Wow!

A lot has happened since our last post. First of all Hannah is now partially running the family blog. Hannah is now in seventh grade, Katie is in fifth grade and Ellie is in second grade. Katie here shh don't let Hannah know because as she said above she  is pretty much running the blog. I'm in 5th grade like she said also. Some of my goals and dreams are: to be on the top of the New York Times Bestselling list, to swim in the Olympics, and to be a singer/songwriter. Ellie for sure likes puffy skirts, Hannah is on the cross-country team and I ran a 5k. So many things have changed. I hope you don't think it's weird that I started in the middle of Hannah's post.

Christmas Activity 1.0 - Family Art

On Saturday, we did one of our family Christmas activities, trying to spend great time together, rather than spending lots of money on STUFF we don't really need. We went to the Boise art museum and made ceramic artwork. It was a beautiful day. It snowed all day long and we watched out the windows (made for an interesting drive).

Y Not Tri

This August I did my second little triathlon. I plan to prepare for another this coming spring.

Summer in Santa Cruz

What a great time we had in Santa Cruz with the Simili, Stephens, Ramirez, and Buck families. What sweet memories, as we go back through our photos for scrap-booking today.

Our Family Highlights 2005

Family Portrait by Hannah - December 2005
Our Move:
Early in 2005 we began hunting for a house that was within our price range and would fit our family. Heather likes to say that she needed a little more concrete in her life. We had been renting a small farm house in Marsing.

God blessed us with a perfect house for us. We didn't know until later how fortunate we were to get such a bargain. We are within walking distance of Hannah's new school and the drive isn't too bad for Paul to get to work (15 minutes).

(Picture on right taken early one morning this spring, watching the sunrise in front of their new house).


Our Church:
Last fall we started attending a church in Nampa that is geared towards reaching the unchurched or those that don't fit in a traditional church setting. We have gotten involved at several different levels and enjoy our small group.

Our Highlights:
Some of our favorite activities have been:

• Camping this summer with family.
• Spending a lot of time in the back yard this summer with our family and friends.
  
• Doing Wednesday evening gymnastics with the whole family. Hannah, Katie, and Ellie are the gymnasts. Heather is the teacher of the parent/tot class and Ellie and Paul are the parent/tot duo in her class. :) It has been fun having mom as a teacher.
  

Heather's Highlights 2005

1. Watching Ellie struggle, practice, and obtain a working vocabulary to make her wants, feelings, and sense of humor known. Thanks to our speech therapist for being a guide on the journey!

2. Observing Katie's obvious joy at her preschool. She delights in the resident rats, stickbugs, and turtle. She always has a new tale of cooking, art, imaginary play, or latest science experiment. Her joy for learning is contagious!

3. Seeing Hannah launch herself out of the nest and in to full day school. I never realized what courage it took to navigate 1st grade. I admire her courage.

4. Biblestudy Fellowship has been a great way to dig deeper in to the book of Genesis. I have recognized my own struggles and hopes in its pages. I have also gained a greater appreciation for God's parenting abilities as He grew up the human race.

5. Welcoming our new nephew/cousin Isaac home! He arrived in Boise with two joyful (and exhausted parents) on December 21st. He is a Christmas gift of a lifetime!

Paul's Highlights 2005

Photonotes: The picture at right was drawn by Hannah after watching "March of the Penguins." Below is a typical evening dogpile.

School:

I am in my second year as a principal at a rural middle school. The learning curve is still pretty steep and the workload is sometimes overwhelming. Fortunately, I am working with good people. I often come home exhausted after working long days. I wish that I got more time to work with kids and I wish that there was more of me left when I got home.

Home:
One of the highlights of my day is coming home to spend the evening with Heather and the girls. We all pile onto the couch upstairs for our night-time stories. Heather usually brings home an apple crate or more full of library books each week. One of our current favorites is the Junie B. Jones series. She is a very mischievous kindergarten/1st grader. This year we Hannah, Katie, and I finished the whole Narnia series together. It was a neat experience. I really saw it from a different perspective.

It is nice to be in a house that doesn't require a ton of projects to keep it functional.

Hannah's Highlights 2005

Hannah is in first grade at a new elementary school just a couple blocks from our new house. You can see in her illustrations from highlights of the year that her teacher and counselor at school are a couple of her highlights. She has made friends well there. She has been recognized as explorer of the week as well as for the quarter in both writing, academics, and music. We are very proud of her.

Hannah is thankful for:

• Family
• Friends
• Food

• 

Katie's Highlights 2005

Katie enjoys her friends at preschool, church, and Bible Study Fellowship. She is in a really wonderful preschool two days a week. She illustrated some of the highlights of 2005. She also attached a list of her favorite things.

Ellie's Highlights 2005

Ellie is 2 and loves being with her big sisters. She has enjoyed doing daddy-and-me gymnastics, making friends, going to BSF with Heather and Katie, and doing speech therapy with Vickie. Her language has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few months. One of her favorite activities is playing dress-up.

These are Ellie's illustrations of some of her favorite things. She loves her baby and blankie.