Christmas Letter 2008

As I sit here and think about what I can give up this year to make it less stressful (Christmas gift shopping, baking, parties, Christmas letters, Christmas cards, decorating, visiting with family, etc.) I can’t seem to give any of them up, ESPECIALLY not the Christmas letter. I LOVE receiving Christmas letters and cards and that is one of the highlight of this whole season for me, so here I am, 7 days before Christmas (still needing to START on my Christmas shopping – YIKES), writing this letter. Okay – I’m WAY behind! This year Christmas has REALLY snuck up on me . . . . AGAIN!! Maybe I can keep it short, sweet and simple.

Jamie – our little singer just loves, loves, LOVES to sing. Sometimes before any words come out of her mouth in the morning, she’s singing. This is what you’ll find her doing all day - while she’s playing, drawing, coloring, eating (yes, with food in her mouth – we’re really trying to teach her to hum during this time) and yes, she’s even singing when she’s on the potty. She’s our music girl. It will be interesting to see how that all develops as she gets older. It’s such a joy to watch her.

Joshua – our boy, is ALL boy. What can we say? For him it’s all about CARS, CARS, CARS – He LOVES cars. One thing we can’t get over is during our Parent-Teacher conference, two words his teacher used to describe him was “quiet” and “gentle.” People who watch him at church say “He’s sooooooo sweet.” I would SOOOOO love to meet this Joshua. This is so NOT who he is at home which is usually loud and aggressive. Maybe his true self is somewhere between how he is described at school and church and how I see him at home (I’m hopeful).

Julianna – our sweet, sweet girl. She is soooo much fun. She’s really into books and you are her best friend if you read books to her. Her vocabulary is developing nicely and amazingly she recognizes almost the entire alphabet at 19 months of age. It’s fun to watch. Of course she’s growing way too fast. We’re trying to savor every moment of her cuteness and shhhhhhh, don’t tell anyone, she’s our favorite now. And noooooo, it has nothing to do with her lack of whining or demands, something we constantly seem to get from the other two.

We are truly blessed to have these three wonderful children!

Craig and I celebrated 7 happy years of married October 27. Still loving the life!

Wishing you a joyous Christmas and a Blessed New Year!!
Craig, Maria Estella, Jamie, Joshua, Julianna

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given . . . And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Pictures Taken Throughout the Year

Jamie got 14 inches of hair cut off and donated it to Locks of Love

http://www.locksoflove.org/

for kids under 18 that are less fortunate to have hair.

Our Annual Summer trip

July & Fourth of July

Daddy with kiddos

Our Annual Winter getaway

to Corpus Christi, TX

(Limo ride to the airport)

(On the beach)

My Precious Kiddos

Christmas Letter 2007

This is going to be brief because that’s pretty much all I have time for.

Hope this letter finds all of you doing well. A few highlights:

January – We were in Texas, enjoying 3 ½ weeks by the beach. We always enjoy that awesome family time together and a chance to warm up. We’ll be visiting Corpus Christi, TX again in February. (We’ll be flying this time)

February – Can’t think of anything ;o)

March – Joshua turns two on the 22nd. IS THIS THE “TERRIBLE TWO” THAT EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT?!?

April – Craig TURNS the BIG 4-0. (No surprise party – did that last year)

May – Julianna Marie Larson was born on the 21st. 8 lb. 4 oz. 20 inches and lots of hair on her head.

CONSTANT, CONSTANT, CONSTANT – that has been my word for the last few months. I must say – it’s really been extremely busy with the three little ones. Without fail, when people see me with the three kids all together (particularly strangers) they say things like “Man, you’re busy.” “Boy, do you have your hands full.” “You are busy, huh?” (Well, you get the idea.) I usually just smile back and say “Yep.”

June – Hmmmmmm – can’t remember.

July – Seems like a blur. You know - baby.

August – We had our wonderful one week family vacation in a cabin by the lake (Bearskin). Craig pretty much took Jamie and Joshua out to play outdoors everyday, while I enjoyed Mommy and Julianna time.

September – Jamie’s in preschool again – she sure does love it! Craig expanded his business and hired a couple of people.

October – MOPS (Mother of Preschoolers) began – It’s MY personal time every other Friday for about two hours. I always look forward to my time with the other Mommy’s while my kids are being watched.

On the 6th, Jamie turned 4

On the 27th, Craig and I celebrated 6 years of marriage - It’s hard to believe how much we’ve done in 6 years!

November – We got our family picture taken – why do I mention this? I’m reassured that this will only happen ever two years. We had 2 attempts. Joshua’s “tornadic” behavior made it very challenging. Need I say more? I was amazingly shock that they actually captured any shots because honestly, it was the only few seconds Joshua was still in the whole 35 - 40 minutes session. Seeing all the pictures, I said to myself, “I don’t remember that second.” Kudos to FlashPortraits! Below you will find a few of my favorites. If you are curious to view more pictures, go to www.flashportraits.com /My Portraits/Go to My Portraits Enter Last Name: Larson Click Larson, Craig - 11/10/2007 Password: Larson. You can click on each picture to get a closer look. ENJOY

Our rental property was sold – PRAISE GOD! Whoooo-hoooooo – no more annoying tenant calls.
December – Happy Birthday Jesus! I look forward to family time. The kids will have a blast at Grandpa’s and Grandma’s

That’s pretty much it. I look forward to receiving everybody’s Christmas letters – they are always soo much fun to look over! Blessings to you and your family during this holiday season and the new year to come!

Craig’s comments: This year was busier than I ever dreamed life would get. We were blessed with our third wonderful child, and I thought parenting was hectic with two! At the same time I was torn in two additional directions as I was running over to our rental property frequently showing and renting it and supervising projects, AND hiring two new employees and changing virtually every procedure in our financial business. Thank God everything worked out and 2008 should (hopefully!) feel a little easier.