Where is the time going? 2009 already!! We had a fun time ringing in the new year and then had a great time on New Years day having Jeff and family over for traditional chalupa - yummy!! Then we quickly got back into the crazy routine and the month has flown by!!
All the kids finished their first semester with straight A's (straight Y's and O's for Autumn, but same thing) - Megan is determined to finish her first year of high school with a 4.0 and stays busy doing homework and studying for tests. She's pretty funny because she always comes home on test days sure that she "failed it" and then comes home a few days later reporting that she got 100% or something close. Musical theater has started again and after trying out, she is still waiting to see what part she'll have - she's pretty excited already!
Devin is staying busy with karate (we're sometimes up to 4 days a week now as he is only a few months away from his black belt test), scouts, piano, and has also added guitar lessons this month, which he is really enjoying. His teacher is an 18 year old kid who comes to our house for the lessons, which I love, and Devin really likes him, so it's going well so far. We also recently took Devin to the orthodontist for a consultation and he has to have 8 teeth pulled - the first 4 come out on Monday. I think he's actually enjoying the shock factor of telling all his friends - we'll see how he feels on Monday.
Seth has started basketball this month and seems to like it okay. He also had talent day at school where he got to share a talent (he told about building his Y pinewood derby car and showed it) and also got to invite a parent to share a talent with his class. He chose Bryce to talk about computers (as much as Bryce tried to convince him that I would be a better choice, Seth refused to change his mind) and Bryce was a huge hit showing the kids how to create a computer game - Seth said he was the best one yet!
Autumn did a report on reindeer for her kindergarten class (thanks for doing all the research, Grandma Ririe!!) and did a great job! She still loves dance class, and loves to sing - all the time. It's pretty fun to sit next to her at church and listen to her sing the hymns - she really belts them out!
The highlight of our month was having Grandma Ririe come stay for a week while Bryce and I took a trip with my sister Kim and her husband to Ft. Myers, Florida. We had a great time exploring the area, enjoying the gorgeous beaches(Bryce and Tim are master sandcastle builders), boating through the Everglades (where we saw bottlenose dolphins, alligators and tons of beautiful birds), and even took two days and drove to Orlando and had fun at all the Disneyworld parks (much to our children's dismay). It was the perfect blend of crazy fun and relaxation and so nice to get away from the cold weather for a few days (although it was pretty dang cold in Orlando - in the 30's and 40's most of the time we were there). Thanks for coming and taking such great care of our kids, Grandma - you are the greatest!
We hadn't had much snow by the middle of December, but the last two weeks more than made up for it! We had a great time playing, building snowmen, sledding and shoveling (okay not so much the shoveling) in the 18 inches or so that fell in the week before Christmas. Sasha especially loves the snow and bounds through it like a black jackrabbit - happy as can be!
Christmas day was even more fun with the kids all getting their Christmas wishes - a doll house for Autumn, a Nintendo DS for Seth, a guitar for Devin (he'll be starting lessons in January - can't wait for those sing-a-longs around the campfire!), and what Megan is calling her Christmas miracle - her own cell phone! We had the worst storm of the year so far that day and ended up snowed in and had a great, relaxing day with just us - it was very fun!
We went tubing at Soldier Hollow over Christmas break and had a great time being towed up the mountain in our tubes and then sliding back down - the best way to go tubing, if you ask any of us!