Merry Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas!

We have been enjoying all the pictures and Christmas letters from so many people.  Sorry for not sending a printed photo of our crew - hopefully an electronic one will do!  

Here is a little update from our house to yours:

Emma is in 5^th grade.  Playing violin this year and really enjoys it.  She is a READER!  Most days we just see her forehead above a book.  She is a sweet lovely little lady.

 

Norah is in 1^st grade.  Our energetic fun loving little girl.  She asked Jesus into her heart earlier this year and told the whole world about it on November 17^th.  Baptized at church in front of her Sunday school class plus lots of family & friends.  She wanted a party and we had one – in the midst of terrible storms.

Sam is 3 and all boy.  He loves all things construction equipment, swords/knights, and balls.  He is our gentle giant – most of the time.  Being three of course brings independence and a bit of naughty.  For a long time, he has said "gr" instead of 'f' in most words, so funny was grunny.  Recently, he has started to master the 'f' sound and so we are a little sad to see 'grunny' go and funny is here to stay.

Steve hit 20 years at State Farm this year.  We celebrated our 18th anniversary in November.  Marriage and family life is fantastic. Not without challenges but full of joy, fun and drawing closer to God.  I’m still at home – 11 years now.  Well, at home may not be the correct way to say it.  Sam and I seem to never be home!  

I just glanced back through old posts - what a fun trip down memory lane.  Makes me want to do a better job of writing more often. Maybe I'll consider that for 2014:)  

It certainly showed me how quickly our crew is growing up and reminded me of how faithful our awesome God is. 

We hope that you all know the hope and peace made possible by the baby in the manger, who came to save us all.  Jesus' love is certainly the greatest gift we could ever hope for and is available to all through faith in his finished work on the cross for us.  

Have a great 2014!

Merry Christmas 2012!

Impossible and yet true!  We have only posted once since returning to Illinois.  So we will finish the year with a quick picture update and plans of better blogging in 2013! 

Emma is in 4th, just turned 10, saved enough money to buy her own American Girl doll and continues to be an avid reader.  Norah is 6, in Kindergarten and is as joyful and lively as ever.  She especially loves making all of us laugh with unexpected funnies.  Sam is 2, not too terrible yet :), but starting to demonstrate his independence, especially with his sisters. Work is good for Steve and managing the daily family activities is still my full time gig.

We continue to dance in the freedom of living by faith in Jesus and his finished work on the cross on our behalf.  Our Texas adventure deepened our faith and walk with Him, we are eternally grateful. Our hope is that each of you would know the joy and peace that comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave his life for each of us.

So as you celebrate Christmas this year, may you and your family be blessed and your hearts be full of Jesus' love for you.

 

 

Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

 

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given….he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

 

First Illinois update

So we have been back in Illinois for a month and yesterday we were feeling like we were still in Texas - thanks to the HOT weather. Today feels like Illinois - I stepped into a sauna when going outside this morning, 86% humidity - what is that!?

I know it has been a looooooong time since we have updated, so here is an attempt to catch you up.
 
We are back in Bloomington.  Arrived Memorial Day weekend and having a great time catching up with everyone and meeting new neighbors/friends.  Our last day in Texas was also Norah's preschool graduation!  She will be headed to kindergarten in the fall!  We couldn't just leave Texas and simply drive to Illinois.  Nope, we drove by way of Indiana to celebrate my niece Jennifer's high school graduation.  So proud of her and congrats on being a Valedictorian!  Then it was a final quick drive to Bloomington to end our travel adventure.  4 1/2 hours is quick compared to the 13 1/2 hour drive two days before!  If you ever need a line from the Cars movie, just ask us.... we know them all since that is all that Sam wanted to watch!

Texas friends - we are missing you and pray that you are well!  Stay cool!

Here are a few pictures to get you caught up on the last 6 months (at least a little caught up!).

Can we drive the moving truck?!  

Our preschool graduate!  So proud of our big girl Norah.

 Ah, the moving truck is loaded and gone, sitting back to enjoy Norah's graduation ceremony and then drive 15 hours in 2 days with 3 children.  What an adventure!

Cool man Sam!  

 Our girls still love BATS.  Look at the joy in her eyes of being next to a REAL one!  Oh and notice - no more braces for Emma - lovely straight teeth!

Did we already mention that Sam loves cars?  Well he does, typically Car is his first word of the day followed by vroom vroom noises.  Or in the middle of the night when he wakes up and can't fall back to sleep.  Nice!

That's all for now folks, will TRY to update more again soon. 

