Merry Christmas 2012

Our Christmas card, in digital form...

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope this holiday season finds you all well. Life for our family continues to be busy yet so richly blessed. With the younger girls approaching age 5, I am finding that we are entering a new phase of parenting. With no babies around the house anymore, we can go and do quite a bit with, well, a little more ease, than we used to. And some of the pros to having twins are catching up with us. It is nice to have our kids relatively close in age because they to some degree enjoy a lot of the same things, making it easy to do fun family activities and keep everyone happy. Of course, there’s always one in the bunch at any given time, but still it’s been a lot of fun.

The big girls are in 3^rd grade this year and so far have had a relatively good adjustment to the heavier workload at school. Both were also baptized this summer after they turned 8. Mike and I were so proud of them for making such a righteous decision and we pray that they will always strive to follow Jesus Christ and live the commandments.

Kaitlyn (8) is busy this year taking gymnastics and piano still. While I have to admit she isn’t taking piano by choice, I do have to say that she has a lot of musical talent. Hopefully her lessons will at least provide her a background for music that she might appreciate later. And she enjoys gymnastics, and I am seeing her start to make some strides particularly on the floor. She was on swim team again this summer for her 3^rd year. She successfully swam all 4 strokes and turned out to have a pretty good butterfly, a stroke I find many kids her age struggle with quite a bit. Kaitlyn is in her 2^nd year as a Brownie Scout, but what she still loves the most is art. She took art lessons this summer and I have no doubt we will be signing her up again. In particular, she enjoys and is especially good at drawing and sketching. Her level of detail is quite incredible for a child her age. In addition to art, she also loves building and making things, and she loves puppies. She cannot have enough puppy “stuff.”

Mackenzie (8) is also incredibly busy. She is in her 5^th year of dance, taking tap, ballet, and jazz. Her favorite is tap. She is also taking gymnastics and piano. She absolutely loves playing the piano and seems to spend quite a bit of her free time going through all her piano books. When she’s not playing piano she still spends a lot of time reading. Her teachers at school say she is now reading on an adult level! She too was on swim team and worked very hard to learn all remaining strokes this year. For the second year in a row Mackenzie won the Most Improved Swimmer for her age group (Kaitlyn has won it before too!). Mackenzie is also in Brownies and having fun. Mackenzie is eager to be involved in lots of things and has a spunky, fun spirit. Lastly, she continues to love fashion! She can’t wait to pick out her clothes every day and plan out what she’s going to wear, complete with accessories and all. Sometimes I feel like she is already 13 – we need to slow her down!

The little girls are actually in their last year of preschool. I can’t believe they will be starting kindergarten next fall! I know that time will be bittersweet.

Ashley (almost 5) continues to keep us on our toes. Her energy level remains extremely high, which just translates into different things as she gets older. I still have to keep her close at hand so she doesn’t get away from me, but she is also such a funny child. She has us either wanting to pull our hair out or has us laughing our heads off with her comments and antics. She is also quite the singer. She sings all the time, especially when she is working on something. She really has a great singing voice, but if you bring attention to it she will stop. Even her teachers at school note how she sings all day. She has started ballet and tap this year, but she really keeps asking to go back to gymnastics, which she will probably do in the near future. She took swimming lessons this summer, and while she doesn’t go really far (because she doesn’t like to go past her first breath), she is unbelievably fast (from all that energy)! It will be fun to watch her do swim team next year for the first time. And more than swimming she loves diving and doing actual flips into the pool! Other than her activities, Ashley loves to watch movies and play computer/phone games, play dress-up, and play with princesses.

Reagan (almost 5) is pretty easy-going. She is generally very eager to please and is a peacemaker usually in the home. She enjoys both dance and gymnastics, and will also start swim team next year. This summer she went almost the entire way by herself and is already doing side-breaths! She seems to pick things up really quickly. She could pump her own swing at a young 3, hula hoop at a young 4, and doing side-breaths! She also takes a lot of initiative to learn and do things on her own. Of course, sometimes she takes too much initiative and I need her to not do QUITE so much stuff for herself. Reagan also enjoys school, working puzzles, playing dress-up, princesses and Barbies. If there’s anything she doesn’t like though, it’s having her hair brushed! Poor child with that stringy, fine hair she gets from her mom. I can’t say I blame her, but other than that she’s generally a very sweet and happy child.

Mike is still with Wells Fargo, and he was promoted this year to Managing Director. I am very proud of all his hard work! He has not been working with the scouts this year, but instead he and I are both the teachers for Ashley and Reagan’s Sunbeam class at church. They are really cute, sweet kids, but I will say it also gives me a new appreciation for preschool teachers! As for me, I am enjoying the balance of preschool, having kids home some days and having some time for me on others. I do occasionally volunteer at the elementary school, and for the second year in a row, I am actually a Brownie troop leader. That has been a rather big job at times, but the kids are having some great experiences as part of the Girl Scouts. (Cookie sales are in January if you need any!!) It’s a lot of work but also very rewarding.

Lastly, Mike and I also got to travel in September to Jackson Hole, WY and visit Yellowstone National Park as well as the Grand Tetons. We couldn’t have had more perfect weather and enjoyed hiking and seeing Old Faithful, the mountains, and especially the wildlife.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and get to spend quality time with your loved ones. Thinking much this year about the true meaning of Christmas. While the gifts are fun, I hope we can all remember to take time to praise and worship our Savior, serve others, and count our blessings. May you all have peace, hope and joy this holiday season!

Wishing you blessings in the new year,

Mike, Kimberly, Kaitlyn, Mackenzie, Ashley, and Reagan