Christmas Letter

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Time just keeps on flying by, we had a busy summer of fairs, parades, carnivals, and weddings. I tried to keep up with our lives by blogging and posting pictures for friends and family, but time still escaped me. In the last few days I tried to catch up on the last few months so in case this Christmas letter wasn't enough for you, there is more to read and see!

Jon is in his third year at Southern Valley teaching Ag and being the FFA advisor. This Spring he will be coaching Jr. high boys basketball and track so he keeps pretty busy. This year he is serving on the board for the Nebraska Agricultural Education Association (NAEA) so we have gone to a few meetings for that. The most recent and exciting one was the National Convention in Las Vegas. It sounds like the FFA is doing pretty well and he has some good students.
I, Torri, just finished up student teaching! which is quite the feeling to be done! Well almost done. There wasn't good chances of finding a teaching job in the middle of the school year so I decided to put off graduation until May. This way I could continue taking some classes, most of which are grad classes that I can apply towards a masters. I student taught at Holdrege High School and will receive an endorsement in 7-12th grade Physical Science. I taught a freshman Physical Science class a mixed aged Basic Science class, a junior Chemistry class and a senior physics class. It was alot of fun, and I'm ready to have my own classroom and income!!
Ella turned 4 this year and is growing like a weed. She is looking forward to Christmas break which will be spent in Pierre and Butte. It will be nice to get to see all the relatives that we haven't seen for awhile. She is very outgoing, and can make friends with just about anyone. She loves to bake, dance, sing, watch movies, run, swim, play and just about anything else there is to do!

We got two vacations this year! We got to go down to Branson Missouri with some family and got to go to Vegas just recently. But one of the most exciting things that happened this year was welcoming a new neice into the family. Jon's brother Kyle and his wife Tiffany had Joycin Ann in July. The newest member of the Lechtenberg clan! You can see some pictures of our vacation and Joycin on our photos page, or read about them in our posts.

We are excited to go to the Rose Bowl this year. Texas Christian University is playing, and Jon's brother Brandon is currently a graduate assistant there. His other brother Adam was also previously there for 2 years and since we haven't made it to a game yet, we figured this is our last chance and who would pass up a chance to go to the Rose Bowl! So everyone cheer for the horned frogs and look for us on TV!

I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying the holidays!

Love,

Jon, Torri, Ella

and Charlie

Vegas!

Well we left our house around 4am to catch our 9:00 flight from Omaha to Las Vegas. We gladly had no problems getting there. We took a hummer limo from the airport to the Rivera Hotel and Casino. It was interesting considereing we had a group of 15 people and all their luggage!We got all checked in and ate at the buffet in our hotel. After lunch Jon had to get checked in for his convention, beings as that was the reason we got to go! Apparently he is in the right profession! That evening we headed down to old Vegas on Freemont street, and ate at an amazing buffet down there.

The next day Jon and I went down to the Fashion Show Mall and ate at the food court. Jon had meetings in the afternoon, so I just stayed at the mall and did some shopping! It's a huge mall, and I didn't even make it all the way through it because I wanted to get back to the hotel before dark. That evening a smaller group of us headed down the strip to check out some of the sights. We saw the fountains at the bellagio, the volcando at the Mirage and lots of casinos! There was a lot to see and our feet definetly hurt by the time we made it back to the hotel.

Thursday Jon took the afternoon off and we went over to the Las Vegas Convention Center to see Cowboy Christmas. It was pretty cool, if only we had money to spend and a way to get things home! We took a shuttle from there to the Nation Finals Rodeo! There was a horse demonstration going on right when we got off the bus. There were bars set up with some businesses giving our free stuff and samples. Jon rode a mechanical bull, which was not the average mechanical bull you see in most bars, this one was pretty high tech and even chased after Jon after he fell off! After wondering around outside for a while, we headed into the Thomas & Mack Center. We found our seats (way up in the nosebleeds haha) It was quite the show and Reba McEntire sang the nation anthem! The Rodeo went by really fast, and there was some exciting bull riding! I would reccoment going if you ever get the chance.

