Already?!?!?!

The kids are back in school. I miss them. I am pretty sure they miss being home. We are finally going to start using our piano. Tai Kwan Do should start next week. Except Rylynn. She will be enrolled in tumbling to in preparation for the cheerleading glory to come. This is her idea, not mine. Parent teacher conferences were last week. Kaydin is on the honor roll. All the teachers had good things to say. The kids are finally acclimating to this new school. I hate that we had to uproot them from their friends and the place they had grown up and move away. They still miss it terribly, but they are finding good things here too. Why don't I have any pictures? I need more of those. Joseph and I had our 11th anniversary on Saturday. I mostly slept. He took the kids swimming. We went to Zak's wrestling match. If that doesn't scream "romance" I don't know what does. Actually we have a trip planned a little later to celebrate, so Saturday wasn't terribly imbued with meaningful romantic gestures, dates, presents and dinners. But holy cow! Eleven years! How did that happen? We have had a pretty good time for that past 11 years, so I am pretty confident there are more good years to come.

Resolve

It has been really hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact the it's 2009. How can this be? I can still remember 1999 like it was yesterday. It is just unbelievable to me how fast time goes. And it is only going to get faster. In the interest of not wasting any more time, I have made some resolutions for this year. One is staying on top of keeping this blog updated. It is a great way to keep a history of our family and is like journaling. Also, if I tell myself that, then I don't have to make another resolution to keep a journal this year, which I have failed at every other year! I need to take more pictures and we need to have an updated family picture taken. Yeah, it's been a while. I resolve to have Nikki married by the end of the year - hahaha how do you like that one, my BFFF? (that's not a typo, that exra F is there on purpose). Ok, but seriously, there is the potential for there to be 3 weddings this year. That, in addition to my dreaded pending birthday (30 freaking years old), have forced me to add to my list of resolutions. So I also resolve to get my face botoxed and invest heavily in cosmetic surgery. The goal is to be able to pass for 20 on my 30th. But in reality, I will settle for being 30 years old and having a husband who still thinks I'm a catch and kids who tell me every day that I'm beautiful. Oh, I love this family so much. My real resolution is to be more Christlike. Especially in my parenting. I start to tear up even typing that on a blog. In primary the kids learned a song and one of the lines is "If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do"? I want to be able to say yes to that, particularly in regards to how I deal with my kids. To have more patience, be slower to anger and be the kind of mom that I always imagined I would be before I was set upon by the reality of actually being one. But right now, I resolve to put my insomnia to good use and do some dishes and some exercise.

Christmas 2008

Choir performance
After the choir concert (Tristan is in trouble so he won't look at the camera)

Trevin's "Christmas around the world" program
My
Kaydin didn't want to audtion for the play, so he was the lighting specialist
5th grade play
Choir concert

The Baker family had a great holiday season in 2008. As usual, I took no pictures Christmas morning, but here are some highlights of our holiday:
I spent the week before the kids got out for Christmas break living at the school (well, almost). There were 3 choir performances, a 5th grade play, a 3rd grade program and a geography bee. Lucky for me, the 1st and 2nd grades didn't have their own programs, or I may as well have parked the van at the school and slept in it. I was so proud of each of the kids at their performances. Kaydin won his class geography bee and went on to compete in the school-wide one. He didn't win, but we are still very proud of him and he has been studying like a maniac because he is determined to win next year. Trevin was to only 3rd grader who had his entire speaking part memorized (and it wasn't short-about 5 paragraphs). The kids all did beautifully at their choir concert, and I loved it. Then, we were all home for 2 weeks. I actually love when the kids are not in school. Things are so much less hectic. We had our traditional Christmas eve dinner of crepes and made our cookies for Santa. It is so funny how excited the kids are to open their one present Christmas eve, even though they know it is going to be pajamas. And they still love it "oh my gosh, I LOVE these pajamas"! I won't regale you with gag-inducing stories of how much crap the kids got for christmas. Needless to say, they were a happy bunch. With my signature grace, on Christmas morning I stabbed a knife into the palm of my hand cutting some caramels. Did it need stitches? Yes. Did I get them? Heavens no! I had too much to do, and I didn't feel like a $500 ER visit. So we wrappped it up, and went on with life. And luckily, I didn't get any blood on the caramels! Grandma Young came over for Christmas dinner and my brother Paul got us a Scrabble game, which Joseph and I have been playing like maniacs. During one of our games, the kids - who were upstairs with popcorn and treats having a "movie night" came downstairs to find out if something was wrong because there was so much yelling. We really get in to our Scrabble. We spent New Year's eve at Joseph's parents' house. It was pretty low key. We just played some board games and smooched at midnight. New Year's day a neighbor brought us a traditional Haitian soup called Joumou. Haitians eat this soup on New Year's day. It is to celebrate winning their liberation from slavery, so they made a soup with all the things they were forbidden to eat. It is pretty tasty, and Tristan had 3 bowls of it. But now, it's back to real life. Back to school, back to work. We had a wonderful holiday season and we were overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of friends and family. I really wish Christmas could last all year. Not the presents or the decorations and music (ok, maybe a little of the decorations and music -and the food), but because of the shift in attitude and behavior, the change of heart that takes place in so many people but seems to disappear once the tree comes down. Myself included. It is my absolute favorite holiday for that reason. And this year was one of the good ones!