Merry Christmas!
What a year we have had! While hectic at times it has been fun, rewarding and full of lessons. Here are a few of the lessons we learned.
Lesson #1 Never try to move away from your family, it doesn't work.
When we left the Chicago area last year we left behind Christy's mom and two younger sisters. In April Christy's mom took a job in the Seattle area. We love having Gramma and Aunt Shelly close enough to come visit for long weekends. Christy's sister Beth has been living with us since March while she saves up for school. Sometime after the first of the year she will be moving in with her mom as she finishes saving for school.
Lesson #2 Never take on the playground equipment, you will always loose.
Some of us have learned this lesson after our stomachs let us know we had been swung in too many circles on the tire swing or perhaps for you it was falling off the merry go round. Abianne learned the hard way when she was thrown to the ground by the playground equipment and broke her arm in October. She was a real trooper through it all and is ready to take on the playground again as soon as the doctor says she can. Two weeks later she broke her nose, she was one wounded looking little girl for a while there!
Lesson #3 Never, ever buy a fixer upper for your first house, unless your parents are known as Mr. and Mrs. Fix-it.
After we closed on our house in the spring we spent every waking hour for the next six weeks getting it ready to move in. We would be living under a bridge some place if Nathan's parents hadn't spent countless hours helping with all of the work. We replaced all the floors, painted every wall and ceiling, found a few surprises, caught squirrels in the house and did many other repairs.
Lesson #4 Money doesn't grow on trees, so never buy anything new unless you have to.
Mainly using Craigslist we were able to purchase all our appliances, including a front loading washer and dryer, for the same price that one would spend on a new high end fridge. Most of the appliances were high end models that were only a few years old. On a humorous note, when we picked up our fridge the previous owners informed us that not even a bit of meat had ever been stored in it. (welcome to Hippie Eugene)
Lesson #5 Camping is fun, it's even more fun if you have lots of family around
The annual Stone's camping trip was once again a success. As always, we really roughed it at a private camp ground in nice travel trailers. The new things this year were that Christy's mom and two younger sisters were able to join us, there were two kayaks for use in the very small river (or large creek, depending on how you look at it) and that the Talbott's weren't able to make it. We had a great time and this year Uncle Sam is the reigning Baggo champion!
Lesson #6 - Love your spouse, it's fun and rewarding.
Did we mention child #5 is due in the first few weeks of February? Yes, there has been lots of love'n going on. Bets are out on if it will be a boy or a girl, but with our track record the odds are highly in favor of a girl.
Lesson #7 Kids say the funniest things, but if you don't write it down you will forget.
Unfortunately we learned this the hard way this year, but here are a couple of the gems we did write down.
Emilie Christy asked her if she was cute and she replied;
"No, I am not cute, I am a booootiful pwincess. Now where is my slipper?"
Aubrie - "Sometime when there is air outside can we bring out our pinwheels?"
This Christmas may we all rejoice in the Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave us this wonderful holiday by coming to earth 2000 years ago as a child, lived a perfect life and died for you and me so we can spend eternity in Heaven.
Nathan Christy Abianne (6) Aubrie (5) Emilie (3) Natasha (20 months) - ???? (coming Feb '09)