Gabe has been at his current job for 11 months. He manages a team of software engineers for Access Data, which is a company that provides encryption software for companies including many government agencies. I would tell you which ones, but then I'd have to kill you : )
I, Anna, have an incredibly interesting day job which consists of doing laundry, decluttering, cleaning, sometimes cooking dinner, assisting children with homework, and if I'm lucky I can sneak in a shower here or there and put on make up a couple times a week. I am currently one of nine nursery leaders in our ward, which consists of 3 large nurseries with 25 children each! I am so happy it's the end of the year because we have so many graduates.
Brianna is half way through her first year of junior high school. She gets to ride a bus because we live 2.2 miles away from the school. If we lived 1.9 miles away she would be walking. She loves that she no longer is in primary and is the secretary in her Beehive class. She enjoys writing movie scripts, playing the piano, baking, bossing her brothers around and playing her new i pod touch.
Hayden is in the 4th grade and has made a lot of academic progress this year. He was enrolled at the Sylvan learning center during the Fall and attended 3 afternoons a week for 3 months. He has been taking karate for 2 years and is enrolled in a black belt leadership program. He has earned 7 belts so far and he should have his black belt by the age of 13. He is a natural athlete and enjoys playing basketball, soccer and football.
Tucker is in the 3rd grade and does everything at his own pace... I don't know how he does it, but he can stretch 10 minutes of homework over a 90 minute period. Luckily he was blessed with natural "smarts" so reading and math come quite easily for him. This year he has been making more of an effort to stay on task at school and he has become quite the charmer with his teachers.
Mason is our social butterfly. He has no problem approaching people and just starting up a conversation. He is in kindergarten and loves to be with his friends. It took him awhile to adjust to his class routine and on the first day of school he told the principle that he wanted to be bad because then he wouldn't be able to come back. Mason has a lot of charisma but is also emotionally high strung. Hopefully one day it will click for him to use his words to resolve conflicts rather then screaming and screeching. He definitely makes our lives more interesting and it would be pretty dull around here without him.
Gage is almost 3 and has fallen in line right behind his brothers. Gone are the days of snuggling with mom and dad and being entertained by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Now his interests are "killing" zombies, playing pirates and cowboys and repeating everything he hears his older brothers say : ( He loves to be silly and thinks it's sooo funny to use potty talk at the dinner table to make everyone laugh, especially during the prayer. He is the "baby" though and our last child, so he can pretty much get away with anything.
This past year has been an adventure and we are blessed to begin the New Year with a much needed change, a bigger house. We are scheduled to close on our new house on January 10th in Woodland Hills, which is just 7 miles west from where we live now. The kids are excited to have a "real" backyard and I am excited to have an additional 1500 sq. ft and a basement that includes a rec room. Hopefully now I can prepare dinner without footballs and nerf darts whizzing by my head and landing in the food I'm preparing.
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A few weeks ago we had Elizabeth over for dinner and we played Christmas charades, although you wouldn't be able to guess that was the theme from watching the video I took.
