Merry Christmas! What a wonderful time of year this is to be able to celebrate. I love this time of year, it always makes me feel close to family and friends. We have had a busy and fun year filled with blessing and new experiences. So here is what the Goodrich Family has been up to.

In April we welcomed our sweet baby girl Sydney Anne. She was born a whopping 9 lbs 2 oz. We love every bit of her. She is now 8 months old and such a joy to have around. She is a very happy baby and loves to play. She started crawling when she was 5 months old and hasn't shown any sign of slowing down, she gets into everything and climbs on everything too. Her newest trick is free standing, she thinks she is too cool. She is quite the chunk with rolls all over her cute little body. She loves her family and plays with her brother and sister (even when she is not invited).

Kurtis is 2 ½ years old. He is such a fun loving little boy, he laughs, he jumps and he dances all day long. He loves his cars, I think that was his first word, it is still a favorite one. He continues to be a healthy boy, his oncologists are very pleased with his progress and say there is still no sign of cancer returning. Kurtis is still a little bit behind in his speech and development which we knew would happen because of his cancer treatments. He has just started speech therapy and also has a developmental specialist that comes to see him once a month. His favorite things are cars, music, “up” (the movie), “cars” (the movie), bananas, jumping and playing outside. We sure love this little boy!

Emily is now 3 ½ years old. She is quite the little preschooler. She talks almost constantly and is so fun to be around. She is mostly helpful around the house and loves to please everyone. She refuses to have a nap nowadays, which wouldn't be so bad if she didn't NEED one. She can be a bit of a grouch in the afternoons. She started preschool in August and is quite the pupil. She knows all her letters and the sounds that they make. She can count to 20 and count by 10's to 100. Her favorite things to do are play with barbies or princesses and dress in skirts (she hasn't worn pants in nearly 3 months.) She is such a joy to be around and we love her so so much!

Mike graduated in May with his Bachelor in Computer Science degree, we are so proud of him, and he is very relieved to be done. He started off the year at a company called Corporate Alliance, they were very good to him, and he LOVED working there. Unfortunately the economy was not kind to them, and they had to let some people go, Mike was one of those. He was without a job for one month exactly, (it was really nice to have him home so much!) while he was off we took a much needed trip up to Oregon, it was so so fun! We got to show the kids where he grew up, not to mention being able to see our wonderful family and friends. Mike got a job with a really great company called Netsteps, he loves working there too.

I, Melanie, have been enjoying staying at home with the kids. Life with three kids under the age of 4 is very very busy. I love it though. It has been so fun to watch the kids as they learn new things. While Emily is in school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have been able to go to my mom's house to play games or just to visit, it has been an awesome experience, we have so much fun.

We hope this letter finds you all healthy and happy. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that the new year is bright and filled with many wonderful blessings and good experiences.