Christmas Letter

I thought that since I would never ever in a million years get it together enough to type a Christmas Letter complete with a family picture...I would do one via the blog. Here it goes:

Dear Family, Friends and Internet,

The Stivers Family has had another busy and amazing year!! It started with a bang because on the second day of the year this year Julianna Kate joined our family. She was induced nearly three weeks early because of an irregular heartbeat. However, by the time she got here she was perfectly healthy. She has been a joy since day one. She's so easy going and happy that seconds after she was born I was worried that she wasn't breathing because she wasn't crying!! In fact she didn't cry for a few hours! She continues to amaze us with her sweetness and she is a tiny ball of fun.


Drew has had a big year this year. We discovered that he is significantly farsighted. It was an amazing moment when they put his glasses on him. He was actually seeing himself for the first time. Since he got his glasses nothing gets past this kid! He notices everything and doesn't forget a thing. He will be starting preschool two days a week in January. I think he's looking forward to it, although he is a bit nervous about it all. I will be sad to see him go...but I'm sure it will be nothing but a good thing for him! He already has his ABCs down and can count to 13! It will be fun to see how he fits in with his peers without Lily there to order him around.


Lily is growing up fast! She will be FIVE in February!! I can't believe she is getting so big. We've kept Lily busy this year with preschool five days a week, swimming lesson and gymnastics. She has also had some of her artwork displayed in a local gallery. She is so artistic and creative...I always love to see what she's going to come up with next! She really loves her swimming lessons and has told me more than once that she thinks she ready to swim in a swim meet. I think we'll wait on that, but it's nice that she's found something that she really enjoys!

After a few years of bouncing around his company, Tom has settled into a job as the Division Estimator. For our family this means lunch at home with us and that he's home for dinner almost every night. This is a big deal, because for a long time we never knew when or if he would make it home before it was time for the kids to go to bed. There are more times in our marriage than I'd like to count that his boss has called and said that Tom would be back on the road and gone for days at a time. We are so grateful for Tom's new job!

As for me, the kids continue to keep me on my toes. We stay very busy with Lily going to school and keeping up with all the activities for Drew and Julianna during school hours. There are days that I want to rip my hair out, but the rewards that come with raising children and creating memories make all the craziness worth it. I can't imagine doing anything else!

I hope that this year has been a good one for you too!

Happy Holidays!

The Stivers Family

Tom, Taylor, Lily, Drew and Julianna