Thursday, January 2, 2014

2013 year in reveiw

lucas
on October 30, we welcomed lucas kay to our family.  he was a strapping boy (8' 15 oz. and 21 ½ inches long) and so far, he has been a pretty great dude.  the kids love to hold him and the girls have been great helpers to mom.  beau also loves baby ‘lou,’ but we have to watch him pretty carefully.  just to give you an idea of how carefully… beau has stuffed blankets tightly around lucas’ head, climbed on top of him several times, squeezed his hands until there are tears, hit him very hard with metal salad tongs, and whacked him with a wooden block on the forehead.  yes, some of those left mark but as justin’s grandpa would say “that was just a love tap!” even though we do try to keep lucas out of beau’s way…I mean harm’s way, we are pretty confident that they will grow up to be best buddies.

beau
in addition to ‘toughening up’ his new baby brother, beau is a little fire ball.  he has tons of energy and is pretty much running non-stop.  he will be 2 in january and has loved being able to run around and play with his big sisters at our new house. he has inherited his dads curly locks and is quite a cute kid. he loves sports, throwing stuff, “picks” (pickles), and dancing!

eva
eva’s daily routine usually includes going through about 53 different outfits, playing with her best friend marshall, and playing polly pockets and ponies. she plays well with her siblings and really has a great sense of imagination. she is also our little rabbit, always munching on food from the fridge.  but we don’t mind because her favorite foods are cucumbers, mushrooms, carrots, cheese and many other healthy foods.  she loves playing with maggie after school and one of her highlights of the year was learning to swim and ride a bike. she also loves to make people laugh and loves to tell jokes. (q: why can't a bicycle stand up by itself? a: because it's two-tired!)

maggie


2nd grade has been great for maggie.  she continues to get along well with others and has gained a love and talent for crafts and art (as shown by this card she drew).  at her school they do three week ‘passions projects’ where the students get to choose a “passion”. some of maggie’s favorites have been friendship bracelet making, art exploration, and paracord bracelets. she loves to make little crafts and is very creative.  she also has caught the reading bug.  she has been listening to the audiobook version of harry potter, and is on number 5.  she filled her backpack to the brim with books she wants to read during the winter break after she got off of school last week. she also played soccer on a team for the first time and really liked it. she is a terrific big sister, helps out her mom and is an all around good kid.

megan
while still adjusting to being a mother of four, megan is a tremendous mother. she had a rough labor and delivery with lucas, but has been recovering nicely. we received so much support from everyone and really appreciate it. megan continues to serve as a counselor in the relief society in our ward and does an awesome job.  they have had some great activities and are always trying to run around and meet new people, help out, or just coordinate teaching lessons each sunday.  every summer megan cans and bottles lots of wonderful fruits and veggies for us and is pretty much known as the best bread baker around. she also loves to play basketball with friends and has become quite a dominant player.  no matter how you look at it, she is an amazing woman who does so much for our family.

justin
justin continues to progress and work towards completing his schooling. this upcoming semester, he will begin work on putting together a dissertation proposal and the goal is to be searching for jobs for next year.  he continues to work in the school of education in the office of instructional consulting and really enjoys getting to work with faculty members on a variety of interesting projects.  justin is also currently serving as the sunday school president and loves being able to watch and observe the way people teach and learn in the church. he tries to balance work, school, and home life, but definitely likes to spend as much time as possible with his amazing family camping, swimming, playing outside, or just being together.
we hope that you have all had an amazing 2013 and we are very excited for what 2014 will bring.  our kids are growing up too fast,  but we love our life in indiana.  we wish we were closer to family and friends but we are so proud of our family members that are doing such amazing things throughout the world.

much love from the whitings in 2014!

No comments: