Busby Family Christmas Card 2013

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!! For our last year as a student family, we decided to continue our online Christmas card tradition. Enjoy reading about some of our activities and adventures during 2013:

Devin –
• Accepted an offer working as a consultant for McKinsey and Co. in the Washington, D.C. office starting this summer
• Volunteered as president of Owen’s consulting club and VP of the health care club, plus served on various councils
• Graduated from Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Business with his MBA (and without any family present)
• Interned with McKinsey again, this time in the DC office (staffed in Delaware) for five weeks
• Got called as ward chorister and choir director (favorite calling ever!)
• Drove our moving truck back to Durham
• Started his last (yay!) year of medical school at Duke
• Took Step One board exams
• Played basketball most Wednesday nights
• Prepared his first Thanksgiving turkey

Cathy –
• Fell in love with Zumba
• Ran a 5k every month
• Called as ward choir director/music chair in Nashville
• New calling in Durham: Primary pianist/compassionate service
• Read 50+ books
• Sang in Nashville Community Choir Easter concert
• Cleaned the Raleigh temple for the first time
• Flew across the country solo with three kids
• Started a new public blog (http://www.lifeasamormonfamily.blogspot.com)
• Saw Austenland on a date that had been planned for two+ years
• Discovered a new thrift store here in Durham
• Had way too much dental work
• Mostly maintained sanity with three little ones

Kylie –
• Turned five
• Graduated from EBPC Preschool
• Started kindergarten
• Started soccer for the first time
• Learned to read chapter books and write
• Remembered a lot of things (she has a great memory)
• Painted lots of pictures
• Rode the bus to and from school
• Had her hair trimmed for the third time in her life
• Loved making new friends in her class

Emmy –
• Read lots and lots of books with Mom
• Fell out of our second-story window onto the concrete driveway and miraculously only had scrapes
• Loved to watch me cook or prepare food
• Started dance class
• Threw away her binky on her own
• Learned all her letters and their sounds
• Dressed up as a princess every day (and was a lot rougher on the dresses than Kylie was)
• Loved anything that had to do with Disney Cars and Planes
• Napped with Preston after lunch every day

Preston –
• Was blessed in Nashville
• Loved playing with his sisters
• Crawled up the stairs like a crazy person
• Learned to walk around everywhere and had battle wounds to prove it
• Grew a total of two teeth, yes, only two
• Learned to say a few words
• Preferred pureed food and baby cheese puffs
• Celebrated his first birthday!
• Hated getting in his car seat with a passion (and still does!)

Family –
• Went to the Pfunky Griddle and cooked our pancakes right on the table
• Ate at the Pancake Pantry (best pancakes in the world!)
• Went to Dallas and Houston on spring break and stayed with the Warner and Lemmon families, also saw the Hawks and Hipp families
• Attended a Nashville Tribute Band “Joseph” performance – so incredible
• Drove across the country for family reunions and added 11 new states to our list of states that we’ve been to
• Crowder family reunion in Park City where the grill Devin was cooking on caught on fire and burned our dinner
• Beach with Christensen extended family – so much fun!
• Disneyland (it has become a tradition that when we go to the beach, we hit up Disneyland)
• Stopped at the Winter Quarters visitors center in Omaha, NE (my favorite part of the whole trip)
• Moved from Nashville back to Durham
• Went to DC and stayed with Sterling and Marinda to decide where we will live this summer
• Celebrated our 6-year anniversary
• April and Aaron visited for the 4th of July
• Piano Guys concert at DPAC – holy cow, they were amazing
• Read “Little House in the Big Woods” to the girls and started on “Farmer Boy”
• Ben and Meridith visited in September
• Grandma and Grandpa Busby visited for Preston’s birthday and to watch our kids while Dev and I went on a trip
• Weekly Friday Family Fun Night (where we do some fun activity as a family every week)
• State Fair with Leiningers again – Krispy Kreme Burger, red velvet funnel cake, deep fried cookie dough, need I say more?
• Life and Science Museum
• Family Pictures – love them SO much, thanks Nichole!
• Participated in Operation Christmas Child where you create shoe boxes full of toys and hygiene items to send as a Christmas present to a child in a third-world country

Those are the happenings that I could remember from this past year. Just shows how I need to be better at blogging or keeping a journal. We hope your holidays are full of creating wonderful memories with those you love!

Love, The Busby Family