January

Mike I think this last year had a lot of fun at his birthday. It was number 10 and Darrel went all out and let him invite 10 boys to spend the night. I think 8 ended up staying and we definately had our hands full but everyone had lots of fun. We pulled out the X Box, Wii, and set them up in different rooms with the TVs and then put legos all over the kitchen table and everyone just kind of bounced all over. The hardest part was getting them all to got to bed. We probably should have just let them stay up as late as they wanted but since school was still in I was scared to have them too tired. I think #12 we will probably do that. They will be 2 years older anyway. He got lots of legos for his birthday and seemed very happy with it. Indiana Jones and Star Wars was the kits this year. Boy has he gotten bigger this year. I remember when he was just 1 and slept all day and night. He slept more than anyone I know. I guess he was just preparing for when he got older and would not be needing as much sleep then. It has been a busy but fast 9 years. I am sure then next 8 will be just as fast if not faster. He has been doing great in Cub Scouts and I hope he continues it when he goes onto Boy Scouts. I think it is something that he will enjoy and it will help him to continue to think about things and make good choices. Right now it seems like it is about 60% of the time. I would like to see this move to 90% and I think Scouts would help with this. He has matured more this last year than he has in the last 3 years. With his kind heart this is sure to work to his advantage. There must be something going in the right direction. Mike, I hope you know how much we love you and I am already looking forward to seeing what a great young man you turn into.

Well, we got Christmas put away and the new year rang in. Seems like this month has been very peaceful because of the holidays being over. I felt like this year they went really fast. It seemed like once Halloween came it all ran together and was nothing but caious from October to December. I didn't get christmas cards out this year even though I did do the family pictures. That was actually the point of it all but some of my best intensions fall short. The pictures did turn out great though and hopefully next year I will be able to get them out to everyone. My biggest problem seems to be tracking down all the addresses. Maybe next year I will start checking into sending electronic cards. It seems like I always have everyone's email addresses. Maybe that is the way to go for me. We will just see. Two birthdays coming up and then one each of the following months. We have birthday's in December, February, March and April. Then we break until the summer for me and Darrel. I love having a big family but boy does it keep you busy. I can't even imagine what it will be like when 4 of them are teens.