Merry Christmas to Me

I have had a wonderful little Nikon Coolpix S3000 camera for a couple of years now, and I loved it.   Unfortunately it did not survive a trip to Paris, France with my daughter over Thanksgiving.

Here are the Christmas Eve pictures that we took with my phone:

Then my husband got me the best Christmas gift ever - a Nikon DSLR camera - and I have been having lots of fun with it today.

Here are some day after Christmas pictures.



Life is good.

A Christmas Visitor

Funny thing happened to me yesterday.  I think if I post the email threads, it will tell the story best.

Here is the subject line:

Quick Question

"I cannot remember if anyone is taking Sunshine over Christmas. Ryder has begged me to let him but I wanted to check with you first. If you would like for him to watch our class pet over the Christmas break please let me know. Thanks so much!"

Mrs. Kimberly Burch
3rd Grade Teacher

And my foolish reply:

"Sure we can.  Is Sunshine a hamster?  I ask because I had a pet hamster 36 years ago, and I named it Sunshine :)

I will be at the party tomorrow. Can we just take him/her/it home then?  Do we need to purchase any supplies ahead of time?

Thanks for letting us have this "privilege" ;)

Just kidding. Thank you. Ryder will be in heaven!"

Heidi

And her answer back:

THANK YOU! He is actually a parakeet! Very sweet and bright yellow. I have everything you will need.

Mrs. Kimberly Burch
3rd Grade Teacher

And my reply after I had already committed - not knowing really what I was committing to:

LOL - a PARAKEET?!?!?!?!

Totally didn't see that one coming :)


I guess the blessing in disguise is that I am ever so lucky that Sunshine isn't a python or boa constrictor!  And the real blessing is Ryder is so happy to have a friend staying with us for the holidays.

I'm Back

Oh my goodness, I haven't blogged in FOR.EV.ER!!!!  Just one of those things where life has been so very, very busy and there just hasn't been time.  I've discovered that once too much time passes, then I don't know where to start.  Do I try and backtrack and write about all of the things that happened this summer (because we had a really great summer!)? Or do I just start with today?  And while I debate with myself, neither one gets done.  So I'm trying something new for a bit.  I'll be sitting down to blog a few days a week and blogging about whatever comes to mind for 15 minutes.  I can find 15 minutes, right?!?!?!  There may not be much rhyme or reason to it, but at least I can get it recorded.

So, what I'm thinking about right now is our annual Christmas letter.  Needless to say, this is a task that I DREAD each year.  I am always happy when it's done. Figuring out how to summarize a year of our life in a few words is tough!  A whole year.  Summarized.  On one interesting to read sheet of paper.  I'm shaking my head just thinking about it.

Here is a picture of my all time favorite Romney Christmas letter.  I found the "Wanted Poster" idea on the internet somewhere.

Last year I used this blog for our Christmas letter (click here).  We sent out an insert in our Christmas cards with the URL so people could look it up.  Here is the insert:

I'm really drawing a blank this year.  I need to sit down and figure it out.  Soon.  (Repeating to self, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. . .").

Sheesh, it's been WAAAAAAAAY more than 15 minutes.

Signing off.

Heidi

Merry Christmas Y'All

Warm Christmas wishes from our family to yours this holiday season!!!  We are excited to celebrate the birth of our Savior and what a wonderful gift that it was.  Recalling 2010 makes us thankful for the blessings of family, health, & happiness.  We have had a busy year and would like to share a  few highlights (click on pictures to see them larger or on the highlighted links to see more about that topic).

Nicole turned 15 this year and is quickly approaching that milestone 16th birthday.  We have been "enjoying" riding with her as she learns to drive.  So far she has done well if you don't count some curbs and lawns that now have tire marks on/in them :)

She also finally got that puppy she has been begging us for for years!!  I guess dreams can come true. (click here for the puppy story)

She still plays a mean game of volleyball.  She was chosen to be captain of the JV squad, and was moved up to varsity to play a few games.  Prosper volleyball made it as far as the Regional Final game, but lost to Lovejoy - the #1 volleyball team in ALL the state of Texas.  Prosper finished 5th in the state. She recently tried out for and made the 17's National team for the Texas Titans volleyball club, so she will continue to play volleyball throughout the school year.

Finally, she has served as Mia Maid class president for the last year, but that will change in January when she turns 16.

Melanie turned 13 this year (that makes 2 teenagers in the Romney house!).  She continues to be an outstanding student. She made the high jump team at school in the spring which was something she had never tried before.  She discovered that she really loves to jump and is quite good at it.  She finished the season taking 4th place at the district meet.  She also played volleyball on the 8th grade A team.  Her team won their district, and in fact did not drop a set the entire season!  She is currently playing her first club volleyball season on the 14's Elite Texas Titans Team.

This summer she and Nicole split time babysitting for their cousins and training Blossom to do tricks.

At church Melanie is serving as the Beehive class Secretary - perfect for an organized girl like her!

Harrison, or as we like to call him Big Handsome, is 10 years old and a 5th grader at Rogers Middle School this year.  He has lots of friends, and you can usually find him playing football out in front of the house with kids from the neighborhood.  This summer he and his friend Ty spent many hours fishing in the lake out front.  They even caught some decent sized fish!

He played football for the 5th grade Prosper Eagles and is currently playing basketball for Da' Heat.  His basketball coach, Coach Slim, gave him the nickname of SlowMo a few years back, because "he has so many skills, the only way you can see 'em all is in slow motion!" ;)

This summer he spent a week at Cub Scout Twilight Camp and is currently working on earning his Webelo Award.

Ryder, the Romney caboose, turned 8 this year!!!  He was baptized on November 27.  He was also excited to turn 8 because now he can go to Cub Scouts too.  He has earned his Bobcat award and is working hard on earning his Wolf award.

Ryder played his first season of tackle football this year for the Prosper Pirates.  He loves to play, did really well, and had some great coaches who taught him not only about football, but about responsibility and accountability.   A few weeks into the season Ryder broke his pinky finger when another kid was horsing around and knocked him down. This led to some x-rays, and a couple of weeks of missing practice and games.

Ryder spent his summer playing outside with friends and swimming in the pool.

Darren and I spend our time making sure everyone gets to scouts, mutual, church, school and sports on time.  We love watching the kids play in all of their many sporting events.

Darren is currently teaching Seminary to the Freshmen at 6:00 am every  morning.  I continue to be the Stake Family Search Indexing Director.

We have LOVED having family come to town.  We had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma Muffett at the Fort Worth Stockyards, and felt so lucky to have my brother Win and his family come spend some time with us early in September.  We had an awesome time together, and my brother (an Oregon State alumni) got us awesome seats in Cowboy Stadium (4th row!!!!) for the OSU vs. TCU football game!  We also had a couple of great visits from our Houston cousins, the Tonini's, and were able to enjoy Six Flags and lots of swimming.

Once again, Merry Christmas to y'all from our family to yours.  We send you our love and wish you a warm and wonderful holiday season!