Christmas News Letter (warning this is a really long post)!

Well, folks, I am terrible about sending out Christmas cards but I still want to give a shout out to all of my family and friends. I am so grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life. Thank you to all of you for all of your love, support, and well wishes! This is a wonderful time of year when I am reminded of my blessings and of how important strong family relationships and friendships are. I may not see many of you from year to year but you are still a part of me and I am grateful for the good memories that I have of each of you. With that, I will now proceed to give an update "newsletter style" of what my little family has been up to.

Sam and I: We have had an exceptionally busy year. For the last few years we have been looking off and on at houses.This past February we decided to put our house on the market and see if it would sell. We set a goal for ourselves to have our house ready to sell by Valentines day. On February 13, 2008 we achieved that goal and put our house on the market. We worked hard at making our house smell nice and look good when prospective buyers came to call. But that doesn't mean we didn't have some mishaps. For instance, one particular day, 10 minutes before a prospective buyer was to arrive I was just running around the house with homemade bread, fresh from the oven (and yes I do mean running,) when all of a sudden poor little Elise wretched all over the carpet! I screamed, panicked, said a few less than stellar things, and then ran to the phone. I called the Realtor that was bringing the buyer and asked him if he could buy me a little more time. I explained the situation and he told me he could give me an extra FIVE minutes! Yep, you read that right, five minutes! I drudged up a thanks and then ran like a chicken with my head cut off to get "things" cleaned up. I thankfully have a shampooer and so I was able to get the mess cleaned up in a very rapid manner. Elise was another story. I just stripped her down, put her in some P.J.s and put her and a bowl into a stroller. Then Hannah and I tore out of the house and as we crossed the street the Realtor pulled up. I breathed a breath of fresh air and walked around the block a couple times. When I got back home they were gone and Elise got some real needed attention. Would you believe that after all of that the people actually liked the house? Well, we didn't sell it to them, but just the same it made me feel a little better about the situation. At the beginning of April Sam and I went away for the weekend and Sam's parents came into town to watch the kids and hold down the fort. While we were gone some people came to see the house and they put an offer on it.

So thanks Leslie and Bob for selling our house for us ;o)! We had a closing date about a month away which meant that we now had to find a house and be able to close on it at about the same time. Thankfully we were blessed to find a beautiful home that we love. We closed on both homes within a day of each other and we are now happily nestled in our second home. We spent a good majority of the summer working on getting all settled in to our new abode .
Here's a picture of my favorite room in the house...the kitchen!

In August we gave ourselves a well deserved break and took a family trip to the Oregon Coast to see Sam's parents. We had a great time and Sam even tried his hand at surfing!

A note on surfing or swimming in the ocean at the Oregon coast. The water is freeeeeezing cold no matter what time of year you go. We were there in August and still the water stung our ankles when we would wade in. That's why Sam is wearing a wet suit. It kept him toasty warm and he had a blast!

Starting in the fall Sam and I have been enjoying football season (GO BRONCOS!)We were lucky enough to have my brother Daniel and his wife Jill come and go to a game with us and we had a great time. My mom and Sam's mom also came to visit us in October and they were even both here for Elise's 2nd birthday. That basically sums up the year that Sam and I have had, now on to the girls.

Hannah: Hannah has had a great time being in preschool this year. She turned four in February and can hardly wait to get going in kindergarten! She also took a dance class which ended in May. She had a great time being with her cute little friends. The highlight was her recital.

After her little class had finished doing their dances they were supposed to leave the stage. Well, Hannah went to run off the stage and then she realized she wouldn't have another opportunity to dance up there so she ran to the center of the stage and said "I'm not ready to be done yet!" She really loves being up on stage and is not afraid of performing be it singing or dancing in front of a whole auditorium full of people.

Hannah has adjusted well to our new home though she misses her old friends. She asks me when she can see them quite often. She has made a lot of great new friends though and she is one of those blessed people who when she sees another child she doesn't know, she doesn't see that child as a stranger she sees her as another potential new friend. She has been a great example to me on how to be at ease with other people and on how to make yourself comfortable in a new situation.


Elise: Elise has really started talking and is quite assertive. She does not allow herself to get walked on and is not afraid to stand up to anybody, be it Hannah or mommy or daddy! She turned two in October and as I mentioned before was lucky enough to have two of her grandmas at her birthday party. Elise loves to dress up. She wants to wear dresses every single day.
She puts on a dress and she says "I a pwincess!" And then she twirls around and wiggles her hips back and forth to show her cute dress. She did not get this dress loving thing from me but I think it's adorable just the same. On days when I really want her to wear pants she still finds away to make a dress out of it. A few days ago she was very mad at me for making her wear pants. She stayed in her room and cried for a little while but then she quieted down. When she came out she was wearing one of Hannah's little dance skirts over her pants. This was a compromise I could live with and she was so proud of herself for still getting to be a "pwincess". She wore that little dance skirt for the rest of the day. Elise is also a very empathetic little soul. She doesn't like for other people to be sad. If Hannah is upset, she will immediately go over to her and pat her arm and give her hugs and say "it's otay!" with little "ohhhhhs" thrown in for good measure. She also loves and I mean LOVES babies! real ones, dolls, any baby she can get her hands on. She loves to take care of them. When we are out in public she is always the first one to notice any baby that comes along and she can hear them crying from anywhere. She is quick to identify them and point them out until you acknowledge that indeed she has located yet another baby. Sam and I have noticed that she was born to be an older sister not the baby of the family.

Well That's it for our family newsletter. I hope that the holidays have found you all well and happy and that you all have a wonderful New Year!