The best!

I am glad it's her birthday, I have been waiting to be able to post this picture!

This is my sister, today is her birthday. She is the best big sister anyone could ever want. She is amazing. She buys me presents for HER birthday ha ha , gives me her hand me downs (most of which she has worn only once), she makes me laugh out loud, especially when trying on hats! Most of all she is always there for me no matter what . Happy Birthday to the best big sis!

Pretty cool pix

Thomas had a swim meet over Christmas week. He only swam a few events as he is in the middle of his training schedule. He swam the mile in 18 minutes 2 seconds, next time he says he will do it in under 18. He then swam the 200 fly and got his best time ever and then swam the 400 I.M and won the event. State is less than 2 months away, I can't wait to see what he will do!

A very merry Christmas

Another Christmas come and gone. We had a fun filled week with movies, dinners, family parties and lots of family time. The kids were spoiled by Santa and their grandparents. It was fun to have Maddi home for longer than a weekend and it was awesome to be able to talk to ELder Sheridan even if it was only for 40 minutes. He is doing really great and sounded so happy. He told me "only one more phone call ( Mothers Day) and then I will be at home" I felt a little guilty having so much good food around the house after finding out that he had BBQ chicken hearts for Christmas dinner. A friend of mine said that she felt the same way about her daughter having to eat tamales in Texas but then she realized how grateful she was for a sweet family that was willing to feed her what little they had. I am grateful for the sweet people of Peru who take care of my boy.
On Christmas Eve I got a phone call from a darling English lady that is in Peru right now. Her husband is the doctor for the Peru mission and they had to go to Mitchell's area to check out a clinic and needed a translator because they don't speak Spanish. So Elder Sheridan was their translator and she got my info so she could call and tell me what a great kid he was and how helpful he was for them. It really touched me that she would call all the way from Peru to tell me that. I hung up the phone and cried my eyes out. She also sent me the cute picture of Mitch in his Santa hat.
So even though we had zero snow on the ground and no Mitch, it still turned out to be a pretty awesome Christmas. We are looking forward to the new year and all the adventures it will bring.

8

8 months! That's it 8 months! It is so strange to realize that he will be home so soon.I can't say that it has gone by fast for me because it really hasn't. It seems like he has been gone a long time. I really miss him, we all do, and this time of year it is even harder. I have been told by parents of 2 of his buddies that as soon as Christmas is over the time will zoom by.
Yesterday we had a special visitor stop by the house. It was his best friend Connor who just returned home the day before from his mission in Argentina. I couldn't hold back the tears because this kid is such a big part of Mitch , they have been friends since 1st grade. It was so great to see him. He walked in the house and said, like he always used to, "is Mitch home?" That started me crying all over again!
So only 8 more months and the boys will all be back together again.
I am so excited to get his phone call this Christmas and we may even get a pre call like he has done before. So either one of the next 2 Mondays I could get a surprise call from Peru. He joked in his last letter that he may call my cell phone or the home phone or maybe he would even call Thomas! It better be me!!!!
It is amazing to see the change that these young men have gone through as they have given 2 years of their life to spread the Gospel all over the world. They were awesome teenagers, amazing missionaries and are going to be incredible husbands and fathers someday! Oh how I love these kids!

Just keep swimming swimming swimming.......

Thomas had a swim meet this week and he was able to impress his grandma by winning every event he swam. He is SO dedicated to swimming it is CRAZY! He gets up on some days a t 5 am and heads to the pool, goes straight to school and then after school he goes right back to the pool and stays until 6. Region and State are coming up quick and I think all of hi hard work will pay off!

A fun visit

We just had a super fun visit with Kevin's mom. She was only here for a few days and we probably ran her ragged with all of the running around we do with the kids but it was great to have her here. Every morning she left a lego mini figure on Jacob's bed, he was so excited to come home from school each day to see what lego guy was waiting for him!
It was so fun to have her here.

This is for Maddi