Kent continues to work at A Child's Hope Foundation organizing work projects in Mexico for volunteers. Our family joined him last week for the final work group of the year and we discovered that his "work" is mostly driving around and giving directions. He said he would have liked to put work gloves on and build something, but I think he was perfectly content to check out the great restaurants of Baja in between delivering goods to orphanages. He is also working with some partners to establish a small business process analysis and IT implementation consulting thing. (Can you tell I'm not sure what he does exactly?) His highlights in 2009: Besides discovering a love for the demolition derby, Kent started exercising! He plays racquetball weekly and started a workout on a mini trampoline. I considered embedding a video of his morning bouncing, but decided that YouTube would probably block the video.
#1 discovered a love for water. She spent the summer swimming, water sliding, and tooling around on a makeshift raft up Provo Canyon. Even the freezing water at the beach last week didn't stop her from wading in and learning to boogie board in the waves. Her Christmas highlight was getting a real, working MP3 player.
#2 One moment she is my sweet substitute mother for #5, and the next she is a rocking out diva. Grandma and Grandpa also gave her an MP3 player to rock out to, but she was more ecstatic about the electric toothbrush wrapped with it. It was quite entertaining to hear her shriek with excitement and run to the bathroom to brush her teeth on Christmas morning!
#3 just turned eight and is looking forward to being baptized in a few weeks. She loves to find loopholes in any system and felt her Mexico vacation was fulfilled when she bought herself a coconut, which didn't do much to warm her shivers. (I thought if I didn't pack swim suits, my kids wouldn't get in the December Pacific. Their five soaked and shivering bodies proved me wrong.)
#4 is five-years-old and loving Kindergarten. I was really proud of her for sticking up for a picked-on kid in her class yesterday. She is a kind soul, and an ambitious photographer. She keeps us giggling. I expect this clip of her tap dancing with a major wedgie will be great footage at her wedding some day.
#5 is a talker! And contrary to what he would have you believe in this photo of him "cleaning", he is also a mess maker, a gross-outer, and a "territory marker". But he's three, so we'll let his cuteness outweigh his other traits...for now.
As for me (Mary), my life passes away like this photo, and I enjoy some gourmet snacks along the way. Oh, and the other 364 days I didn't spend on the beach, I got down and dirty with my kids, worked on gardening or blogging about it, conquered wakeboarding, had fun with friends (I finally biked down the Provo River Trail), started a book, chopped off my hair, learned about patents for the invention I'm finally going to develop, and went to a lot of Church meetings. In summary, my life is really a lot like this post. I am truly blessed in many ways.Here's to another exciting year and decade!
2 comments:
I somehow missed some of these posts. I'm not even sure how that is possible. Anyway, I love hearing how your family has grown. Matthew loved the tap dancing video, your daughter is already garnering fans!
I love the blog Christmas letter and the links to all the "fun" you've had all year. I hope this new year is equally as entertaining. Thanks for sharing.
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