Hello there! I don't think that we're going to be able to put out a "proper" Christmas card this year, so I thought that I would include what we've done this year here on our blog. Merry Christmas!
I don't know if you heard, but I just had another baby boy. (That makes 3 now :) ) His name is Benjamin Bain Koller, and he was born on September 4th. So I have a 3 month old right now who eats all the time, doesn't sleep more than 3 hours at any one time, and is so adorable I don't even really mind not getting any sleep. He just started smiling a lot and that makes any hard time worth it. Hayden, my 3 year old, won't leave him alone at all and so every time I leave the room, I have to take Hayden with me so that he won't hurt Benjamin by "loving him" too much. Right now I have Benjamin in a swing that is sitting inside a portable crib so that Hayden can't get to him as easily. I hope this phase ends soon... ;)
Justin-my 4 year old- is doing pretty well. He has started to read and we have him in a little preschool near our house. It's a Lutheran church, so sometimes he'll come home with some "different" ways of doing things, and we have to show him how we do them. (Like how to hold your hands when you pray and that we pray to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ instead of directly "praying to Jesus". ) It's a nice place, though, and I'm really glad we found it. He also hates the fact that we have "quiet time" (a.k.a. my sanity time) every day. He asks me about every 4 minutes, "Is quiet time over, Mommy?" (I'm writing this during quiet time)
My husband Chris works for a stock trading company doing programming. He likes his job, and so do I, but I don't really like the commute. It takes him about 35 minutes with no traffic to get home. But I absolutely love our house and wouldn't move just for the commute-I think. ;)
Hayden, my 3 year old, has started potty training (que the "Psycho" music)-actually, he's pretty good at it. I hope this sticks-I had to train Justin 3 different times. He is so so so exuberant in everything that he does. Many mornings about 3:30 a.m. he comes into our room and in his little tiny voice he says "It's mowing!" (which means, "It's morning") and we have to show him that it's still not light outside and he has to go back to bed. He doesn't like that, so many mornings we will wake up and find that he's snuck back in bed with us and is asleep between us. The little stinker. How'd he manage to do that without waking us up? :)
I am busy coping with 3 little kids as well as trying to do all the other things that "grownups" do. I've got 2 callings-Primary Chorister and Ward Choir Director. They keep my time on Sundays pretty full. I also teach a few music lessons, and host a "Scrapbook Night" for the ward at my house every Wednesday evening. Funny thing about that-I don't even scrapbook. -However, I inherited the name from the last lady that did it and moved. I'm now lobbying for the name to be changed to a "Project night" or something else. Mostly it's just about getting the opportunity to hang out with adults once a week. I had a really hard pregnancy and am currently seeing a bunch of doctors to see if they can find out what's wrong with my hips-I wasn't able to walk at all towards the end of the pregnancy and am just now starting to recover. I"ve had an MRI of my spine, X rays of my hips, and shots and therapy all over the place and am not quite done. Hopefully they'll find all the problems and fix them soon so I can have another baby-we want four total and I'm 35- I really want to be done soon!
Our dog Shivers is still just as crazy as ever-we recently got blinds for our house and so now that he can't look out the window and bark at anything that moves outside, he stands by the door and LISTENS for people so that he can bark at the door. He is one crazy dog. He is so obedient inside the house, but the outside is, apparently, the enemy and must be destroyed! We didn't take him to Troy's house for Thanksgiving in Michigan because Alyssa was bringing her 2 dogs and Troy and Angela have a dog and a cat and we figured 4 dogs and a cat was just too much.
--So there you go! There's our life-we always seem to be busy-which is a good thing. Come down and see us sometime! We'll hook you up with hot boiled ("bolled") peanuts, the beach, a few plantations, and more!
We love all of you and hope that we can see you soon. Think of us-in sunny South Carolina.
Love,
Wendy, Chris, Justin, Hayden, Benjamin, and Shivers
"In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina..." --James Taylor
