Letter to My Brother - Elder Mark Hallstrom

This email that I wrote last week gives a nice update on my family.  Enjoy!
 
Monday, January 9, 2012

Hey Elder Hallstrom!

You're so right about being in a post- Christmas coma!  I still think it'll take me another week or two before I finally get back into the swing of things.  Anyway, it's neat to hear that you are learning Spanish so quickly by reading the Book of Mormon.  Keep it up.  Glad to hear that you and your companion are getting along well.  I'm sure you'll find people to teach soon! 

Now for some updates on my little family.  Laura came to visit us over Christmas break.  She was here for 12 days.  It was so fun to have her at my house and get to know my kids better.  Tyler turned 4 years old on Dec. 30th.  His favorite gift was his football.  That boy loves his sports and he has quite the arm!  Can't wait to get him into sports in a couple years.  Brian will turn 7 next month.  He LOVES school and is a very precise and and a conscientious student.  So far, he's earned 100% on two math tests, each of which covered 4 chapters.  I am the art appreciation volunteer for his class.  I taught art today and Grandma Hallstrom watched the other two kids for me.  The first graders were kind of rowdy today.  The artist we learned about loved listening to music as he created his artwork, so I turned on a CD of random music for the kids as they drew with oil pastels.  It only took the kids about 20 minutes to complete their projects.  Then one boy named Daimyn asked if he could dance.  I said sure.  That boy had some sweet breakdancing moves for a 6 year old!  Most of the rest of the class joined in the impromptu dance party.  The subsitute teacher took the kids out for recess.  There were 3 kids, including Brian, that wanted to stay inside and finish their art projects.  It was a fun art day though.  Art was at the end of the day.  I took Brian with me to the grocery store.  He LOVES grocery shopping with me and takes it very seriously.  He's in charge of carrying the list and crossing off the items as we put them in the cart.  He's a great helper too as we load the bagged groceries into the cart, then into the van, and into the house.  So, once a month after I teach art, Brian is my buddy at the grocery store.  And little Miss Katie has grown up so much the past couple weeks.  She can talk more.  Her newest words are Mom, Dad, (a very airy and high pitched "Bye!", Boo, Go, and No!  She finally figured out how to turn around and go down the stairs all by herself.  Tyler taught her something naughty.  He climbed in to her crib last week and helped her take her wet diaper off!  Rrrrg!  And Katie knows how to de-diaper herself now too.  So, now every time I put Katie down for a nap, I put a strip of duct tape over the front of her diaper, put her fuzzy footy pjs on backwards and zip them up.  Terrible twos are starting early for that girl.  She got the cutest white antique toy kitchen for Christmas filled with plastic food and dishes.  She LOVES playing with that in her room.  Sam's doing well.  Sam took me to his work's Christmas party last month.  It was fun... a pizza buffet and a fun drawing game, (think pass along Pictionary.)  I received one of the best surprises ever for Christmas... an iPhone 4!!!!  We haven't had a cell phone for over 3 1/2 years.  Our home phone, that we still have, is not reliable.  I had NO clue I was getting a cell phone of Christmas.  I didn't even ask for one.  But hey, I'm not complaining.  That phone is awesome and has all the bells and whistles.  SaWEET, to say the least.

Hope you're having fun on your mission and that you're learning lots.  Glad to hear your happy out there serving the Lord.  We pray for you and your safety and success!  We love you!  Can't wait to hear more updates next week.  Keep up the good work!

Love, LISA (and family)

P.S.  I just got called to teach the 9 year olds in Primary.  I've taught them for 2 weeks already.  Let me know if you have any fun ideas/challenges that I can do with the kids.  There are about 6-7 kids in the class.  Thanks!