December 2009 Family update

Dear Friends,
It is time again to write my annual family update letter, only this year, I am doing it here on my blog! This will save me lots of time that I normally spend folding and stuffing envelopes.
To summarize this year will be difficult, mainly because I think when I was making dinner, one of my kids stole my brain! I am so busy with being a mom of four small children, that I can barely remember the last year!
So let me cover some highlights that I do remember!
I'll start with Brent: He began this year with studying for his last actuarial exam. It was his first attempt at it. Despite his monsterous efforts, he'll be studying again in 2010. It has been many many years now that he has been trying to complete the series of actuarial exams, and I say with confindence that I believe 2010 is his year. He will sit for the exam in early May, so hopefully the next few months will be good to him and allow him to accomplish what he needs to get done.
On a more positive note, Brent has been promoted at work to the leader of his department. It is so nice to be able to share with you a news of a promotion in the world of lay-offs! He enjoys his work and is discovering the challenges of management.
He continues to excell as a dad as well. We all enjoy spending a lot of time together, but Brent specializes in helping Ethan with sports related things, and he reads to Brayden nearly every night. I'll chat more about things we've done as a family later.

As for me, I am keeping really busy with being involved with each child someway at where they are at.. What I mean by this is: For Ethan, I set aside a little time each week to go to his classroom as work as a reading mom. I also am a room mom for his class this year. We also spend a lot of time doing homework together. For Cora, this year I help with her Prims group, which is an evening girls Bible Club that meets once a week. For Brayden, Brent and I teach in his Sunday school class once a month, and Makenna, well I am involved with her constantly since she is just a baby still.
I am still volunteering as the MOPPETS Coordiantor for our MOPS group. This job is to coordinate all the volunteers for our mom's group that meets twice a month. This year I have a couple people on my team, so my job has gotten easier. On average we have about 50 kids each time we meet between 0-5 years old. And about 10 people taking care of those children. I coordinate getting everyone there.
In addition to that I attend a weekly Bible study. This fall we are studying the book of Exodus. It is a very exciting study. It's very interesting to look at Moses and how he led the Israelites out of Egypt. You may think that studying this subject would not interest you. But I have been surprised at how easily we can take life lessons that Moses learned and apply them to our lives.
Those are some of the things that I have been doing recently, but as I think all the way back to January, my life seems quite different than right now. This is mainly because of Makenna. Back in January, she was just 6 weeks old at the beginning of the year, but now she is a happy, pleasant sweet one year old girl. She crawls still and isn't daring like her brother Brayden was at her age. She is content to watch the older kids, but is happy to be included in whatever is happening. She is an absolute pleasure. I love being her mom. She is very tiny as well. I am hoping to fatten her up a bit in the new year!
Brayden - He is now 3 years old. His speech has improved leaps and bounds this year. He says the funniest things, and seems to me to be a deep thinker sometimes. He has taken gymnastics and swimming classes in the last year and seems to really enjoy both of those. I was surprised at how well he did in gymnastics. He is very inquisitive. He constantly is asking me questions even when he knows the answer. He also goes to a Bible Club - Rainbows and loves it. He always is learning things that I am amazed he knows. One thing that is so cute is that he says - Mom, I have to give some money to Jesus! This is for the offering time at his club. One evening on our way home from Rainbows, he asked if he had Jesus in his heart! We went inside and prayed together. It was an incredibly precious moment to see a little boy express his desire to know God. Obviously we realize that he is three and doesn't totally get what it means to accept Jesus as his Saviour, but to me it shows that he is on the right track.
He looks forward to playdates and other fun special outings and asks to be able to go places everyday: the park, jungle java, the hotel water park...
He is also a real pleasure to be able to parent, and I feel so blessed to be able to be his mom!
Corlissa is growing up. She turned 6 in March and is now a full time first grade student. She is learning to read and write and is so excited about that. She still struggles with writing numbers backward, but seems to be making big improvements this fall. I did "homeschooling" this summer with her because I was doing it with Ethan, so I included her as well. She made huge strides in reading over the summer with our hooked on phonics lessons. She is also taking tap and ballet as her after school activity, which she really enjoys. She did a great job at her recital last June. She also really enjoys art. She went to an art day camp last summer. She felt really special to be able to go somewhere and just do the things that she loves to do for 3 hours! She is a huge helper here at home too. She loves Makenna, as we all do. She doesn't mind at all sharing her room with the baby and enjoys being like a little mommy to her. She watches out for her really well and makes sure there are no choking hazards.
