lileylou: Christmas Letter

I'm doing the ultimate in lazy Chirstmas cards this year. I am blogging it. I figure those who care what happened to us this last year will bother to get on our blog, and those who don't, I won't have wasted a stamp on. Win-win.

Steve has been very busy this year. He put the finishing touches on my new mud room this last summer and I LOVE IT! I finally have the laundry/sewing/mud/storage area of my dreams. Then he started on the basement. Right now the entire back half of the basement has been demo-ed and cleaned out. We have chalked out the new walls to make two new bedrooms and a bathroom. Now to get the piping and electrical in place. Yea!!!

Stevie started first grade this year in the French immersion program. He learns half his subjects in English, then switches classes and learns the rest in French. I'm amazed at how he understands so much already. Speaking it is coming slowly, but that is not uncommon. They usually learn to understand first. He has also been busy losing teeth, playing the Wii and he recently started reading Harry Potter all by himself.

Riley has started

Kindergarten so she is gone every day now for half a day. She is loving it. She has blossomed into a little social butterfly and is a teachers pet. Who knew. She finally has taken an interest in reading and has just exploded. At the start of Kindergarten she couldn't identify all her letters and now she reads everything in sight. I guess it was just a matter of wanting to do it. She has also lost a few teeth and has been traumetized by it. The funny thing was that when she went to get her Kindergarten shots, she just watched them without flinching or making a sound. It was nothing. But those darn loose teeth really weird her out.

Natalie is just as cute as ever. She has been relatively healthy, although we have learned

that normal sick kids are a walk in the park and will never complain about it again. We have also started to mingle with the diabetic community this year. In September we did Step Out for a Cure as a family and raised money for the ADA. We also have started attending the many JDRF activities they have for each holiday. Natalie started preschool and she is loved by all, of course. She loves her teachers and enjoys playing with

kids her age.

We also had a nice young couple move into the basement of the house behind us where our kids go play. One day Natalie came home saying the girld had given her a diabetes popsicle. Turns out she is also diabetic. It has been nice for Natalie to have a friend in the ward and neigborhood to relate to. She calls her her diabetes friend.

Emma is getting cuter every day. She is into everything and is talking up a storm. Whenever someone enters the room she says "Hello (enter appropriate name)". She can say everyone's name perfectly except for Stevie which comes out as "Weebie". She spends her days following around her siblings trying her best to play with them. She thinks she's people. Whenever any music with a beat is on, she starts dancing around like a bouncy ball. Look out So You Think You Can Dance!

I have had a very ordinary but busy year. Lots of driving kids to school, friends houses, and parties. It's a constant zoo here with friends and family always around. However, I'm sure the zoo is cleaner.

So we tried to get nice pictures of the kids for you and here's what we ended up with.