Christmas Slideshow 2008

Merry Christmas!

We hope this online Christmas newsletter finds all of our family and friends well! Here's the latest and greatest from the Wickhams in 2008!

We surprised ourselves and many friends and family this year, by homeschooling Kendra and Spencer starting in August. The list of reasons is very long, but most important, we believe God called us to homeschool this year. It has been an incredible journey so far! Kendra has been working on reading fluently and is a whiz at math. She loves science too! Everyday she asks "Can we do an experiment today?" My favorite comment from her this year was when we were at the grocery store (she helps me bag the groceries) "Mom, I just don't know what I want to be when I grow up: a geologist, a mom, or a grocery bagger. I love rocks; and someday I really want to be a mommy, but I'm so good at bagging these groceries." She's our cuddler and our inquisitive one!

Spencer has been making huge strides this year. Check out our slide show and you will see Spencer's bike that we ordered for him. It is a tricycle style with a special handlebar. He just glides down the street on that thing and mom or dad have to RUN alongside him to help him steer. What joy the bike brought to his life this year! He also learned the entire alphabet by sight this year and is working on the sounds of the letters. We also started trying to write the letters. He can write L, T, E, F, I, and almost S. He also memorized his first bible verse, "God is love. 1 John 4:8." He can say the entire verse including the bible reference. He's our jokester and our outgoing one!

AAH! Our little baby Trevor will be 2 in March! What a fun, sweet, busy little boy! A usual day for Trevor is climbing on the counter to see what kind of treasures he can find; opening the dishwasher to empty the utensils into the drawer (clean or dirty- he isn't picky). Mom then has to put all the utensils into the dishwasher because she isn't sure which are dirty and which are clean! Then he draws a picture . . . on himself with a marker that his big sister left out, tries to go outside without socks or shoes in the snow, and then brings me a book to read to him. Did I mention that all these events happen in only 5 minutes? Yes, he's a busy boy. Happy to be watching Daddy try to fix something, or give him a screwdriver and he will attempt to fix things all on his own! (Sighs mom)

Darrell went back to work at Wells Fargo in Business Banking. While it isn't exactly where he wants to be, we are so grateful for the steady income in a crazy economy like this! He went hunting this year for Elk and Deer but didn't shoot anything this year. The kids and I came along for one of the hunting trips, which was quite an adventure. We also went camping with some friends from church on Memorial Day, went to California for my brother's wedding, and many other adventures.

I took on many projects this year, perhaps too many, but it was FUN! I was the co-director for our Vacation Bible School. We had over 150 kids and I filled in a the last minute to be the Opening/Closing Leader. I actually taught the children arm moves and dances to a few songs and welcomed them in each day. I became known as "crazy carla" by the kids. It was fun and I found many new talents that I didn't know I had. Later in the year, I volunteered to help with our church's Christmas play, The Christmas County Spelling Bee. It was a ton of fun and Kendra and Spencer both had small parts in it as well. Finally, I've been teaching a preschool class with our home school coop. Spencer is in my class and Kendra takes Spanish and Native American class.

God has truly blessed us this year, more than we could tell you here. We pray that you and your families are doing well! May God richly bless you in the ways that matter in 2009!

Love,

The Wickhams

Darrell, Carla, Kendra, Spencer, Trevor, Soda (our dog) and Lightna (did I mention Kendra got a bunny? We'll save that for another blog)