Every year some friends and I get together before Christmas and decorate gingerbread houses. I know it seems like the kind of thing you'd get together with your kids and do, but we like to do this as a girls night out. We each make our own house and then bring all sorts of candy to decorate with and dive in! It's so much fun and of course, just when it seems like the houses are looking perfect, we have to find places to add more. That's where I ended up with a snowman, duck in a pond, and fire in my yard! It's a fun tradition that I hope will last a long time!
immediately was part of our family that could never be replaced! We had to endure a few extra days in the hospital and some seemingly long days with the "light suitcase". Now looking back that was all in the blink of an eye and seems like such a minute memory compared to everything else. He is such a wonderful, smiley, inquisitive little boy. He lays his head on my shoulder each night when I pray with him before bed and it melts my heart. He yells "Mom" whenever he wants something. The words he's said so far include: star, dog, mom, dad, ball, uh-oh, and wow. He is almost running now and has been walking for the last 3 months. Still working on the crawling thing though:-) He loves to growl with Cole and is surprisingly resiliant to the bumps and bruises that come with being a younger brother. He has the cutest laugh which sounds kind of like a dolphin and has somewhat of an evil laugh component to it. He is just completely wonderful!
Merry Christmas 2009! I can’t believe how fast this year has flown by! Our boys are getting so big and changing so fast. It’s the most fun thing in the world to watch, but brings tears to my eyes when I think how quickly they grow.
Mason is our smiley, happy 1 year old! Or at least he will be one on Dec. 14th. He made his appearance right before Christmas last year (hence no Christmas letter last year). Despite a rocky start due to some medical issues, he is now as healthy as can be and is such a joy! He is walking all over, following Cole anywhere he can. He smiles all the time and is starting to be a real chatter box. We’re catching a glimpse of a temper in there somewhere too which I’m sure will rear its’ ugly head in the next yearJ He is sweet and cuddly and loves his brother to no end!
Cole is now a very big boy at 3 years old! He has an incredible amount of energy and has only one volume… LOUD! He has such joyfulness about him and has the funniest sense of humor. (I’m sure he gets it from me!) He loves to help Adam in the yard and garage and can’t wait to be big enough to play football and soccer. Although he is still learning how to be gentle and patient with his little brother, you can see that he loves Mason and he is such a good big brother!
Adam is still working at Hubble Homes and we are thankful every day that we have been blessed with his job through this last year. He is now the internal operations manager and has taken on many more responsibilities there in the last few months. Though most of his time is spent at work, anyone can tell where his heart is. He is the most incredible dad and both Cole and Mason adore him! He walks through the door each day to two boys running (okay, one toddling) to him with huge smiles on their faces. He and his brothers drew a great elk tag this year and all three of them got nice elk which was really exciting! He’s hoping to get a little duck, goose, and deer hunting in during the next month too. I’m so blessed to have such a great husband and am thankful for all the hard work he puts in for our family!
I have really enjoyed the last year. Although adding another child to our family was an adjustment, it has been so much fun and such a blessing! I get to stay home with the boys most of the time which is where my heart is. I love having the chance to teach and watch Cole and Mason learn, it’s a very rewarding jobJ I do still love working as a nurse though and continue to do 2 days a week on the oncology floor at St. Luke’s in Boise. I know God put a special love for that in my heart when I started there and pray I can be a blessing to my patients.
We hope you’ve had as wonderful a year! We look forward to spending time with our family over the holidays and hope you are able to be with yours as well. God has blessed us richly, just in the fact that we have each other. Celebrating Jesus birth reminds us of the greatest gift of all… our Savior! We pray that you will be blessed through this season and in 2010 as well!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Love, The Bucher Family
The boys have enjoyed playing in the snow a bit. Cole couldn't wait to start "harvesting" snow for snow cones. We did that last year but by the time we got to the snow, it was a little less than snow cone worthy. Good thing I still have some from last year in the freezer:-) Mason discovered that snow is yummy to eat and kept bending over to get some on his hand to eat... until he toppled face first into it.
Last weekend we went downtown Meridian to watch the Winterland Parade with Jenny, Troy, and our friends the Daytons. It was fun though very chilly. We got a good spot that was out of the wind and the sun actually did warm us a little. It definitely was not the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but for Meridian, ID, it was our kind of fun! The kids got lots of candy and saw plenty of sports cars and Santa on the fire engine at the end! We attempted to go around the street fair after the parade but it was just too cold to be out longer than necessary. 
The next day we headed to High Valley to meet up with 
Adam's family and cut down a Christmas tree. It has become one of the Bucher family traditions and I love it! A couple years ago I actually cut it down all by myself which I felt was quite an accomplishment. We picked one that we thought was perfect... about 22 feet or so! Then Adam chopped her down and Neil helped him drag it out. Too bad they didn't think to cut the extra 10 feet we didn't need off BEFORE killing themselves by dragging it a mile to the truck! We got it home and it is pretty much to the top of our 12 foot ceiling,
I think the star touches the top! Adam helped me string the lights on and then Cole and I got all the ornaments put on. Mason helped a little until bedtime which came as a relief:-) Cole gave me a big speech about how he could only put the "unbreakable" ornaments on and that the "breakable" ones have to go up high on the tree. Apparently Cole had helped my mom decorate her tree the week before. Although it's not a perfectly manicured tree, I much prefer the character and fun of a personally cut down Christmas tree! 
We are also going to have really good luck this next year because we found a bird's nest in our Christmas tree!!! Isn't that the old wives tale? I'm sure it has something to do with good luck:-)
