LAST POST OF THE YEAR

As always I like to wrap up the blog with a little summary and note to my kids.

A Few Highlights of 2013

• Dayton turned 3 years old in March.
• Dayton started going to his very own preschool with Mrs. Traci and Mrs. Linda and does very well.
• Dayton still loves trains, books, being the leader at family night, and being outside.
• Dayton took swim lessons for his first time and rocked! He also learned to ride his bike VERY well and his scooter. He also started taking gymnastics class (toddler tumbling) which he likes. He is very coordinated.
• Dayton just graduated from nursery and goes to Sunbeams next week!
• Dayton is tender hearted, kind, loving, and outgoing. He is a big helper and learning to be a better listener.

• Rachel stopped taking bottles but still uses a binki at night.
• Rachel started going to nursery with absolutely no problems. 
• Rachel's vocabulary has increased immensely. She talks in small sentences now and we can understand her almost all of the time. 
• She loves to sing and dance. She sings the hymns in sacrament (so does D) and asks for music and dancing ribbons at home all the time. 
• Rachel loves books and insists on going to sleep with at least 20 in her bed. 
• Rachel loves time to herself with Mom or Dad or just in her room reading. 
• Rachel also started attending Mom's preschool twice a week and playing with a neighbor Mimi and her daughter Kam the other two days a week. 
• Rachel is determined, very particular with how she likes things done, silly and fun! She is figuring out her place as the only girl and middle child in the family. 

• Carter joined our family in November! We love him!
• He is a chunk and has handsome blue eyes!
• He is our colicky baby, his tummy hurts, that is all there is to it. We are praying he grows out of it quickly.

• Adam still enjoys his job at Logan City School District. He serves the 8 year old scouts in the ward and does a fantastic job! He loves to garden and finds joy in yard work! This past summer our garden flourished and we canned over 100 quarts of produce. We grew about 20 large pumpkins that decorated our porch all fall. We also bought a trailer to enjoy more camping adventures as a family! We both love camping! Adam took a few fishing trips too and hopes to get more into that this next year. He likes riding horses with his friend Steve Stokes and dreams of owning land and horses of his own some day. 
• Angie (that's me) has built a great reputation for my preschool. This year I have 26 students enrolled (two classes of 13) and I have two co-teachers; Teena and Jodie. They made it possible for me to take a month off when I had Carter. I recently was called to teach the 12 year old youth Sunday School class and it's fun! I completed a few house projects this year mainly all 3 of the kids bedrooms. I also trained at the beginning of the year for a 5k and completed it, yeah! I made it through the HARDEST pregnancy yet! I'm grateful I am no longer pregnant but now I am diligently working on managing three small children and a colicky baby. I'm glad Joe is home and I love having my brothers over to visit. I am trying hard to make new friends and feel at home in our ward, we both are. 

To my children,

I want you to know that I love you and adore you and want the very best for you! I know Heavenly Father lives and loves us. He knows me and you more than we know ourselves. When times get challenging or hard, cling to him. It will bless your lives! Robert D. Hales said in 2009 conference, "Even so, as members of the restored Church of Jesus Christ, we declare that “we believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost." 

I too believe and hope that you will always. Happy 2013! I can't wait to see what joy you bring me in 2014.

All my love,

Mom

Christmas with the Chandler Family

This year we had our party at Josh and Janae's house. It was nice to eat and be together. The kids played well together too. It is so fun to have lots of cousins. Sue gave our kids a magnetic drawing board. Dayton has played with it the most out of everything he got for Christmas except his Jeep. He LOVES it! This is a fancy kind that has power and you can put a clear ABC card on the board and trace the letters and the lady talks about it. It is neat, makes learning fun! D loves that part of it. Rachel likes hers too but just stamps and scribbles which is totally fine. Sue also gave Rach a wagon and D a robot. Davee sent gifts with Bug for the kids. He got Dayton a Superman that talks and Rach a Minnie Mouse stuffed animal. She has been sleeping with it ever since. This year Sue spoiled us with "As seen on TV gifts" and $200 each. WHAT? I am SO happy because that will pay to print our family blog book this year. We simply did not have the extra money in the budget and I was worried I wouldn't be able to print it at all. So thank you SUE!

