Holiday Happenings

So here it is! The long-waiting blog has finally come! Here's an update on what's been happening over the past few months at the Beall household.

After six years of working for no paycheck, I am now a part of the paid workforce again. I started working at 1st Source Bank (Rochester) on December 3rd. December was quite a stressful month due to the fact that I was training full time in Wyatt and the weather was horrible! Things calmed down a little when I actually started working my normal 20 hour weeks in Rochester. I work 4 afternoons a week from noon until 4:30 and most Saturday mornings (3 of 4) until noon. We decided to put Mason in extended day Kindergarten (which he loves) so he is in school until 3:15 PM. We are so lucky to have Makenna spend time with her BFF Lola two afternoons a week. She loves going to the Brady's and usually cries when I come to pick her up! Thanks Beth! She spends the other two afternoons with daddy. On Fridays she goes to the church with daddy and plays Sunday School. She puts stuffed animals and dolls around the table and gives them all color pages. Then she goes around and colors each paper for her "students" while she talks to them. It is really quite amusing!

The kids have both adjusted well to this change and I am finally starting to get into the routine. It has been a big adjustment. I am so glad that all the gals at work (there are only 7 total in our branch) are easy to get along with and fun to work with.

Chris and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary on December 19th. We went to Ft. Wayne to Biaggi's for an incredible dinner accompanied by 9 red roses from Chris (thanks!) and then attempted to do all of our Christmas shopping in one night! We managed to get most of it done, and left Toys R Us at 10:45 PM! It was quite a night.



Makenna enjoyed her 1st Nutcraker Ballet this year with Grandma Beall, Mom, Aunt Allison & Aunt Sheri. Even baby Samantha (pictured above) enjoyed it too. Makenna now does ballet on a daily basis at home. She loved it!

As always, we enjoyed lots of family time with both the Beall's and the Engbrecht's. Mason and Makenna got to meet their new baby cousin, Gideon. It was so much fun to hold the new baby! By the way, Makenna is wearing a Dora the Explorer costume in this picture. She is all about dress-up now!




At the Engbrecht Christmas, the kids had lots of fun playing with Trace and Maya. Maya bought Makenna a Hannah Montana wig and microphone, so we've been enjoying concerts on the fireplace on a regular basis. Here's the only picture I have of the wig so far...



To wrap up the holidays, we enjoyed 3 days & 2 nights with the entire extended Engbrecht family at the Farmstead Inn in Shipshewana. We checked in on New Year's Eve and had a blast! The kids lived in the pool the entire time! Mason even learned to swim without wearing his wings! He was jumping into the deep in all by himself by the time we left the hotel. It was so much fun to be with 39 of the 40 members of the family (We did talk to Chad on the phone from Afghanistan.) There are now 13 great-grandchildren (10 girls, 3 boys) all under 10 years old. We made lots of fun memories together! I didn't take family pictures with my camera, but Liz has one of Grandma & Grandpa Engbrecht with the 13 kids on her blog -- www.reimercrew.blogspot.com

Here's a few pictures of the kids swimming:




Mason just got his report card yesterday and I am so proud of him. He did so good! He has already mastered all of his Kindergarten sight words, so Mrs. Good sent home 1st Grade words to start working on. We looked at them yesterday and he already knows most of them. I am amazed at what they are already learning in Kindergarten! Mrs. Good also made a comment that Mason is an excellent writer! Good job Mason...I think you deserve a trip to the big CEC! (Chuck E. Cheese)

Well, that's all I've got for today! Hope your family had a great Christmas!