Mitchell Family Christmas Letter 2016

Dear Friends and Family,

    The year has flown by and so many things have changed in our lives. It was a pretty big year for us! We started out in Louisiana with Mike finishing up his coursework for his Doctoral program in Music Composition. After a fun visit from Grandma and Grandpa Mitchell, Mike and I applied for open music positions in Bear Lake. We were blessed to get the jobs and prepared to head for Idaho!

   We found a cute little house that needs some TLC and have had fun starting on some projects. When I got here with the boys, my family helped me paint most of the inside before Mike got here so we could move right in. It's so nice to have our own little space. The boys LOVE it! They play in the backyard all the time and love their room and the extra space we have. They're growing like crazy!

    Elliott just started nursery a couple weeks ago and loves it! He's such an independent little guy. He loves to help with anything we're doing and wants to do everything himself. He especially loves doing up all buckles and snaps, they're his favorite! He had tubes put in his ears a couple months ago and now he's such a gabber! He chatters away to us, whenever he can get a word in between O's questions.

Reading in their nook in the closet.

Bundled up for the first snow back in October.

First real snow playday.

Chillin' in his high chair.

    O has been growing and growing. If you have any extra 5t pants laying around, we'd happily put them to use, in the last two weeks he's grown out of 4 or 5 pair of pants! I can't believe it. He's such a big helper now, too. Whenever it snows, he loves to bundle up and head outside to help shovel the walks. We put the Christmas lights up this week, and he stayed out with us the entire time, making snow angels and O's and helping me set up the little snowmen by our porch. He thinks the lights are the neatest, he loves them! He also loves Preschool! He's such a little smarty, he loves to color and point out letters and count. He also learned about the mail last week and sent one of his friend's in Louisiana a letter. He was so excited!

Visit to Washington in May.

Riding his new big boy bike!

First fishing trip, he caught 2!

All ready for church.

    Mike and I have mostly just been chasing the boys and keeping up with our music programs. We had a great first concert at Halloween and had such a blast! We have great students and love what we're doing, even though it's made life a little crazy. Here are some pics from this Fall:

O chose our costumes for Halloween, it was pretty fun!

Mike got his first deer!

First hockey game wore them right out...

    

Family pics in a nutshell...

Thanks for all the cute family pictures Sarah!!

    Oliver and Elliott have one last bit of news to give you all:

It's hard to read, but both of their shirts say "I'm the Big Brother." Baby Mitchell will be joining us in May 2017! We're so excited and feel so blessed this year, what a huge year!

We love you all and hope you feel the love of Christ in your lives this Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Love,               

The Mitchells