Christmas Letter!!!

What a fun year it has been and I can’t believe it’s almost over. In April we finally got to move into our town house and it’s so nice to actually have a place to call home. In September Mitch and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been that long. This year Mitch and I, well me and Mitch said he’d go along with it started a dinner club and it has been so fun. We have, I think, 13 couples that are in it and each couple takes a different month of being in charge planning the dinner and/or activity. Sometimes the kids get to come and sometimes they don’t. It’s been really fun because if we didn’t do it there are some friends that we wouldn’t see for months and months because we just never cross paths. Not everyone can come every month but we always have a good turnout. I would encourage everyone to start one, even if you only have a few couples that will do it – it makes for a great date night.
Tanner-
He has been so fun to watch grow. He finally got passed the army crawl stage just before he turned 1 and is now working on walking. He actually does great at it when he decides he wants to, but crawling is just easier and he has no problem keeping up with everyone. I think my favorite thing he does is when he goes down the stairs. He goes feet first on his belly and goes really fast –it’s cute. It reminds me when we were kids and would go down like that. He also starting to talk, well Mama and Dada and mimic sounds. He loves blowing kisses and if he hears the word hello or bye his little hand automatically pops up and starts waving. Trust me this kid can seriously eat. I know this is the stuff that most kids do but I forgot all this stuff from when Lexie was little and I just love it. Oh! He also makes the cutest car sounds when he pushes them around on the floor. It’s definitely a boy thing – I don’t know where he learned it – it must just come ingrained in them from Heaven.
Alexa-
It’s amazing how smart three year olds can be. Lexie is constantly asking – WHY? She is also learning her alphabet and had learned how to spell her name. Now everything is spelled ending with ALEXA. For example…Mom is spelled M-ALEXA. It’s so cute! She is so silly. One thing that really scares me is how much like me she is. I guess that can’t be so bad-but some days we really clash. Lexie just finished doing a semester of pre-school up at the college and she loved it. She also loves going to dance. One of my favorite things that Mitch and I are always cracking up at is when Alexa sings. She takes the tune from one song and sings different words to it or not even real words and holy cow is it funny. She has recently learned the cupcake song and sings that about 25 times a day. What a little princess!
Cari-
Well that’s me. I am still managing and most days I love it. I think it gives me a way to stay connected to the “business world” –some how. I only work MWF for less than 3 hours each of those days. The owner is great and is very flexible with me if something comes up and I can’t go in. Sometimes it’s slow, like once I am full for a semester, so I don’t do as much time. It’s nice because I can take the kids with me and most days they take naps while we are there. My office is a whole apartment and so we have an extra bed and a pack-n-play there plus toys and some of Lexie’s craft stuff. They do really good and are so patient with me. I love scrapbooking and trying to do crafty things. It’s getting harder because my partner in scrapbook/craft crime is my sister and between the two of us there are usually five kids (who always want to cut or stamp or glue too). Some days it’s easy and some days we usually referee. I also belong to a BUNCO group which has been fun to get us girls together once a month and chat and play BUNCO. I have also found a new little hobby called blogging and found that I am better at keeping it updated then a journal so we’ll count that. Well I try to keep the real personal and spiritual stuff in my journal but the rest is all right here. I guess it’s better than nothing.
Mitch-
He is just a hardworking, fun loving dad. He still works for Lawn Buddies as a Spray Manager and loves it. He has a great boss, we couldn’t ask for much more. He keeps very busy in the summer and in the fall/winter he gets to lay back a bit and go hunting and play hard. Mitch loves hunting or maybe I should say driving around looking. He actually got a really nice dear this year. I’ll see if I can get a picture of it up. He also was getting good at wakeboarding this summer. He surpassed me even though I had been doing it longer; I guess that’s what happens when you have babies. Hopefully we get plenty of moisture this winter and spring so that we can still go boating. Mitch is such a good, patient dad. Let’s just say they like him more than me. He reads to them 85% of the time before bed and helps with everything but stinky diapers; unless Tanners has one while I am gone, good boy-Tanner. He is a great husband. One of Mitch’s other passions is baking. He’s a good cook but always wants to make treats. That’s why I say baking. He is always searching for new recipes online and trying them out. If he’s not busy you can bet he’ll be whipping something sweet up. One of my favorite things that Mitch does is on Sunday morning he makes us gourmet breakfast because we have such late church-1:30. I will really miss it next year because we have 8:30 church. Honey you could carry that tradition to Saturdays if you would like.

I have the greatest family in the world. I don’t know what I did to be so blessed. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and take a few moments to count your blessing starting with our Savior Jesus Christ and the path that he paved for all of us to return to our Heavenly Father. It’s though Him that we truly find happiness.

Merry Christmas!!!