Long time, no post...

Okay, it's been a while. Holiday preparations, Thanksgiving, Dance Recital, 3 birthdays, head cold, end of the year work-stuff, etc., etc... You know the drill.

Anyway, I'm trying not to let my attitude toward blogging become like my attitude toward scrapbooking. I go a little while without scrapbooking and then I'm behind and so I put it off, which of course causing me to fall even more behind and next thing I know I haven't scrapbooked in like, 4 years.

Blogging is obviously much less labor-intensive and messy than scrapbooking is, so I'm trying not to get intimidated by the amount of things I've missed. I'm just going to jump right in and blog. So here goes...

So, Eliza turned 12, got her ears pierced, started going to young women's, and danced very well in her big Christmas production Saturday night. She gets to start going "on pointe" in ballet now, so she got her first pointe shoes for her birthday.

Emma turned 10 on Thanksgiving Day(yes, we stuck candles in a birthday pie) and also danced beautifully in the Christmas program. Her dark, brown hair is starting to curl and she's very hopeful that it will go back to the curls she had when she was little. That's what mine did, so it's a good possibility. Very big deal to a 10 year old.

Lydia turned 8 and will be getting baptized on Jan. 3rd. Jim's parents and his sister, Heather, and my brother Andy and his wife, Shiloh, and their baby, Pete, are coming to town for that. We are all looking forward to it. She also won a coloring contest at school and got to have breakfast at the fire station and ride to school on the fire truck. It was quite the privilege.

Caleb is half-way through his kindergarten year. He's been struggling a bit because he is so small for his age, but he just had a growth spurt and busted out of his shoes and clothes like the hulk, so hopefully that will keep up and help some. He counts the presents under the tree daily and I'm sure has memorized the wrapping paper, location and exact size of each of his. He asked Santa for a castle this year. Hopefully, Santa will deliver the right one. I'll have to post the Santa letters here, cause they were so darn cute!

Sophia will be lucky if she gets anything other than a lump of coal for Christmas this year. She is prematurely aging me, I swear. I have never seen a child with quite so much energy or so much to say. Eliza was that way, but Sophie takes it to a whole new level. A couple of weeks ago, we went for a hike--4 miles, 1800 vertical feet. She finally stopped talking on the way back down about a 1/2 mile before the end. So we now know it takes 3 1/2 miles to wear this child out. Is that all?

She is almost as tall as Caleb (which adds greatly to his frustration) and is fully enjoying preschool, creative dance class and driving her mother totally insane.

Jim is winding down his busiest season at work and is now bearded, yet again. I prefer the beard. Most women don't, from what I hear, but I really do. It is getting pretty gray these days, though. I think it looks good salt and peppered. Jim's not so keen on the gray. He, justifiably, blames it on Sophia.

So that's what's going on here these days. We've been pretty busy. I am 95% done with Christmas preparations and am now looking forward to the big event, while relishing in the ability to "officially" listen to Christmas music without Jim complaining about it, "Oh, come on! It's not even Halloween yet!" Sheesh! Some people are such Grinches.

Okay, so there. I posted. Now I can go forward from here, feeling caught up. I'll post some pictures soon. I have to go find my camera first...