End of the Year Letter...

We mailed out some photos and have a few more to mail and so here is the newsy letter to accompany it. We thought about just putting our picture up here too, but we so enjoy getting all of your photos that we decided to mail some out...

2009--
I am going through photos of this past year trying to figure out what was exciting, fun, interesting... Hmmm... We sold our rats after they got out one time too many and decided that MY dresser was a great new home and chewed up everything to make it more comfortable and palatable. ;| We didn't take any big trips, but have settled more into our new house. We are super excited to have Jim's sister and family living here where we are now! Todd and Alicia moved here and just bought a house in our town about 10 minutes away. Fun to have lots of cousin time and I enjoy sister-in-law time just as much!

With the current economy and the size of our house we decided this year it wouldn't hurt to have a roommate--along came Jenny! We now have a college student living with us and we are enjoying every minute. She is the big sister the boys have always wanted--playing with them, teasing them, and helping them.

Carsten continues to get hurt--as I am writing this he fell off a chair and hurt his shoulder, hopefully not too bad. This year he has had his share of accidents. He ran into the corner of our table and had a nice black eye for a while. He fell off of a bar stool and landed on one front tooth--it is still hanging in there, but is a little crooked. Carsten dresses as an engineer almost everyday, or as often as I wash his overalls, Thomas shirt, and the special red shirt he wears underneath. Papa (Jim's dad) took us to ride on Thomas the Train for the boys' birthdays and Carsten enjoyed it immensely...


Reese has lost two teeth, ran a 1K race with his daddy, and is loving school. We decided to homeschool Reese this year and we are really enjoying it. Butter continues to be his good friend and still goes wherever Reese goes. Reese has grown a lot this year, not just in size, but maturity. He just sounds older and is more independent--sad for mommy, but good for him! Reese is also taking piano lessons from Jim's cousin and he likes his time with Becky.

Jim ran a marathon in November and I do believe/hope it is his last... We took him to the mall that night and we had to wheel him around in a wheelchair--hmmmm.... He is still running, but that might have to do with the fact that his "running group" is composed of eleven women and Jim! He continues to work with his dad and now brother-in-law. He also is still with Weight Watchers teaching one meeting a week.

I am doing the same--nothing too exciting in my corner, I am busy with homeschooling Reese, cooking gluten free for all of us (Jim and Reese can't have gluten), and keeping house... I continue to have the privilege of staying home and I love it. Alicia (my sister-in-law), Becky (Jim's cousin), and I have started a cooking club of sorts. We get together about once a month and we each cook five meals times three and so we end up with fifteen meals to take home and freeze. Works out great and we enjoy the time together as well.

We've had a good year and hope you all have too. Thanks for all the cards and pictures!

More from time at Opa and Oma's...

Here are a couple more pictures from Thanksgiving time at my parents...
Carsten got sick had a cold and croup and then Jim scratched his cornea while helping cut wood!
We are all mended and doing well!

This is how Carsten spent his time while he was sick... playing games on his computer...