Breezy and Mat

Me and Adam

Josh and Janae

Evelyn

Ainslie

Rachel

Dayton

June

 Lots of fun pictures! Did I mention Sue taped a fun blow toy (as seen below) to each of the grand kids gifts? She is so fun!

Our gifts to Sue! We got Sue a mug with pictures of her with our kids on it. She liked that! We also gave her a dish towel and an Outback gift card. 

More random pictures of everyone being together. The kids were so fun to watch!

Adam's bird that moves and makes noise. It was one of his gifts from Momma Sue.  He thought it was great and plans to put it on his desk at work.

It was a good evening together. Hopefully next year (I mean not hopefully but for real) I will not look so awful! This colicky baby is so hard and exhausting and I still need to loose a lot of weight. Boo boo boo!

Christmas with the Day Family

On Christmas day we went to Day's around 11am. The first thing Dayton did was walk in and hand Grandpa Craig his present. He was so excited to give it to him. 

 Then it was Grandma's turn. A nick nac that says " I love you SNOW much" and a Satin Hands kit from Mary Kay. Oh, and both of my parents got a shirt too.

A highlight of Christmas was the old computer game called Digger. My brothers and Dad used to play all the time about 15 years ago. They found a free download of it and played it lots through out the day. D even played it a bunch.

 Grandpa helping sad Carter, his tummy hurt, as usual. Poor baby. 

 Playing the race track while we waited for everyone to get there before eating and presents.

After we ate it was present time. McCord got me a Ped-Egg and picked it out all by himself. Good work!

 Adam gave Joe a movie gift card and giant kit kat bar. 

 Lisa got Adam the newest James Bond DVD. 

 I got Lisa a picture frame, scarf, hand soap, and a $10 gift card to a make up store. 

 Joe got Jared like 5 new shirts. It was great watching Jared open it and pull one, then another, and another and more shirts out of the box. Good job Joe!

 My brothers are AWESOME uncles and got the kids gifts too! Rachel bubbles and a large bear stuffy. Dayton got a basketball hoop with a small Aggie ball. They even got Rachel a small ball of her own. Great thinking boys! I love you!

Mom and Dad gave Dayton his own quiet book for church. YEAH! Rachel loves hers and I'm glad D got his own to lessen the fighting over it. :)

Mom and Dad gave Rach a new stroller, yeah because both of ours broke. 

Jared spoiled Sara with earnings and a full outfit including shoes. Also a pretty bracelet not pictured here.

 And she got him clothes too. :)

Mom and Dad got Talia a slide just like the one they gave Dayton when he turned 1 year old. Talia loved it and was sad the whole time they were assembling it for her because it wasn't ready to slide on.

 Mom made Sara a huge nice fleece panda blanket. I guess she likes Panda's.

 Mom and Dad got me jewlery and Adam a shirt and tie. They got us both a masher for canning which we NEED! Now we don't have to borrow Mom's. 

 More random pictures of everyone during the day just hanging out. We all got a stocking to open this year. The grandkids all got their own stocking with GREAT personalized ABC church books for sacrament meeting. They are darling and we have 3 of them one for each child. 

 AND the best gift of all was the poster of pictures that all of the kids made for Mom and Dad. We reinacted about 10 old photos and put the old photo next to the new one on a poster for them. They were all so hilarious! I loved watching Mom and Dad's faces too! Nate even did one and emailed it to us. His was totally legit too!

We got to talk to Nate at 3pm and he looked so good! He saw Carter for the first time. He said Talia, Rachel, and Dayton all looked so big! He has been out for almost a year now so I know they have grown a lot since then. He is happy and healthy and warm in Texas. We miss him but know he is blessing people in Texas.

Merry Christmas everyone!