Boy, has it been awhile!

Okay, so it has been awhile since I have written, but we have all been busy and busy and busy and other such excuses!
I won't bore you with all the details (but know that I have tried to post on here before and computers being what they are- necessary evil- my hard work was deleted), but suffice it to say I have been on here for over an hour trying to get this post on, and also finding it not working as I wanted. The pictures all posted in backward order, and copy and paste is not working for me. So you are just stuck with the randomness of this post!

I have also tried adding words between pics as captions, and it isn't working. So Pic 1- me and Thomas at an awards assembly for Keith at his school. Rachel took our picture.
Pic 2- Tyson showing the kids how to do pushups.
Pic 3- Thomas getting readyto come inside after playing outside in the snow during our TONS of snow that we got (this was about 8 in the morning while Keith was waiting to go to school).
Pic 4- Rachel smiling and showing off her smile with her missing teeth on the bottom. See the gap?
Pic 5- Keith during his class' multicultural lunch (they did this instead of Thanksgiving feast and the kids got to dress up as either their heritage or someplace they have been or want to visit. Keith chose to be a cowboy because his Grandpa and Great Grandpa are cowboys).





Here is what's been going on in a nutshell-

Keith still in 1st grade and missing all the fun he had in Kindergarten. They have to work in 1st grade! I try to remind him there were days he didn't want to go to Kindergarten because of all the fun he missed at home, but he doesn't really remember that. But he is reading lots and writing lots. He does so well in math. I am always so surprised by how well he is doing!


Rachel is a cute girl! Sometimes I just look at her and think that she is going to be in trouble because of how cute she is. We just need to keep her face cleaned and her hair brushed and her clothes unstained and she would be picture perfect all the time! But where would be the childhood fun in all that, right? She still is doing our home rotational preschool and loving it. She asks all the time if she gets to go to school tomorrow. She gets to play with her cousins a lot (since 2 of them are in our preschool) and is such a good big sister to Thomas. She looks out for him and plays with him so well.

Thomas is getting so big and his vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds! I hear him say something and think it is jabbering, then realize that he is actually talking to me! Last night he was sliding off the couch and i heard him say something, and didn't think much of it. Then he did it again and I realized he was saying slide down! How fun is that. Not even two, and can kind of hold conversations with us. He also loves playing with other kids and gets to play with his cousin Catheryn and friend Jacob and he knows if I ask him if he wants to see them. He gets all excited and wants to play!

Tyson is doing well- adjusting to his new job. He was gone for training for 3 1/2 months, which was hard for me. But he is home now, and hopefully he won't have to leave again for any kind of work related thing for a long time! We are glad he is home. He was excited to get a 55 gallon fish tank and have Santa come and fill it with fish for us. They are his new babies. I am not really into fish- I would much rather have a pet that I can interact with and cuddle with, but he wanted to get them. And he talked the kids into being excited about them as well, so I guess it works.

I have been busy- lots of things to do. I was in charge of doing a Messiah Sing a long at our church and what had started out small, quickly grew. We had a small orchestra (in which I got to play my flute-something I don't get to do very often) and then invited the community and our whole stake. We had no idea how many people were going to come. It could have been really small, or really big- we just had no idea. It turned out we filled the chapel quite well and it seemed like everyone enjoyed it. It very possibly will become an annual event. Then I had lots of craft projects I was planning on doing for Christmas presents, so I was trying to get those done. And the kids and I decided to do the 12 days of Christmas for 12 families (4 that we sent in the mail and 8 here locally) so that took time each day to make and deliver our items. It would take us about an hour each day to do our deliveries, so we spent a lot of time doing all that.

We were very blessed for Christmas- as always. And hopefully everyone was able to remember that the reason we celebrate Christmas was because of a little baby born so many years ago, to come to this earth and be our Savior and Messiah.

We would love to hear how you all are doing and hopefully you are as blessed as we are.