Happy Holidays 2009

Well Christmas is over and thank heavens it is the close to the end of 2009! Our sweet family has had a year of many blessings and many challenges.

Austin has been serving in the Ventura California Mission. We are down to counting months for his return- He is doing great and we are very proud of him!

Whitney is a Jr this year and made Varsity Cheerleader- she had a lot of fun and enjoyed every minute of it. We are just starting her 2nd year of competing at level 8 in gymnastics. In the spring she made it to regionals which was very exciting!

Slade is in 6th grade this year and enjoying all the sports that he can! His football team won the CYFL championship this year which was very exciting since Greg was his coach.

Claire Bear is in 3rd grade this year and is dancing and cheering and being an all around sweet girl.

Deacon, we are so blessed to have this angel with us. Deacon was in a very bad accident the last week in August and had to have 6 hour surgery to reattach his pinky and reconstruct most of his hand. He spent 7 days in Cincinnati Children's Hospital. It was really awful, I will not candy coat it. His pinky did not take and had surgery 3 weeks later to have it removed. He is doing great though and he tells me that his fingers are all better.

We are blessed to have a lot of amazing friends that really took care of our family including an amazing home teacher that really supported our family, as well as the support of the people that we work for! It is during challenges like this that you realize how truly blessed that you are. I cannot begin to express the kindness that we saw from so many people, at times like this all you can do is except service from others, be grateful for the people in our lives, the companies that we work for and the love of a Heavenly Father that stayed by our side during this time.

As for Greg and I we are grateful that we have had many blessings this year.

Although my year started off a little rough with the death of my sister, I have much to be grateful for. I am still working for Kinder care and loving every minute of it- I cannot believe that I have been there for 2 years- they have flown by! I guess that when you work for and with amazing people and work with children all day there is not much to complain about! I am looking at PhD programs but have not had the nerve to apply for one, I am sure that by the time that Deacon gets into Kindergarten that I will have picked one out!

Greg's company just went through a reorganization and he was promoted-so I have not seen him very much since October...but I am very proud of him! He coached Slades football team this year and is looking forward to coaching his baseball team as well!

So as we close 2009 and look forward to 2010 we are grateful for all of the challenges and blessings that we have had look forward to a new year!