Happy New Year

Hello, all! One of my resolutions this year is to keep in better contact with the family through more frequent phone calls and, of course, more updates on the Family Net. So, probably the biggest news of late is that Dale has finished his Master's degree. His capstone project, on which he worked for about a year, was to create a method through which the teachers in his department could better communicate and plan to use and share their resources. He received his Master of Education in Educational Technology, and with a 4.0 GPA, no less! The girls are doing great. We are noticing that Beatrice is a little bigger for her age than Melanie was and seems to be already growing out of her 18 month size clothes, especially her footie pajamas. She has appointed herself to the post of Door Police, with her chief responsibility being that no door may remain open, at any time. This includes all cabinets, and even the dishwasher, which she insists must remain closed, even when I am in the middle of loading it. She has developed a very silly laugh that consists of staccato bursts of laughter, much like machine gun fire. Melanie loves going to school and is very, VERY excited to be the VIP at school next week. She's been asking a lot of questions about Jesus and Heavenly Father, and we're trying to teach her to choose the right. She is very sweet and likes to give hugs and kisses frequently. She taught me a lesson the other day, which illustrates just how kind-hearted she is. We were playing a video game against each other and she was beating me soundly. I was getting angry at my lack of ability to play the game and was saying things like, "I hate this game." Melanie reminded me that those things aren't nice and we shouldn't say them. Then, a minute later when I actually made a good shot (we were playing tennis), she said, "You did it, Mommy! I'm so happy for you." Is that precious or what? We love you all and are happy that we've had so many fun times lately. It was such a privilege to be at the temple with so many members of our family when Alex received his endowments. It would be wonderful if someday we could all go together. Until then, enjoy some pictures of our girls!