Friday, November 28, 2014

Merry Christmas!


We hope this letter finds you having a blessed 2014 and with more blessings for your 2015. This year was busy and exciting for our family, as all seem to be.


This seven year old is now in the the second grade! In school Meredith's favorite subjects are math and science. She is starting to read chapter books, especially Nancy Clancy. She is doing well at her piano lessons and will have her first performance this year at our church's Sunday school Christmas program. Outside of school, she likes to do bars and climb the rope in gymnastics, go swimming in the summer, and play with her friends. Her newest skill was knitting with Mama and newest activity was spending three days away from the family at church summer camp!


Theodore started school this year and is in kindergarten! At school he loves math and reading books about super heroes. Outside of school he likes playing at the park and reading stories to the puppies at the library. He goes to gymnastics where he now knows how to do pullovers! He is taking piano lessons from his Daddy and is learning how to read notes on the staff.


Emmaline is becoming a big girl, now already four years old! She's learning at home with Mama doing fun preschool activities, and will go to kindergarten in a year and a half. She likes reading to the dogs at the library and reading to our dog, Trinity. She too is in gymnastics and learned how to do forward rolls all by herself! She enjoys camping the family and hiked up to the top of a high mountain this summer. She has started piano lessons, with the help of Mama or Daddy playing with her. This past summer she took swimming lessons and had a blast!


Mollie continues loving being a full-time Mama to three bundles of joy. Though her home is starting to feel more empty part of the day with two kids off to school. She continues knitting projects for herself, the family, and friends. Her knitting projects were even featured at our church's annual Christmas bazaar! She also volunteers at church with the high school youth for both Sunday School and evening youth group. This coming summer she'll be heading to Detroit for the 2015 ELCA Youth Gathering with youth from our church and another nearby church.


Timothy continues his work at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where he works as a software engineer leading software projects and promoting software engineering best practices. At church he leads a contemporary christian worship service and helps accompany other services and events on the piano. He continues to ride is bike to work, with a total of over 5,000 miles for the year. He has enjoyed a new "365 project" this year where he has been taking a photo a day, giving him much more experience in using his camera and processing images on the computer

As a family this year brought us to many outdoor adventures as many years have in the past. We went to Holden Village in February, spent a week at Lake Chelan over the 4th of July, and went camping in the Blue Mountains of southeast Washington and the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana. We've been blessed to have family visit throughout the year, especially this summer where someone was over every month!