Merry Christmas!

Dear Family and Friends,

This last year has flown by so fast, but what a wonderful year it has been! We have been living in Idaho Falls for a year and a half, and love our little home here. We are grateful to be near some of my extended family and we have made some wonderful friends. We have a lot of kids that live around us and our children have loved having so many friends to play with.

Ben has been in school this year and has only his internship and one more semester left! Yeah!! He went back to school at BYU-Idaho in January to finish his major in business management/marketing. If things work out as planned Ben will graduate at the end of July. It's exciting to think what changes might come in the next year. =D

I have enjoyed being home with my children and watching them grow. I substituted for the school district a few times last school year, but have not this school year. I have been babysitting at our home, which has been nice. The kids and I have also done quite a bit of traveling this year. In February I took the kids to visit my twin sister and her family in Tucson for two weeks. Then we all went to Pittsburgh in July/August for six weeks in between Ben's semesters. Ben helped one of my older sisters with her business and the kids and I got to enjoy spending a lot of time with her and her family and my parents. In September the kids and I went down to Tucson to visit my twin sister again. We miss being with each other so we have been very grateful that we've managed two visits in one year! We also got to drive to Portland, Oregon to visit all of Ben's family for Thanksgiving. It was wonderful to have all 32 siblings/spouses/grandkids together with his parents.

Parker will turn four in January and we can’t believe how “grown-up” he is getting. He is quite the typical boy who loves cars, trains, airplanes, dinosaurs, castles, and pirates. He also loves to help us around the house with everything we are doing. He is such a good brother to Madisyn and they love playing together. Parker is sensitive with Madisyn and gets upset if she’s upset, and tries to cheer her up by being silly and making her laugh (well, if he’s not the one that made her upset that is!). He will start Preschool in the fall.

Madisyn turned two in October and has learned to be quite expressive. She is a lovey girl who gives hugs and kisses all the time. She loves her dolls and carries them around the house wrapping them up in blankets and putting them to bed. She is quite the little mama to any of our friends’ babies that come near her and just can’t help herself around them. She adores her big brother and tries to do everything that he does. At the same time as adoring him, she loves to pester him and bug him (what else are little sisters for?!).

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season filled with the love of our Savior whose birth we celebrate. Have a great New Year! You’re all welcome to look at our family blog at www.benandniclewis.blogspot.com. Best wishes to all!

Love, The Lewis Family

Ben, Nicole, Parker, & Madisyn

P.S. I haven't mailed out Christmas cards this year, so I am posting/emailing them all. I have started to catch up on the blog. I am posting things from the last five months. :) I'll be putting up Nov/Dec within the next day or two

Pittsburgh, July 28-Sept 8

In between Ben's semesters we all went to Pittsburgh for six weeks to visit my family. Ben helped my sister with her business and the kids and I had fun with Grandma & Grandpa, Lisa and her family. Here's a very short synopsis of some of the things we did...

We had fun spending a lot of time playing outside:

(Grandma, cousin Riley, & Parker)

Playing on the piano at my Mom's house (man how Ben and I both miss having a piano!!)

Going to the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium (two times):

Spending time with Grandpa:


Spending quality time together:

Catching fireflies (which we don't have in Idaho):
Visiting the Children's Museum:

Swimming with the cousins:


Seeing Pittsburgh from the top of Mt. Washington:

And Ben and I took a trip down to Washington D.C.:

(Washington D.C. LDS Temple)

Visiting two of the Smithsonian Museums

(Washington Monument)

(Lincoln Memorial)

We were so blessed to be able to spend so much time in Pittsburgh with my family. How we miss them!!

September

After we got back from Pittsburgh, we went to the Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot. We didn't go on any rides, but the kids really enjoyed seeing the animals, tractors, magic tricks, dog shows,and craft and food booths (well, we enjoyed that part more than they did).




We are so lucky to have lots of neighbors who have young kids like ours. Most of the summer was spend outside playing together, or going to parks and the local zoo. We had such a good time with them! (here's just one picture of the kids piled together, even though we did tons of stuff together)

One day I got a package and Parker & Maddie had such a good time playing in the box with the peanuts. It entertained them for hours!!


We went with some of our neighbors to the local Sand Dunes one Saturday. Maddie had never been to the beach (since we moved from Portland when she was just 7 mo old), so it was her first time in sand and she loved it! We had such a good time but it really made me miss the beach.





Then at the end of September I took the kids once more to visit Jess and her family (I had to go one last time before Maddie turned two since that's when you have to start paying for their plane tickets). It was so nice to spend time with my twin again and our kids had a blast together! Just the other day Maddie was talking about Sydney which surprised me that she still remembers her. But since we have mostly boys in the complex (there's only three girls, two of which are infants, and there are 7 boys) she REALLY loved being with Sydney. Renn (Jessica's husband) is in the airforce but was actually home for part of the time that we were there, so it was nice to see him too (last time we were there he was gone the whole time). Jess & Renn have three kids: Sydney (turned six when we were there), Lincoln (2 1/2), and Clark (1).

Like I said Syd had her 6th birthday when we were there, so we threw her a big tea party and I got to make here a really fun tea pot cake. It was so nice to be there with her on her birthday!

My brother, Joe, and sister-in-law, Mary, also live in Tucson where Jess and Renn are, so we got to see them too. Joe is such a good Uncle to the kids!

Oh how I miss those good times together!!