Happy New Year!

It's a new year so I am going to try something new this year...I am going to try and get back to my regular updates.  Let me try and catch you up on what has been going on the last few months...

Since the end of August, we have been busy as usual.  Daddy started his 3rd year teaching at Concordia this fall and his 8th year working with the football team.  Mommy and I loved going to watch the Cadets play!  It was especially fun since we got to see Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Stephanie at all the games.  We even got to see Uncle Dan at a couple games (he moved to Indy in the Spring, but had a hard time staying away from the games this fall).

Along with football in the fall, I spent a lot of time playing with all of my friends in the neighborhood.  We love to ride bikes, run around, color on the driveways with chalk, run through the sprinkler and play in our pools.  One of our favorite things in the fall is our Halloween party.  This year, I was Minnie Mouse, Taylor was a princess, Reece was a Bumble Bee and Rohen was a Monarch Butterfly.  Some of my other friends were also at the party.  We had fun eating and playing games and winning lots and lots of candy!

November started to get a little bit colder and we got ready for Thanksgiving.  We celebrated at Grandma and Grandpa's house with my Aunts and Uncles.  As always, we had a lot of fun and ate lots of yummy food.  It was also neat because both of my GG's came to town so they got to spend Thanksgiving with us too!

Once we were done with Thanksgiving, we got to do one of Mommy and Grandma's favorite things which was decorating for Christmas.  Mommy picked out a new super big tree this year and lots of new ornaments.  Once everything was up, we had 9 trees in our house and lots of lights, garland and Nativities.  It was so pretty.  Grandma's house had tons of decorations too!  I love to check everything out when I visit. The weeks leading up to Christmas were fun.  Mommy, Daddy and I got a special devotion book to do every night leading up to Christmas.  Each night we learned about a different piece of the Christmas story leading up to the birth of Baby Jesus.  I loved learning about all of the special people and objects that were a part of Baby Jesus' special birth.  Along with our devotion, Mommy and Daddy had a special countdown calendar that had a surprise for me every day.  Some days it was candy or bracelets, or even special princess socks.  The calendar and devotion were definitely highlights everyday.

Christmas was lots of fun this year.  Mommy and I spent an entire day making cookies and then we got to deliver them to all of our neighbors!  Then I went shopping with Mommy to buy gifts for Daddy and then with Daddy to buy gifts for Mommy.  Once we had bought all of the presents, we wrapped them and then we got to open them.  First, we opened presents and Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve.  Well, first we hung out and played games, then went to church, then ate homemade pizzas (one of our favorite family traditions), and then we opened presents.  Everyone opened presents, but I got to open the most!  I got barbies, dress up clothes, a bathrobe, barbie movies, a barbie car, Christmas jammies, a purse, an Ariel mermaid bath doll and a bunch of other cool stuff.  Then we went home, put out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer and went to sleep.  When we woke up in the morning, there were a bunch of presents under the tree.  Most of them were from Mommy and Daddy, but I did get a barbie and a barbie mermaid toy from Santa (I guess he got my message I left him at the North Pole).  Mommy and Daddy got me lots of cool stuff.  I got a special doll named Jessica Ann and my favorite gift is my new scooter.  I can't wait for it to warm up so I can ride it outside!

Last weekend, we celebrated Christmas with Grandpa Rich's family and this Saturday, we are going to Grandma Alice and Grandpa Rich's house to celebrate Christmas with them and Uncle Rick and Aunt Ashley.  Well, it's off to bed for me, but I will be back in a couple days to tell you about Christmas with Daddy's family.

Happy New Year!