Wednesday, December 22, 2010

2010 Christmas Letter


Hello Friends and Family,

We hope this letter finds you healthy and happy. We have enjoyed an especially busy year. Besides all the normal happenings of a family of 5 we also had our share of unexpected events, including: a wind storm that toppled our tree onto our garage (we built a new one!), a hail storm that pockmarked our van, a drunk driver that hit the van while it was parked in front of our house, a second wind storm that knocked a large limb onto the back window of our car (we replaced that too), and a deer that decided to run into the side of our car while we were driving 55 mph down the highway. After all of this, we're looking forward to an uneventful 2011!

As a family we enjoyed a 10 day vacation in Utah visiting family and a camping trip along the Mississippi River. Here are some individual highlights:

Liam-turned 1 in October, learned to walk, and is cutting teeth. He is a happy kid who is quick to smile and loves to make others laugh, but he also has a devious side. He knows what "no" means but often decides not to listen. He's such a cutie, but we still can't decide who he looks like.

Paige-Oooohhhh our little Paige! She keeps us hopping every minute and has enough energy for two kids her age. Paige will be four in January, is in pre-school and gymnastics and attends speech and occupational therapy once a week. She loves dogs and babies and will be friends with anyone.

Dylan-turned 7 in September and is in the 2nd grade. He is our braniac who frequently gets extra assignments at school to help keep him interested and motivated. He loves dinosaurs, reading, video games, and baseball. He is growing up too quickly and already resists having to spend Saturdays (his "only day off!") helping around the house instead of playing all day.

Jen-is busy being the full-time mom and part-time music teacher. Besides running the kids to their various activities she has 18+ piano students and is serving in the Young Womens presidency at church. She has become quite serious about running as of late and puts in multiple miles on the treadmill each week.

Bill-continues to enjoy teaching at Morningside College. He was recently awarded one of three excellence in teaching awards from the college. Travels this year took him to San Diego for the Entomological Society of America Meeting (aka the bug nerd extravaganza!) and to India for two weeks with students. He also rode RAGBRAI (the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) putting in over 500 miles for the week and has plans to do it again next year. He is still serving as 1st counselor in the bishopric.

We hope you each have a blessed and peaceful Christmas season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love, the Heybornes




Sunday, December 12, 2010

Who Stole the Candy from the Christmas Tree?

Notice days 16 through 23 are missing the little gold candies?
Notice the pile of empty gold candy wrappers?

Wonder who could have eaten all those in the 2 minutes it took me to go to the bathroom?




Nativities

A few years ago our church started an annual Nativity Exhibit. Bill and I were in charge of it again this year. This is the 3rd year we've done it, and it was by far the best. We had a total of 99 nativities and a few hundred people that came through to look. We also had quite a few people ask to include their nativities next year- we're already planning a different layout as we are expecting over 100 nativities next year.


Here are a few pictures from this year's event.







It's definitely a lot of work but well worth the effort.