From Our Home to Yours...Our Christmas Letter

In order to be a little thriftier this Christmas season, we chose to write our Christmas letter on virtual paper. If you just found this site through the address on our card, thanks for stopping by. I hope you have fun seeing the girls and reading our thoughts and stories. Grab some hot chocolate, read the letter, then browse around the site if you wish. Hope to see you back here soon!

Dear Friends & Family,

At our house, we don't put a lot of emphasis on Santa but if we did, I can predict where our crew might fit in on his Naughty or Nice Lists...

Daddy, of course, would fall on the Nice List. He's been working two jobs all year, so he's too busy to get in trouble! The Sheriff's Department and his security guard job take up plenty of his time-although he sure spends a lot of time with many on the Naughty list :) Daddy got extra points taking good care of Mom and all the girls when Audrey arrived, so he gets a free ticket for the Nice List for the next few years!

Mom, well, she's doomed for the Naughty List. You see, it all started November 5th when she went into labor with Audrey. Mom got all dramatic...or was it Audrey...and they ended up in surgery for an emergency C-section. Mom got so used to the quiet home away from home and room service at the hospital that she decided she needed a few more days of it. She conjured up this plan to have trouble breathing and with excess fluid just so she didn't have to cook or do dishes. Good thing she and Audrey are both healthy now, maybe she can earn her way back to the Nice List next year. She'll have lots of time to work on it since she left her job this Fall to stay home with all the girls.

Ashlyn might want to take a walk on the wild side, but she's a true Nice List girl. She's Mom's right hand. Becoming quite the "tween" she's little girl and young woman all together. This will be her last year as a student in Awana, where she memorizes Bible verses. Next year she plans to be a Leader in Training. She's been working at saving for a horse and will probably have enough to buy one as soon as we move to a house with space for one.

Jumping from one list to the other all year is Hope. Most of the time she is a great helper, especially to her little cousin Adri who spends her weekdays in our home. Hope is an expert diaper changer, baby entertainer and Bible verse memorizer. Like most kids though, Hope flirts with the Naughty list when she stalls on her school work and chores...and bedtime...

Ahh, the soft voice and cute freckles that belong to Miss Bethany keep her far from the Naughty List, even when she begs to play with her large Polly Pocket collection instead of doing her kindergarten work. Bethany still has a strong shy side but is a riot at home. Most of the giggles we share come from something Bethany said.

Jaika-easy as pie: Naughty List! Naughty List and loving it! I'm sure she'd have it no other way! Jaika has caused her parents to put up extra baby safety locks on cabinets they'd never thought reachable by other siblings. Poison Control is on speed dial. Thankfully, Jaika is a lively two year old with a huge smile that goes hand in hand with a great sense of humor.

Audrey Shayne is just five weeks old, so she's hardly had time to cross over to the Naughty List. However, before she was born, she thought it'd be fun to play jump rope with her umbilical cord and she knotted it up. The Lord watched out for her and kept it from getting tight. She's so cuddly, I'm sure Santa won't hold it against her.

So, there you have it, the run down on who gets coal and who gets gifts! One gift we're hoping for soon is our land to sell. We can fulfill some big financial goals with that money, including buying that house for the horse. Well, it will also have more bedrooms and bathrooms for the humans!

Merry Christmas from us! May you always be on the Nice List...of course we all know Who's list we need to be on and it has nothing to do with Santa!