Can This Count As Our Christmas Card?

I'm realizing more and more that sometimes in life you just have to let certain things go. This year I decided that one of those things would have to be the mailing of Christmas cards. I'm a little bummed I didn't get around to it. I love Christmas cards, I love getting them and I love reading them. I really had good intentions for this year...but with Emily's birthday coming up this week and with all of the Christmas preparations I still have left to do I can see it's just not going to happen. So this post is my Christmas card for 2010. But seriously, watch your mailboxes next year...I have really high hopes for next year. :)

So.....MERRY CHRISTMAS from the Gutke Family!!!

(notice Eden's hands...the only way we could get her to hold still was to tell her to do "princess hands" in her lap like Emily...and it worked! For a split second! Justin is doing the manly version of "princess hands." Seriously, pictures with a 2-year-old in them are rough...really rough.)

Now for the updates:

Emily Faith

There is so much I could say about my little almost-9-year-old. I'll start out by saying she is awesome. She got another lead in her school winter play this year and performed in it yesterday. I wish I had a video to post...because she really did an amazing job. She was the Sugar Plum Fairy and it was so fun to watch. She loves to perform and is way braver than I was at her age. In fact, way braver than I am now. :) She has also been learning to play the piano this past year and continues to love taking ballet. She made her school's Third-grade tap team (called "Tap-tastic") and that has been a cool experience for her. She is loving third grade and I'm pretty sure third-grade loves her too. She's an awesome student and for that I am very thankful. Wow! I better stop. I am just so grateful for Emily...grateful for all of her hard work, and grateful for her willingness to take on the role of big sister and oldest daughter and mom's right hand gal. I know it can't be easy to have all of that responsibility...but she takes it on like a champ and never (hardly ever) complains. :) I don't know what I'd do without her...

Justin David

So Justin is 6 1/2. I actually really can't believe that! We are so thankful for Justin. He's as smart as a whip (my dad used to say that...I love that phrase) and as sweet as a boy can be. He loves learning and he still loves facts. He's just rattling off random facts all the time. He knows tons about dinosaurs, and the solar system, and about various states, and maps, and the food pyramid (sorry, that just popped in my head...he just learned about it at school and every meal we eat he has to name the category of every food). He definitely has one of those sponge-y, science-y brains. He's doing awesome in school and is an excellent reader. He just got his report card and his teacher wrote about how well he's doing and what a good learner he is...but then she went on to say how he sometimes forgets to do things and is always leaving things in his desk that he is supposed to bring to carpet time. When I read that it made me laugh because that is SO my Justin...super smart, but a little spacey. He gets it from his dad. :) He still loves sports and played t-ball and soccer this last year. He's an adoring big brother to Eden, and can hardly wait to have a little brother. :)

Eden Elizabeth

Eden is 2 1/2 now. Enough said. Just kidding! I can not express in words how fun and sweet this little girl is, you'd just have to come and spend a day at our house. :) She is constantly chatting away about princesses and ballerinas and the color pink. She's as girly as it gets. She loves dancing around the house in her ballet clothes asking any willing person "Dance with me?" It's the best. We all love and adore her so much and feel so thankful to have her in our family. Not to say she's not a bossy and sometimes very sassy 2-year-old...cause she totally is. But we'll keep her. :) We are enjoying every second of this stage and love hearing all the new things she is learning and saying. She makes us laugh all the time. Thank heaven for little girls for sure!

Dave and I celebrated our 10-year anniversay in 2010. It was awesome. We are still as happy as clams...10-years later. That's all I'm gong to say about that. :)

He's still working hard as an attorney and when he's not doing that he's busy being a devoted father and husband. He's a way funner parent then me...and I'm so thankful he can come home and make our kids laugh every day. It makes me happy.

I am busy being a mom. I guess that's it. But I love it!!!

NTBAAALD

(Name to be announced at a later date)

(Hey! It sounds like Not Bald if you try to say it...that's good for a boy!)

So this little guy is the reason for a lot of things...the reason I've hardly been blogging or taking pictures for the last four months, the reason I haven't been cooking, the reason I'm always out of breath, and the reason I go to bed at 9:00 every night. But he's also the reason I get so excited every time I feel a little kick, and the reason my kids and I are always singing and talking to and rubbing my tummy, and the reason I feel blessed beyond words to be having another little baby coming to our family. Really, so blessed. We can't wait to meet little Not Bald (although I'm sure he will be)...he arrives mid-April! So that's our biggest, most exciting news of 2010! We really can't wait for 2011!!

We wish all of our loved ones a very happy Christmas and New Year. We are so grateful for our many blessings and that includes all of you. :) We are especially grateful for this time of year that we have to contemplate the birth of our Savior and remember what truly matters in life.

Sincerely, The Gutke Family