Maria and Kelly

It was great to sleep in all break and wake up when we wanted to. It is nice that our kids like to sleep in as well! This will be difficult, but it was worth it. We had fun with Stephanie, Kelly's youngest sister, here. She got to go to the gym with me a few times. We also went sledding two times. The first time the hill was a sheet of ice and was soooo scary, but fun. The second time it had snowed and slowed us down a bit, but it made it much easier to climb the hill. We will add the pictures to our blog so you can check it out (www.thestottsseven.blogspot.com or click on our family picture on the right), but here is a teaser.

On the 31st we took Stephanie ice skating in downtown St. Paul. It was only about 6 degrees outside on the rink. David did pretty well, but got cold early so I HAD to stay with him in the warming house. Kelly and the other kids got pretty good and Stephanie can now say that she has been ice skating and didn't kill herself. Stephanie, Megan and the younger kids hung out here for New Year's Eve while Kelly and I chaperoned the regional youth dance that Amber and her friends attended. We had a great time dancing and spying on Amber. Once, Amber even brought her dance partner over while we were swing dancing and asked us to teach them. Kelly danced with Amber and I danced with the guy and then switched back after a short lesson. Stephanie got off okay on Thursday and we prepared for a New Year's celebration that night (since we were gone the night before). We had about 40 people here and lots of yummy food. We played some fun games and visited with friends. The rest of the week was pretty calm and relaxing. Amber decided to get sick Saturday night and threw up. Luckily, she kept it to herself. She slept most of the day and is feeling better now. I was released as primary music leader and called as a valiant 10/11 teacher. It is nice to have a new challenge, but I will miss leading the music. We had a choir potluck at our home Sunday. It was great to have so many people from our ward socializing and singing. We had a good group of youth, as well. We are getting back into our busy schedule of music lessons, church activities, and school. We hope you have a great new year!