Christmas Letter

Here in Spokane we have accumulated almost another foot of snow. Well, after my last adventure out in the snow I thought it best if the boys and I stay home yet another day. As a working mom I'm not used to this quite schedule with no rushing from thing to thing. My body has slipped into neutral and thinks that if I'm not off to work that I should be napping. While this was a great plan the first few days I think possibly I've caught up with my sleep and now my house is a total disaster and there isn't anything good to blame it on. Notice I can still find things like blogging to keep me from the dishes :-)

The big bummer about not being able to be out and about is that Justin's Christmas gift is stuck at my office. It is snuggled in all warm and safe with the rest of my Christmas cards that need to be mailed. So those last few that I was digging for address for may be getting Valentines cards again this year. I thought I'd put my Christmas letter up here so all of you poor souls that read this blog can enjoy my Christmas letter even though the card isn't in the mail.

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope this letter finds you all well and enjoying the holiday season. We have had another busy year here at the Kibbe house. Since this years holiday card is actually being sent out in December as a Christmas card instead of February to celebrate Valentines Day, I think we may have acquired a little bit of sanity this last year. Well, maybe not sanity but at least we are proceeding at a slower pace.

Rex has started kindergarten at All Saints Catholic School. He LOVES it! Rex has grown up so much this last year. Not only has he grown about 2 inches since turning 6 in August, but he has matured a lot as well. He is becoming much more independent and brave. Kindergarten only brought one day of tears and by day two he says “ya I got it mom, Bye” In the spring he played T-ball and Justin volunteered to coach. That was an experience for the entire family. Rex loved that his dad was his coach and really enjoyed playing on a real team with a uniform and hat. He started playing soccer this fall and has loved every minute of it. He jumped right in and made new friends and really enjoys playing on his cousin Krystal’s team. Krystal has taken on coaching to complete her senior project and I think has learned almost as much as she has taught Rex. Rex reminds me on a regular basis that he “is born to born to play soccer!”

Riley has also had an action packed year. He had his fingers separated in May. It was a successful surgery at the Shiners’ Hospital. After just 10 days or so in a cast he was able to use his fingers. When they first took the cast off, he wiggled his fingers and stared at them like he couldn't’t quite believe he could wiggle them all separately. Riley wasn’t slowed down much at all by the entire procedure and I recovered fairly quickly from the queasy tummy after we first saw how many stitches it really took for the skin grafts. He continues to attend the Spokane Guilds School and in September started in a toddler group twice a week. Circle time is the highlight of his time at group because they sing songs with actions. Riley is a very social kiddo and really enjoys the time with other kids his size. Throw in snack time and he almost forgets that he spends the majority of the two hours in his individual therapies. He has physical and speech therapies during Wednesday’s class and occupational and speech therapies during Friday’s class. Riley works so hard during his therapy and really loves all of his therapists and teacher. I don’t know what we would do without the Guild School. He has accomplished so much during this last year. Riley started walking at the end of October and really keeps us busy chasing him these days. It seems as if he adds more and more words to his vocabulary each day. He has about 15 signs and almost that many verbal words. He generally has no problems telling us what he needs. His big brother remains his favorite person in the entire world and Rex can always get a giggle out of Riley when the rest of us can’t.

Justin continues to work at EZ Loader Boat trailers. This March marks his 4 year anniversary. We continue to pray that with the turn in the economy people still find a way to buy boats and need those trailers.

I continue to work for the American Cancer Society. It is hard to believe I have been there over 7 years now. Travel has slowed down and I have only minimal trips these days. It is wonderful to have the consistency in our schedules and it is much easier on the boys.

As we take a moment to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas it is so obvious to me all the ways God has been present in our lives this last year. One look at our beautiful children and you can see HIS hand at work. They both have so many gifts and we have only seen just a small glimpse of what they will share with the world.

Love to all,

Mary, Justin, Rex and Riley Kibbe