Dear Family and Friends,
Welcome to our blog! We hope this greeting finds you enjoying a wonderful holiday season. I have given up ordering Christmas cards, addressing envelopes, and buying stamps once again and have exchanged that process for a digital version. It seems I am able to get it done much easier this way. I feel somewhat guilty about that because I do love getting those great picture cards from everyone and displaying them in our house during the weeks up to and following Christmas. So if you are also like me and wish to have a picture of us to add to your collection, feel free to print out our picture attached in the email or simply choose to ban us from your display :)....I apologize for my laziness.
Here's a brief update on our family....
Reed continues to enjoy his work at the Eye Center. He is especially excited about some upcoming changes.... they have begun construction on a new updated building and will hopefully be moving their practice probably sometime in May. The new building is only a about 1 mile from their current location and Reed's office will no longer be in the basement. Meanwhile at home he continues to work on several home projects, usually outside ones. I think he spends all his time in a little dark room at work and simply can't wait to get outside once he gets home. One thing's for sure, there is apparently always something for him to work on!
At the beginning of this year I was still working as an OT one day a week for a home health company. However, in February, our longtime babysitter had to move on. She was/is a college student and I knew
our days of having her were numbered. So I went back to being home full time which turned out to be a good decision. Not too long after Easter, my dad suffered a heart attack and underwent heart surgery. I was able to help my mom during his hospitalization and recovery. He is doing well and appears to have fully recovered. For now, my full time job is homeschooling the children and running them to various activities.
The kids are all doing well with their school, becoming much more independent. I spend most of my time checking their work and using a red pen if necessary. :) On Fridays, all three love to go to our CoOp where they take several classes. Hunter and Ethan are taking an Inventors class, an American History class, choir, and gym. Isabel is taking an art class, a history class, choir and gym as well. They enjoy the classes and, of course, love to spend the day with friends. Their aunt is Hunter and Ethan's gym class teacher and I am her assistant...it is almost all boys in the class so needless to say we are NOT afraid to use our whistles. Being at CoOp on Fridays means that we must fit the rest of our school in on the other four days of the week. It seems to get more difficult to do the older they get but we manage. Hunter and Ethan have also been busy taking guitar lessons (along with myself because I have always wanted to play) while Isabel is taking piano lessons. Their other activities during the school year include all three of them playing soccer during the fall and spring. The boys had an especially good fall, scoring several goals. They are the oldest in their division right now so they are enjoying their success while it lasts. Hunter and Ethan also had a great time learning and playing indoor soccer for the first time this last winter.
Isabel has had a very busy year and seems to have discovered her niche in community theater (see pictures in other posts). This summer she played the role of Kate (one of seven main orphans) in the musical Annie. She thoroughly enjoyed her part as she got to dangle a "dead mouse" in the face of Miss Hannigan. Let's just say it fit her personality. She also auditioned for and got the role of Gretl (the youngest child) in The Sound of Music this last October. Both were amazing experiences for her. She really loves it and also enjoys making new friends in the process. I tried not to cry every time the orchestra began playing the overture at the beginning of her performances. We will be keeping our eyes open for other opportunities for her in the future.
With the school year getting busier, I definitely look forward to summertime and a break. However, this summer seemed to pass way too quickly and didn't seem to be much of a break! I spent a lot of time driving Izzy to 'Annie' rehearsals. We also kept busy with swim lessons, horse shows, and taking the boys to volunteer as Jr. Historians. Unfortunately, this summer we also had to say goodbye to Reed's Grandma who passed away. We will certainly miss her smiling face in the coming years. We were able to enjoy our annual Little Eden vacation this August. This year we even ventured out on a day trip to visit Sleeping Bear dunes as well....it was fun but let's just say doing the dune trail to Lake Michigan once was enough to last me the rest of my life. Soon after our trip to Michigan, Izzy and I took a train trip to Chicago to visit the American Girl store....it was an amazing time. When we returned from that trip, it was on to wedding planning. My older sister got married the end of August in a very nice ceremony at her house. Following that, in the beginning of September, we went on another vacation to Nags Head, NC where we rented a house for the week with my younger sister and her family. The kids had never been to the ocean so they were very excited. We had a great week....luckily our rental was not damaged by the hurricane that had hit there two weeks prior to our arrival. We took advantage of the trip and were able to make some educational stops on our way to and from NC, including Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and George Washington's Mount Vernon. We also got to enjoy a visit with my cousin who taught us all how to play disc golf.
So those are some highlights from this last year minus the usual everyday stuff like loads of laundry, kids getting silly at bedtime (yes, still!), tears over difficult math problems, vehicle issues, furnace malfunctions, church crisis, etc... If you are interested in further details or pictures, feel free to browse the blog. I seem to be posting a little less as years go by but better than none at all!
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
.jpg)
