Merry Christmas

I did it. I've been threatening to do it for the last couple years, but I finally did it this year. What did I do? I sent out Christmas cards with our blog address on it, so I could put off my family letter longer. So, this is now my "official" family Christmas letter update.

It's going to be brief because you can go through my blog and look at pictures and read more about everything.

Nikosha is 8 years old now and in 3rd grade. She got baptized this summer by her dad. This last year she danced, played soccer, and played the piano. But her favorite thing to do is stay at home. She'd rather have friends come over then go anywhere and she'd rather stay at home and baby-sit then have to run errands with me.

Katelyn turned six this year and started kindergarten. She also danced, played soccer, the piano, and t-ball. She loves to go to school and is quite the opposite of Nikosha when she was in kindergarten. Katelyn doesn't really care that she's away from mom at all. We miss having her at home, though, because she's always so happy and easy-going.

Kenzi is four (going on 16). She also danced last year and with her blond hair and spunky attitude we thought she'd love to be on the stage, but she kind of froze up a little bit, but was still super cute. She started preschool this year with a couple of other kids in the neighborhood and she loves to go see her friends from school. She's always busy trying to get a lot of attention and we love her for it!

My baby boy, Kyler, turned into a toddler this year and he is 100% boy. He loves to run, throw, hit, and just be wild. He is such a happy kid and so fun to watch, but sometimes a little hard to keep up with.

As for me and Nate, we got to take a vacation this summer. We first went to Colorado for my high school reunion and then went to Cancun for a whole week with my parents and all my brothers and sisters. My brother, Tyler, served his mission there so along with doing the fun tourist things, we also got to go to church and go to dinner with some families from Mexico.

Our family also had the opportunity to go to Arizona this summer and go visit my grandparents, aunts, uncle, and cousins. It was a long drive with the kids, but sooo worth it. We had a blast! It was the last time in this life, though, that we were able to see my grandma, Booma, because she passed away the following month from lung cancer. We will miss her so much, but are very glad we had that opportunity to share that time with her. My grandpa, Papa, is now living with my parents just a couple miles away. We love to be able to see him often!

We truly hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas this year! Remember why we celebrate and don't let all the worldly items get in the way of celebrating the birth and life of our Savior. We love you!

Leave a comment and let us know you dropped by to read our blog. (Okay, there was nothing "brief" about that, sorry.)

December Happenings

We've had a fun beginning of Christmas. We went to our church Christmas party and had a great time. Santa even came and visited.

And this last week Nate played in a basketball tournament with some people from work. We got to go cheer him on.

Another big thing that happened this week was Nate sold his snowmobile. What?!! I know quite a surprise. Here's him getting it all fixed up one last time.

Don't worry, though, he's already talking about going to get another one soon (like tomorrow), so he only had to live a couple days without it.

Before church today we decided to attempt to get a family Christmas picture. It's so much fun trying to get 6 people all to look normal in one shot. lol These are our attempts:

Then, tonight (note that's it's still the exact same day) I decided we should take some pictures of what our family REALLY looks like. Which ones do you think I should send out on our Christmas cards?

Last Tooth Post

I promise this is the last tooth post for awhile. I just thought this was cute. Both Nikosha and Katelyn lost their tooth on the same night. I really should be posting pictures of Thanksgiving, but unfortunately I forgot to take my camera. Sometimes I'm glad when I don't have my camera because I feel like I'm more in the moment rather than trying to take a picture to remember the moment. Ya know what I mean? We had a great Thanksgiving with lots of family and lots of food! We truly have a LOT to be thankful for.

More lost teeth & More snow

We got quite a bit of snow last Sunday. I loved this picture of my boys shoveling the sidewalk after church, still in their church clothes. And Katelyn lost yet another tooth. Good times, good times!

Soccer & Piano Recital

Nikosha just ended her second soccer season. She was really excited that she got to be on another pink team. Nikosha had a wonderful coach! She had a nickname for each one of them. Nikosha was Koshie-Kosh. Their coach was so uplifting and positive and always had them laughing. (That was exactly what Nikosha needed.) Thanks, Coach Nawrocki! Nikosha and Katelyn had a Halloween piano recital tonight. It was Katelyn's first recital. They both did an awesome job! Nikosha dressed up as Dorothy and Katelyn was a cheerleader.

Nate's Birthday & Baby Maci

We've had an eventful last week and a half. Nate turned 31. If you can't tell he's still quite a little kid who still loves superman. He got a superman cake and a snowmobile helmet. I think he loved them both! > And then on that same day, my sister, Kristi, had her baby, Maci Renee! Kristi has four boys and is now blessed with a little girl! Austin stopped by one day with this gear on. It's not a halloween mask, it's a bandana that he wears over his face to keep it warm. (I had to have a picture of it!) Katelyn had her first kindergarten field trip that I was able to go on with her. Her class got to go to a pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin. They also had a cute little maze made out of haybales and a slide coming down off some haybales. So fun for the kids! These pictures surprisingly happened before the last pictures of the pumpkin patch. We had our first snow fall. It lasted only a couple of hours on the ground, but Katelyn and Nate hurried and made our first snowman. That's my nephew, Bennett, out there helping. Unfortunately, all we have are girl snowclothes, so he's really not a girl. (We better hurry and get some boy clothes, so Kyler's not dressed like this. Can you imagine Nate taking Kyler on his snowmobile with a pink coat and a purple hat? lol) I just had to include this picture we took tonight of Kyler wearing his grandma's glasses.

Happy Birthday Kenzi

Kenzi turned 4 years old on her birthday. We had a lot going on that day. First, she got to go on a field trip with her pre-school class. We went to a potato field where we got to see how the potatoes are picked and moved and everything. (It was very interesting and I learned a lot.) They loved climbing up into this huge tractor. The man giving us the tour took them all for a ride and even let Kenzi sit on his lap and help steer since she was the birthday girl.

This is Kenzi handing out her treats after her field trip: For her birthday these are the two things she wanted: to go swimming and have a cake with oreos and cherries. So she had a couple of neighbor kids over and her two cousins and they ran around in their swimming suits and jumped in the little wading pools every once in awhile (that classifies as swimming, right?). And this was my "creative" oreos and cherries cake.

Poor Travis has a broken leg so he didn't get to play much!

Then a couple of days later we had all of her Idaho family over for cake and ice-cream. We're starting to be a very big bunch, but I think it made Kenzi feel pretty special.

Our little Hannah Montana!

Happy Birthday, Kenzi! We love you!