Well, our holidays were busy, but good.  Thanksgiving is normally a nice relaxing holiday, but for me this year it was not.  Brad gets that whole week off so we thought it would be nice to take Brad and the boys up to his parent's house to spend the week.  I was glad that they got to spend that time, but I was pretty miserable without them.  I took them up on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and then I drove back the next day because I had to be to work that Tuesday.  I came back to a very empty house.  I spent the evenings that week working on decorating the house for Christmas because I needed to stay busy so I wouldn't get too depressed.  I really missed Brad and the boys.  I worked that Tuesday and Wednesday, and then in stop-and-go rush hour traffic I drove up I-35 with a semi's grill in my rearview mirror to get back to Brad's parents' house.  I was so stressed out and tense by the time I got there it took me forever to relax.  The next day was good because we got to see the family.  We even got to go on a date the next day with Brad's sister Anita and her husband Jeff.  We had a good time even though we missed out on Australia.  By the time we got home I was exhausted and tired of travelling.  We got to spend some good time at home for a while, and then there was Christmas.  We transitioned the boys into a double bed, and that has been interesting.  I spent all day on Christmas Eve getting ready for our trip.  I was pretty stressed out.  The next morning we had a great time opening presents.  Ethan really got into it this year.  It was a lot of fun.  Then we packed up and went to Brad's parents' house for their Christmas.  After the kids opened their presents the adults did our Chinese gift exchange, and had a lot of fun stealing from each other.  The next morning we left from there to go to my parents' house in NM.  I know, a lot of travelling.  Just wait.  We drove all day, and spend the next couple of days there, and my sister was there so we had our Christmas.  That Saturday morning we woke up to snow on the ground.  It was great.  We played in the snow for quite a while.  The next Monday we got to have a playdate with one of my best friends from high school, Amber.  We played at the playground, and had a picnic.  That evening we went on a double date with Amber and her husband Matt.  We had a really great visit.  I wish we lived closer so we could see each other more often.  Tuesday we went to Whitesands National Monument, and went sledding since there wasn't much snow in the mountains.  We all had a great time, especially the boys.  Wednesday was spent at the house, and packing for the trip to a half-way point in Lubbock.  We stayed overnight there and got to see some Ed and Brandee, good friends from Wayland.  Our kids had a great time playing together.  We drove from there back to Brad's folks' house for the weekend since we didn't get to spend much time with them at Christmas.  I was so glad to get back home that Sunday.  Brad had to leave the next day for a Christian Camp conference.  I was glad to not have to go anywhere anytime soon.  Needless to say our Christmas break was full of good visits with family, but every year at this time of the year I wish someone would invent the teleporter so we wouldn't have to be on the road so long.  We had a summer staff reunion this weekend.  It was great to see friends from all over, and look forward to seeing most of them again this summer.  Today was a great day too.  Brad and I went shopping for living room furniture, and found some good possibilities.  After that we met some good friends at Texas de Brazil in Fort Worth for an amazing dining experience and some great fellowship.  We were so full that we decided to walk around and shop in downtown Fort Worth.  We had a great night celebrating the New Year with them.  Things will start picking up at work pretty soon, and we look forward to it. 

I am so thankful for all that God has blessed us with.  We had a pretty healthy year this year.  The boys are growing tall and their individual personalities are blossoming.  Ben is very much a play leader and organizer.  He is very rules oriented, very focused, and loves to be around people and be outside (although he must stay clean).  He has an amazing memory, and loves to tell jokes now too.  Ethan is a curious, mischevious little man.  He is all about playing with everything any way he wants, which drives Ben crazy at times.  He has likes people, but loves his favorite people.  He prefers to play inside, and doesn't mind getting dirty.  They both make us laugh for different reasons, and we love them so much.  Brad is enjoying his new position, and is back into gaming again.  He even gets to play online with his brother and brother-in-law and some friends every once in a while.  I have been enjoying working with the guests out here.  Every once in a while I wish I were home with the boys, but this is where I need to be right now.  We have a good home, and have everything we need.  2008 was a good year, and we look forward to what 2009 has for us. 

Well, I finally got it done.  I uploaded a bunch of pictures of this last year on our website, www.teachingtheway.com.  Feel free to check it out.  Man, am I glad that October is over.  It was a crazy month for us.  Brad had to work every Monday of that month (which is normally our day off), so we got to take just single day at a time breaks all month together, and it is hard to recharge your batteries one day at a time.  We had several big events this month like the Annual Men's Fish Fry.  We had 1300 men come to that.  We did get a chance to go to the State Fair with our good friends Darby and Luke.  Our boys and their son Cameron are getting old enough to play together so they played musical strollers playing while we went to the car show, and got fair food (not just fair, but super tasty, gotta love Fletcher's, and those fried oreos are to die for).  We had a great time.  At least this weekend was a light one so I was able to catch up on a lot that I hadn't been able to get done at work.  This weekend we had some friends come and stay with us.  They are moving back this way, and were working on their house.  We are excited about their return.  My sister also came back for a visit.  We went for the mandatory Blizzard run, and today we went to Dinosaur Valley State Park to spend this beautiful day outside, then we brought home pizza and Sonic Dr. Peppers.  It was a good day.  I spend the rest of the afternoon and evening working on our website.  That is exhausting when you haven't touched it in almost a year.  Yikes.  We may have our friends stay with us again next weekend, and we may have Brad's parents stay with us.  We aren't sure yet.  Either will be fun.  I am just looking forward to Thanksgiving for an extended break.  We also have a staff retreat up by Lake Texoma (I think) the Monday through Wednesday after that so that will be fun.  Well, I have spent half the day on the computer so I better retire, plus with the time change my body thinks it is 12:45, and is wondering what I am thinking being up this late.  Have a blessed week.

