Monday, December 27, 2010

Merry Christmas!


Merry Christmas Friends & Family,

Another year has flown by and I’m trying to find a few minutes to scribble out what we’ve been up to…

Joel is 18 months old. He has confirmed for us what having a boy is all about. He is active, rambunctious, and into everything. His favorite words are gog (dog), go, and uh-oh. As soon as he wakes up each morning he hits the ground running. He can climb onto the kitchen table, spill dog food everywhere, or smash a bottle of nail polish on the tile floor faster than any girl we’ve raised.

Grace celebrated her 3rd birthday in October. She made history in our family this summer by breaking the FIRST bone (her right arm). She broke it climbing out of her crib. She sported a pink then purple cast just as summer was debuting and all the other kids were swimming. Grace loves to play in her kitchen, take baths, and being big sis to Joel.

Olivia started kindergarten this fall and continues to amaze us with her love of life. She is fun, makes friends easily, and can make a mismatched outfit look so cute we dare not make her change. She loves school, reading, riding her big wheel, wearing her pajamas, singing, and touching and her toes to her nose.

Ellie is in 2nd grade. She is quiet, shy, observant, super helpful, and very reliable. She loves to read, write stories about her family, play uno, and ride her scooter/bike. She is tall and has the longest legs, I have a feeling she’ll be taller than her big sis soon.

Audrey is in 4th grade. She is a driven, achievement-oriented, and helpful first born child. At the end of last year, Audrey decided to take advantage of a great opportunity and attend Manchester GATE school for 4th grade. The new school requires her to ride a bus to/from school. She enjoys school, training and walking Gabbie (our dog), running cross country, doing plays at school, helping cook in the kitchen, and playing with her younger siblings.

I’m continuing to keep very busy even without working outside the home. Taxiing the girls to/from school, helping with homework/school projects, helping in their classrooms, going on field trips… some days that seems like a full-time job. In my time off, I enjoy exercising, cooking, hanging out with friends, drinking coffee, and facebook. I ran two half-marathons this year (Disneyland and Fresno), and hope to run more in 2011.

Joshua remains busy at work. Kaweah recently began a merger with their sister company W.M. Lyles Co., whom Joshua now works for. The transition is keeping him hopping, but he continues to enjoy what he does and is especially grateful for the wonderful group of people that he works with. In his free time, he loves hanging out with the kids, extended family, and friends. He also enjoys spending time helping with different ministries at the church and taking the occasional trip out of town.

We pray this letter finds you and your family well. We hope you experience love, joy, and peace this holiday season. We are blessed to have you in our lives, Merry Christmas!