Christmas Music

We love Christmas music and always have fun at our family musical evening with friends and family. This year was especially memorable with this amazing Men's ensemble who sang for many events in the community, school and church. We never tired of hearing them sing. Their signature song was "We Three Kings" which was an arrangement from the vocal group Eclipse. These boys have some serious talent as individuals and as a group-Christian felt honored to be part of the group. From left to right: Kraig Partridge, Adolpho Dominguez, Ben Betteridge, Christian, Alonso Brizuela, and Andrew McClellan. Bethany and Em played for an afternoon at the Hospice House during the Holidays.

Merry Merry Christmas

This has really been a crazy week for me. The days til Christmas are just coming faster and faster...my to do list is long...College girls are coming home tomorrow, yeah! I warned them today that Mom doesn't exactly have it all together right now and I'm hoping they will come rescue me. One pile in my kitchen is the Christmas cards that need to be addressed and sent out. Here is a brief Bateman 2009 update since there is no letter in our Christmas card this year...And if you want some of the major detail from this year just keep on scrolling down.

Marie: I feel very blessed and thankful for so many things. Having a blog has been great. You are all welcome to take a look, but I'm purely doing it for my own benefit and for my kids. What a great way to record our family memories with our digital pictures--I'm loving it. Here's a picture of me and Preston...pretty typical as we have lots of late night concerts, plays, sporting events and if Preston has my lap, he can pretty much fall asleep anywhere. It is also apparent that our baby is growing up.

Mike: Has had some fun times with the Young Men in our ward over the past few years--April Conference road trip with the priests, rafting down the Deschutes river and Biking on the Oregon Coast. Christian was truly impressed with his Dad's ability to bike long distances, up and down impressively big hills, and keep up with the teenage boys. Goal for 2010 is to bike in the STP (Seattle to Portland) this summer. Mike is also known as the super-chaperone--over the past 5 years he has accompanied choir/orchestra trips every year--last year it was San Francisco with Christian's acappella choir.

Preston(5): kindergarten, soccer, basketball, loves math and numbers, loves to cozy up with mom, loved learning about the US presidents at grandma's summer school, best friend: Jacob White.

Hannah(10): 5th grader in Middle School, loves to sing, playing piano, cello and guitar, friend to all, loved grandma's summer school, donated 10 inches of beautiful red curly hair to Locks of Love.

Katie(14): A few of my favorite things from 09....Curtis soccer team last year, EFY!, playing Jon Schmidt on the piano, voice lessons in the summer, Sunriver(ran the half marathon), swim team, leadership, bowling :) water polo, having fun, making many friends....

Christian(17): living it up as a HS senior, college aps, eagle project completed--sigh of relief, ASB treasurer, all state water polo player, now it is swim season and he's working on getting his 100 free under 48 sec, trying to decide where he'll go to college--possibly BYU-Hawaii?, new hobby--biking.

Emily (20): 2009 highlights: Study abroad trip to Vienna Austria for three months with other BYU music students, teaching voice lessons, learning how to cook, assistant directing BYU's fall opera The Tales of Hoffmann (and being in it too!), gearing up for a Junior Recital for next April. kissthecamera.blogspot.com

Bethany (22): This year was one big huge growing experience. I spent four months in the Holy Land and the rest working towards my nursing degree! And the time in between with my family making memories. :) Life is good. Traveling in the Holy Land was an incredible experience I'll never forget. nethaby.blogspot.com

Christmas Memories

In 2008 Preston was sooo excited to give a gift to his big sisters who are in college. He just knew the perfect gift for them and had so much fun picking them out--Barbies! He thinks they are Barbies in real life.

Christmas Eve 2008--our family is in our UPS shirts this year.

Some precious pictures from Christmas Eve 2006. Preston took his part as a shepherd very seriously and really loved dressing up this year. Preston-almost 3, Hannah-almost 8 and Caleb-6.

Hailey as Mary and Hannah as an angel, Christmas 2008.