Snow Tubing in Tahoe!

Christmas Eve & Morning!

Winter Piano Recital

This morning was our Winter Piano Recital. Jake played the Can-Can and Carol of the Bells. The bell carol was a pretty difficult piece for him, but he played it the best he has ever played it! Grace performed The Riddle and Joy to the World, and did a fantastic job. She also received a trophy for completing her first level lesson books. I played It Came Upon a Midnight Clear and The Spirit of God(Hymns Made Easy, of course), and was really happy I didn't completely mess up like my last recital performance! I am really impressed with all that Jake and Grace have learned in just a year and a half!

Change in our Plans!

Okay, today Andy spoke with the lady at the state department and she informed him that he is actually number 6 on the hiring list for foreign service officers. So, he will probably be offered a job in January and begin training in Washington, DC in March! Woohoo! She spoke about when he's hired, not if he would be hired, so everything looks pretty promising. Hopefully things will be official in a couple of weeks. We'll be staying here in our house on base, and will now keep the kids in school through the end of January (tomorrow was going to be their last day of school here). Anyways, we are totally excited and relieved, and I can't believe things are working out so smoothly!

Diaper Free!

Rachel has been potty trained for a few weeks now(she's doing great), so we haven't bought diapers in a month! We are officially a diaper free family. Yesterday, I finally got rid of the stragglers...I gave them to my friend Carrie. Free at last! It's crazy to think that we've been buying diapers every week for 10 1/2 years. That's a lot of diapers, and a lot of money...maybe I can start a Disneyland fund with the money we're saving now!

Rachel's New Hairdo

Before...

After!

Ever since Sarah had her haircut a few weeks ago, Rachel has been talking about getting her hair "cut off to my shoders". I've held off because her hair was really pretty, not straggly, and hasn't been hard to keep up. Anyways, last night she managed to get a huge piece of gum (yes, I let her have it) stuck into her hair. After I cut the gum out, the chunk of missing hair was very noticable, so we cut it all off. She was pretty excited about it, and couldn't wait to show Sarah. Then she said, "now put me on the blog!" I guess that's what she thought she had to do to get her picture posted. It's funny that she wouldn't smile for me before the haircut, but was very obliging afterwards!

Thanksgiving Turkeys

On Thanksgiving, my mom worked with the kids on making these cute turkeys. Each feather listed something they said they were thankful for. They surprised us with these just after dinner. Number 1 on everyone's turkey was Jesus, which I thought was really sweet. Here's a picture of my little turkeys holding their "I'm thankful for..." turkeys...

We're moving soon!

Andy's last day with the Air Force is Jan. 6th, so we will soon be moving from our home here on base. We will be living with my parents for a little while, but we aren't sure for how long. Andy is on the State Department's hiring list for Foreign Service Officers. They hire in January, again in March, and every few months after that. We were really hoping he'd be hired in January, but we aren't too sure that will happen. Anyways, this is why we don't know how long we will be at the Patrick's home. They are awesome to let us stay with them. It will be humbling to be unemployed and living with parents again. Hopefully, it won't last long and we can move on to a new adventure!