And then it was over....

After Christmas, Dave and I had a nice date night where we went out with some of his old classmates from high school. It was a fun night and nice to meet people from Dave's past. One of the girls we met that night said that she never would have guessed, after knowing Dave in high school, that he would be one to go to medical school. Dave was not so popular in high school and kind of ran with a bad crowd, so I think he was proud of himself for the life he has made for himself. He's succeeding in medical school and has a great family to share it all with, he's a lucky man!

We had a great New Year's Eve night with our good friends Katy and Andy. We went over to their house and again shared some great food and great wine! Hmmm seems to be a trend! I'm going to gain 100 lbs living here! There were 8 adults and 10 kids and believe it or not the kids were not that loud! I was shocked! It was a great time and way to bring in the New Year.

So after that celebrating it was time to get back to reality! Dave left for Dallas on Sunday for 7 intensive weeks of studying with a program called Falcon. This will help him prepare for his Step 1 test in March. He'll be back at the end of February and then study on his own for a few weeks before taking the exam. It's the single most important test of this career, so I guess we can give him this time to prepare to the best of his ability, it will only pay off in the long run.

Since Dave left, Reece started school. The Principle here decided to keep Reece in the 4th grade, instead of putting him back into 3rd grade with the class he left. We're keeping a close eye on him to make sure he'll be able to keep up and not get left behind. They had their first math test yesterday and the teacher asked Reece to take the test purely to see what his level was. Reece was proud to report that his teacher, Mr. Fox, said that he did so well on the test it is going to go towards his grade. He only got one wrong! Mr. Fox also thinks that Reece's reading skills are right with the others in the class. So, so far so good on the Reece front.

Carter is going to start pre-school next Monday. He is going to go to Cottage Grove for pre-school 4 days a week. I figured he needed as much time as he could get since he'll be starting kindergarten in the fall and hasn't had any pre-school experience yet. I'll be sure to keep you informed on how his first weeks of school go.

Gavin is going to be evaluated for speech therapy in the weeks to come. We have been noticing that his speech is hard to understand and a little behind for his age so the public school is going to evaluate and see if they can help him. He'll start pre-school next fall. So the two of us will be doing a lot with the local library and the MOMS Club so he'll get his time out to socialize.

So things are starting to fall into place. The house is mostly put together and day to day routines are starting to emerge. It's just really strange to not have Dave around, but we'll get through it...one day at a time!

Christmas at home

This was our first Christmas off the island in 2 years. We arrived on St Maarten on Christmas Eve 2006 and spent that and Christmas 2007 in St Maarten. It was so strange to have snow and cold weather for Christmas, but it does seem a lot more festive. The kids and I made Christmas cookies and decorated them, and I also did some chocolate dipped pretzels and marshmallows. It was so nice to be able to do those things with all the kitchen appliances a girl could ask for!

We spent Christmas Eve with Dave's Mom, Dad, Uncle Craig, Aunt Patty, and cousins Cayley and Cullen. We had a great time opening gifts, catching up, and eating some wonderful food...the wine was pretty great too.

On Christmas day we woke up early and the boys opened their presents from Santa. Santa left each boy a bike in the garage and we sent Reece out twice and he never even saw them, we finally had to just open the door and say "Hey what is that in the garage?" Totally ruined the moment! Here they each are with one of their favorite gifts. Reece was so excited to have his own alarm clock so he didn't have to get out of bed anymore to see what time it is!

After presents we all got ready and went to my brother Matt's house for more presents and more food...oh and a little more wine. Here is the Johnston Clan on Christmas. It was a fun day and we were so glad to be together again.

We also finally met our new niece Calleigh and she was as sweet as can be! I got to feed her dinner and it was nice to feed a little baby again!
We had a great Christmas! Thanks everyone for all the nice gifts...the kids won't need anymore toys for sure for a long time! It was nice to be back home and with our families for the holiday!