Audrey Turns 4!

This spunky girl turns 4 today! It is hard to believe that she has only been part of our family for 4 years since she was the one to complete us:)  She is a super fun, strong and smart girl who knows exactly what she wants. She loves her big brothers and is forever trying to do all of the things they can do and does an amazing job of it.  She is loving being at preschool this year.  She is a great skier, loves to read books, play games and play any pretend games with her brothers.  She has a vivid imagination and has several elaborate imaginary friends including French the Dinosaur (who has come back to life after a brief hiatus where he died) and Grandma Judy.  Chewbacca continues to be her favorite character. We love you Audrey and can't wait to see what you will accomplish this year!

Audrey was extra lucky to celebrate her actual birthday with lots of family at the start of our ski vacation in Vermont!  Thanks for hosting Doug and Sue! As always, the cake decorating skills of our kids is top notch;)

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Noah Turns 10!

Noah is officially double digits!  It is hard to believe that our parenting adventure began 10 years ago!  Noah is growing into an amazing young man.  He is such a wonderful big brother, always helpful and looking after his siblings while trying hard to set a good example.  He is thoughtful, kind and caring.  He is a hard worker and is excited about school and learning the violin.  His goal is still to attend the Naval Academy to be a pilot when he is old enough.  He loves to travel, ski, swim, play soccer and basketball, construct legos and figure out how things work. We love you, Noah and can't wait to see what this next year holds!

Winter Fun

We got outside this weekend in some beautiful weather, light fleeces only!  The snow shoeing was hard work, but we conquered Flint Woods despite having to blaze trail.

This was our first visit with Nannie since the 1 year anniversary of losing Grandpa.  She brought the kids some fantastic pillows made from his shirts.  I finally finished the Grandpa picture books I have been working on for the kids.  We gave them both to the kids this weekend.  It was a bit sad, but the kids were so excited to get both and spend some time talking about all of the pictures:)  

Noah's District Wide Orchestra Concert

This year Noah is in the 4th grade and loves playing the violin in the Academy Hill School's 4th grade orchestra.  Once a year, all students in the district who play a stringed instrument come together.  It is quite an impressive sight to see such a robust string program for a small/rural area.  All of the groups did an impressive job, especially for never having played together before.  At the end the entire group of players from 4th-12th grade joined together to play the Star Wars theme song, this was definitely the highlight for our kids:)  We are very lucky to have such talented and enthusiastic music teachers in our district! 

Noah's 10th Birthday Party!

Noah celebrated turning double digits by having a solar system birthday party with his friends.  They had a ball drop, an anti-gravity slack line, some dress-up and brownie sundaes for dessert. Noah is blessed to have such fun, kind and thoughtful friends:)  Thank you to all who came out to celebrate with us!

Sugarloafers

We bit the bullet and stayed a few nights at Sugarloaf.  Everyone is finally old enough to ski and not need to use the childcare!  Audrey and Ben skied with their friends at the ski school for two of the days while Gabe, James, Noah and I skied the "harder" trails.  We all fell at least once (some of us harder than others), but it was fun to ski fast from the top of the mountain.  Noah and James were very proud of themselves for conquering some difficult black diamond terrain (and me too!).  Ben and Audrey continue to do so well and we spent the middle day of our trip all skiing together.Audrey didn't' flinch on any of the green trails.  Ben can do any blue trails, but prefers to stick with the safer green trails still;)  

We did take some down time to enjoy the hot tub, hang out at the condo and do some rock climbing. All of the kids did so well for their first rock climbing experience.  Everyone made it to the top and Noah even challenged himself to work around the outcropping.  

It should be noted, for memory sake, James had a GI illness that made the trip a bit more exhausting than it should have been, but he kept moving forward like a trooper;) It was an awesome and much needed winter get-a-way!