Happy Holidays!

This is the first year that our Holiday letter will be online! If you've been following our blog all year some of the highlights here might sound familiar.

This year has flown by for us. It's hard to believe that we've now been in North Carolina for 6 years. This fall has been especially cold so we are hoping to see a good snow at some point. We (okay, I) definitely miss the snow! I'm certain my neigbhors think I'm crazy to volunteer to shovel their driveways if and when it snows.

Elizabeth (now 4 1/2 years-old) is in preschool 3 days a week at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church(GSUMC). She loves going to school. Her favorite part of the week is show-and-tell. It is so hard for her to actually put her item in the box at the beginning of the day. She wants to tell everyone about it first thing. I've been amazed at how she loves to work on her writing homework. She's still going to speech therapy twice a week, but she's making good progress. Elizabeth is still our little tomboy. She loves cars and planes....and boys! I never knew the boy craziness started so young. I suppose I should have known better about that, too. I can hardly believe that she will be starting kindergarden next year. When drive by the new school being built down the street, Elizabeth proudly declares, "That's MY new school!" It will be the school that she attends next year.

Katherine is growing up way to fast. I can hardly believe that her second birthday is just around the corner. She's been talking non stop for as long as we can remember. She is a complete girly girl. She loves to play Mommy to her babies and little puppy dog. It's the cutest thing to see her tuck her puppy under her arm at night time. She also loves to take him everywhere. She stuffs him into a little purse and slides the purse onto her arm. She is completely ready to start school and some days it's hard to get her to leave Elizabeth's classroom. She'll go to preschool at Good Shepherd 3 days a week next fall. Elizabeth really enjoys terrorizing her and I don't think that Elizabeth has realized yet that she's going to get her paybacks one day.

This summer's fun included a visit from Mary & Royal. We headed to Topsail Beach for a great time. Katherine was absolutely fearless when it came to the water. Dennis brother, Tim, had two weeks leave from Iraq and we got to visit with their family as well. It was great to see everyone. Nandy, our Nanday Conure, passed away this summer. That was not an easy thing to explain to the girls. Elizabeth still mentions him every once in a while. Both of the girls loved going to the pool this year. Elizabeth suprised us by starting to swim. We'll most likely sign her up for lessons next summer. Katherine and I made a trip to Chicago to visit with family. My Dad and his family drove out to Chicago from California and we spent a lot of time sight seeing together. It was great to see so many family members. The kids missed seeing Elizabeth, but had a lot of fun with Katherine. It was a summer filled with family/friends, and wonderful memories. (Summer Blogs)

My Mom came out this fall and we did plenty of running around. We went on Elizabeth's school field trip to Black's Peaches and Farm (pumpkin patch), where we tried to stay dry, and attended one of Elizabeth's friends birthday party at the Bank of America stadium (where the Carolina Panthers play). Elizabeth is all about football! I was baptized at GSUMC while she was here. That has been something that I've been wanting to do for some time now. The girls really enjoyed her visit. We've had plenty of fun with the season change. The girls have really enjoyed watching the leaves turn colors and fall. We learned that Mary (Dennis' Mom) was diagnosed with breast cancer. They caught it early and we are very thankful for that. Dennis made a trip back to Oregon to surprise his Mom. It has been a very busy fall (Fall Blogs).

This year we started ,what I hope will be, a new Holiday tradition. We took the girls to ride the Polar Express ride on Great Smokey Mountains Railroad (We believe Blog). The only thing missing was snow. The girls had a great time even though they only napped for an hour on the drive up to Bryson City.

I've included links to various photo albums that go with the events I've hightlighted in this update. There may be a few blog entries to go along with them, too. We hope that all is well with all of you and your family during this Christmas season. You are all are near in our thoughts and prayers. May the spirit of this beautiful and blessed season be with you now and throughout the new year.

Love,
Dennis, Marla, Elizabeth & Katherine