Merry Christmas!

Well, we're doing a little something different this year, I'm doing the annual Christmas letter on my blog. I was getting ready to put Christmas cards together and was feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything and decided that less is more, so I consolidated. This is quite fun anyway, so enjoy.

So every year seems to get busier. We're all growing older and that comes with more responsibility. Allen continues to be a Sergeant for the St. Anthony Work Camp. He's both enjoyed and disliked the extra responsibility. But it's been good to grow into the promotion. In church he's been called to oversee holiday flag distribution and he's also a Sunday school teacher for 16 year olds. Yeah Gospel Doctrine! He wishes he could spend more time working in the wood shop, but with the change of temperature and work schedule, it makes it tough.

Amy survived her first year at Madison High School and is cruising through the second. It's really good to get past the first year, it was definitely a transition. Her BPA group qualified to go to nationals and this year it was in New York City. So, both Allen and Amy and her students went there in May and had a great time there. They explored the city, went to museums and a Broadway show. Not to mention the other regular tourist attractions. It was a lot of fun, and very tiring with many blisters. She was elected to be the Idaho Business Education Association President for 2009 and she's both excited and nervous about the new position. In church, she continues to work on the ward bulletin, and was helping Allen with the Sunday school class until she was called to be the 1st councilor in the Primary which has been interesting. Amy still loves to make cards and explore PhotoShop and even dabbles in photography a bit.

Kenny began Kindergarten this year and he's really thrived. He's very bright for his age, but constantly needs reminded to slow down and work better on his homework. He's starting to read and write and is excited about it. This summer he played t-ball and soccer. And this fall he wrestled for the first time. I'm not sure we're ready to be such active parents with the sports...but we're toughing it out.

Ashlyn is definitely her own person with very strong opinions. Some would say she's stubborn, we think that sometimes, but really she's independent. Grandma Bowen says that it sounds like Ashlyn's mom. She's into pretend big time and of course, the colors pink and purple. She lives for the nights that daddy does her nails. We laugh, because she's either talking, crying or singing all the time. She'll be starting Sunbeams in January. She's also going to start dance class in January.

We hope that this Christmas season warms your hearts. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!