Christmas Letter 2011

Merry Christmas!

2011 has been the year of projects at the Rhynsburger house. We finally finished our basement family room and are enjoying the extra space. We also repainted our main floor family room and remodeled the main bathroom. We have lived in a constant state of chaos this year but we sure have enjoyed the benefits of all the hard work.

Ethan turned 5 this year and is in his 3^rd and final year of preschool. He has done really well this past year and is academically where he should be; he just needs to work on sharing and learning to follow directions. We feel confident he will be ready for kindergarten next fall. He is a wild little boy with a HUGE imagination and always has a story to tell. He loves to learn new things and enjoys books about the solar system and the human body… he is our little scientist

Chloë is 4 now and started her first year of preschool. She absolutely loves it and has made friends with everyone in her class. She is still our little girly girl always dressing up and pretending to cook for everyone. Plus she helps clean the house! Chloë developed a love for bugs over the summer and held lady bugs, praying mantis’, grasshoppers and potato bugs (she calls them trilobites).

Travis is still doing well at the power company and even got a promotion this year. He has been working really hard on all the house projects and looking forward to a break from all the long days soon.

I’m still enjoying being home with the kids and I have more time to be crafty; making bows, tutus, blankets, and scrapbooks. Plus we get lots of chances to go on day trips around the area. Our favorites are the zoo (they had dinos this year!) Bridal Veil Falls, Antelope Island, The Dinosaur Park, and Salt Air.

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,

Alexie, Travis, Ethan, & Chloë

Chloë's 4!

I'm late as usual posting pics of Chloë's birthday. She had her party at Chuck E Cheese this year and had a blast, she was so excited about her rapunzel cake. As usual she was VERY spoiled, thanks everyone!

26 on the 26th!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!

I found this picture of Travis and it reminded me SO much of this picture of Ethan. Definitely his father's son, they are both so cute!

And this one of Chloë looks a lot like Travis, also both VERY cute!

Chloë Bug...

... and her bugs

Hard to believe this little girly girl LOVES bugs!

Chloë and her "Trilobite" (roly polie/ potato bug) on her arm

Grasshopper

Praying Mantis

5

I cannot believe Ethan is 5 today. He is at such a fun age where he wants to learn about everything and he just goes a mile a minute. Ethan keeps us entertained everyday and loves being the center of attention. 5 is definitely going to be a blast! Happy Birthday E!

Catching up... Fist day of School

Ethan was all set to go to his first day of preschool on Aug 31 and since Chloë registered late she wasn't going to start until the following week. But when we went to the school to drop Ethan off her teacher said they only had 2 kids in class that day and Chloë could stay! She didn't have any of her stuff but off she went anyway. They are both loving school and they really like their teachers.

First day of school

Here they are going to their 2nd day of school, backpacks on and ready to go!

Catching up... Dino Park

August 7 we took a trip up to the Dinosaur Park with Papa Wendell and Nana Carole. The kids love running around and naming all the dinos they know!

Nana, Papa, E, and C

Chloë striking a pose with her dad

Ethan and Papa Wendell

Worlds Most Dangerous Creatures!

Chloë of course loved the pink dino

XOXO

I was getting the kids some juice and I came out of the kitchen to this... "We're hugging each other!" I love that they love each other so much!

Dexter's Dream?

Travis and I finally got our living room painted. Goodbye yellow and brown...

... Hello "splendor"
It is SO bright in the living room now, it doesn't even feel like our house anymore. When Ethan saw it this morning he said "wow you got new colors? you did a good job!"

Bridal Veil Falls '11

We took a trip up to Bridal Veil Falls again this summer. The water was freezing but the kids didn't mind. Ethan was completly soaked by the time we left, they had a blast!

Catching Up- 4th of July

We had a great 4th of July this year, the kids didn't really like the loud fireworks but they loved the sparklers!

Visit with cousin Killian

Ethan and Chloë had so much fun visiting with their cousin Killian! They swam a little, showed him the room where they can color on the walls, jumped around and were just plain silly. We also went with them to see Cars 2 and walked through the planetarium. Its always fun to see the cousins together!

Update--finally

I haven't been very good at blogging lately so I will quickly sum up what we have been up to. Ethan finished his 2nd year of preschool at the end of May, he has one more year before kindergarten. He really misses all his friends and his teachers. Chloë is learning a lot from Ethan, he tries to teach her letters with the magnets on the door. She is still our little girly girl dressing up, putting on make up, getting her nails done ect. Chloë is now 100% potty trained, she is so proud of it! We are so excited for all the summer activites - swimming, BBQs, the park, and all that other good stuff.

Chloë all dressed up

Ethan can spell his name, mom and dad. He is learning how to spell Chloë

They LOVE dinosaurs, we are so excited to have them at the zoo this summer

Finally getting warm enough to swim, they are our little fishes

Little Artist

Ethan loves to "scribble" on his iPhone and he does some really good drawings. He even takes the screen shots all by himself! We just love watching his imagination at work.

DRAGON

Stegosaurus

SWORD FISH

ETHAN ALSO TOOK THIS PIC OF CHLOË

(I thought it was really cute!)

Dentist

Ethan and Chloë had their first dentist appointments on Thursday. They were SO good while we were there and held still for the x-rays and the cleaning. Neither of them had cavities or any other problems so it was a very good first visit!

Gavin's Birthday Party

On Saturday we went to a birthday party for Gavin who turned 5. He had a "Bug Party" and they had all sorts of creatures for the kids to see- snakes, spiders, lizards, cockroaches, and even a ferret. There was also face painting and a pinata!

Ethan loved holding the geckos

Ethan's spider, he kept forgetting the word "web" and called it a "worm"

Gavin, Ethan, and Chloë with the snake

Chloë's turn with a lizard

Ethan taking a turn at the pinata

And Chloë hitting the pinata

Chloë really wanted a spider on her face so she got a girly version

Easter

Saturday evening after Gavin's birthday party we went to the store and got the stuff we needed to decorate eggs. The kids had so much putting stickers on the eggs and Ethan was trying to make a face on his so it "looks like Ethan"

Sunday morning the kids opened their Easter bags (i didn't have any baskets). They loved their new books the most!

Chloë all dressed up and wearing her new dragon sunglasses

Sunday afternoon we headed to the Farnworths for some yummy Easter dinner. After we ate we went outside to play. Travis made and fire and the kids helped throw sticks on it.

The boys climbing the tree