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!
