Balch Family Blog

Tonight is the last of 2006. It has been a great year! Carsten is getting “So Big” and will now play that with us. He also claps and is starting to learn some sign language. Camden is off to hit his new golf clubs with his daddy. What a big boy he has become! Yikes! We have had a very nice holiday. We have completed the playroom, which is a screened porch off our kitchen and Camden is already in heaven! We are taking it easy tonight, no big plans. We will most likely be in bed by 11 pm and fast asleep before 2007.

We hope that you have a safe and happy new year!

Happy Birthday Baby Jesus! Thank you God for your precious gift to us! We started this morning by retelling the Christmas Story and singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. It put us in the right frame of mind for the morning.

Then we got up and opened our stockings, ate some breakfast and opened presents. I had a few moments of down time before I shower and starting cooking so I thought I would get some pictures up here for you all to enjoy!

Merry Christmas All!

     

through Kleenex, medicine, and a messy house and on the road to getting back to normal.  Carsten had a sinus infection, Camden and I both have horrible coughs, and Mark is just getting over a head cold.  It never fails, come December, we get sick.

Carsten went in for his 9 month check up.  All is well.  He is big…21lbs. 11 oz, and 30 inches long (compared to Camden 20lbs 8oz and 29 inches).  He did loose over a pound in about a week with this illness, so we are going to watch his weight gain over the next month.  He is clapping and scooting on his tummy everywhere.  He loves to play peek-a-boo with a blanket.  His smile will just light up a room!
Camden is really getting into the season of Christmas, but we are focusing on Jesus’ birthday more then Santa and gifts.  It is hard for him to get the big concept, but he already knows he can ask the man in red for gifts…boy they learn fast. He loves to play with his friends and is attending Awana at our church.  They focus on scripture memorization.  It is a great program.
We will be headed to my mom’s on Monday to do our holiday baking.  Then we are going to give the firemen a plate of goodies.  I am sure Camden will enjoy that!

Things are going well for Mark at work.  They are busy and he needs a break so 2, 4-day work weeks will help.  He tries to play golf at least 1x month and is playing softball with our church league again.
Last night I went back through the archives of my blog and really enjoyed reading about my pregnancy and how Camden used to sleep in his crib.  So much happens in just one year…it blows me away.

I am so blessed by the Lord to have an AWESOME husband and 2 healthy and happy little boys!  What a joy they are!

It seems that my rambling has turned into a bit of Christmas type letter with updates about everyone.  I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

With Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas ahead, we are VERY busy here at the Balch house! We spent Thanksgiving in Pine, AZ with Mark’s family. His sister and fiance’ drove down from Las Vegas to join his parents and our crew to have a very yummy dinner.

We got to play in the snow without driving very far at the neighborhood snow day. Camden really enjoyed it! (I was going to post a picture, but it won’t create a thumbnail so it is too big. Dad the 2 I wanted to put in are in the browser if you want to take a look.)

(Dad was here)

Mark and I will be attending The Nutcracker next week and we are thrilled to have a date.

Christmas will be spent at our house this year. We are considering making something a little non-tradtional this year.

We hope this finds you all doing well.

• Remember that JESUS is the reason for the season!