Year End Letter

Well usually this is a Christmas letter, but this year, it will be a New Year's letter. I cannot believe that today is the last day of 2010. How is it that we are already 1 decade down in the 21st century? It definitely has been one of the biggest decades of my life with all 3 of our children being born in this decade. I'm sure that the next decade to come will only get busier as the kids get older.

I hope this letter finds everyone well after all the Christmas festivities. We had a great Christmas. Of course, the kids were beyond excited and loved all their new stuff. It's crazy that what takes weeks to prepare for is always over in a flash. After tomorrow, it will be time to once and for all, take down all the decorations and throw out all the lingering cookies that keep tempting us and put Christmas away for another year. It's kinda sad, but this is when we should really remember what this season really means to us.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

With all the commercialness of Christmas, it is easy enough to forget about the "reason for the season" when we should be focusing on it the most, but I think that after the holiday, we really tend to forget because we become so focused on the new year and what we need to do and how we want to better ourselves. It is my hope and desire that we can really hold the Christmas "spirit" in our hearts all year long. It might be a whole year before Santa returns, but Jesus is with us 24/7/365 (366 in Leap years).

So onto the typical letter about what has gone on in our lives over the past year. I looked at last year's letter and saw that I did a month by month synopsis of our year, but I'm not going to do that again. It did excruciatingly long, and I'm sure most of you couldn't have cared less. I think I'll go back to the typical highlights for each family member.

First off, Dale and I really didn't have many highlights outside of our kids. We really are not that exciting. Dale is still with Brown and Caldwell and even with the economy, still staying busy. Given the ongoing situation with the economy, we are extremely thankful that Dale's job remains strong. Dale still enjoys playing indoor soccer every week despite his often sore feet and ankles. We have discovered that we don't hold up quite as well as we used to. Dale will probably tell you that one of his highlights this year was following World Cup Soccer. With the magic of cable and the DVR, he was able to tape and watch it just about non-stop for the month of or that it went on. Sometimes he would get up in the wee hours of the morning to watch a live game if USA was playing. It was fun to follow them and see them do well.

I had a few highlights or changes in my life over 2010. In February, I made a big leap and purchased a scrapbooking company, Scrapdango. It is an online monthly scrapbook kit club with a forum and gallery that joins a lot of women who all love scrapbooking, an online store and the monthly kits that I plan, put together and ship every month. It has been fun but a lot of work. I am in a pretty good groove now, and I'm hoping that it gets stronger in 2011. My other big highlight was turning the big 4-0 in November. Not only are we all moving into another decade, but I am starting a new decade as well, and I have to say that it is a decade that I'm looking forward to. 40 really isn't as bad as it once seemed. I had a fabulous 80's Prom party put on by Dale, my sisters, mom and friend, Heather. They really did it up, and it was so much fun to relive the 80's. It was a fabulous night and I was so happy to spend it with so many of my family and friends.

Like me making it through another decade, Hannah is just about through her first decade of life. I cannot believe that this January, she will be 10!!!! How has my little girl grown up so quickly? She and Justin celebrated their birthdays together last year with a swimming party, which was great fun and it was a nice easy party for me, but this year they want to go back to their own parties. She spent the first half of the year in hip hop dance classes and performed in her 2nd hip hop showcase in June. She decided to take a break from that this fall and do Christian Youth Theater. She hopes to sometime audition for a show and be able to participate in one of those. She is now in 4th grade and doing great as usual in school. She had another rough start to the year emotionally but settled in fairly quickly. She actually was in a combined 4th/5th grade class, but then, unfortunately, there ended up being too many 4th graders and they had to open up a new 4th grade class with a brand new teacher and Hannah was moved. I thought that was going to be tough, but she easily made the transition. She is on the safety patrol and has actually been named as a captain for next year and she did choir for fall and really enjoyed that. She is still very into fashion and is constantly drawing fashion designs, which are really quite impressive. She says she wants to go to college for fashion, so we'll see if that holds up for the next 8 years. She is very excited to be 10. Dale's hair is getting greyer and greyer as she gets closer and closer to becoming a teenager.

Justin will be turning 8 in just about a week. He is currently in 2nd grade in a combined 2nd/3rd grade class and is doing fantastic. Last year, he was a little behind on his reading but graduated out of the special reading class before the end of the year. They put him in a booster program at the beginning of this year, but he quickly tested out of that and is now reading above his level. It seems to really have finally caught on and he is often found reading books. He also loves math and science and says that he wants to be an engineer like Daddy when he grows up. He played soccer this fall and was on a great team that went undefeated all season except for one tie. His coach is actually the coach of the local community college's men's team and Justin really learned a lot. He is going to be playing again this Spring. We've never done spring soccer and are really hoping that it isn't THAT wet. Is that possible around here in the Spring? He also has become even more obsessed with all things skateboarding. He loves to watch skate boarding videos online and has aspirations to be a pro skateboarder. For Christmas, he got a little ramp and he's going to have his birthday at an indoor skatepark. He's got a lot to learn, but he's determined to figure it all out. I'm not sure if I'm ready for all the injuries that could go along with it, but I guess that's what it's like as they get older.

Owen is 4-1/2 and constantly keeps us all in stitches. The photo to the right pretty much depicts his personality spot-on. He is the family clown. You can see a little bit of this in the video clips I posted from his Preschool Christmas program a couple posts down. He is in his 2nd year of preschool and I am constantly hearing from his teachers how much he has grown this year. Last year, he wouldn't really participate very much but has really come alive in school this year. He even goes all day one day of the week and has a great time. I can't believe that next year he could be going to Kindergarten all day, every day. We do still have to work on his alphabet more. He just finally got to where he can right his name correctly. For awhile, he had the O, E and N down but always made his W upside down as an M, so he wrote "OMEN." Not one of those things you think about when naming your child--if they could somehow misspell their name as something not that great. Besides running around outside and riding his scooter with brother, sister and all the neighborhood kids, he doesn't really have any set activities. We tried to get him to do soccer this fall, but he insisted he wasn't going to do that. He says he needs to practice first, so he can be good. I think that someday he would be good in theater classes like sister because he is highly dramatic, but we'll see what he ends up wanting to do.

As a family, we took a trip around Oregon this year. We went along the coast to Florence and Bandon, headed west to Crater Lake and then to one of our favorite locations, Sunriver. We also took a trip over Spring Break to another favorite location, Cannon Beach, Oregon. After the flood of last year, that cancelled our annual snow trip to our friends' cabin in Snoqualmie, we were able to get back to that this February and are looking forward to it again in a little over a month. Dale and I also were able to getaway in November to San Diego with our friends, the Goves that just moved back down there. It has definitely been a good year with lots of great memories.

We hope that you all have many wonderful memories from 2010 as well and that 2011 is filled with many more of them. Many blessings to all our family and friends as we head into this new year and new decade.

I usually do a year end photo slide show, but I will be adding that later so come back and check it out.