Happy New Year....finally!!

We are finally back to blogging..or at least Kim is. Aaron may join the discussion later on. There are many excuses that I could give for not updating...my camera no longer worked and you don't want to update the blog without pictures....nothing happened in our family worth mentioning....no time....just lazy and not wanting to:) I think all are applicable with the exception of nothing happening..because something always happens at our house. I will now update the last 2 months with pictures and as little commentary as possible.

NOVEMBER: We enjoyed Madeline's birthday on the 18th, especially me because I woke up with a flaming case of strep throat! Thanks to my mom for being there, insisting that I go to the doctor, taking care of me and my family until Aaron was able to come home from work. Needless to say I wasn't much help. After birthday cake and presents, my parents left and Aaron was left to celebrate with the kids. I will leave the details to Aaron...needless to say it was an evening of laughter, tears, frustration, and eventually surrender.

The weekend before Thanksgiving the kids and I went to Spokane to stay with my parents and Aaron flew to London. We were reunited the night before Thanksgiving.

We spent Thanksgiving at the Borders Family Lodge in Barstow WA on the Kettle River with the entire Borders family (minus Amy's family - we missed you). It was great fun. We played during the day and listened to people throwing up at night..really. But other than that it was a lot of fun. We played a lot of games, watching movies on the wall, ate way too much food, and enjoyed everyone's company.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures to share of the above events because my camera really was broken.

DECEMBER: We kicked off the month attending the temple with Emily in preparation for her mission to the Puerto Rico, San Juan East Mission. She is currently in the Provo MTC. It was a lovely evening and it was wonderful to be with my family. Other tidbits from the beginning of the month include decorating our house for Christmas, singing and playing in Christmas concerts, and enjoying the excitement of the season.

The week before Christmas Aaron went on a business trip to the Midwest. This is the second year in a row that he has been gone the week before Christmas. Last year he was in Europe and it really puts a kink in the swing of all things Christmas...too much to do and not enough time. I am going to insist that this year he travels at the beginning of the month and not the end. :) While he was gone we had snow and it was really cold (below zero). Usually we get snow and it goes away after a few days...not this year. It stayed for 3 weeks. Aaron finally made it home..he can write about his adventure...and we were all excited for Christmas..yeah!

Ok, no more talking. I did get a new camera on Christmas Eve and now I will post pictures with little commentary.

Everett, Madeline, Gabriela, and Daniel on Christmas Eve in their new pajamas!

Daniel and his presents Christmas morning.

Gabriela and her presents Christmas morning.

Everett and his presents Christmas morning.

Madeline and her presents Christmas morning.

We had a very enjoyable Christmas. Besides the toys, we received many family games and spent the day playing games and enjoying time together. We were able to talk to our family, even Grandpa and Grandma Welling on their mission in Kazakhstan. Thanks to all who sent our family presents..we love them!! Aaron had the week after Christmas off. We decided to head up north to Spokane. I told you we received a bit of snow..well nothing prepared us for the amount of snow Spokane received..in the month of December they received 72 inches of snow..that's right! Here are pictures from our week in Snokane..I mean Spokane.

Aaron, the day after we arrived, shoveling the 12 inches of snow that "poured" in less than 8 hours. It was quite amazing the watch. You can barely see the top of the neighbors fence across the street.

Gabriela in a snowball fight with her Dad. I joined the fun and she was brutal to both of us. She liked throwing snow at your face...so we had to make rules that we stay below the neck. The great thing is she is able to take as much as she gives...she was white washed a couple of times.

A nighttime picture...look at the snow next to the van...so much that there is not many more places for the snow to go.

Daniel, Gabriela, and Everett enjoying the snow. They were able to sled in the front yard. This was a couple of days after the additional 12 inches. The snow was able to settle a bit, otherwise the would have sunk in further and been lost in the snow. What fun! This is the kind of snow I always wished for when I was a kid.

My brother Andrew shoveling snow off the roof at our parents house. There is probably 3 feet of snow and roofs were collapsing all over the city. The day after New Year's Andrew, Aaron, Dad, and Christy (Andrew's wife), climbed out on the roof and shoveled the snow..it took them about 4 hours to get it all off.

In spite of the snow we had a lovely week in Spokane celebrating the New Year. We spent New Year's Eve playing games..and Gabriela was so excited that she made it up past midnight. I don't think there was a night that week that we went to be before midnight. Aaron, my brother Matt, and bro-in-law Aaron stayed up all night New Years eve playing The Settlers of Cataan, with the Seafarers, and Knights and Cities...if you have never played you should...hours and hours of fun! We had a great week but were very happy to come home.

Now we are in 2009 and it started off with bang...or at least a lot of wind. We had a wind storm and it blew about 60-70 shingles off our roof. The insurance inspector came this week and told us that we will get a new roof...so that is nice.

See the shingles that came off. I was hoping that the siding would all blow off then I could get new siding and windows:) But we are grateful that it wasn't more and we are grateful that we will get a new roof...now we just have to find a roofer...does anyone know a good one in the Tri Cities?

In December, Gabriela's Christmas concert was cancelled because of the weather...so they had it this past Tuesday. Here she is with the entire 2nd Grade..what a wonderful girl she is.

My beautiful sister Emily went to the MTC this past Wednesday, January 14. She will be spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in the Puerto Rico, San Juan East Mission for the next 18 months. The mission will be centered in San Juan and will contain the two stakes and one district in eastern Puerto Rico, as well as the English speaking countries of the Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Dominica and Barbados. She will spend three weeks in the Provo Missionary Training Center and the travel to the Dominican Republic Missionary Training Center. Then she will be off to Puerto Rico. We are all very excited for her and know she will be a wonderful missionary. We love you Emily and look forward to the many exciting opportunities you will have.

That sums up our life the past two months. We apologize to those who were looking forward to our Family Christmas letter. Our intention was good..but it just didn't happen this year..so we are sorry. We will have to make it up next year.

We are excited for 2009! Gabriela turns 8 in March and is looking forward to getting baptized. Roy and Anne will be home from their mission this summer, babies have and are coming into our extended families..so many new things. So much to look forward to. We appreciate and love all of you that add to the fabric of our life......good day!!