2013 has been a pretty good year for us. I decided I wanted to end this year with our Christmas letter we sent to some friends and family to give a little summary of our year:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years! We wanted to send you our own personal greetings this holiday season and hope that this Foster Family Newsletter finds you and yours happy and healthy. We also wanted to take this opportunity to share with you how grateful we are for the blessings we have received this year.

Adalynn has become quite the young lady this year. She is talking really well and puts together phrases on her own. She looks up to her big sister Mackenzie and is always following her around and trying to copy her. Adalynn loves playing with her baby dolls and pushing them around in her stroller. In fact, she will put them to sleep and sing them one of the songs that she knows. She is a great helper and understands cleaning up and putting things away. She hates being dirty and always asks Mommy or Daddy to clean her up. She loves running around outside with Mackenzie and getting into plenty of mischief.

Mackenzie is still a little ball of energy. This year she was very excited to start pre-school at Holy Covenant Child Development Center. She goes twice a week and loves learning her letters, songs, and doing art projects. She has made a lot of little friends and adores her teachers there. She also attends co-op preschool with women from our ward and has become really good at writing her name, most of the letters, and drawing people and animals. She loves to do crafts, especially when she gets to cut things out. Mackenzie also started dance classes this fall. She has been learning tap and ballet. In December she took part in The Nutcracker as a candy cane and was a wonderful ballerina. We are so proud of her! This fall we took a trip to Sea World which she loved and she really likes learning about animals. Mackenzie is a very sweet little girl who loves to give hugs and help people whenever she can.

Brittany is always very busy and is the heart and soul of our happy family. Besides running all over town for our girls, she also watches a little boy every day and our niece Emma sometimes. During her almost non-existent free time, Brittany loves sitting down with a good book. This summer she planned a very enjoyable family reunion in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The family had such a great time that she might be drafted to do it again! Brittany also stays busy with her calling as the First Counselor in the Young Women’s organization at our church. She organizes activities, prepares lessons, and mentors about 10 girls. She absolutely loves her calling and the girls she supervises. Brittany loves being a stay at home mom and loves watching our girls grow up and discover new things. She keeps a great blog all about our family’s adventures at confessionsofadramateacher.blogspot.com. We are so grateful for all she does for us!

Adrian is still working at Harmony Science Academy and is teaching 8^th and 9^th graders this year. He thoroughly enjoys teaching his students and has a lot of fun with his coworkers. In April Adrian and Brittany took a group of students on a trip to Washington D.C. and had a most excellent time seeing the nation’s capital. This summer Adrian started the Master’s in Educational Leadership program at Lamar University. His classes consume most of his time after the girls go to bed but he has enjoyed the challenge and feels like he has learned things that will help him be a better educator. He also enjoys a calling at church of being a Sunday School teacher for 7 year olds. Kids this young can be a challenge, but Adrian has a lot of fun and feels it is very rewarding.

Our family feels very blessed this year and is grateful for the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. May you all feel His love during this special holiday season. Merry Christmas and God Bless!

-Adalynn, Mackenzie, Brittany, and Adrian Foster

So technically it’s not 2014 yet, but we already had most of our celebrations since the girls needed to go to bed. Adrian and I are spending the rest of the evening playing games (well that and getting this blog completely up to date).

We headed over to my parents’ house to celebrate a bit tonight. Adrian made some delicious hamburgers while the girls all played together.

Then we all bundled up and headed outside for some fireworks! The fireworks themselves were, um, kind of lame. But we still had fun. Plus little girls look so cute all bundled up! Happy New Year!

This past Sunday was our 7th wedding anniversary. So to celebrate, we dropped the girls off Saturday morning and didn’t pick them up again until Sunday morning! We spent the entire day together and it was amazing. We started off the day going to the temple, where it all began. The session was great and we were so glad to be there. Plus since it was a Saturday there were a few brides there as we left. It was fun to reminisce about when I was that bride.

We stopped at Subway for lunch because Adrian had gotten a couple gift cards there. But we decided to bring the food home so we could change out of our church clothes. It was fun to be able to eat in the living room and watch a show that we wanted to watch in the middle of the day!

Then we were off to our next activity, which was seeing the new Hobbit movie. Adrian loves the books and movies so he was excited. I am starting to like the movies more so I was excited to see it. Adrian was a little disappointed with how much they added that wasn’t in the books, but we still both thought it was a great movie.

