Christmas Letter 2013

You know I have this tradition of writing a letter about our doings that I tuck into each one of my Christmas cards. It's really just my opportunity to brag about the kids and their awesomeness to all of my family and friends.So I thought I would share it with you again this year. Hope you enjoy it (or at least suffer all the way through it...)

We need a new picture!

December 2, 2013

Can you believe it is already December? This year has just flown by with so many changes in our family!

Bossy and Gamer have a new daughter. She is 14 years old and she has lived with various relatives in Texas before finally joining their family this summer. Gamer didn’t know she was his until recently, but she seems to fit right in and she has taken up dance and volleyball like my girls. She was baptized in October and now Gamer is planning to be baptized on December 14. If you are close by, please come! The boys are all doing well, but I will leave their activities for Bossy to share with you.

Gym Rat was promoted to Sr. Lender this year. He is in his last semester of school and will finish up with his BS in Business Management from Western Governors University in February. In his spare time he works out and makes amazing chocolate chip cookies. He also has a little Chi Weenie dog (I probably spelled that wrong) named Franco that is Baby Doll’s best little furry friend.

Drama Queen is teaching at Juab High School. She took over the Drama Dept. this year and just finished up a successful run of Princess Ida that she rewrote in her spare time. She is an amazing teacher and her students love her! She also loves being the “Sugar Mama” when she comes home and she takes each of the kids shopping and spoils them something awful.

Teach is on a mission in Ft. Worth, Texas. She is right about the halfway mark. She has been a Sister Leader Trainer since her second transfer and she loves being a missionary! So far they have had about 4 baptisms, but much of their work is reactivating less active members.

The Dog Walker is attending jr. college full time on scholarship and he is preparing to begin his church service mission soon. He recently finished the temple prep classes and will start mission prep again after Christmas. He is still Dog-Walking and is currently watching two little dogs for a couple of weeks while their owners are out of town. He is working hard to get his amazing holiday display set up in the front yard and finish up school at the same time.

Princess is a junior this year and she is still a straight A student. She is working on becoming a New Century scholar and she took a full load of college classes this summer. She started her first real job as a Jr. Jazz official and she just sold her first real order of cake pops for a shower this weekend. She is an amazing dancer performing in the Nutcracker this week as the Lead Mirliton and member of the Snow Corps.

Prima Donna is a sophomore and she is also a straight A student. She took classes with Princess this summer and is well on her way to becoming a New Century scholar. She just finished up her first play as part of the cast of Footloose and she plays the Bass Clarinet in the Symphonic Band. She is also performing in the Nutcracker this week as Madam Ginger. She and Princess are both active on the Youth City Council.

Crafty is a 7th grader and she is also a straight A student. (I love this trend!) She plays the clarinet in the Concert Band and she just cleaned up at Reflections, winning an award in each of the 7 categories. She is also dancing in the Nutcracker this week in the Waltz of the Flowers. She is one quilt binding away from finishing her Silver Award for Girl Scouts. She, Princess, and Prima Donna are also members of the Library Student Advisory Board.

Sport is a 5th grader and he loves all things sports! He played the center for his football team. They had a great season but lost in the semi finals. He is excited to start basketball this week. He is also dancing in the Nutcracker, but he will be upset with me for telling you that since it doesn’t fit his studly image very well. He is a Webelos Scout, he plays the trumpet and he gets great grades at school. We are very proud of him!

Scout is in the 2nd grade and she loves dancing and sports. She played flag football with Curly and Burrrito and Dog Walker and Princess coached their team, but now she is moving on to basketball and I will be coaching her again this year. She is a buffoon in the Nutcracker and a Brownie Girl Scout. She loves reading and she gets great grades in school.

Curly loves kindergarten, dance, and basketball, not necessarily in that order. He is in two ballet classes and a tap class. I think he would dance every day of the week if we would let him. He is too young to be in the Nutcracker this year, but maybe next year. He has his first basketball game on Saturday and he can hardly wait! He also took top honors this week with the fastest car in any class at our Pinewood Derby!

Baby Doll is also dancing. She loves tap and ballet. Curly is in both classes with her, so that makes it easy. She loves nursery, especially her teacher (me!), although she will be going to primary starting in January. She loves to help Mom and she and I share our day after we drop Curly off for kindergarten. She loves scouts, both boy and girl and she won 3rd place open class at the Pinewood Derby with her pink princess car.

As you probably already guessed, my sweetie is still the Cubmaster. He is coming up on 3 years now and the pressure to come up with new ideas is incredible. He works hard and takes good care of all of us. I won’t mention that he hit the big five oh in August, but you would never know. He can still act just like a 9-year-old boy at pack meeting!

I stay busy with all the craziness of being a mom. I’m still trying to write a post every day on my blog at www.twelvemakesadozen.blogspot.com. I actually have an ad company so I even make a few bucks at it every month and I do mean only a few. I sell a little Tupperware once in a while. Most months I only do a party or two, but I service quite a few people and it lets my buy what I want for the kids at a discounted price. (They are actually my best customers!) I’m on the board for the ballet and they have me writing grant proposals. I have to defend one tomorrow before the entire city council which is a little intimidating but I guess I’ll get along all right. I’m still coaching, both kids and adults. We just finished up the volleyball season and basketball will start soon. I have had the calling as Stake Sports Director for the women for 7 years now and I still love being part of that program. I work out at Curves 4 days a week and they have asked me to start a blog for them in January. It will be much easier than my blog since I only have to post a couple of times a week. My girl scouts have been making a tree for the Festival of Trees and we just set it up today. That has been a huge undertaking, but oh so rewarding to be part of such a huge service project! I try to stay busy and productive. Dog Walker’s homework (and everyone else’s) takes up tons of each and every day of my life, but at least I’m learning new things.

We hope you all have a joyous holiday season and a wonderful Christmas full of love and family.
I know we will.