Uden.68870.com

Holiday Greetings from our home to yours! 

Jacinda is 12 years old and in 7^th grade this year. (Yikes!  Only one more year until she’s officially a teenager!)  Her favorite subjects are reading, algebra, and music.  She continues to take piano and flute lessons.  She is also a part of the youth drama team at church.  Her newest challenge this year is:  A) ice skating.  B) designing and sewing clothes.  C) composing her own music.  D) teen bible quiz.  Answer?  D) TBQ -  although she enjoys doing A, B, and C, too!  Her quiz team is memorizing Hebrews and 1 & 2 Peter this year.  They don’t know what questions they will be asked ahead of time – they just have to know all the scriptures well enough to answer!

Mikayla is 9 years old and a 4^th grader this year.  Her favorite subjects are history, science, and music.  She continues to take piano lessons and is anxiously awaiting being able to pick an instrument to play next year besides piano.  She’s still a member of the junior bible quiz team at church, but is now on the “A” team.  Her new extra-curricular activity this year is:  A) 4-H.  B) puppet team.  C) art class.  D) swim team.  Answer?  B) puppet team.  She thought about being in 4-H with her bunny, would like to be taking an art class, and was asked to be on the Kearney swim team, but couldn’t fit it into her schedule.  She enjoys learning the art of puppetry and performing with the puppet team at church!

Joshua is so excited to be 5 years old and in kindergarten, he can hardly stand it!  He wants to do more school work than Mom can keep up with.  His favorite parts of school are:  A) making shapes.  B) learning letters & numbers.  C) drawing pictures.  D) playing with Zach while the girls do school.  Answer?  Both A and C.  He loves the art parts the best, but likes it all.  However, playing with little brother doesn’t rate so high now that Zach has his own opinion of what is fun (or not fun) to do and lets Josh know about it either way!  For the most part, they play pretty well together – which allows the girls to get done with school much quicker, too!  In his spare time, you’re likely to find him playing Rescue Heroes with his action figures and toy vehicles or asking to play his rescue hero computer game!

Zachariah is a big 17 month old this Christmas and full of energy!  He has grown and changed SO much this past year – he’s not much of a baby anymore.  He started walking at 10 months and running soon after that - therefore he keeps the rest of us running, too!  He likes to try out new words all the time by repeating whatever he hears being said.  Some of his favorite things right now are animals and making their sounds (especially puppies!), climbing up and sliding down the toy slide, and riding his rocking horse saying, “Giddyup!”  Another of Zach’s favorite things is: 
A) going “bye.”  B) “Splish!” (which means bath)  C) playing with the computer, TV remote, and other gadgets with buttons.  D) eating.  Answer?  Although he likes all of these, he will stop the other three anytime you announce that food is a possibility!  So – definitely D).

This year Jaci was a soprano in the choir for the Singing Christmas Tree at church.  She also played the part of:  A) an angel.  B) a shepherdess.  C) a slave girl.  D) a merchant.  Answer?  C)  a slave girl.  She danced and played the tambourine to announce the arrival of one of the three wise men!

Kayla sang the big solo and a couple of smaller ones in the children’s musical “The Christmas Family Tree.”  She also had a speaking part and was a:  A) hip-hop dancer.  B) gift bearer.  C) twin.  D) ring twirler.  Answer?  A) hip-hop dancer to a jazzed up version of “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho!”  Like Jaci, she was a slave girl in the Singing Christmas Tree drama, too.

As a kindergartner, Josh got to be a part of the big kids musical this year also.  He was very excited to be:  A) Joseph.  B) a “Christmas” cousin.  C) a singer in the choir.  D) King Josiah.  Answer?  Both B and C.  The choir members were all cousins in the “Christmas” family.  They sang, did hand motions, and even learned sign language to one of the songs.  But they sure had to stand a LONG time on the risers!  (2 back-to-back performances!)

Zach loved all the musicals and especially enjoyed:  A) dancing along to the music while we were practicing our parts.  B) sleeping through the performances.  C) learning Kayla’s dance with her.  D) saying, “Wow!  Tree!  Lights!” at the big decorated tree in the front of the church.  Answer?  All of the above.  He loves doing everything the big kids do!

We were able to take a few scenic trips this year as a family.  In early May, we took a quick trip with Jaci’s bible quiz team to regional competition in Minneapolis where they placed 14^th in our 7-state region!  Then, later in May, our nephew Chris McConnell graduated from high school in Loveland, CO. So we HAD to go on up into the mountains and spend some time at Estes Park.  Then in July, we took a trip into unknown territory for us.  We traveled to:  A) Canada.  B) Texas.  C) Georgia.  D) Oregon.  Answer?  B) Texas.  Our nephew Matt Brodine was married to Lidia Calderon in Longview, Texas – their wedding was beautiful!  We enjoyed seeing all the new scenery, but decided that of the 3 places we traveled, Colorado is still our favorite!

Ed & Barb keep busy with computing and homeschooling, respectively.  Ed continues to serve as a lay elder in agape (small group bible study) ministry, as well as leading 2 different agape groups.  Barb enjoys serving as nursery coordinator as well as playing keyboard on a worship team at church.  In our spare time, we enjoy butterfly gardening, scrapbooking, and digital photography.  This year marked the 10 year anniversary of:  A) living in Riverdale.  B) homeschooling.  C) being self-employed.  D) bunny farming.  Answer?  Both A and D.  We’ve actually lived in the same house (with many different bunnies) for 10 years now!  We’ve been homeschooling for 8 years and Ed has been self-employed for 7 years – it’s amazing how fast time goes by. 

How did you do? Did you get them all correct, or at least get a passing grade? Did you need a lifeline? 50-50? Ask the audience? Why not just phone a friend? In fact, call us!  J

Our phone is (308) 893-3303.  Our email is  onebyone@thebigwebmall.com  and our website is  http://uden.68870.com  - look here for more Uden family pictures! J  We’d love to hear from you!