Well, a lot has happened since I last posted.  That's probably why I haven't posted.  On the 21st we celebrated Lauren's 4th birthday.  I can't believe she's 4 already.  It's crazy!  We had a party for her at our house that night and she loved it.  I made her a cake that looked like a princess castle which was a hit.  I'll have to post pictures later.  She got so many fun presents from our family and after opening each one, before even looking at it, she would hold it high over her head so that everyone could see.  It was pretty funny.  On the 22nd, Matt had a huge graduate school qualifying exam.  It was a bunch of essay questions that covered the entire year and a half that he's been in school.  He had 6 hours to write all those essays.  It was a crazy test and he studied a lot for it. He finished the test around 4:30 pm and then came home.  Also that day we got dumped on with snow.  Well, around 6:30 Matt started having stomach pains but he didn't mention anything.  Then around 9:30 he told me that he was really hurting and it had localized on his right side just above his hip bone.  So immediately I thought appendix.  Well, long story short, my parents came to our house to be with the kids (they were asleep) and I took Matt to the ER.  Within an hour of us getting there he was back in the operating room getting his appendix out.  Luckily it hadn't burst yet.  They said it was about 3 times the normal size.  He spent that night in the hospital and fortunately was able to come home the next afternoon.  We were so lucky that he didn't miss Christmas.  And since it happened right at the beginning of Christmas break, he had 2 weeks to recover before going back to work.  It wasn't fun, but the timing was perfect.  

We usually spend Christmas Eve with Matt's family, but his brother Scott and his wife Jocelyn were flying to Denver so we did it on the 23rd.  We had a good time with good food and good company.  Matt's brother Dave made Will a 4 or 5 feet high football goalpost to play with out of PVC pipe.  It is awesome.  He made a stand to put it in.  That family is so creative.  Traci also found Will a yellow and blue football helmet and put Tiger paws on it so he could be an Orem High football player.  Plus, they gave him a football.  It is one of the best presents I've ever seen.  If you didn't know, William is obsessed with balls so this was a perfect gift for him.  Christmas Eve was spent at the Steele's at our annual chili dinner, live nativity, talent show, and Santa Clause.  Lauren wouldn't sit on Santa's lap because she said that she had already done it two times and she didn't want to do it three times.  She's such a stinker sometimes.  Christmas Day was great, we spent the night at my parents' house which was actually not a good idea, but we survived.  The kids just didn't want to go to bed.  William was freaking out and it was like midnight.  So my dad took him and put him to bed and he slept in my parents room so that was nice, but I don't think we'll be sleeping there next year.  Matt made Lauren a dollhouse which was a hit.  She plays with it all the time.  It's been a really fun present.  We also got to talk to my brother, Tom, who is on a mission in Philadelphia.  It was good to hear his voice and see how he was doing.  The day after Christmas we had plans to go up to the family cabin for a few days, but because of Matt's 'condition' we stayed home.  But it was nice to just relax and hang out with each other.  I did take Lauren to her first real movie theater experience which she thought was so cool.    

We got brought back to reality last week when school started again.  Matt is feeling a lot better.  He does have quite a bit of pain still, but he can at least sleep in the bed with me again.  He had to sleep in a chair for  while because he couldn't lay flat without it pulling.  But, we sure did love having him around for two weeks without anything distracting us.  It was fabulous!  Anyway, so now that things are back to normal, maybe I'll make better post now, but don't count on it.  Oh, and I just got a new calling at church.  I'm a CTR 6 teacher.  I've never been in primary before so this should be interesting.  So far it's been good, especially because I'm in Junior primary with Lauren and I get to watch her.  It's so fun!!  She is THE LOUDEST SINGER in the whole Junior primary. Yesterday another little girl got upset because Lauren was 'shouting'.  Those were the girl's words.  Isn't is great when a 5 year old tries to tell a 4 year old not to shout when the song leader tells everyone to sing loudly.  Kids are funny.  Well, to me Lauren sounded exactly like she does at home all day long.  She loves to sing at the top of her lungs and a lot of times it sounds like shouting or screaming (her vibrato), but that's just what she does best. So Lauren, I hope you never change.  I love you just the way you are!  Well, I better not write anymore or the kids will completely destroy the house.