Happy New Year to our beloved friends and family!
We are excited to share the holidays with you, and wish you all a Happy New Year. Things have been very busy for us with the kids, but as you know, we cherish every single moment we have as a family.
Benjamin just turned 5 in November, and he has been in 4K all year. He has taken the transition very well… it has been a little more change than we expected though. Confusion runs rampant in our house. We’re never quite sure if it is a regular uniform day, or a gym uniform day. Benjamin will tell us it is a “dress down” day, and we’re never quite sure if he is a reliable source of this information. Add on confusion regarding hot lunch or cold lunch, and we’re lucky he makes it out the door in time for the bus. 😉
Benjamin had a busy year- he played soccer, t-ball, football and tennis. He didn’t really have a favorite sport… although he really enjoyed the team snack after each practice. He has been taking piano lessons for a few months and is starting to enjoy it. He can play “Twinkle, twinkle little star” and can point out middle C… Other than that, getting him to sit still for 25 minutes a week is well worth the cost of lessons!
Molly turned 18 months on Benjamin’s fifth birthday. She is spirited and independent, preferring to do things “her way” instead of the way we may want her to. At this age, Benjamin was a model citizen… gladly doing whatever you asked him to do. Molly prefers to explore the boundaries of what we ask her to do… She will carefully consider whether or not she wants to listen. We can successfully get her to stop/ start doing something once we ask her the fourth or fifth time.
She is a funny little person! She loves to follow Benjamin around, and likes climbing and jumping all over things. Her favorite activities are emptying the kitchen cabinets or brushing her teeth. She will collect toothbrushes from all over the house and walk around with them for hours. Maybe she’ll be a dentist! She really should spend time brushing her teeth though… she has a major sweet tooth and is always finding candy or treats in unexpected places. She found a container of old jelly beans in Benjamin’s room (at least two years old) and demanded a sample. Big lady is funny!
Our sweet baby Alex spent his second birthday in Heaven. Like last year, we had a party in his honor and released some biodegradable dove balloons that really looked like they were floating up to Heaven. It was bittersweet as always, but we understand that life here goes on. We have two healthy, rambunctious kiddos to chase around on Earth, and for that, we are humble and thankful.
Things with our family have been good. We went to Florida (Disney World) as a family in February, and then to Mexico as a family in March. We went to Mexico again in October without the kids to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. It’s been a great year for warm weather travel!
We feel very blessed to have all of you in our lives. We wish you a very happy holiday season and a wonderful new year!
Ben, TLJ, Benjamin, Baby Alex and Molly
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I sent this letter out with our cards this year- we do have a lot to celebrate, and we are happy with how things are going. We have special holiday traditions that we include Alex in. We have a stocking for him, ornaments on the tree, and special gifts from him for the kids. It has taken some time, but I feel like we have found holiday traditions that fit our family and still honor Alex’s memory.
Happy holidays to you and yours-
mommyjonas 