Happy Holidays 2010!

It's hard to believe that the holiday season is upon us once again. We hope that this finds all of you happy and well.

It has been an eventful year in our family. As many of you have heard, we moved. It wasn't necessary something that we planned on doing, but in the long run it became essential for the well-being of our family. The good news is that we have increased the amount of space for our family. We went from less that 1000 sq. feet to over 1600 sq. feet. I must say that it is amazing to not have to trip over toys in our living room constantly!

Times are rough and the job search has not been easy for me. No one seems to want someone with basically no experience in the field of medical administration other than schooling. My question is, how is a person supposed to get experience when no one will give you a chance? I do still hold my job at New Horizon Academy, but tough economic times have people not enrolling their children in centers like the one I work in because of the expense. This means that my hours are often unpredictable. Some weeks I will be there for my whole scheduled time and other weeks I am sent home after 3-4 hours of work. Definitely not enough money to help support a family with. Still, I apply for at least 10 jobs a week with not a word in response. It is easy to become frustrated, but I know that I must keep plugging away and I am trying to have faith that things will get better eventually. I just have to believe! I am also trying to hang on to the fact that going to school was a good thing and that I did not waste our money on something that is not getting me anywhere so far. Hopefully someday!

Brad continues to work at the airport for Servisair, though not for much longer. Servisair has lost their fueling contract at most of the airport, so now he will be working for a new company (Swissport) in the new year.He got a letter telling him that his position was being eliminated by Servisair, but we have been told that he will still have a job, so we are hopeful that the benefits will be good and that his pay will remain the same. All we can do is hope and pray I guess.

Sydney began her first year of school in September. She loves Kindergarten! She has made many great friends (there are only 12 children in her class and she loves them all!)She also loves her teacher, Mrs. Haugstad. She played soccer in the fall and absolutely loved that as well. I think she can hardly wait until next fall for soccer to begin again. Its fun to listen to her starting to read books and her handwriting is starting to become really great as well. She is doing well in school and we are so proud of her! She turned 6 on November 12 and she was excited because she got to have 4 celebrations, (one with all of the girls in her class, one with grammy and auntie sara, two at home, one with the Hagers and one with the Cronins.) She is very excited about Christmas and has already written her own letter to Santa!

Christopher turned 3 on April 27. He began preschool in September and absolutely LOVES his teachers Gaye Lynn, Geri, and Jill. (Gaye Lynn and Geri were Sydney's first teachers as well). In addition to preschool, he still goes to speech group 1 day a week with his speech-language pathologist, Chris. He gets to ride the bus on those days and I think that is one of his favorite times of the week! We are currently gearing up for Christopher to be reassessed to see if there are any other issues, as he is having trouble with potty training and socializing with his peers. We have a meeting on December 20 so we will find out the results on that day. We are happy to say that we are so amazed with his talking. He also loves to sing and dance for us. His most recent song has been Frosty the Snowman...see Brad's Facebook page for video footage!

Noah just turned 18 months old at the end of November. He is not saying a whole lot yet, but he does say a few things. We are keeping a close eye on this because of Christopher's problems. His latest feat involves being able to get up and down the stairs without falling! He doesn't walk down them yet, but he does crawl down them. He loves being able to be downstairs in the playroom with his big sister and brother. As you may see in the pictures, Noah is nearly as big as his older brother. Noah weighs slightly more, but is shorter than Chris. He is sleeping well and growing a great personality.

We look forward to sharing more news with you all next year. Hopefully there will be a lot of good things to say. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone! We wish the best for each and every one of you.

With love,

Stacey, Brad, Sydney, Christopher, and Noah