2013 for the Castle family in a nutshell

we never get family pictures taken. whenever we send out Christmas cards, we always use a photo taken of us on vacation. none of us are color coordinated, and I'm a bit OCD about that. this year, all we did was go to Moab and Bear Lake, and there isn't a single picture of all of us with our clothes on, and we needed to update our family picture on the wall anyway (which was from 2008), so we finally gave in and decided to get our pictures taken. I love how they turned out! Mom and I decided on everyone's outfit, and Wes finally had an excuse to wear his "cool, new, stylish skinny jeans".

so my mom wrote the Christmas letter this year, and since this is my blog, I am going to switch things around just a bit, because this is me typing, not my mom.

let's start with me. I got my braces off, so this picture seems ancient. I turn 16 in less than a month, and according to my mom, I am "excited to date boys and drive cars." yep. This year was all about tennis. I spent the entire summer training for the Timpview Tennis Team; I had a private coach, I played with my mom, and I joined a city league and participated in several matches and tournaments. At the end of the summer, I made JV singles and had the best time playing! I really miss it and am currently doing cross training and playing on the indoor courts as much as I can. I also continue to play piano and practice around 1 hour everyday, and I'm getting really good, if I say so myself. I was the Sophomore Homecoming Princess this year. and my mom says I'm growing up too fast. what.

Wesley is also growing up too fast, according to my mother. I kind of agree with her. He is now 13 and in 7th grade, but attends junior high at Provo High School, where there is a gifted program. He was a jungle animal in the school production of Seussical: the Musical. He loved everything about it: acting, singing, dancing, hanging out with high schoolers and going to IHOP at midnight for cast parties and ordering steak. He is learning the hard lessons I learned in 7th grade: turning in all the assignments, on time. As soon as the play ended, ski season began and he is going skiing up at Sundance every chance he gets. He's a funny kid, and he is usually great to have around, except that he eats everything in the house. Oh, and he is now taller than I am. 

Justin. my mom will straight up say that he is the favorite child. He is all about sports. He and his friends got invited to a special soccer team, and they practiced really hard over the summer and learned a lot more about soccer and playing as a team. When he wasn't scoring goals for his team, he was the goalie and wouldn't let the other team score on him. His team ended up winning the championship! Right after soccer ended, J tried out for bantam basketball, and ended up getting the same coach he had for soccer. His team practices everyday at 6:30 AM, and he loves working hard and learning about basketball. He is following in his sister's footsteps and is getting quite accomplished on the piano. And he is the cutest thing, and everyone loves him.

Mom decided to take Japanese this year at BYU, and it turned out to be very difficult so she used Dad to help her study. Now, Dad is already very busy teaching chemistry at BYU, and in addition to grading papers and doing whatever professors do, he is also booked with teaching me how to drive and helping the kiddos with homework. This year, he had to help his wife memorize Japanese. When the class ended a week ago, everyone was relieved, but I think Dad was more relieved than Mom. In Mom's free time, she runs with her friends, attempts to grow vegetable gardens, drives the boys around to their many activities, and plays tennis with me.

it's been a great year, and I hope you enjoyed reading this. Merry Christmas to all of you!