Christmas Letter 2010

It's been a busy year! Mike and I have been going back to school. We both got our AA's recently. Mike continues to work full time at T-Mobile. I hold the house together, drive the kids to all of their activities, and sometimes get to take naps! Mike was just called to teach the nine year olds at church, and I have been leading the music in sacrament meeting since March.

Emily just turned 11 and is in the 6th grade, which is at the middle school in our district. She is very social and likes to spend time with her friends. She enjoys playing all sorts of sports, like volleyball, basketball, and softball.

Dustin just had his 8th birthday and was baptized. He is in the 2nd grade this year. He loves to learn and reads books that should be too hard for someone his age. He likes to ride his bike and play baseball. He tried football for the first time this year and decided that he didn't like it.

Alexis is now five. She started kindergarten this year. She loves her teacher and meeting new friends. She is learning to sound out words. She likes to dress up and wear jewelry. She wants to learn to ride her bike without training wheels, but I am still a little wary of her arm. The surgeon said that she could not have any trauma to it for a year.

We have all been good and healthy. We decided to skip the expense of buying and mailing Christmas cards this year, so we are going this way. We hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas and enjoys spending time with family and friends.

Love, Michael, Priscilla, Emily, Dustin, & Alexis

Now for November!

We spent Thanksgiving with Mike's family. The food was good, but it's always good when I don't have to cook it! The kids stayed up at the lake and Mike and I went home and did a little midnight shopping on "black Friday". We were home and in bed before most people left their houses. We drove by several stores on the way home just to laugh at the people who were camping out. Crazy people.

Anyhow... Dustin's birthday was that Saturday, so after I got the kids home, I made the cake and we celebrated after Mike got home from work. This was his eighth birthday, so he got new scriptures with a case, a CTR ring, and a CTR tie.

Looking at the pictures in his new scriptures.

Holding up the new tie.

Blowing out eight candles.

Dustin was baptised the next Saturday, (which was actually the first weekend in December, but it's still going here). We were happy to have some family and friends come to celebrate with us. We had a nice lunch at our home afterwards. It was nice and relaxing to sit and visit. The dog even behaved herself! I forgot to get the picture of the boys in their whites, but oh well! I took a picture of them after. Oh, I forgot, we also bought Dustin his first suit!

The boys were in their suits, I choose a black and white dress, I came out of my room and Emily was wearing a black and white dress, and Alexis was sporting bright yellows and pinks, so I changed her into a black and white dress also and decided to get some family pictures while we were all dressed up.
Unfortunatly, someone is making a face in every single one of them, except for this one. Alexis' hair is all messed up, but nothing I can do about it now. Everyone wanted out of their dressy clothes by this point, so they weren't cooperating very well.

That's what's been going on around here! The kids are eager for Christmas to get here (and vacation). Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Halloween

I know. That's all that needs to be said. The school had the annual, crazy, unorganized, Halloween parade again. The kids love it, so can't complain too much. Emily did not dress up for school. I don't know if it's because the middle school will not allow it, or if it's just because that's not cool!

Dustin wanted to be a mad scientist. His idea of that was to wear a lab coat and to have toxic green hair. So we made it happen.
Alexis got her pick of Emily's old costumes. She choose the "snow princess" one. This is the costume that Emily wore the year Alexis was born, so at about the same age.
Emily wanted to be a pirate, so we borrowed everything and she was happy. It was a beg, borrow, and steal kind of Halloween around here. Mike is dressed as a guy in a jersey. Saturday was super busy, a day full of parties.


We had to celebrate Emily's (and Eddie's) birthday, then rush over to rollerama for a skating, costume party. (Her orthodontist rented the place for all of his clients) I think I had more fun than the kids, they kept falling. As soon as that was done, we went straight to the church for our annual "trunk-or-treat". It was a busy day. Luckily Mike got the day off and was able to spend it with us.
Emily = 11.
Eddie = Emily + 30!

Alexis' baby teeth

Sunday, we were sitting in church waiting for sacrament meeting to start when I heard "Eeeewwwww! Gross!" from the pew behind me. I turned around and said "What?" I was then informed that Alexis was pushing her bottom front two teeth completely flat with her tongue. As we were getting dressed she had said that her teeth were loose, but I just brushed her off thinking she's too young to lose teeth. When we got home one of them was hanging there and she refused to eat, so Mike pushed it out.

There it is. Notice the other bottom tooth moved over into the empty space.

So, the other tooth hung on until Friday, when it was so loose that she wouldn't eat again. So, once again, Mike pushed it out.

Here she is all cute and toothless.

Braces

During the summer, I decided it was time to get Emily braces because she was entering middle school and I know how brutal those kids can be. Her teeth were/are terrible and I don't want her getting made fun of for them. She spent most of the summer in spacers and then moving her molars back. She finally got the braces put on last week and chose pink and green rubberbands. The ladies said that is a very popular choice right now (as I bit my tongue).

Award Day

Dustin got the first student of the month award this year (again). His teacher said it's because he always does his work queitly and on time. He is very helpful to her and his other classmates. He is very well behaved (at school). Above is our PTC president giving him the award.

Here he is modeling it and his brand new school shirt.

And this is him with his teacher.

First day of school 2010

Emily started in the sixth grade at our local middle school. She has to catch the bus at 7:30 every morning, so her picture was alone because the other two were no where near ready. I walked her to the bus stop the first day and quickly realized that it's not cool for mom to walk you to the bus stop.
Dustin was pretending to be mad about going to school. I knew he was really excited. He started second grade this year. Alexis could hardly wait to start kindergarten. She'd been asking me to go since her birthday. She didn't understand why she was five and not going to school.
My pictures are washed out because I was in a hurry and forgot to check the settings. I need to remember to do that.
So far they seem to be doing well at school. I haven't heard many complaints. Except from Emily. She keeps complaining that she is getting in trouble for talking in class. Really?