She is also my little prayer warrior. She always volunteers to pray whenever anyone asks "who would like to pray" . It feels good to know that she has no fear praying in front of people and boldly prays to God.
She is such a blessing to our family. I just can't believe that soon she'll be 7 years old! I am so happy she's my daughter to love.
Then to wrap up each individual update - our oldest son Ethan. He is my little athlete! He loves soccer, basketball, baseball, swimming, pickleball!, tennis, bikeriding, scooters... just about anything physical, he wants to be doing it! He has been on a soccer league this fall where he played against teams from neighboring communities. It was great for him and his self confidence. He did an awesome job. He is playing on a basketball team right now, and is on a team with his two good friends that are our neighbors. So they are having a great time together.
Ethan is in 3rd grade and has been blessed with remarkable teachers for 3rd and 2nd grade. Thinking of the women that have been his teachers in 2009, I can see God's hand in his life. They have all been so patient and understanding with him, and really are driven to see him succeed.
For the last 2 years, we have noticed that Ethan was not learning to read as easily as most students, so in August, we had him tested for dyslexia. His does indeed have a mild dyslexia, which is manifested as reading and spelling difficulties.
That being said, the improvement I have seen over the last year, and especially this fall is really amazing. He is now doing more and more work on his own, but doesn't cry when he needs help. He is more willing to try to do the task, where a year ago, he would just say: I can't do it. He is a strong "first born" personality type. He wants to be the best and everytime he falls short of it, he is very hard on himself. Both Brent and I have been working on being positive and pointing our what a great job he is doing. In my exhausted state, I have to have the self control to not blurt out something negative sometimes.
God has been teaching me so much through Ethan's struggle with school. I have faith that Ethan will be able to overcome his difficulties and perservere!
He is an amazing little boy. It's hard to believe that he'll be 9 next April!
I don't know if your first born children are supposed to be the most challenging, but it feels like it to me right now.
Another thing that Ethan is active in is his Ranger club. This meets at the same time as the Bible club for the other kids. He has been learning all kinds of fun things and really enjoys his time there.
Most exciting to me, is Ethan's faith. I have seen it growing since he accepted Jesus. He loves the story of Joseph. He studied this at overnight Bible Camp he went to this summer. He is learning how his faith relates to his own struggles and how with God he can perservere through all things.
" I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Philippeans 4.
Ethan has always been a huge joy to me and I am excited to see how he continues to grow in his faith.
One of the highlights this year, was our trip to Beaver Island.
It was an amazing time to be together as a family and with our friends the Evan's family. We spent a week exploring the island. Fishing, building sandcastles, going to different beaches, eating, going to the beach park, hiking. Amazingly we had a fabulous week weather wise too. Many people complained that this summer was cool, but we had many beautiful days, and the cooler weather didn't keep my brood out of lake Michigan! I love visiting the island every year. In fact thinking about not visiting there, makes me really sad, so we spend our vacation there every year! Our kids love it there too. Ethan and Cora always say that they can't wait to go back and that we'd like to go in the winter to do fun winter things there.

Mainly this year, it has been a time of watching our children grow and learning to balance such a large family. There is constantly something to do and activities to take them too.
Yet in the midst of all the busyness, we are dedicated to having family night together, where we pray for things going on in each others lives and do fun things together. These things are really the highlight of our lives. We do a lot of shuttling and tag team parenting, but setting aside time for us all to be together is important.

So as 2009 draws to a close, I pray that this "blog" has found you happy and healthy, and in good spirits. Remember that God is showering you with blessings everyday. Sometimes though, we refuse to see them. So take some time and thank him for the blessings in your life!

Maybe in 2010, I'll be able to find a bit more time for blogging our family activities. But for now, it looks like I'll only be doing this occasionally!

With much love at Christmas time,
Andie