Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Keller Family!! As I am sitting here watching football with my dear family, I reflect back to our wonderful year that we have experienced together. This past year we have enjoyed many family moments that I will cherish forever and ever!! With Donnie still traveling for his work frequently, we tend to embrace every moment we can. Here are some highlights from this past year! (you can click on any picture to see it bigger!!) Dec 28th-30th, 2008 – Donnie took me to Paris…yep, Paris, France!! It was a very romantic two day trip! we loved every minute of it!! Here’s a pic of us at the Louvre. In January we resumed our homeschooling, with field trips each month and learning galore!! Here are the kids at the zoo, one of our favorite destinations! In March, our miracle baby turned 7. She continues to astound us with her smarty ways and her wonderful personality!! Here’s a quick pic of her with my OB, Dr Rizk. At the end of March, we made our annual trip to Washington-on-the-Brazos to see the Texas Hill Country Bluebonnets. We met Donnie’s mom and sister and her fam up there!! This annual trip was so fun with the cousins! Here’s a shot of our kids and their cousins, Paloma and Angelica from that trip. Quentin (12 yo) started his gymnastics competition schedule in February. He improved so much with each competition that he qualified for the Regional competition which was held in Keller, TX in early April! Here he is on the PBars at Regionals. Spring found us still doing school, celebrating Omas’ birthdays, going to museums, and our annual church camping trip! We love camping with our best friends!! here’s a fun shot of the crew…try to find the 6 of us!! The summer found us reigniting our fire for music. in July, my sister and I had the pleasure of taking our mom to Alaska! Mom has been to all of the Lower 48 (as they say in Alaska!), so we blessed her with whisking her off to the largest state in the union!! It was the most incredible trip…to see Mt McKinley (although many people told us we probably wouldn’t see it!!), enjoy Anchorage, peer at the home town of Sarah Palin – Wasilla, and just to be together…it was incredible!! Here we are in front of a glacier…Exit Glacier! and a pic of Mt McKinley! August started our much beloved football season. Quentin played his last year of PeeWee football. It was a wonderful season! We were blessed to have Donnie coaching with 5 other coaches!! Here are my boys on the football field. We started school up again in September. Cora (15yo) is a sophomore this year. Quentin is a 6th grader. Emma is having fun in 5th grade, and Lillian is a wonderful 2nd grader…although she likes to tell everyone she does 3rd grade math, too!! All of the kiddos love gymnastics and music. Cora also participated in a production of Cats, done by BBYMT (Broadway Bound Youth Musical Theater). She loved being a cat and singing and dancing…that’s my Cora – always a performer!! now if we can just get the song Memory out of our heads!! LOL!! Emma has just started cello lessons with me! She is a natural and is doing wonderfully!! i can’t wait to do cello duets and trios with Oma Upton!! (Lillian also has shown an interest in the cello, so I may start her next year! we’ll see!!) It is so fun to see how talented these kids are!! Quentin and Cora participated in a Rock Band camp and formed their own band! They occassionally practice and may even perform soon!! We’ll keep you all posted on that!! My year has been filled with scrapbooking, music, stamping (which I retired from selling in October due to a conflict of interest with my position as head of a promotions team for Oscraps.com, a digital scrapbooking site!), quilting, and other fun activities with my fam!! Donnie is still traveling to California each month and is racking up those air miles and hotel points! I’m seeing a fun family vacation in 2010!! Maybe Mickey will be involved!! We’ll see!!! Through all of these holiday seasons we have celebrated throughout the year, I keep coming back to the fact that God is a God of LOVE and BLESSINGS!! He continually blesses this family with a life, an abundant life!! We are thrilled to invite you to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the World with us, and to come to know this Savior who loves you…He wants to give you that Peace on Earth that everyone is singing about this season. HE certainly has given us that peace!! Merry Christmas from the Kellers!! we love you all!! 🙂
We first had a booth for our new Media company, Hearthstone Media at the SouthEast Texas Homeschoolers Association annual convention. We enjoyed selling our first two CDs of poetry and music.
We also re-launched our band, Brazos River Turnaround! How fun is that???
