I’ve admitted before that I am not great at capturing pictures. I’m trying to get better, but don’t hold your breath {I’m certainly not}. Now, couple my lack of picturing taking with needing to send said picture out to 100+ people. Yeah, not gonna happen. Don’t get me wrong, I want to send Christmas cards, and have in the past, but this year I cannot wrap my head around it. I’m using the just-had-a-baby excuse. *Please note, I will most like be using that excuse when all our babies aren’t babies anymore.*

I did manage to get all three kids into cute outfits and snap a quick iPhone photo

Joseph has fit right into our family. He’s a chill baby {thank you Jesus!} who seems to actually enjoy the ultra loud noise level in our home. He’s getting better about sleeping – typically waking up twice a night. We’re currently co-sleeping and are enjoying these fleeting days of snuggling with him. Before we know it, he’ll be much too big to cradle.

Hannah is our little fire ball. She’s feisty, talkative and knows what she wants. She is most certainly a little mamacita. You can’t tell Hannah “no” without a fight. And while it can be frustrating at times, I’m trusting that once she’s older, she will not be won over by peer pressure – she’ll not do something unless she wants to. Her new favorite is putting together puzzles. She will spend hours working on one of our floor puzzles, each time with more and more enthusiasm. And in very like-mama fashion, she is pretty smitten with all things Christmas, especially the story How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which she requests us to read almost hourly.

Julia is a genius. Seriously. I looked it up in the dictionary. She is constantly challenging us with her four year old logic, which can be pretty convincing at times. She’s writing most all of her letters now and can read some of her sight books. Recently, after much pray and consideration, we made a decision about her future schooling. We have an interview set up with a university model school next month and plan to enroll Julia for next fall. She’d only go two days a week and continue homeschooling the other three days. The school is pre-K through 12th, so as for now, this will be our schooling plan. We are certain Julia will flourish in this learning environment.

Jonathan has been hard at work as the Senior Manager of Interactive Marketing & Demand Generation for the HP Cloud Services. He made the switch to HP at the beginning of October. While it’s been quite an increase in his work load demand, it has been a really great opportunity for him. Aside from work, Jonathan just completed his first semester in the Men’s Development Program at the Austin Stone {our church}. He spent an entire semester learning about systematic theology and bonding with other men. He has really been grown and stretched during that time.

As for me, I just keep on keeping on. This fall I started BSF {Bible Study Fellowship}. While the last few weeks haven’t proven to be spiritually life changing, I see the fruit the children’s program is producing in the girls and it’s wonderful. In just a few more days, my official half marathon training starts. I had started running a couple of weeks back, but my hips reacted really poorly to it, so I decided to actually take my full 6 weeks of post-delivery recover.  I’m having to really learn what it means to slow down and allow things to slide by that aren’t priorities. That’s pretty hard for me to do – but I’m taking baby steps.

From buying our new house, to Julia starting school, Jonathan starting a new job and taking a church leader’s class, and Joseph being born, this year has been a big year for our family. I am continually amazed by God’s faithfulness at every new turn and the ways that He is growing us to be more like Christ.

To all of you, my sweet friends and family, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.