MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!!
Every year I tell myself that I am going to send out Christmas cards, but I never seem to be able to get them out. I do really love receiving Cards and Christmas letters from all of our friends and family, so I thought I would do a close second and give a little blog update.
Grayden continues to amaze us every day. He is still attending the child care program at my school and loving all of his friends and teachers there. He also continues to work with Ms. Rene for his ABM lessons monthly. .Grayden lights up any room that he walks into and loves to be the center of attention. He loves music and dancing and tagging along with his big brother Zander who he loves and adores. He is also showing us his strong independence as a three year old and his ability to test our patience daily:) Grayden has some big changes this year, as he will be starting the new year without his brother in his classroom as well as becoming a Big Brother this summer! We are also excited to watch him as he learns to downhill ski with his Papa Jack and Gma Karen this winter.
I can't believe that Zander is almost five years old!! He continues to grow into a compassionate boy with the biggest heart I know. He is such a loving big brother to Grayden and he is so excited to have another baby in the family! Zander really enjoyed our pool this summer and playing with the neighborhood kids. He has also really loved anything having to do with writing or art lately. He has been really interested in learning to spell different names and words and it is so much fun to watch him as he learns. We have made the decision to switch him from my school childcare program to a preschool program in Hudsonville for the remainder of the year. He is so excited to start school where the neighbor girls attend. He has been going to speech therapy both at our local school as well as at a local outpatient center. He is making great progress on some of his speech sounds and at his new school he will have the opportunity to work with the speech therapist there two times a week in addition to working with Ms. Juli (his other speech therapist).
I had a great year in 2013. Our new home has a pool, so Austin and I enjoyed hosting many get togethers this summer with friends and family. It was so nice to basically vacation in our own backyard all summer! We love our new neighborhood, but were a little sad when our closest neighbors moved at the end of the summer:( I continued with my Anat Baniel training and will officially be done in early April of this year. It has been an amazing learning experience these past three years, and I am looking so forward to sharing this work with other kids and their families in our area. This January, the boys will be coming with me again to California with my mom, Robyn, and Jill. It should be a great trip! I am still loving my job at Ken-O-Sha and feel so very fortunate to have a career that I enjoy and where I have such great coworkers. And lastly, I AM SO excited to meet our third little one!! He or she will be arriving sometime in June of this year!!
As for Austin, he continues to work for West Ottawa Public schools as the assistant food director. He continues to learn about the job and we were lucky to go with him this summer on a family trip to Kansas City while he attended a school nutrition conference. We had a great time exploring a new city, and going to places like Legoland, the Aquarium, and a Tigers vs. Royals baseball game. He too, enjoyed hanging by the pool this summer and entertaining. He continues to be the chef for our family and has recently been creating and brewing his own beer.
We wish all of you the happiest
of Holidays and a great NEW YEAR!!
With Love,
Austin, Kelly, Zander and Grayden
