Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 Christmas Letter

 Happy New Year's Eve!  One goal I have for 2013 is to make an effort to be more consistent with blogging.  I'm thinking I'll start with once a week...  I decided to start off easy by sharing our Christmas letter.  I wrote this a month ago, so when it says we'll be celebrating a birthday soon, yeah...  we already did!  :)  Anyways, here it is, enjoy!

Hello! This is my first ever Christmas letter! I've never written one before, but in the last two years (yeah, I never even got a Christmas card sent out last year) our family has experienced a few major life changes, so I thought now would be the perfect time to send out an update!

One of those changes is our location! Yep, we moved! I know this is old news to some, as it's been over a year, but I do want to make sure that everyone has our current address. We are enjoying our new home, and we absolutely love being back in Clear Lake!

Perhaps the most exciting event of the last couple years was the addition of our sweet Koen James to our family. He was due to arrive on Christmas day, but blessed us with an early arrival on December 17th, 2011. He weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz, a big baby if I do say so myself! We will be celebrating his 1stbirthday in a couple weeks, and he is already walking! He is more and more fun every day!

Lena turned four on June 21st. What a joy she is! She spends her days at home, working on learning her letters and numbers and playing with her brothers!

Eli turned six on August 24th. How did our first little miracle baby grow up so fast?!? He is doing kindergarten at home this year, learning how to read, addition, and some world geography! We are so proud of all that he has accomplished so far!

Autumn (that's me!) is keeping busy teaching, feeding, changing, cleaning up after (etc., etc., etc....) the three previously mentioned ragamuffins! My hands may be full, but my heart is overflowing!

Joe's business, Advantage Business Solutions, has been growing and thriving, praise the Lord! They have been able to hire a few new employees and opened an office, which means that Joe is no longer working from home. He's a busy guy!

We will also be celebrating another big milestone on January 11th, our 10 year wedding anniversary! What a crazy, beautiful roller coaster the last decade has been! We are so blessed to have each other and our amazing family!

So that's what's been going on in our neck of the woods. To those that live near, I hope to see you soon and often. To those who live far, I hope you'll keep in touch. Thank you all for being a part of our lives.

Merry Christmas to you and yours! And a happy New Year, too! :-)

With love,

Joe, Autumn, Eli, Lena & Koen

Monday, March 26, 2012

I'm BAAAACK! (Or am I???)

As I'm sitting here typing this, I'm thinking, WHY???  I have a terrible track record when it comes to blogging...  but here I am.  I had so many ideas for posts, and even started writing a few, but somehow nothing ever made it past the "draft" stage.  I'm not sure what my goal is for this silly blog, but for whatever reason I want to get back to it.  If you're up for discovering what this will become with me, be my guest.  :)  Now, where to start (over)...