Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Christmas Letter 2012


We are only sending our Christmas letter out to our closest family members and those that do not use social networking or blogs to stay in touch with our family because the cost of postage is so high. Please don't be offended if you do not get a Christmas letter from us. You get to read it on here! We really love and appreciate all of our blog readers (all two of you) and hope that you spend your holidays with those you love and cherish most in your lives. Below is the letter that we sent out to a select few people.
 
Merry Christmas from the Ralphs family! It has been a couple of Christmases since we have sent out our annual letter, so we decided to try to be better this year at keeping our loved ones updated. We have had a pretty eventful year and wanted to share with you some of the highlights.

Our biggest news of the year was the new addition of Carson Kent to our family. Carson was born on October 1st and was 7 lbs 15 oz. and 20 inches long. We are so excited to have this sweet little bundle of BOY in our family. The girls love having a little brother and can’t seem to get enough of him and Darin is pretty proud to finally have a son. I am just relieved that I don’t have to do one more person’s hair before church, school, or dance. Carson has started smiling and cooing and we are looking forward to enjoying more milestones with him as he grows. Speaking of growth, he has already made it to 12 lbs at 6 weeks old and seems to be changing right before our eyes. He makes sure to never miss a meal!  We are so happy to have him.  Our family feels very complete with Carson’s arrival.

Elizabeth Claire (4 ¾) has been thrilled with the addition of her baby brother to the family. She loves him so much that sometimes she has a hard time sharing him with the other members of the family including me. Elizabeth has shown a lot of patience and love towards her brother and seems to be very in tune with how he feels. I have been amazed at how tolerant she is of him when he is upset. Elizabeth doesn’t have much patience for the other members of her family, but her brother holds a special place in her heart and he seems to be helping her mature. She will be a great mother someday. Elizabeth does preschool at home and has finally mastered writing her name. Nine letters is a lot for a little kid to learn to put in the correct order to form a word. Elizabeth’s activities this year has included: Let’s Play Music, Dance, Tee-Ball, and informal swimming lessons with Grand Nan. Elizabeth has really improved her swimming abilities this year and she has a beautiful little singing voice, and loves to dance as long as she thinks no one is looking. Her most favorite activity this year though was definitely Tee Ball. It was really fun to see her face light up with excitement for every practice and game. She asks every day when she is going to get to play again and can’t wait until next spring for a new season. Elizabeth is definitely the resident Tom Boy in our family and that is just fine with us.

Emily Celia (4 ¾) has really matured this year. She is very task oriented and loves to help out around the house. She is the person to ask if I need help giving the baby a bath, wiping the dinner table off, putting the silverware away, or matching socks. She loves to have responsibility and thrives off of being “in charge.” Emily is also a people-pleaser and really flourishes when she gets praise and recognition for her efforts. Emily has a very distinct sense of fashion as well. She loves to pick her clothes out and dress herself and if she has anything to do with it she will be wearing as much pink as possible. She loves skirts, leggings, and sparkles just like her big sister Abigail. Emily does preschool at home with Elizabeth and delights in pointing out letters of the alphabet when she sees words on TV, road signs, and in grocery stores. Emily’s activities this year have been the same as Elizabeth’s (it happens when you are a twin). She tried Tee Ball this summer, but seemed more interested in picking flowers and chasing butterflies than the game. She enjoys Let’s Play Music and doing her practice assignments. When the twins were able to see Grand Nan this year, they spent as much time in the pool as possible and Emily’s swimming abilities improved by leaps and bounds. She is a master back-floater and loves for the adult on duty to time her back floats. I think it would be safe to say that Emily’s favorite activity is dance though. She loves to dance by herself, with her class, and with her sisters. She just needs to grasp the concept that it’s not all about her all of the time and she will be golden.

Abigail Lynn (8) has taken on a lot of responsibility this year and does very well with it. She  has had a very exciting year with many achievements and milestones along the way. Her 8th birthday was on July 19th and she made the very important decision to be baptized in August. It has been wonderful to see her little spirit grow and develop this year. Abigail got her ears pierced this summer and has a new fascination with jewelry and shopping. I have been very impressed with how well Abigail has taken care of her ears and all personal hygiene for that matter. I hardly ever have to remind her to shower, clean her ears, brush her teeth, or fix her hair;  she just does it without me asking (hooray!). She has also really stepped up when it comes to getting herself ready for school, church, and dance. It may just be because she doesn’t want me to pick her clothes out anymore, but what ever the motivation is, I am very proud of her for being so responsible for herself. She is in third grade now and has become quite a good reader. Spelling is Abigail’s best subject at school. She loves to bring her spelling tests home and tape them to the refrigerator because they usually have a 3 digit grade on them that she is very proud of. Abigail’s activities this year have included: Tiger Ball (coach pitch), Piano Lessons, ISU Children’s Chorus, Activity Days, and Dance. Abigail seems to be quite talented at all of these things, so it will be very difficult for her to choose her niche because she loves it all and wants to do everything. We will see what next year brings because some decisions are going to have to be made . The girl is wearing me out!

Misty (29 forever):  This has been quite the year for me as well. I celebrated my last birthday ever and spent most of the year pregnant.  Pregnancy is a pretty miserable experience for me, but the end result was totally worth it (see Carson). No, I did not give birth to eight children (see picture on left), I have been teaching preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays out of my home and I love it. Who wouldn’t love those cute faces? In addition to preschool, I also teach 15 private piano and voice students on Wednesdays and Fridays. Between 8 preschool students, 15 music students, 4 children, a husband, and a church calling as the primary accompanist, I stay pretty busy. I did have a little bit of time for myself however, at the beginning of the year (pre Carson), and was able to sing with the ISU Camerata Singers. I had the amazing experience of performing the Mahler 8 with them and about 400 other musicians in Helena, Montana this spring and it was an experience that I will never forget. I look forward to singing with Camerata again sometime in the future.

Darin (older than 29):  Darin has undergone quite the career change for the past 18 months. In the summer of 2011 he decided to get his commercial drivers licence and has since then done several truck driving jobs with a few different companies. As of January of this year, he was offered a full-time job with Salmon River Stages, a local trucking company that delivers freight. We get to see him before and after work every day and we are very grateful that he is not one of the 12.3 million people in this country that are unemployed. Darin has a good boss and we are so glad that he is happy doing what he does. Darin is one of the hardest working people I have ever met. When he isn’t off providing for his family, he is home doing a project. This year he painted my kitchen, put a railing on our front steps, worked on vehicles, and built a play house for the kids. He also had two very special “dad” moments this year as he was able to baptize Abigail in August and bless baby Carson in November. We are so blessed to have him at the head of our family.

We wish all of our loved ones a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!

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