Including Christmas, Primary Presidencies, and long overdue posting

I guess it’s been a month or so since I’ve written an official letter, so I have some catching up to do. Obviously, we’ve been busy. Here’s some highlights.

Christmas was wonderful, of course. Joe and I absolutely love this stage of parenthood. Our kids are old enough to know what’s going to happen on Christmas morning, but young enough that Santa is very real to them. Watching their little faces light up is so much fun! Some of the highlights were watching our kids act out the nativity as part of the ward party, having Joe’s family and Andrea and Scott over for our annual Mexicana Christmas Eve party, and the fabulous presents we spoiled ourselves with. Joe received a bigger tv as a last-minute present from Santa after he accidently dropped our old one installing wiring for me. It was really my fault because I was taking care of the baby instead of helping him. Or maybe it was Brooklin’s fault for messing her pants at a bad time . I think I made out like a bandit. A week before Christmas, Joe decided to check out a local furniture store’s “1/2 off” sale, thinking it wouldn’t be really that good a deal. It turns out it was!! We’ve been saving money for new furniture for our dining room and bedroom, so I got a brand new dining set and bedroom set for Christmas. I also received a Cricut die-cutting machine from Santa for scrapbooking. AJ is really into dinosaurs this year, and he got a few puzzles to that effect as well as a bunch of toys from Grandma Johnson. He also got a big slot car racing track that needs a home, so it can stay put together. Natalie FINALLY got the infamous cupcake maker she asked for last year. Turns out all the reviews are right. It’s WAY easier to make cupcakes the normal way. And yet, she loves it! We kind of felt like Brooklin got the shaft, but what do you buy a 1-year old? Santa went out of his way and got her a ball-popper toy, which she does enjoy. And of course, there were all kinds of clothes and other necessities that Joe made us wrap and put under the tree. We have a standing policy that anything non-perishable bought post-Halloween has to be wrapped and placed under the tree. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to finally open my new socks. The old ones were in shreds by the time Christmas came.








I got called to the Primary Presidency right after Thanksgiving, and that has taken a ridiculous amount of my time. We’ve had bulletin boards to put together (still a work in progress), binders to prepare for all our teachers, reorganizing of classes, baptisms to attend, as well as just getting through each Sunday! I’m the 2nd counselor, but I’m the only one who’s actually been there each Sunday. Over the holidays, the others all left me alone to fend for myself.

We are still making improvements to the house a little at a time. Joe built me some floating shelves to fill a gap on the kitchen wall. They really look great! We tiled the toe-kick in the kitchen. And we’re working on finishing some wainscoting in the dining room. Joe has been working on refinishing the bathroom countertops.


Brooklin is a stink. She has decided that anything and everything is funner if it’s out of drawers, boxes, or cupboards. Her favorite thing to do is get in the bread drawer and scatter my loaf of bread from one end of the kitchen to the other. She also enjoys digging in flour, dishwasher detergent, and laundry detergent. I broke down and bought child-proofing tools again. I’m afraid of her.

We’ve all been sick a lot over the last month. Brooklin came down with pink eye the week after Christmas. That same afternoon, she woke up from her nap, and her whole face was swollen and puffy. So Joe took her to the doctor for more antibiotics. About the time she got over that, AJ came down with a hacking cough. It was bad enough that I had to give him breathing treatments every few hours. He finally succeeded in giving it to Joe and his sisters this week. I’m claiming the benefits of Echinacea as the reason I’m still okay. Knock on wood. I’ll probably get sick tomorrow, right before I have to go back to work.

AJ and Natalie are engaged. They kept saying they were going to marry each other when they grew up, and we kept telling them that brothers and sisters don't get married. So the next question, naturally, was, "So who can we marry?" We told them that they could marry someone LIKE Alex and Monet, who are the kids of some friends of ours the same ages as Natalie and AJ. The next time they were playing together, they told Alex and Monet that that was the plan whether they were okay with it or not. They also have a 3-year-old boy for Brooklin to marry, so we're all set.

Our stake conference is this weekend. Last night at the adult session, they were talking about the importance of temple work. They told us that in our stake something like 50% of our members are less active. Also, 1/3 of the members who have held a temple recommend don’t have a current one. I wonder of those who do have a current recommend, how many attend regularly. We’re not always great about going every month, but we went last week and are still feeling good about ourselves.