Year -End Wrap!

We are on Christmas count-down and I cannot believe it's almost here!  Kids are very excited to spend time with cousins!  Thought I'd better put some thoughts down before this year ends!  Such a great time of life for us...mainly because the girls still nap.  (Ha!) 

1.  Sam just finished up with his basketball season.  Did such a good job on defense!  Must have been all of those years practicing taking toys away from Alex.  Alex will be playing basketball for the first time starting in January.  Ben's coaching his team...should be fun to see Alex broaden his 'non-art' horizons!

2.  Spencer started ski club again this year.  He really enjoys it...even if it's on man-made snow this year!  Weird.  Spenc is having a great year...has a great group of school friends that he really enjoys.  Needs to work on making better friends with the Mormon boys in the ward...we're working on that. 

3.  All the boys are doing so great in school.  I'm normally not 'one of those Moms' who has a bumper sticker about how awesome their kids' grades are...but I'm seriously proud of all of them...especially considering the lack of time I spend helping them.  (Sad but true!  I feel I can never catch a breath...running constantly...yet I still can't get to everything needed!)  And I'm super proud of Mr. Sam...he is actually caring a little about his grades!  :)  After the last report cards I truly had a moment of just being grateful.  Grateful that my kids can (and are!) learning.

4.  Mom was here in November.  Had such a great time with her.  We always do.  I would ask her to come to MN every 3 months if I thought she'd do it!!!  I'm going to ease her into it...I'll start with suggesting she come every 6 months and then we will go from there....  :)

5.  Girls.  Yep...still adore them.  I even adore how tired and crazy they make me feel...my mind is always going a million miles an hour with the chaos in this house.  But these girls are too sweet...I often wonder if I was this observant when the boys were little.  I love every cute little thing they do...I don't recall loving every cute moment with the boys!?  Many things are getting easier with them...and I still have things that are difficult...but they are such sweet girls and I don't want them to grow-up.  Really.

6.  Piano.  Yep...still teaching.  Too many students (24) but I'll finish out this school year and reassess if I can keep it up next year. 

7.  Ben.  Yep...still married.  I think Ben's doing well...we've seemed to have a lot of dinner dates with friends lately so he's in 'eating-out' heaven.  If there aren't restaurants in heaven Ben might not want to go. 

8.  Church.  Yep...still Mormons.  Ben's still on the high council and I was recently released from compassionate service and am now the Laurel advisor.  So glad...I'll be honest and just say that I hated compassionate service.  It all starts with the lack of compassion on my end.  I'll admit it. 

9.   Running.  Kind of a weird one to comment about...but it's been something I've been making more of a priorty lately and it makes me happy.  I enjoy a good treadmill run...I get all caught up on the TLC shows and push myself to improve.  It's one of the few things I feel like I have any control over these days!   

10.   Dinners.  Why do people have to eat?  Yep...still preparing them.