Merry Christmas Friends & Family!

Welcome! We avoided it for quite a while, but have decided to join the blogging world. We hope it turns out to be a nice way to share a piece of ourselves with all of you.

This has been a busy year for our little family. We would like to think that in the next year or two things will slow down a little, but are learning that family life often gets more engaged as the years tick along! For now, we just relish in the peace that fleeting moments of sanity bring our way.

Alex started his graduate business degree at VCU this summer and will graduate next year around this time. He goes to school full-time in the evenings and works full-time during the day. As if that wasn’t enough, he started a new job this year (which he loves!) and was recently called to serve in the Elders Quorum Presidency. As you can imagine, this leaves him only a few precious hours each day that he saves for his girls and some sleep! We could never want for a more compassionate husband or father.

Tiff wouldn’t trade him for the world and is happy to celebrate their 5-year anniversary this month. Her days have been pretty eventful this year as well. She continues to work part-time from home, has resumed teaching music lessons and enjoys having her family “nearby” again. More than anything, she loves her daily merriment with Stevie: feeding, cleaning, reading, cleaning, playing, and more cleaning! In January, she was called to be our ward YW President - making Stevie the youngest of about a dozen girls that she loves and cares for daily. Simply put, she is a wonderful mom.

That brings us to Stevie... our awesome toddler. Some words that others often use to describe her are Tranquil, Precocious and Obedient. This year has brought a lot for her: crawling, eating solids (along with a love of bananas), walking and now talking. (She even spouted off a relatively well-formed sentence a few weeks ago, not bad for a 16 month old!) However, we would be remiss not to mention her love of music & “literature.” Stevie loves to listen to good tunes, play along and dance… and as much as she loves music… she loves books more! She loves being read to, and we often find her reading by herself in bed, church or during playtime! Like we said – she’s an awesome toddler!

Although we had our doubts, we have survived 2007 and all of its surprises. More important than anything, we are a happy family, have a place to call home and spend our time surrounded by those we love most in the world. Now it’s off to Southwestern Virginia for us to enjoy the holidays with our family.

We hope you enjoyed our little review. It’s our greatest Christmas wish that all we care so deeply for (that would be you!) will have a safe and joyous 2008. We hope you too will share with us your blogs, photos and happiness. As always… Have fun stormin’ the castle!