Welcome to 2008 !!

I am almost at the end of visit to Kerry and Travis' families. We have had a great time. I spent the first week with Travis and Erica and boys. We attended church and holiday parties at Donna's, Sonja's, and Barb's. Lots of visiting and eating! Then Travis and Erica came to Kerry and Troy's for Christmas day. Troy made a turkey and HUGE roast. So we had lots of leftovers that Troy creatively turned into good stuff. For New Years Eve Waldo and I accompanied Kerry and her family to their friend's house about 1 1/2 hours away. We had a fun evening: there were 5 adults, 1 baby, 5 boys, 5 dogs, and 2 cats! Fun was had by ALL! Friday I will again be going to Travis and Erica's. I will fly back to MN on the red-eye Friday night. It has been so good to be with the kids and the grandkids again. Travis's oldest boy, Tanner, will be 13 on Feb 2. He is as tall as Travis - 6 feet! Russell was 7 in October. He is in 2nd grade. He enjoys taking piano lessons and is doing quite well. Tanner is in Jr. Hi. and quite the teenager. He got an MP3 (or something like that) player for Christmas, so he walks around with his ears plugged in all the time. Ian is in 5th grade. They don't have the opportunity to take keyboarding in their school in that grade, so he does it at home regularily as homework as it will come in handy when he is in middle school next year. He is a voracious reader. Right now he is at the library with his mom, at his choice. Sam is watching cartoons and Anna is asleep. Sam has a good teacher and he likes him a lot, but he does not like school. It come a bit difficult for him yet, and he doesn't like to work at it. We were practicing his flash cards the other day and he was struggling. I told him he could quit when he got 5 in a row correct. ZIP! The next 5 went through, all correct! And when considering spending his Barnes and Nobles gift card ($15) on something for $11, he quickly said, "But that will only leave me with $4 left! Anna is a peach. She was 1 on Aug. 22. Her main means of communication seems to be a high pitched squeal, followed by a pitiful covering of her eyes and breaking into heart-breaking sobs. She is beginning to see that that is not really as productive as she would like it to be. I got some good pictures of everyone (on Kerry's camera), so after she e-mails them to me, I will post some. Hope you all had happy holidays and that 2008 will be full of blessings for you and your loved ones.