicking other kids—A useful skill for soccer and dance and school and primary. Sadiebug has always been pure joy for our family.
Kylie is also doing great at school. She reads and reads all day, probably because Tovi won’t let us buy a bigger TV and Kylie has to entertain herself with books. She is also doing soccer and dance. She is already better than her dad at ballet. She amazes us with what she can do.
Tovi is as happy as ever. Her year-long vacation from Miki has come to an end. She tried to turn the girls into ladies. It only took her husband two weeks to undo all of her hard work. I hope she never underestimates me again.
Miki is doing just fine. His time in Iraq wasn’t so bad. We’re all looking forward to spending quality time with each other now that Christmas break has begun.
Take care of yourselves. We hope that you have some happy holidays!!!
Love, The Cains

Christmas 2010

What a wonderful Christmas day! We missed seeing all of our extended family, but did get to enjoy that a couple of weeks before. This was the first Christmas that we have ever spent with just our immediate family at home. It was simple and relaxed. I really enjoyed not caring if the house was a mess for a couple of days, having a great reason to sit around in our pjs all day, and spending the day playing with the kids and their new toys.

It was also a great day, because we got to spend it with Miki. He had leave from work and it was such a blessing to be able to have him with us without any interruptions. It was also Lanie's first Christmas. She is always such a happy baby, and this day was no different. It was nice that she couldn't really move around very easily yet, so she didn't create too many messes herself. She just was happy sitting and watching us making our messes.

Kylie's big present from Santa was a zhu zhu pet with a beauty salon and clothes, blankets, etc.

Sadie got a big girl bike with training wheels that she has already mastered.

I think that they always enjoy opening their stockings more than anything else.

The Nutcracker

Two years ago, I took Kylie to see the Nutcracker. We had such a good time. I thought that I would love to make it a yearly tradition to go. It didn't quite work out for last year, but this year we made it a priority. Miki stayed home with Lanie and I was able to take Kylie and Sadie.

It wasn't my favorite performance and didn't appeal as much to the little kids as the one that Kylie and I had seen in San Antonio. But overall, I think we all had a good time and I hope we can do this again next year.

Santa's Visit

Our church put on a family Christmas dinner. They served some of the best food that I have ever had at a ward party, homemade brisket. Soooo good!

After the dinner, there were some musical numbers and then a special visitor came. The girls were very excited to see Santa. I think that they were more excited for the candy cane that they got after visiting with the big man.

The girls stood in line with their good friend Eden and Sadie even insisted on sitting on Santa's lap with Eden, not Kylie. Here is another cute shot of Sadie with her good friend Katy.

Sadie asked Santa for a Rapunzel bike and Kylie asked him for a teacher kit.

Kylie's Christmas Program

On Dec. 16th, the 1st graders at Kylie's school put on a cute Christmas program. The kids all sang with some minimal hand motions. Half of the songs were in Spanish and the other half in English.

Kylie has such a beautiful singing voice. We always love to listen to her. It was especially fun listening to her practice these songs the weeks leading up to the program.

I didn't have my camera, unfortunately. I got a few very blurry shots with my cell phone. My father-in-law took some for me as well. I think this picture was one that he took. Can you find Kylie in there?

Kylie's Dance Recital- Dec. 15th

Kylie also had a dance recital right before Christmas break. She has done really well in her classes and we feel that she

has a talent for this plus it helps that she listens to the teacher well. Unfortunately, this may be her last year doing dance. At least for now. She says that she wants to focus on soccer and piano and doesn't really like dance. We won't push her to do it, but maybe she will want to do it again in the future. Either way, we love to watch her and think that she is just beautiful!

Sadie's Dance Recital- Dec. 13th

We love watching Sadie dance. It took her awhile to get up the courage to actually take a dance class, but now she can't get enough of it! She shows us her routines and will practice her dance moves all week long. This dance recital was special for her, since she had a lot of family there to support her.

Family Gift Exchange- Dec. 13, 2010

Since we had family in town a couple of weeks before Christmas, we had a little gift exchange. I just wanted to post some fun pictures from that night.

Lanie's Baby Blessing & 7 Months Old- Dec. 12th

We waited to bless Lanie until Miki returned from Iraq. We had lots of family that were able to come down and be here for the wonderful occasion (Grandma Mimosa, Grandpa Martin, Grandpa Mike, Grandma Jane, Uncle Marty and Aunt Chrissy). Her Grandma Jane crocheted this beautiful dress. She patterned it after a dress that was made for me when I was a baby.


Lanie was so funny to watch (and listen to) during the blessing. Usually, we have infants (1-2 month olds) that are held in their father's hands and blessed in front of the congregation.

In Lanie's case, she was 7 months old. And she loves a crowd. She can work the audience already. She wanted to sit up and look around and take it all in. She was not happy with laying down and waiting patiently. Miki took her up to the front along with Grandpa Martin, Grandpa Mike and Uncle Marty. I also had him take her binkie just in case.





Miki started the blessing and everything was okay, until Lanie grabbed the microphone and the young man that was holding it refused to give it to her. She put up quite the stink, dropped her binkie and proceeded to scream. Miki paused, and paused and paused. I was nervous that he was having a hard time concentrating, but he assured me later that he was just waiting to see if she would calm down. She kept up the scene and Miki continued the blessing in spite of the noise and her wrestling match for the microphone.

It was a beautiful blessing and I know the Lord has some wonderful things in store for this little ray of sunshine. She is loved by her family and has brought so much happiness to us. We are grateful for the Lord's hand in allowing us to raise her and teach her.

After Miki finished the blessing, the circle broke up and Lanie immediately stopped crying, looked out at the congregation and put on the biggest grin you can imagine. She saw all of those eyes turned on her and she milked it. What a ham!

Love you Lanie!

Family Visit

Grandma and Grandpa Bryson, Grandma and Grandpa Cain and Uncle Marty and Aunt Chrissy all joined us for a fun week the middle of December. It was so nice to have everyone all together. They came to see Miki after a long year away from family, to spend some Christmas fun with us, but most importantly for Lanie's baby blessing (pictures of that will be in the next post.)

I just wanted to post some fun family game time pictures. I have always enjoyed playing board games with my family. We got The Settlers of Catan and had a good time playing it with the group. Those that didn't want to play worked on a big Christmas puzzle. I think we all rotated through trying to place pieces on that puzzle. The champion puzzlers were Marty, Jane and Tovi. I think we pulled some long hours on that one. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the end product. We will have to try and put it together again next year. Anyone want to join me?

Do you think I am taking this too seriously? Or maybe I look like I have been caught cheating?

I love how much fun Kylie and Sadie were having helping us out.

Sadie's School Program

No mariachi band this year...slightly disappointed. But it was a nice mix of religious and festive Christmas songs. I only wish that we could have heard her sweet voice a little better.

I love seeing how brave Sadie gets up there on the stage. It was also a fun treat that she had both sets of grandparents and her Aunt and Uncle there!

Dec. 4, 2010-Family Photos

It was time to get new family pictures taken, since we had a new baby and Miki was home from Iraq.

It is amazing to me how much my girls grow each year, how beautiful they are, and how much joy my little family brings to me!

My good friend Andrea Salmon took these pictures:(http://www.foureverphotography.com/).

November 26-Carlsbad Caverns

We took the girls on an impromptu weekend trip to Carlsbad Caverns. It was an added bonus that our good friends the Jensens happened to be going there at the same time. We enjoyed exploring the caves with them. There are so many beautiful features of the caves that a camera just can not capture. The girls were begging to go back the next day! But unfortunately it didn't happen. It will be another spot we will have to visit again while we live here.