9 days til Christmas

Well we're another week closer to Christmas! I am really looking forward to watching Rad dive into all of his gifts!

Derrick went boarding today and LOVED it! He took an 11 year old and a 15 year old and they were tired and ready to leave hours before Derrick was done. He came home and told me how much the food there costs... holy freaking cow! I'll be packing him lunches from now on. Shayli and Derrick will be hitting up Schweitzer again on Christmas Eve. Derrick has me convinced that next year Rad will be up there with them. Maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to get my legs strong enough to support my knees better so that I can join in the family fun.

Rad just learns more and more every this week. This week he learned how to open the front door to my office building. Good thing my office window faces out to the front of the building. I'm hoping that the excitement of this something new wears off soon and that he'll keep himself inside the building! We're trying to get him off of his bottles... he starts nursery next month and I really want him drinking out of straight sippy cups by then. He's down to just water out of his bottles now. So we're off to a good start.

Shayli had her Christmas program last week. That was... well, it was neat to see her sing but there were so many people there that it wasn't the coolest thing to spend a Thursday night on. :) This last week I really saw Shayli doing so good at being honest and telling us things that were hard to tell us. She's a very brave and very strong girl and I'm sure proud of her. One of her Christmas presents is Derrick and I giving her a new room. We have a new bed, bedding set, shelves, mirrors and a whiteboard boarder(way cool) to go around the middle of her walls as a boarder. It's a project that will take a little longer the day that she is with her mom during the holiday, so we've decided to get it done tomorrow and Tuesday. Wish us luck! :)

I'm still loving my Beehives. We talked about leadership today and I am every week in awe at how strong some of these girls are. Work is still going good but my hours are about to be cut in half... hopefully temporarily. We got that news and then Derrick was offered another job in Alaska. We took it. He'll be there for 3 weeks in January for sure and then a possibility of 13 weeks total. That will be tough but a blessing all the same. He makes so much more in Alaska and it's a lot more safe and warm then what he does here, we really can't pass it up. Especially since the others guys that he works with have had to claim unemployment. There just isn't enough work here right now.

Here are some pics of Rad on the loveseat. He gets up on the furniture like a pro now and LOVES the loveseat. He gets all snuggled up and just chills. I love my family.