The new year

I know it's been a while since I last posted. We've been busy. Work has been crazy so I haven't been able to sneak any free time in for blogging. I'm currently working on the Collegian, ResLife stuff and finishing up an annual report for the College of Business. Very exciting stuff.

Our family spent Christmas in Minn. with my parents and my sister's family. Ben, my new nephew, is very calm and happy. Kara seems to be adjusting to motherhood very well. Rhianna tried to teach Ben how to spit up and poop all over his mom, but it seems Ben might not have picked those things up as he seems to be the perfect baby. We dug through some old photos and found some baby pictures of Kara—it's amazing how much they look alike!

Ben and Rhianna were baptized on Christmas morning and it was lovely. We had some family photos taken as well to document probably the only time in her life that Rhianna will be taller than Ben.

We spent New Year's weekend meeting new friends and greeting some of our favorites. On Friday we had dinner with a new friend of our family who built a beautiful house about two miles from us. It really is a lovely home and their daughter Ellese is very sweet—although went to bed shortly after we arrived so we didn't get to spend very much time with her. They are working on adopting another baby which is exciting to me because I didn't really know much about the process and it is interesting to learn. On Saturday we went to a friends house to ring in the new year playing games and lighting fireworks. It was great—and we did actually make it past midnight which is special for us.

Since then, we installed new knobs and handles in our kitchen as well as a pot rack. The renovations greatly improve the space. We're now busy listing all the other improvements we'd like to make in our home. Our Valentine's Day gift may be a new set of knives, a microwave hood or a new dining set. We'll see. It's fun to decorate and live in a nice space.

Hope all is well with all of you! Happy 2006.