Christmas 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
We have enjoyed another year and hope you have as well! After driving across the country at the end of last year, we settled down into Chicago life in a nice upstairs apartment in a home in Forest Park, IL—about 10 miles outside of the city. We love driving down the street and seeing the large buildings in the distance.
Steve started his new job as a Spice Specialist with Kerry Ingredients. Right away, he was sent on business trips to Bristol and Wisconsin, but later went to India and Vietnam. It has been an adventure and he loves his work. Also right away, Steve was called as the ward organist and has been improving his talents as a pianist as well. This past November, Steve started his MBA at Western Governor’s University and should have it completed within two years.
Natalie made many new friends and feels very loved here. She has spent lots of time exploring the city with Joshua and Kelsey on the free museum days. At church, she teaches the 12-13 year olds in Sunday School and she has been getting good practice in ASL interpreting for a Deaf sister in our ward. Natalie started teaching piano and rapidly gained 14 students. She loves to bake and read, and she is especially happy to have her own library card again!
Joshua is a wonderful and delightful little boy! At first, we were nervous about how he would react to a little sister, but it has been exciting to see him interact with her. After a short post-new-baby lull, we are again receiving lots of smiles. Despite arising for the day before 5am, he is willing to drop anything he’s doing to help mom with Kelsey and he is very good at getting Kelsey to laugh. We are impressed with how very smart he is: he knows his ABCs and most of them in ASL. We are constantly entertained by things he says: “No mommy—time out!” He is extremely musical and picks up tunes and lyrics after he hears a song two or three times. His favorite song is “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, and we have sung “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes” more times than we can count.
Our sweet Kelsey Elise was born April 13, 2011 on her Aunt Anna’s 11th birthday. She weighed 8lbs 15oz and has a big wide smile. She now rolls everywhere and has recently figured out how to scoot and sit up on her own. She loves to sleep with mommy’s robe as a blanket and blows raspberries constantly (actually, she scared another baby by scooting up close to him and blowing one—SO funny!) and it is apparent that she is very proud of herself when she blows them.
Family highlights: we drove across the country first thing, enjoy Chicago—lots more visitors than in years past, many visits to the Nufers’ and Coons’, enjoy the presence of 2 kids, bought a zoo pass to Brookfield Zoo and enjoyed our first Monson family reunion.
We are grateful for our blessings and wish you Happy Holidays! Love, The Monsons
PS--this isn't actually the picture we sent out but I just sat here for 10 minutes looking for it and couldn't find it. So I hope you enjoy this one instead. :D
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