Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 2015 has been a year of ups and downs, and at the end of it we can happily report that we are all alive and well. Here are some of the highlights:
Adam (1½) Warning: This one has teeth and always is
on the move. Consistently voted “best hair” in our house, mostly because it
gets happily noticed by strangers every time we go out. He’s starting to get
real chatty, and even though we can’t understand most of what he says yet, his facial
expressions give us a pretty good idea what he’s thinking. He sleeps a full 10
hours a day, and we’re always happy when those overlap with the hours we sleep
too.
Isaac (5) Our kindergartner is loving school. He’s
always smiling when Ronni visits the classroom, and crying when she leaves.
He’s inherited his brothers’ love for Legos, which can be found scattered about
every room of our house. For reasons we can’t fully explain, he loves
vegetables and prefers a cucumber to a granola bar any day of the week. It’s
been a fun year of new experience for this kid: he’s started soccer, learned to
ride a bike, started to read, and is swimming without the floaties.
Caleb (8) This kid can tell you: It’s great to be
eight! In addition to Cub Scouts, playing basketball, tennis, and graduating
from swim lessons, Caleb was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints and started the 3rd grade. He’s getting pretty
good on the piano, and Minecraft, and he wants to be an inventor. We are
encouraging this last pursuit, and suggested, as a starting point, he work on
designing Lego’s that clean themselves up.
Kelsie (15) This has been a big year for Kelsie too.
She finished her Personal Progress, survived the 4th year backpacking trip at girls camp, and spent a
week at EFY in Denver . She’s been
working hard keeping her grades up, and enjoyed her second season on the La
Cueva High School volleyball team. Her work on and off the court earned her the
Blue and Silver award for excellence as an athlete-scholar. She’s behind the
wheel now and aims to have her driver’s license by next Summer. Consider that your fair warning.
Ronni Still showing off those dimples, Ronni enjoys
her work as “the Singing Lady” with the little kids and church and wailing on
the piano for the choir. If we can still claim some sense of sanity in our
family of 7, it is largely because of her efforts to keep things at home moving
like a well-oiled machine. In between running kids to football, basketball,
tennis, swim lessons, birthday parties, scouts, volleyball, church activities,
etc., etc., she still managed to find time to train for and run in
Albuquerque’s first ever Hungry Half Marathon. Married now for 16 years, Wally and Ronni spent a week in Berlin, Germany earlier this year, part work for Wally, all fun for Ronni. Aside from the spectacular time they had there, Ronni now has her first stamp in her passport. Not to be left out, Wally, has also had quite the year. He turned 40 in July and we celebrated by going back to the 1940's and danced the night away with the big band. He continues to be the worlds best Scoutmaster and somehow hasn't gotten tired of it yet. He survived a week of scout camp with Brandon (it's not always easy being the Scoutmaster and the Dad). He has had a lot of success at work publishing papers, has his name on a pending patent, and was even mentioned in the news for some of the work he has been working on. He's pretty awesome at what he does, but we think he's having the most fun helping Kelsie with her chemistry homework this year.
We hope that this year has brought many days full of joy and laughter! We're grateful for this season to reflect on the things that are most important to us, especially the birth, life, and Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We hope you feel His love during this holiday season and know of our love for you!
Love,
The Paxtonians
Follow us on Instagram: @wfpaxton, @ronnipaxton, @kelsie_paxton @b.paxton27
