Kepler Family Newsletter 2009

Hi it is me again David Edwin Kepler the 4th. After a few years break from writing the newsletter I am back at it again. It has been a year of growth in our family. Yes some of us have grown to new heights physically but we have grown lots of other ways too!

We will start with mom. She has learned a lot about herself this year. She started off the year with a new responsibility at church working with all the children. She has loved teaching them and has grown to have a Christlike love and compassion for children(she always has but the depth has increased and kids see it we always have strange kids coming up to her and saying Hi). She has loved every minute of it and she will be going into the new year with another new responsibility at church. She is sure she will learn so much and become more of who Heavenly Father intends her to be. At home she always has a project and loves being creative and Julianna's room received her personal touch this year. I could start listing all the things she does but that would be the letter in its entirety. A few of my favorites is she helps plan all of the parties in mine and Julianna's classes at school and she volunteers in our rooms every week too! Now she has always been a supermom but this year she decided to try her hand at something she never thought she would do and that was writing. She sent 2 different articles into one of her favorite magazines and just recently she received her second acceptance letter of her second article...way to go mom!!!

Now dad is the best and I could go on and on about him too, but honestly he is the best dad. He is always doing his best to spend time with each one of us and mom. He reads to Julianna and Jensen every night and snuggles Julianna too, it is the highlight of her day!!! In our family we love to play games and this is my favorite activity with dad and I have beat him a couple of times at a really hard game so watch out dad you are going to have your hands full in a few years I am only 7 just think how much better I will be able to play in 5 years! Christian and dad are both in Young Mens at church and have lots of fun together. This summer they went to Manitou Island and did a survivor man type of trip with limited food and foraged and fished for food(they both lost 5 pounds)and they went on 50 mile bike ride too! Mom and Dad are best friends you know and they always spend time together every night after we go to bed and he always kisses her first when he walks in the door. In matter of fact we have gotten so used to him telling us just a minute when he walks in the door we have quit running up to him until he finds her first. The biggest thing that happened for dad this year is he met his goal of being a store manager in 5 years, 4 years and 8 months to be exact and we are so proud of him. No more having to work on Sundays or Holidays and he is home every night to tuck us into bed and that is what we love the best!!!

I am now in the 1st grade and am reading and writing. I love to draw inventions or just draw period, play games, read whatever I can get my hands on, and create. I love to create things with whatever materials are available and I am always shocking mom and dad with what I come up with!!!

Julianna is in kindergarten now and if you are asking if she is still a princess the answer is YES!!! She loves everything pink and likes to put together outfits and mom has had to help her learn how to match. She has become even more of a girly girl and most days when she gets ready she has to put on yummy smelling lotion and lip gloss. Her days consist of helping mom with everything from cooking to cleaning she loves it and someday she will have 2 100 babies..boy is she going to be busy! We love to play together ecspecailly coloring and drawing together it is our favorite. We also play pretend with each other and guess who is old enough now to play with us...Jensen. He is 4 and is having fun with his preschool friends and he has really started to like creating things too! Mostly monsters, robots, and his favorite space ships. He wants to be an astronaut when he grows up and that is a type of scientist(I want to be a scientist too- inventing things). The thing about Jensen is you think he isn't paying any attention. Mom will teach us something, like a song for instance, and he will be twirling around on the floor and then the next day you will find him at the piano playing and singing the song. He memorizes the words and melody and then he just sits there and taps it out. Now it isn't perfect but all words he sings are and it is the cutest thing. If you ask him if he is too cute he will say no he is a little too cute or his newest response is he is too cute for words( I wonder where he learned that from -MOM). He is fun to have around except when I need my alone time and school is not a place for that and so I need it sometimes and he is learning when I say I need it he better give it to me.

At the beginning I had mentioned growing well none of has grown as much as Christian!!! He is taller than mom now and he is going to be 16 on Christmas...did you hear me 16!!! He is busy as ever and continues to earn his Eagle scout, play soccer, and run track! He made the varsity soccer team this year and it all had to do with his hard work. He started last November getting ready for the next falls soccer season and his work paid off! 10th grade has been harder for him in a couple ways. He has a lot more homework but he remains on the honor roll and makes time for all he has to do and wants to do and then probably the hardest things to do when you are a teenager is stand up to a friend. Well he had too and not just any friend his best friend who happened to be making some choices that weren't so great. It was a hard time for Christian but he knew he did the right thing by telling his friend he was wrong and he ended up losing his friend(mom is sure it is going to all work out). He has of course other friends and is learning the friends you have do matter and he has some really good ones and I could embarrass him terribly right now but I won't because WE LOVE CHRISTIAN(and mom said I can't)!!!

This year in a nutshell has been new experiences upon new experiences and we have loved every one. We have grown into better people because of it, people the Lord has intended us to be. As you celebrate Christmas this year and go into the New Year remember it is His will not our own that will be done!!!