So the other day we were eating spagetti for dinner, and Ethan loves spagetti.  So he is wolfing it down as usual, and he sneezes.  I don't think anything of it, but when I let him down he went to his Daddy, and Brad says, "What is that?  I...no way...Nadia, he has a noodle up his nose!  Ethan sees us reacting and thinks it is hilarious, and proceeds to run away from us.  So we are chasing our 18 month old through the house so we can extricate the offending noodle.  I try to get it with a nasal bulb to no avail so we had to pull out the big guns.  I get my tweezers.  I tell Brad, this is going to be no fun because you are going to have to hold him down and he hates that.  So Brad holds him down, and I go after the noodle only to realize that he is not screaming as he does if he is restrained.  He is laughing big ol' belly laughs.  I get my tweezers up there and finally I pull out a 2 and a half inch noodle.  It was the weirdest job I have had as a parent yet.  I am just laughing as I type. 

I am confounded by Benjamin right now.  He has ceased to like baths, and I can tell you why.  When I bathe them I put them in the tub together.  When the bath is over I usually pull Ethan out first because I can't trust him in a bathtub by himself.  I let Benjamin continue to play with his little bath toys until I am done getting Ethan dressed.  Well, one night I am drying Ethan off on his changing table when all of a sudden from the bathroom on the other end of the house I hear screaming.  Brad jumps out of his recliner and runs into the bathroom to find Benjamin rolling around on the floor.  He had hit the button for the whirlpool tub, and the jets shooting water at him had scared him so bad that he jumped straight out of the tub that is probably 18" deep (and this from a little boy whose idea of jumping is just taking an extra large bouncy step), and was rolling around on the floor screaming.  Brad wraps him in a towel and brings him in to me.  I check him over and hold him close for a while.  He told me what happened, and then said "But it's OK because Daddy took care of it.  He's not afraid of anything."  It was precious.  The whole situation is still a bit funny even now, but it is tainted because now Benjamin has lost his love of baths.  As soon as I get him in it  he wants out, and I am stumped as to how to get that back.  I am kind of sad about that. 

Ethan is a quirky little boy.  I love him to death, but I am not sure I will ever understand him.  The other day he was crawling around on the floor bulldozing his forehead into the carpet.  Brad and I are sitting on the couch just watching, pointing, laughing and wondering what the heck he is thinking.  Apparently when it started to hurt he just turned his head and did it with the side of his head, but he came running back to me to make sure I was watching and smiled real big under his big carpet burn smack in the middle of his forehead.  My first thought was "There go the Easter pictures."  And sure enough when he got up the next morning he had this "third eye" on his forehead.  Crazy kid!  I do love him though.  He is going to challenge our parenting skills, but he has his absolute precious moments.  Like when he sees me he says "Mommy!" in this little sing songy voice over and over.  When the boys come up to see us at lunch as soon as he gets in the door he is running and saying "Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi!" over and over.  He is picking up words like crazy. 

Benjamin is at that stage where we have to be careful what we say because his Sunday School teacher says that he comes in and repeats what we say.  Ah, the innocence of youth. 

My parents came to visit for a week starting Easter weekend.  We had a great time.  I prepared my first big family meal including the traditional Easter ham, and it turned out pretty good!  My sister and two of her seminary friends came up for the weekend, and we had a good time visiting.  Mom and Dad dyed eggs with Ben and Ethan (dressed head to toe in plastic trashbags).  Ethan is pitching the eggs into the cups of dye, and as soon as they are done he reaches his little hand in and grabs it and it goes straight to the mouth.  Benjamin is trying to stuff as many of the eggs into the egg cups as possible while my Dad (former military) is griping because he is making a mess on their little plastic outdoor picnic table.  I thinking, Dad,  he is 3, give him a break!  They turned out pretty good anyway with one exception that just got crushed in Ethan's little hands.  I ask my sister and her friends to hide them, and of course being the sadist she is they hide the eggs around all of the thistly plants with the sharp leaves.  What an aunt!  :)  We spent the rest of the week doing some minor landscaping, and I am now the proud owner of a flower bed.  I have a tendency to kill plants indoors with the exception of an ivy I have kept alive for almost the past year.  We will see how these tulips and cannas do.  I am not wildly optimistic, but at least the lack of weeds, and the presence of mulch, a cool log I found in the river, and some big, cool looking rocks makes it look much better.  We went to the Fort Worth Zoo, and hung out.  It was a great visit. 

Well, that is all for now.  I better get off of here.  It is getting late and I have work early tomorrow.  God bless.