Merry Christmas 2009

This has been a wonderful year full of great memories. If anything, I feel like I enjoy everything even more looking back at pictures. Here's the scoop on what we've all been doing this year. The kids are, of course, growing like weeds and are more and more fun every day. We're kind of boring but are enjoying spending time with our little ones while they're little!

Ken: Still happily working at National Instruments. His big new thing this year was an iPhone. Now I'm fussing that I need one, too, but I have to wait until we renew our contract in June. He has all kinds of free apps and even got us maps and lists of wait times for our trip to Disney World. We're directors of our Bible Life Group which means we take care of the administrative stuff like making sure people have name tags and that everyone knows what's going on with the class. Ken does most of that work. We have a great class and love our extended family at church.

Me: I'm trying to keep up with all of these kiddos! I'm still loving being at home most days but I think that's the way any job is.... you don't love it every day! Sad to say but my newest hobby is fixing Coralee's hair. I heard about a website (http://www.princesshairstyles.com/) with all kinds of ideas and let's just say it's a sickness now. I think it's fun and most of the time Coralee is happy to go along with having me tug on her hair. I cut my hair after realizing that I couldn't fix her hair fancy and keep mine a pony tail all the time. I'm still ringing handbells although yesterday was our last performance until we start practicing again in the fall. I've also been doing more sewing than ever before which has been fun. I love being able to see cute things and replicate them for a much better price. We've been taking turns hosting small group at our house which has been great because I actually have to clean house every couple of weeks!

This year is the first year Coralee has been in school. Lugging everyone out of the house isn't always fun. We barely make it to carpool most mornings and she doesn't have to be there until 9:45. The kids sleep until 8:00 or 9:00 most mornings in spite of going to bed at 7:00 (Lincoln) and 8:00 (Coralee). Between that and realizing that our flexible schedule would be changing drastically, we're planning to homeschool Coralee next year. I swore I would never homeschool and here I find myself feeling called in that direction. That can only be a God thing! We've started a little in the last month but it feels a little disconnected since she's in school two days a week and the holidays have made it hard to have any consistency. For my friends that homeschool, we're using Saxon K for math which is a little beneath her. We skip around a good bit but at least at this poin it's been a lot of review. We started with another book for reading but after I had a little temper fit trying to explain their goofy directions, we switched to ABeCeDarian that a friend loaned us. We now are proud owners of a free library card from the city of Austin which has been a ton of fun. We'll do our school work and then read books. Our plan for next year will be to add Classical Conversations which is one morning a week. I'd go into more detail but then this would be way too long to expect anyone to read!

Coralee: We celebrated her 5th birthday at Disney World by having lunch with Cinderella. As she told me during our trip, "Mommy, dreams really do come true at Disney World". She's in pre-K at First Foundations and really loves it. This is also the first year that she's been in children's choir and her second year in AWANAs at church. She is blessed to have Mrs. Trish and Mrs. Laure as her dance teachers this year and has had even more fun since her BFF Riley is in the same class and gets to come play every week before class. Coralee is a big help around the house and absolutely adores her siblings. She will give in to Lincoln about entirely too much and even gets mad at me when I discipline him.

Lincoln: Oh that boy! He is definitely into more things than Coralee ever was. Of course, he has Coralee to follow, too! He isn't much of a talker but that is starting to change. A few weeks ago, he started answering questions with "Uh huh" but I can't type how stinking cute he says it. Just saying "yes" instead of screaming is so wonderful. We've known he was capable of saying more but just didn't do it. It's fun to start to hear what he's thinking. He has done really well with Lauramae for the most part and truly loves his sisters. Of course, he loves his cars, trains and loves to "Roar" like a lion or dinosaur. We bought him cowboy boots at Sheplers and he loves wearing them.... just like Daddy. He loves to "walk, walk" instead of riding in the stroller which makes shopping trips long!

Lauramae: She has to be one of the sweetest, most easy going babies. Friends have told me that's deceptive and she's just suckering me into having more kids. It seems like ours have been progressively easier. You give her a paci, a shot of gas drops and put her in bed and she generally goes right to sleep. She started out as a little chunker but couldn't resist the urge to fall down the charts like her siblings. At her 6 month well check, she had lost a pound which bothered me but not nearly as much as the lack of weight gain had with the other two. I wasn't happy but at least I was able to coherently talk to the doctor instead of wanting run out of the room in tears. I'm thankful we have 2 other examples of this to look at and that the pediatrician doesn't seem too concerned. We've added formula and canola or coconut oil to her food and have given her whole milk yogurt, too. We'll see how all that has done when we go for a weight check on the 28th. At least I know to expect a rebound in the 8th month and eating like a piggy once she starts table food. I can't believe she's 7.5 months already... her babyhood has flown by!