December

Well the end of the year is almost here and I cannot believe how fast our last year in Utah is already going. We have been really busy this past semester with school, work, and of course keeping up (or trying to) with our children. Coen is 2 and 1/2 now and is finally starting to talk in sentences  I feel like it took him forever to start but knowing his personality it dose not surprise me. He is a lot like Dale that way with his very observer personality and not talking to people he dose not feel completely 100% comfortable with. Our poor families have to wait for Coen to warm up to them every single visit. Lucky for us there are things like Skype and Facetime, so my kids get to see their family almost every week. This also helps with Coen warming up a lot faster when we do have visitors or we go to AZ.

With Christmas here we decided to take the kids to see Santa. Coen was very excited because we have been talking about Santa for the last month and how he was going to bring Coen presents. When we got to the front of the line, Coen freaked out and wouldn't even let Dale put him down. As you can see in the picture Coen is not even happy with Dale sitting there with him.

Adylee is the exact oppisite of Coen. She sat right on Santa's lap and had a nice conversation with him. That is our Addie though. She will talk to anyone who will listen and go to anyone who will hold her. She is so much like me that I am scared for the future. She is our social butterfly. It amazes me that these two came from the same two people.

We have also had quite a bit of snow so far this season. We took the kids out after a big snow storm and Coen loved it. I am not sure Addie did though. Again something like me. She dose not like the cold and I am pretty sure she hated the snow. It is a good thing we are moving back to Mesa where there is not snow every winter.

Dale finished his second to last semester on the 6th. He is feeling good about almost being done. He also received a paper from the school telling him about all the important dates for Graduation this next semester. It has hit us that we are almost done and will be graduating in April. (I say it like I am graduating too. Sometimes it feels like we are both graduating.) I am so incredibly proud of Dale and everything that he has accomplished  I cannot wait for our next adventure to start.

We are bittersweet about Christmas this year. Because of all that we have to pay for this next semester with graduation and the bar exam, we felt that it would be better if we stayed in Utah for Christmas instead of spending the money to go and visit our families. It is sad to think that we won't be there with  everyone this year, but we are excited about being with just us and waking up in our own beds on Christmas morning. We have gotten out kids Christmas presents for the first time this year (because we always go to AZ our families always give us all our presents and we don't buy any because out Christmas is paying for the trip). We get to play Santa this year. I am so excited I can hardly wait. I am excited about seeing out kids react to all the presents this year and spending the day playing with them and all their new toys. Next year we will get to be with out families and have our own Christmas too. As for this year we are making the best of it.

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.