Christmas Letter

We are not on the blogging band-wagon as you can see but here is an update. I will attempt for a few family members who asked to update once a month.

2010 has been a good year for us! Alyse Ruth joined our family in August and has proven to be just what our family needed. She has been smothered in love from the moment of her arrival. Worthy of note is our first ever home birth with midwife and doula. It was a beautiful experience over all.(There was about 1 1/2 hours of not-beautiful and what a blessing our doula was!) The kids were gone for a few days and it was just Nathan, Alyse, me and a few visitors to enjoy the beautiful feeling of a new little person in our home. I need to add that my mom was here but she went about quietly cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and holding a baby so I could sleep. It was love at first sight for her siblings!

Alyse is not the only entertainment around here! Hattie(3) is our most colorful little one. She has a million expressions and is totally goofy. She teases Harrisonn(4 almost 5)something amazing. He finally has decided to tease her back so he can laugh instead of cry. Hattie wants to do all her older siblings do and she appears to have many gifts and abilities.

Harrison is our helper. He follows dad and mom around wanting to do what we are doing. He loves to dig, hammer, unload the dishwasher, sort the laundry or any task he can be assigned to as long as we are beside him. He loved attending a preschool at the beginning of the year and really loved swimming lessons this summer. He usually has a large smile on his face or can be coaxed into one.

Wells is very gifted gymnast and violinist. He rarely puts much effort into lessons but the results are above average. Oh how to inspire him! He loved swimming and enjoyed the high dive and diving to the bottom of the pool this year. Gymnastics was a blast for Wells until he got to gold level soon after he started. Then he didn't like how sore he got or the bigger kids teasing him so after a year of it we let him quit. He is now in a clogging class with Ellie and he is enjoying it.

I sometimes wonder what I did to deserve Ellie! What a jewel. She was baptized this Spring and had so many friends and family join her. She has been the greatest help to me. What a little grown up girl she is becoming. She loves reading, soccer, playing with friends, gymnastics, piano, clogging, swimming, legos and pretty much everything. She has such a love of life and learning. She's a rock star!

Nathan is so very busy running his fathers cattle and land business. There is a great diversity to what he does. He is not your typical cowboy. He wears his ball cap and tennis shoes on his motorcycle to round up cattle. He is "stuck" in the office conducting business but also runs machinery and helps his crew work efficiently with incoming and outgoing cattle. He took to the hills with his kids numerous times in July and August to pick huckleberries. It was a great stress relief for him and me! I was able to enjoy a few quiet moments at the house preparing for and taking care of a baby. The mountains and college football season are his preferred de-stressers. It is a beautiful time of the day when Nate comes home and the kids want his attention and not mine.

Lissie -I am doing great and feel so blessed to have these beautiful children and a wonderful albeit busy husband surrounding me. What a blessing it has been to have Alyse. She is the best medicine for us all. She grins and cuddles and gives us kisses.
We are still doing homeschool and although there are challenging days I love having my kids around. They are wonderful friends and are great learners. Not to say they aren't typical kids but more of the time than not I feel like we have a good thing going. This has been a great year for us and we pray that we will have opportunity to slow down and see more friends and family. We continue to love the scriptures and grow more aware of how nothing we have would be possible without our Heavenly Father's plan and our Savior.
We pray this will be a wonderful year for all of you.

Love, Nathan, Elisabeth, Ellie, Wells, Harrison, Hattie and Alyse