Somewhere...just south of crazy!

Yes, I have not blogged in ages. Yes, I am a horrible blogger. I started this blog to keep family and friends who live far away (and some near) up to date with our ever growing family. (And I mean growing the sense of getting bigger NOT adding another person). We have started a new year, with new changes for everyone. Here are a few updates on everyone-

J started 4th grade this year. I can't believe he will have just one more year of grade school before entering Middle school. That just seems crazy to me. What else seems impossible? He will be 10 in 2 days. It feels like yesterday that I was waiting 4 more weeks to meet my baby boy when a semi-routine Drs appt caught PROM (water broke too early). My brother was there with me at the time. They couldn't find Jacob's dad since he was at work and not answering the phone. Brendan and niece Hannah (only 8 weeks old) kept me calm during the transit to the hospital and L&D department while I waited for the rest of my family to get there. It seems like yesterday. Has it really been 10 years?
He is growing like crazy and hoping to start up swim team again, and play baseball in the spring. His foot is bigger than mine, and he could probably wear my clothes. I think next year at this time he will be bigger than me. His new area of interest is in acting. We are currently looking for acting classes and hoping he enjoys acting on the stage as much as he does at home.

Brad-
Brad started 2 new jobs this fall. One as a teacher of Harpsichord at UNT (he's done that before) and the other as a part-time stay at home dad. The girls love him! They have really developed strong relationships with him that make me feel very good about our new family life. He is better than me at helping Jacob with homework after school as well. I lack patience in the area of teaching numbers...but Brad has a way with getting though to students. Oh wait....THAT'S why he is the teacher in the family, and not me. Ha!
Our schedules are pretty opposite. I come home from work and on three days out of five he passes me in the driveway on his way to teach. I miss him very much, but we have started having date night and lunches. Balance will resume one of these years.

Isabel is growing up WAY too fast. She started pre-school for the first time this year and can already recognize all letters of the alphabet (lower and upper case) and give you an example of a word that starts with the letter. This blows my mind. I have never seen a young 2 year old with this knowledge. I know they exist, but believe me when I say we have a bright one on our hands.

Emma is in year 2 of pre-school and has finally come out of her shell. She loves going to school, and seeing her friends and teacher. This year we moved schools so her and Iz could be at the same school. Every Wednesday she has chapel and twice a week they go to computer lab. E says her favorite part of the day is computer. Her class also memorizes Bible verses. They have a Bible bead bracelet and they get a bead when they say a verse. She said the first one flawlessly, and she is already prepared for this Friday. I can't wait to see both of the girls in their Christmas show this December.

As you can see, we've had some changes. I will try to get some pics of the kids up soon. Come back and see us!