happy holidays

2007 has been a busy and exciting year for us! The most significant event was welcoming our daughter, Mia, into the world in April. She has been such a joy to have in our home. Mandi enjoys having another girl in the house and Mia is definitely a girl. We can already sense her tender and emotional nature. She has such a joyful personality and our favorite part about Mia is that she always wakes up smiling. She brings a lot of peace to our home with her happy disposition. Jonah has really surprised us and is a wonderful older brother to her. It didn't take long for him to accept her and now he always wants to include Mia in his activities, especially taking their nightly baths together.

Shortly after Mia was born, Mandi found out she was pregnant again! The babies will be just under 12 months apart, and no, this was not planned. Mandi is due in April, and we are excited to be able to welcome another child into our family. Jonah is thrilled that it's going to be a boy! Mandi is now feeling better and is enjoying these last few months of just having 2 kids to chase after. Life will get busy without a doubt! Mandi is still serving as Primary President, so free time is hard to come by. It's been a good learning experience for her and has helped to prepare her for our own little nursery of children at home.

Chris finished his 2nd year of dental school and took his National Boards. He passed! Yeah Chris! He immediately started his 3rd year, which consists of working on patients in the clinic. He sure enjoys the clinical aspect of dental school a lot more. He's still busy, but we do get to enjoy Daddy a lot more this year.

Jonah is now 2 1/2 and talking better and better all the time. Our favorite phrases include, "That make you happy Momma?", and "I can not believe it!". We are working on potty training and as soon as we decide to really tackle it, we're pretty confident that Jonah will be ready too. It will be nice to get one of the kids out of diapers before the new baby arrives.

We spent Thanksgiving in Montana this year a had a great time with Chris's parents. Jonah got his Christmas present early from them, which was a motorized train set. He loves nothing more. As parents, we are really excited for Christmas morning since Jonah is now understanding the concept of Christmas and Santa. We'll be spending Christmas at Mandi's Parents home in the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, with most of her siblings and their kids. The cousins always enjoy being together under one roof, and us adults will waste lots of time with the Nintendo Wii.

We hope you have the happiest of holidays. It's been such a blessing to have children and get the opportunity to teach them about the importance of this special occasion. We are so grateful for the knowledge of a Savior and the chance to dedicate time to celebrating the blessed event of His coming into the world. Merry Christmas!