Sorry- No Holiday Letter This Year

I'm just not organized enough to get the annual Christmas picture and letter out. What held us back was the lack of a good-current family picture.
Here's what we have instead. An old outdated one from May and a bad-lighting/pose/etc. photo.



Maybe next year.

In other news-- I actually have a moment to blog right now--that's a little unheard-of these days.
What's been keeping me busy?
This past month Zach laid concrete and grass in our backyard and I helped, a little.
My job was to keep the kids occupied. Then during their naps, I could help more. Pictures will be forthcoming- we're not completely done yet.

We just had our Christmas Ward Choir program which I had the privilege of accompanying again this year. Zach's grateful choir practice is done now. While a choir member can skip out now and again, the accompanist never can.

I just hosted my winter piano recital this past Saturday and again was very pleased. I love the whole teaching process and being able to watch the progress of an individual. I get a little break from piano lessons with the school break and intend to get organized again.

I've been spending nearly every Friday since September over at a friend's house working on different sewing projects. She's in my ward, but only for about 6 more months and then their stint with the air force is over and they're off to a new location. As soon as I got my sewing machine, I asked her if she would like to get together and sew with me and she was very kind to agree. She's a very talented sewer (is that the right term?) and I knew I only had her around for one more year so I seized the opportunity. We've sewed all sorts of fun stuff-aprons, baby receiving blankets, booties, beanies, cell-phone covers, a table runner, Christmas stockings and now we're both working on a wall-hanging for our homes. When I first started sewing with her, it took me a large portion of our time to just figure out how to use my machine. Now I'm so much more comfortable with it and am starting to be able to sew a straight line more consistently.;) It's been so much fun and as I had hoped- I LOVE sewing. I still have much to learn, but I'm so grateful for a good friend who is willing to share her talent with me.
Some of our projects:


To give credit where credit is due- three of the shown stockings were made by my mom, I just made Gwen's.

Now- just 'cause. Here are some random pictures. One of them was taken by Lincoln. Can you tell which one?

Pictures and Captions- or thoughts

I have a bunch of pictures that don't warrant an entire post to themselves, so this is what you get instead.

This little girl keeps getting cuter and cuter. I was trying to get a picture of her semi-naturally curly hair. It has a teensy-weensy bit of curl in the back. I LOVE it and love to rub my face in it. She is so independent. I will often find her off in some other room of the house playing quietly by herself. I have to always watch for her in case she tries to get into something. The worst thing she's gotten into so far is the trash. Fortunately, nothing really dangerous yet.

The nightly ritual.

Lincoln and his make-shift T. He loves balls-of course. I saw a used wrapping paper roll lying around and decided to make a T for him. He loved it and when he got tired of it, I wasn't upset because it cost nothing to make! How do you like his (vacuum hose-extension) bat? ;)


Who needs a double stroller?
Before Gwen was born, Zach convinced me that we wouldn't need a double-stroller. He was right!
This was on an outing looking at the christmas lights at the cactus gardens. It was cold enough outside and they were comfortable enough in their seats to allow Zach and I some calm site-seeing.



Oh, so precious.



Dad and Mom