Dinner that night was at Bonefish Grill. We had never eaten there before. OH MY GOODNESS! The food was so good!!! We had an appetizer of bacon wrapped scallops with chutney and mango salsa. Then for my entrée I had a delicious sirloin with the best crab cake I’ve ever had. Adrian had tilapia stuffed with shrimp, crab, lobster, and cheese. We both absolutely loved our meals. There was nothing left on our plates when we were done.

We finished the night with a lot of fun at Main Event. We decided to get wristbands that get us unlimited activities. So we played a ton of pool and then we went on the ropes course. We both thought it would be kind of lame but it ended up being a little scary and super fun! Then, right when we got done it was our turn for bowling. I think we bowled like 3 games. My game was totally off that night but I still had a ton of fun.

It really was a perfect day. I’m so grateful to be sealed to Adrian for eternity! Definitely wouldn’t be heaven without him!

Our final Christmas happened the day after Christmas. Shane had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas so we brought both the gifts that were for him and the gifts he bought for the girls over to our house. Adrian made some yummy chili. Of course the girls loved being able to open MORE presents. Goodness these girls were spoiled this year!

We had a really great Christmas season this year. We are so grateful for all the Lord has blessed us with. We tried to really focus on the gift Christ gave us when he came to this earth with the girls and we feel blessed for doing so. We hope all of you had a merry Christmas as well!

Christmas Day was absolutely fabulous. We woke up in the morning to find that Santa had filled the girls’ stockings (Adrian and I must have been naughty this year). At first Adalynn just watched Mackenzie open hers. Then Mackenzie pointed out some candy in Adalynn’s and then she realized that there was some good stuff in hers! They both got some cute stuff in their stockings.

Then it was time to move into the game room where our Christmas tree was. We had one present for each of the girls sitting in front of the tree opened (there were more gifts for them but they were all wrapped). Mackenzie got a new scooter (which she LOVES) and we got Adalynn a Little People Alphabet Zoo. It’s amazing and we love it (it’s no longer available…thanks EBay!). Adalynn thinks it’s awesome. She loves animals. Then we opened up the rest of our gifts. Becca and Cory had our name and got the girls a castle that they can play outside in and a pecan cracker for Adrian and I (which we desperately needed). Grandma and Grandpa Foster got the girls some pots and pans and such for their kitchen, plus an indoor playhut (so we have one for inside and outside…which rocks). The one and only thing Mackenzie asked for this year was an American Girl doll. Well those things can be pretty darn expensive. Luckily my friend Melissa had found one of Walmart’s knock-off ones in the clearance aisle. So she got one and she loves it. Adalynn also got a stuffed Mickey Mouse. They were so pleased with their gifts and they loved giving gifts to each other this year. Plus Mackenzie picked out a nail polish set for me from her and Adalynn and the girls gave Adrian a few books.

Adalynn had gotten some bubble bath and bath crayons in her stocking so of course they had to try them out! The crayons were a huge hit.

After we got all ready we headed over to my parents’ house for more celebrating. While we were waiting for our dinner to cook we opened the rest of the presents. Lauren had been at work in the morning so Emma and her and Kevin hadn’t opened any presents yet. Plus my parents had gifts for everyone and we had gifts for them. We got them a CD from The Piano Guys. They are amazing. The girls all loved helping everyone else open their presents.

So usually I open presents after we eat birthday cake in the evening, but Lauren was so excited for my present that she insisted I open them immediately. And I obliged! My parents got me a new makeup set (and it had nail art stuff in the drawers!). Lauren got me a really cute wallet purse and the most awesome shirt in the world! I love it. I am definitely a nerd.

After presents we finished making our delicious dinner and then we stuffed ourselves silly. Oh man. Everything was so good. Adrian and I were in charge of the sweet potato casserole and the green bean casserole. And my dad deep fried the turkey to perfection. I was so deliciously stuffed when dinner was over.

Once we had sufficiently stuffed ourselves we enjoyed time together playing games. We taught Mackenzie how to play Twister. I think she liked it. We also played quite a few rounds of Mexican Train (a domino game).

We finished off the night with some delicious birthday cake. My mom made chocolate frosting from scratch and oh my goodness was that stuff good. I may have been eating it from the bowl all day. What a fabulous Christmas/Birthday!