Merry Christmas!

Alternate title: The year with two Christmas cards.

Christmas 2010

It hardly seems possible that an entire year has gone by since our last Christmas season. But then we notice that the kids’ homework has gotten a little harder, their pant legs have grown a little shorter and the hair on their parents’ heads has become a little grayer – so it must be true.

Hailey will be four years old in January. She started preschool two mornings a week this fall. (Time--- can you slow down a little bit please?) She loves school and looks forward to the days when she goes to class. She is very proud of her ability to print the letter“H” and is starting to work on perfecting her “a”. She participated in a gymnastics class during the spring and fall and really enjoys doing her “nastics”. Hailey informed us that she wants to play soccer in the spring, so we will see how she does there. We have a strange feeling that she may make up for what her brothers lacked in the sport. J We are looking forward (just a little bit) to the end of her threes. The terrible twos had nothing on the threes as far as our kids were concerned and Hailey is no different. She is stubborn, opinionated and sometimes bossy, but then minutes later is totally sweet and cuddly, saying something hilarious or twirling around the living room showing us her new dance - always with a smile on her face. We hope that her fourth year will bring more of the latter.

Evan is six years old and started first grade this year. He loves school and is exceeding our expectations so far. He is very motivated and determined at any and every task he takes on – he strives to be a perfectionist and he is his own harshest critic. (I wonder where he gets that???) Evan played soccer again in the spring and fall, but claims that his soccer career might be at an end. He also participated in tennis, baseball and swimming lessons. Evan is following in his big brothers footsteps and signed up for scouts this year. He is a Tiger Cub and is enjoying it very much. Evan is, as he has always been, our model child. He is so content and easy going. He loves to learn and experience life and is always eager to take on any task with his signature never-ending enthusiasm.

Spencer is in the third grade this year and is nine years old. It doesn’t seem possible that he has been in our lives for a decade. (Again – time!) He began his third year in Cub Scouts as a Bear. He enjoys the scout outings and hanging out with his scouting pals. Spencer has also continued his acting classes on Saturdays – they had a little production last spring that was very cute and he did great. He has also taken a liking to the backstage aspect of the theatre. Getting to work behind the scenes at a few of Dad’s productions has added more fuel to that fire. Spencer is a great Big Brother to his siblings. He is often a ring leader and knows how to get a laugh out of them – sometimes to a fault. Spencer always seems to have his nose in a book and amazes us on a daily basis with his curiosity and intelligence. Now if we could only get him to work on his organizational skills…

Trent is, as always, busy as he can possibly be. Most days you can find him staying after school to work on a show or any other school project that comes along, at the kids’ school for scouts with Evan or leading Spencer’s Bear den, at church working the sound board, in the woods hunting down a stubborn geocache or if he is lucky, at home entranced in his latest library book.

Jen spends her days packing backpacks, hunting down lost mittens, digging out of piles of laundry, tracking down homework, chauffeuring kids to school and activities, ridding the sink and counter of dirty dishes, dressing baby dolls and putting miniature shoes on Polly Pockets. In other words, being a mom – the best career she could ever dream of – as long as she can take a few hundred photos while doing her job!

The day to day busy-ness of life did not afford us much of a chance to travel this year. It seems like with three kids involved in various activities, there is always something that ties us to home. We spent spring break in Chicago and Madison exploring two of our favorite cities and visiting with some of our favorite people – including our new, beautiful niece Elaina. We managed to get up north to the Baldwin cottage for a couple of weekends. The kids love it so much there that we hope next summer our visits can be a bit more frequent. In August we traveled to Traverse City and spent five days touring the quaint little cities around that area. One of the highlights of Trent’s year was being able to watch his beloved Spartans from the stands at three different WINNING football games!

We hope this holiday season brings to you all the joy that your hearts can hold and then some! May God bless you in the New Year with peace, health, happiness and love!

Love – Trent, Jennifer, Spencer, Evan and Hailey


I edited those cards twice to try to get the "edges" off. I don't know what happened. The reason we had two cards was because the nice people at Shutterfly gave me fifty free cards for writing a nice post about them. Cha Ching! Having the two messed with my OCD a little, but was still totally worth it!