Merry Christmas

For the first time Christmas came too soon! We are still getting ready, I gave up on homemade treats yesterday and bought some stuff for neighbors and friends. It has been an eventful year. Jonathan has started getting an interesting take on life. Obviously he is old enough to act like a teen. We have watched his testimony grow and seen him begin to turn into a young man. Even with the attitude it is neat to watch. He is preparing for the priesthood and REALLY loves to help Jon serve in the ward. We recently won a snow blower at Jon's work party and he is excited to get to use it to help the neighbors. Joseph has also started coming into his own. It has been a roller coaster of a year with him, but we know his Heavenly Father has a plan. He has gotten really good at reading the scriptures and can make out almost every word. He also informed me today he wants to wear a suit every Sunday from now on because he "feels good" in it. He has always been a sharp dresser. It will be very expensive to keep him happy come High School. Who says boys aren't hard to dress? Josh is really a riot. He loves school and is very excited to be learning to read. He can sound out alot of 3-4 letter words and recently told me washing the walls makes him feel happy. No, you can't borrow him, I'm not done yet! He even helps Austin clean his room and get dressed (which Austin can do alone, but why go to all that trouble when you have a big brother to do it for you)? Austin is alot of fun. Still the smallest of all his friends he is developing a Napoleon complex. The funniest part is when Aaron (who is a week younger, by the way) holds him on his lap. You can not tell they are the same age. It's like a 5 year old holding a toddler. Cheryl and I got a kick out of that. He is always telling people he is 2 years older than he is and argues with them when they don't believe him. He is also learning to read, he can sound out 2-3 letter words and gets really excited. Josh just glares at him because it is his newest skill too. Many people have asked us what the deal is with the house. We are moving in May/June. We want to finish the school year out in case we do not stay in the school district, so we have until June 15. We do not know where we are going yet, only that we need at least 1 more bedroom because Jonathan and Joseph are driving us nuts and neither of them can share with Josh, either. Everyone wants to share with Austin. Also, we are looking in to Foster Care and intend to adopt an older sibling group (2-3 kids over 4), maybe for Christmas nest year. There is a brother and sister, 8 and 9 we are interested in and the kids are excited at the prospect of kids to grow up with. We thought it would be better to raise them all together as siblings instead of after our own kids. We will see what happens. Since we don't make girls we'll have to go get some.

Next year looks to be pretty promising so far and we look forward to sharing it with all of our friends and family. Have a wonderful Christmas!

Friends

I am so thankful to have so many good friends. Before we moved here I only had 1, my RS Pres. I miss her tons, but have been so blessed. Granted there were icky things going on and I felt I had to isolate our family, but it was very lonely. I remember crying and praying things would be different once we got here, and could not imagine actually having one friend let alone many. While I can be a little obnoxious sometimes, they stick by and just let it pass. Life is so much richer and so much fuller when we have friends to share it with. I never thought I would feel part of anything again. We all probably feel like outsides in our own lives sometimes, but thankfully that passes, too. In 2 months my oldest friend and I will celebrate our 20 year anniversary. So awesome. It would be so great to keep you all that long. Even better, each of the boys has at least a few good friends. They have tried so hard to be good friends and bond with kids in their school and church classes and have been pretty successful. It is such a blessing to see them fitting in for the most part in spite of their individual struggles. It doesn't seem worth it sometimes, but things straighten out and turn out well. Thanks to those of you who share your boys (and Kylie) with mine.