First update of 2012

Hope you are having a great start to 2012. Ours seems pretty normal. Plenty of colds and sickness to keep us on our toes, which makes it seem as if we are constantly changing/canceling plans. The weather has been pretty amazing..... it seems like an incredibly mild start to winter here in Texas. Still plenty of days that the kiddos can get outside and burn off energy. Great for me!

So here is a bit of what we have been up to:

Finally - made it to Arkansas a couple weeks ago to visit the Kent's before someone got sick. Didn't say that no one got sick, just said we made it there before someone did! That someone was Norah in the middle of the night our last night there. So our 3rd attempt in six months finally paid off.

Too bad it wasn't warm enough to use the new pool @ the Kent's. Next time!

Gavin, Emma & Karmen

Sam (18 mos this week) is our little piano man! He loves to sit here & "play".

Steve took the girls ice skating over Christmas break. There were a few hard falls, but they had a blast!

See, told you he loves the keyboard!

As I said at the beginning, just a lot of normal going on down here right now.

Oh and one more thing, we are learning to stop marching and start dancing in our journey with Jesus. If you are curious about this - check out the January 8th message from our church - Bent Tree Bible Fellowship. http://www.benttree.org/media/sermon-video-archive

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Texas! We hope that you have a blessed time celebrating the birth of our savior!

Like everyone else, 2011 will close with many memories; many were happy, some were sad, many were life changing, and all were filtered through the loving hands of our faithful God. Steve's dad died in January - we are thankful to know that he is home with Jesus, a great summer trip to visit family and friends up north, The Bema drama at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship, lots and lots of hot summer days spent at the pool and far too many others to list.

It's been quite a while since we posted an update, so here are some pictures to catch you up.

Our crew getting a picture for the annual Christmas card.

Norah enjoying her preschool Christmas party!
Sam dunking the basketball for the first time! Daddy is very proud and excited!


Emma turns 9! She continues to love bats on her cake. Also, she blessed some other children by asking for donations for them rather than gifts for herself!

Greg came for a visit in November all the way from Virginia. He and Steve got to enjoy a Cowboys game, but the entertainment at our house was likely better (check out Norah & Sam in this pic!)

This picture is a whole lot calmer.

Sam - 16 months (proud little Illini fan - basketball that is!) He is weighing in at a solid 33 lbs! He has almost caught Norah @ 35 lbs.

Celebrated our 16th Anniversary in November. We encourage everyone to make time together a priority. I was able to pull off a surprise overnight get away for us. Love our sitter, Miss Lauren!

Halloween 2011 - Our lil pumpkin!

Halloween at our house - a cow, a pumpkin and a princess.

Seriously!

It can not be almost 2 months since I last updated. What happened to my grand plans of getting caught up once we were all back into our fall routine?! Well, I may have had greater expectations than what my reality currently is. So, instead of getting stuck in disappointment (the space between reality and expectations!). I'm just going to try to catch up on posting a few pictures of what's been going on here.

Norah gets her game face on for preschool! Oh and this face can stop Sam from crying everytime!

Sam's reaction to Norah going to preschool! Quick cross your eyes Norah!

Sam & Steve - hotel @ Tanglewood after 2nd attempt to visit the Kent's in Arkansas failed due to sick kiddos AGAIN! Seriously!!!

mid - September: Grandma Bromm, Sam & Emma - loved our visit with my mom!

Grandma & Norah

Norah turns 5! There won't be much peace & quiet at our house for a bit. Norah got a drum set for her birthday. What were we thinking?!!

Sam takes first steps! okay not in this picture, but he did this past weekend!

So there you have it, a little catching up from our camp.

Summer break over, school starts

Summer break is officially over, but the Texas weather did not get the memo. We are still "enjoying" 100+ temperatures most days.

How did we do with our summer philosophies?! Glad you asked! We can report that we did great at behaving like our home was a beach house! We now have much work to do so Sam can crawl around without being the baby version of the swiffer sweeper! We have learned more about the fruit of the Spirit and the blessings that come from trying to bless others with our efforts and actions. Going to keep on pursing this one! The beach house philosophy has to go soon though - if we could just get some cooler temps to help us with that would be great!

Emma's first day of 3rd grade

Sam "stuffed" into his swim gear!
Norah - our newest little fish - can now swim the length of the pool by herself.

We are excited to see what the new school year holds for the girls. Emma loves her teacher and is excited. Norah is beginning to get excited, but also remembers how 'boring' nap/rest time was! Sam is going to be in shock and withdrawl without his 2 biggest entertainers for 3 days a week!