One of my good friend's Morgan happened to get to Vegas Thursday night so Friday we met up and headed to the Premium Outlet Mall. More shopping! We tried not to stay to long, and decided to go to Cowboy Christmas. I went with her there, until Jon got done with his meetings. That evening Jon and I took the bus down the south end of the strip to work our way back up to the middle. We checked out some of the hotels which were pretty cool and were disppointed that the lions at MGM were away for the night. We stopped at the Hooters Hotel and Casino to eat and then kept walking the strip. We saw M&M and Coke a Cola world, which was neat to see. We made it back to the fountains at the Bellagio so we could watch a show from front and center. I could watch those all day, they are soo neat. We saw a couple more hotels before busing back to our hotel.

Saturday was spent packing up and getting to the airport. We were on the plane as the big 12 chamipionship was starting, but the pilot was nice enough to give us an update or two. Jon and I made it to a friends house in Lincoln to watch the 4th quarter of the game, before continuing on home.

It was a really fun trip, and even with Jon's black jack playing we didn't lose too much money : )

October/November

October

Jon, Ella and I were able to make it back to get to one of Jon's sister,Roxana's volleyball games. It was good to get to watch her play, and she is a great setter! On the way back to Butte, from the game Jon's mom Susan took us on a detour through Long Pine, which had a neat creek and some campgrounds. It was a really pretty area.

We made it back up north again that month to join Jon's mom's side of the family the Hoffman's for a hayrack ride, and to watch the Nebraska vs Texas football game. The game didn't turn out very well, but we had a good time anyways, and all the kids had a blast!

Halloween weekend, we made some carmel apples, went to a pumpkin patch, and carved some pumpkins. The pumpking patch was over by Hastings, and it was alot of fun. They had all kinds of activites and playgrounds. They had some ponies, a calf, some goats and chickens at a little petting zoo. They had a haystack jump, where kids could jump off a little ledge into a pile of hay, and a large sandbox full or corn, some tractor trikes, hillbilly bowling, a cornmaze, big slides, plunge on the prarie and so on. Ella loved it! You can check it out here Pumpkin patch!November

Jon, and Ella went hunting in Butte, while I headed up to Pierre to go to the Zonta Craft Fair with my mom and sister. Jon and Ella did get a deer and were both pretty exciting about it!

August/September

In August I got to go visit the newlywed Zdeneks in Des Moines IA. It was my frist time to Des Moines, and Nicole and Colin gave me a tour of the city. We also went out to a hot air balloon landing. It was quite the set up, and they had tons of balloons come in to land and try to hit a target throwing a marker out of their balloon before landing.
August means back to school! I started student teaching at Holdrege High School in August. I was in a Basic Science, Physical Science, Chemistry and Physics classroom. I also started a grad class in inorganic chemistry. And Jon started a his 3rd year at Southern Valley

September.
First Nebraska State Fair in Grand Island!
My parents were able to make it down to go to the fair with us as well as spend a day at Lake Johnson at Tiffany's grandparents cabin. Ella got to go fishing, and thankfully this year she didn't lose a shoe in the lake!

July

Jon's friend from highschool got married on July 3rd in Butte. It was a fun wedding, and we had a fun time between the wedding and the reception at Shane and Beth's. On the 4th we headed up to Pierre to go to the Rodeo and see the big firework display.

I stayed in Pierre that week, as my best friend Nicole, was getting married and I wanted to help out with wedding preparation. It was a fun week and a great weekend. The wedding was beautiful and I am so happy for Nicole and Colin! I was honored to be the maid of honor, and was pretty nervous to give my speech, but it turned out well I think. Jon was able to make it make up for the wedding before we had to head back home.

We didn't go back empty handed, we got to bring a 196-something Allis Chalmer's riding lawn mower. My grandpa was so nice as to let Jon have it. At least it runs! we had some problems with the blades and cutting grass, but looks like it should work to plow some snow this winter!

We did get to go on a family vacation. Jon, Ella, Haylie and I headed down to El Dorado, KS and stayed at Lance, Lisa and Will's new house for a night before heading down to Branson Missouri. Jon's parents had a timeshare there that we got to use and it was amazing. We had a 2 bedroom house that was new within the last year. We went to Dixie Land Stamepede dinner show, and Silver Dollar City. We also did some shopping at the local outlet mall, which was fun for us girls, while Jon Lance and the kids went fun park.

The most exciting thing that happened in July was welcoming our beautiful neice into the world on July 26. We weren't able to make it to the hospitol to see her, but met her within a few days. Joycin Ann is the newest member of the Lechtenberg clan.