January 2009

So, I haven't posted in forever. Life has just been so busy. Umm, it would be too hard to catch you up on all the details - let's just say that the Steele home is on the go all the time.

Matt, Erin and Ella live in town, work with dad, and pop in to bring us treats and chat. We love having them close by and don't play with them often enough.

Zac & Sarah are on the home stretch at BYU - just starting their last semester before graduation. They just moved into a new apartment - and are adding another grandbaby to the Steele family. We are so excited!!

Savannah will be graduating in April also, and has just started student teaching in Spanish Fork. She'll be working with 7th,8th and 9th graders, teaching them math.

Elizabeth is a sophomore at BYU and has become quite the photographer. She is making quite a name for herself and having a good time at it. She is headed to California to take pictures of her roommates wedding reception.

Jonathan survived the first semester at the Y and is back for more. I was surprised to find that he grew another 2 inches during the 4 months he has been gone. Needless to say, we bought him some pants that fit. We enjoyed having he and his sisters home for Christmas. They filled up the house with luggage, chatter, laughter, late nights, movies, games, christmas goodies and plain old fun.

Rosie and Remington stay so busy with their lives that we hardly ever see them. They are busy with soccer, both indoor and out, skiing, school, homework, church activities, jobs, and friends. Their day starts when it is still dark - heading out for seminary. Since we pick up a girl in the ward, we leave the house around 5:40 in the morning. While they are at seminary, I walk with another mom - good days and bad. It's crazy that when we finish our walk and return to the church to pick up the kids, its still dark outside. Something abby-normal about being up THAT early. Then it's off to school and all their activities. If they do have an occasional afternoon free - they are often found passed out on the couch in the living room.
Remington is turning into the typical teenage boy - reminding me how many days it will be before he gets his permit (we're down to 19 now), and eating everything in sight. Which just means he will be another very tall Steele boy.

Hunter is the 'rebel' of the family, as his dad calls him. He is taking spanish at school (the other kids took french- except for Rosie), and if you can believe it, he has taken up snowboarding - instead of the family tradition of skiing. He loves it. It's a completely different sport than skiing - and he's still trying to get the hang of it. He did borrow Rem's skis last week and enjoyed them for an evening. I got the dreaded phone call from Bristol Mountain on monday evening. "Your son has been hurt - you should come down and take a look at him." I hurried down to the ski patrol lodge and found him impatient to get back on the slopes. He had fallen on the hill and continued to snowboard, not realizing that he was dripping blood down his face. They took him into the ski patrol lodge, bandaged up what they could and called me. I drove down, peeled the bandages off, assessed the abrasion, applied antibiotic ointment, patched him up and sent him back out to the hill. There is just no stopping a determined little boy. He really was fine. The next morning his face looked better, but had swollen some - so I think he's working on a bit of a black eye. I took these photos, but he kept closing his eye so that it would look much worse than it actually is (don't say I said that).

Madison had a birthday in late November - and received ski lessons as her present from mom and day. She started them this past Saturday - and can't wait until the next saturday when she can ride the ski lift and go down one of the actual ski trails. She is excited to be doing the same thing as her big brothers and sister. She is very excited for the next week when she can ski with mom and her best friend and cousin Anna.

So long for now, I hope to be better at blogging this year.