Christmas Letter 2012

Hello family and friends:

I hope this letter finds Everyone doing well.   I’ve decided to save some trees and write a blog Christmas letter

What a Year!

Most recently my company laid off 1700 people world wide (just from my overall organization and its support functions).  I feel very blessed that I still have a job and was not part of the layoff.  From being at TI for so long many friends I have worked with for years have been affected so it’s been tough.  We’ll see what’s in store for next year with a much smaller group.  I’m still involved at the schools.  I’m President of the Preschool board and doing newsletter for Elementary PTA.  I try to volunteer at Landon’s school when I can.  I'm working out more.  One of our neighborhood friends does a boot camp early in the morning that I do a few days a week, and then I do aerobics once or twice depending on schedules.

Greg is still working part time, it’s basically his adult or sanity time. :)  He’s also been coaching a lot this year.  He was head coach for Landon’s baseball team in Spring and Fall.  He also helped coach soccer both seasons and flag football in this fall.  Greg has become the morning dropoff helper at the preschool – interesting comments from the kids on him wearing a lot of A&M gear or a few kids that are scared of him.

We lost our dog Lady this year.  Greg brought her home right after we got married in January 2001, and we were very sad to lose her this year.  She was our first baby.

Kasey is now 4, but wants to be at least 10.   She does a lot of pretending.  She has her own children and husband (but she calls him her dad).  They get sick and do silly things, and go to school and all kinds of things.  She talks about it a lot.  We sometimes have to check if she’s talking about the pretend world or the real one.  I think it’s cute – I had an imaginary friend growing up and I turned out pretty normal :) Kasey is in preschool and they are doing Letter people so she’s learning sounds and words more.  She spells NO really well.  She is currently taking dance - she really like it and tries and follows instructions most of the time.  I got to see her class a few weeks ago and was really proud of her.  I told her I was a dancer for many years.  She’s also taking swim lessons.  This spring she was on her first soccer team. She had taken soccer tots so she had skills and when she wanted to was able to score goals.  Then other times she just didn’t want to run.  Right now she doesn’t want to play soccer again.  We’ll probably try tball in the spring.  Kasey loves Rapunzel, playing pretend, playing games, and driving her brother crazy.  She’s got a personality and will tell you how it is or tell you if you are doing something wrong.  Kasey is in size 6 clothes and size 10 shoe.  She like dresses right now, and sometimes wearing clothes that don’t match (but she picks them out). At her 4 year old appointment she was being asked about the right foods to eat, and that we need to exercise, and she asked what we do to keep our teeth clean - she said keep chewing with them.

Landon is 6 ½ now.  This fall he played 3 sports at the same time, and since those sports have ended he has more energy than he knows what to do with.   We’re very proud of him.  In soccer he was able to score a few goals, and enjoyed playing defense and goalie.  In Flag football he pulled some flags and was able to get several 2 point conversions.  In baseball, he ended up getting the most hits on the team, and sometimes tried to play every position on the field no matter where he was (all to help the team).  Landon is also in gymnastics which has been great for building strength, and he’s improved in this as well.  Landon is in first grade and doing really well.  He enjoys school, his teacher likes him, and he’s taken off reading a ton from this summer.  He’s reading the Magic Tree House books and getting close to the end of the series.  This fall he entered a recycling coloring contest and won 2^nd place for 1^st grade at his school.  His class also did a turkey decoration contest and he won first place.   He really enjoys hanging out with friends, and playing outside.   He also likes watching A&M no huddle football games on tv.  He loves being Johnny Football right now.  We got him a little A&M SEC football and he carries it around a lot making Johnny Football moves.  This Winter he’s going to try out basketball.  Landon lost his first tooth in August, but he hasn’t really been toothless because the adult tooth grew in behind the baby tooth.  Landon wears size 7 clothes and 1 ½ shoe.

Landon sang Take me out to the ball game in talent show with some of his baseball team mates, he wrote a book on dolphins at the end of kindergarten, & he loves legos (he can put 8-14 year old ones together by himself in a few hours)

 In February we got to go to Great Wolf Lodge for the weekend in Grapevine.  In June we all went to College Station for the A&M baseball regional.  Also in June Greg and I went to Lake Tahoe just the two of us for a long weekend. This August we went to Watercolor, Florida for a family vacation.  We went with our good friends the Steiners and Doug.  We spent most of the time at the beach relaxing and enjoying the sun.  The waves got a little rough one day, but we all had a great time.  Even with 4 kids sports this fall we still made it to College Station for several A&M football games (we still have season tickets for all of us). Greg and I got to see the first A&M SEC game in College Station against Florida.  We also have season tickets to the Allen Eagle High School games – we just went to the first one in the new $70M stadium and sold the rest to our neighbor.  

We hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year.  May God Bless you this coming year.

Love,     Dana, Greg, Landon and Kasey Myers