Family Letter 2016

Christmas has been special this year and I love to take this time to reach out to friends and family.  We always wish everyone were closer and that we could see you more often.  We'd much rather wish you a Merry Christmas in person and thank you for being a part of our lives. Family and friends are truly the fabric of life and we love you!  

So to sum up life for us...

Evelyn is our resident snuggler and sassy pants and cat smotherer.  Seriously she loves to wrap her little arms around your neck and smush her face into our face and the cats' faces. She loves to play with friends and loves her weekly playdates (because of an awesome kid swap I have set up).  We've also started a joyschool class for her with two other friends. She started a dance class but even though we tried repeatedly, we ended up stopping halfway through because she never wanted to go in.  It's a class where the kids dance and the parents wait outside the room.  She loves Minnie Mouse, Star Wars and princesses.  Did I say Star Wars?  Maybe that's a little more hopeful than true at this point but she does love anything her brothers are doing.  

Jase is our light guy.  He is obsessed with lights of all kinds and points them out.  Santa brought him two flashlights for Christmas and he received 3 others.  He loves preschool and does really well.  He also does joyschool once a week still so his joyschool friends can get together.  He has quite the imagination and will tell you all kinds of stories and made up jokes.  He did a sports class this fall and had a blast.  While lights are high on his list of favorites, Jase also gets excited about the kittens, trucks, playing catch and riding his bike.  He has the most infectious laugh.

Ryan played soccer this summer and he is not so different from most boys his age loving bike riding, legos, Minecraft and Star Wars.  He has a knack for creating, crafting, building, etc.  We were really excited to get him a Doodle Crate subscription for Christmas and he is going to to help Tony design a workspace/desk in the garage next to Tony's work bench so he can create while his dad is creating.  I'm looking forward to seeing all that he will come up with.  Ryan has a sensitive heart and we hope to help him to continue to use that gift to help others.  He is loving 2nd grade and doing great!

Max is enjoying fourth grade and piano lessons.  He just started playing with the community basketball league and he's loving that.  He enjoys books so much and is part of a Battle of the Books team at school.   Max has a fun personality and loves to joke around.  He's really fun to be with and helps a lot with his siblings.  He was excited to see Rogue One and may know more about Star Wars than us at this point.  He also loves robotics, scouts, baseball, basketball, airplanes, WWII history and legos.

Tony would love to have more time for flying and bikepacking so hopefully he will get to do even more of this in 2017.  He continues as a lead Airplane Mechanic at Boeing.  

I enjoy being a work-from-home mom so that I can volunteer in the school and do joyschool with the littles.  My job as a part time appointment scheduler is great.  I'm also grateful for the fun little and big adventures with family and friends.  I'm looking forward to more fun in 2017.

One Save-the-date announcement is for Ryan's baptism on July 8th of next year.  All are invited to come!   

We didn't take family photos this year so I had to pull from some recent ones of us with Studio C and at Halloween.  I added one of Jase at the end since you don't get to see his cute mug so well in the other ones.

Happy New Year!