Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I know we say the same thing every year, but can you believe another year has come and gone? Overall, 2006 was a great year for our family, with many joyous moments that will live on in our hearts and minds for many years to come. But in our family, 2006 was also one of the hardest and heartbreaking years of all...as we said goodbye to a dear loved one. You know, December 31st is really a day just like any other day...but it is that one day of the year that makes me (and maybe you too) think about where I am in life, what the last 365 days have meant to me, and what the next 365 days will bring. I am a firm believer that God has all of us in the palm of His hand, that we cannot control our destiny....only He knows what will come, and He will guide us through every trial we face. But still....don't you wonder what tomorrow will bring?? What we will be thinking about come next December 31st??

Anyway, enough of that! We have every reason to believe 2007 will be a great year. As a family, we are rejoicing some decisions we've made over the last few months and preparing to tie up some loose ends in regards to some problems that have plagued us since we moved up here....and MOVE ON!!! We hope to get some lots listed in the spring, land we carefully decided to sell in order to finance building a new house. We hope to finalize the design of the new house, and break ground in the spring of 2008. It remains to be seen what we will do with our current house...once we pay it off, anything is possible!

We have some great trips planned for 2007. Amaya is officially old enough to take on great trips, she's such a good little girl! And Noah has matured to the level that we feel confident he can tolerate some trips, other than to visit family. SO...you already know about our trip to the beach over spring break. We have also decided to definitely make a trip to Alaska in July. We are SO excited about this trip!!! We will fly out of Minneapolis, to Anchorage on July 11th and return on the 24th. We plan to center our trip around Anchorage and Fairbanks...using a rental car and the railroad to travel. From Anchorage, we can drive north into the Arctic Circle...where there are 24 hours of daylight in July! Very cool! From Fairbanks, we can drive an hour south to Seward...and take a boat trip to do some whale watching! Very cool!

We have dance class tonight...the children head back to school tomorrow, and Anna starts her new gymnastics class tomorrow too! Next week Anna and Noah start swimming classes on Saturday mornings, Amaya starts her Gym Ventures class on Tuesday mornings again, and Noah starts a class called Mini Mites Sports of All Sorts at the YMCA on Thursday evenings. This weekend, Jan. 5-7th, Kindra heads to Green Bay with a few kids from her church youth group....and several adults....for the Forest Lakes District Youth Conference. A weekend full of concerts, seminars, and a great time for teenagers from the area! Sounds like a lot of fun, and a chance for the kids to grow in their faith and learn how to stand up for themselves as Christian youths in this world.

I'd better get going...our house is full of activity today!

Oh, one more thing. I am going to put some new videos of Amaya dancing, and doing iced tea shots (very funny) on You Tube today. Just go to youtube.com and look for videos from BeccaKC.

More later,

Rebecca