Merry Christmas to All!

From our family to yours, we send warmest Christmas Greetings. We hope you are well and happy, and enjoying the spirit of this season. We are grateful to celebrate the birth of our Savior and remember Him as we delight in the joy of spending Christmas with those we love.

Katie (4) is growing and learning so much. She loves to move and dance. This year Katie has been in gymnastics and dance. She loves the balance beam and the uneven bars where she can do flips. We are impressed with her strength. Katie is in preschool four days a week. Her teachers rave that she is doing so well. She loves to count and can almost count to 100. She enjoys letters and has been sounding out simple words, as well as writing her name and other words. Her favorite seems to be reading the cereal box! Katie loves playing trains and building elaborate train tracks. She also loves role playing with dolls; she has a great imagination and tells great stories! We are so proud of our Katie-bug!

Amanda (2) is finding her voice. She loves to sing—at the top of her lungs! And since she doesn't know all the words to any one song, she combines a line or two from each one (ending usually with "all through the town.") She loves Signing Time and practices sign language each day, sometimes as she lies in bed trying to go to sleep. Speaking of sleep, around her birthday Amanda learned to sleep in a big bed! Katie and Amanda now share a room and have bunk-beds, which they both think is pretty cool. Mom and Dad think it's pretty cool when they stay in bed long enough to go to sleep! She hates being left behind when Katie goes to school and her other "big girl" activities. Soon enough, though, Amanda won't be the littlest one and hopefully that will help her feel all the more like the big girl she's becoming! We adore our Manda-Panda!

Baby Sister is expected to make her debut on Christmas. We are ecstatic about this Christmas present, and are counting down the days to her arrival. Katie has been excited to be able to feel her sister move around inside Mom, and Amanda loves to pat the growing belly and ask, "Baby?"

Brett completed a very busy second year of law school in the spring. He immediately began a summer work experience at the State Capitol in the Office of General Counsel and Legislative Research. It was a good experience, despite long bus rides to Salt Lake. He is back at school with only one semester left! Yippee! This fall he worked at a local firm to gain more experience in different fields of law. Hopefully these explorations will eventually lead to a job! We can't believe that we are looking at only one more semester of school, but are grateful for the experience and all the wonderful people we've met along the way.

Wendy has been busy shuttling everyone around to various part-time jobs, school, after school activities, etc. She has been involved in Law Partners, the organization for spouses of BYU law students. She occasionally gets a few moments to sew, make hair bows, scrapbook, write letters or cards, and other little hobbies. She looks forward to meeting this new daughter and having some quiet winter moments to bond and snuggle. Wendy also continues to work one weekend a month in Salt Lake at the emergent care clinic. The hours tend to feel long, but it’s great to practice her nursing skills and Spanish language; and the girls love to be able to visit with Grandma Great, Grandma Nichols, and Papa Jack while their mom is away at work.

Merry Christmas from the Nichols family!