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Another Year




Wow! So I knew that it had been a long time since we last posted, but I had no idea it has been this long. My apologies. Thank you, Stephanie, for nudging me to get on it! Although I always say I am going to do a better job, I really mean it this time. My goal is to get this blog updated once a week at least. This is as much for me as it is for all of you who read it. Time is marching on so quickly. The kids are growing up so fast and I can't capture it all. Since it has been so long, this entry will just be a little update.

CJ
CJ is growing like a weed. He loves school. He misses Missouri. He wants to try anything and everything. His favorites right now are practicing Math, reading books, playing cars, running, and dramatic play. He amazes me with his wit and his kind heart. CJ has developed a competitive streak that keeps him pushing himself farther in school and sports. We often have to remind him to just relax and have fun. Despite this, he is so good natured and really wants to see everyone around him succeed too. His smile is infectious and his classmates just love to be with him. He's gentle to his sister and waits patiently every morning to see her eyes open so he can say, "Good morning, pretty girl." He decided that he'll just marry Ceirnan when he grows up so they can always live together.

Ceirnan
Ceirnan has seriously grown about an inch since November. All of the pants I bought her for her birthday that were 24 months are at least an inch short. Good thing she loves leg warmers! Ceirnan is the life of the party. She never wants to sleep. She loves her babies, princesses, and fixing things with tools. She likes to play doctor and to talk and talk and talk and talk. She is a Mama's girl still. Ceirnan loves to dance. Every time someone is dancing on TV, her eyes just shine and she says (completely breathless), "I want to be a ballerina, Mama." Speaking of her talking, she has so many words. Listening to her learn language has been fascinating because she seems to learn it much like my international students do. She is constantly searching for words almost as if she is translating in her head. If she can't pull the word she wants, she'll look straight into your eyes, sigh, and say, "I can't rember (remember)." She adores her brother as much as he adores her (provided she gets to be the boss).

Casey
We are all gearing up for Casey to finish his Bachelor's degree in May. I am so extremely proud of him. Luckily, since he worked so hard up until now, he gets to take a few fun classes this semester. He is busy keeping up with school work, which includes taking millions of photos for his Intro to Photography class with his new camera (an early graduation gift). He still loves being a stay-at-home dad and always amazes me at how good he is at it. He's now looking at graduate programs and thinking about studying for the GRE.

Courtney
Me? I'm just working, teaching a class or two each semester, trying to keep myself sane and the family organized, and soaking up every once of love and wisdom I can get from these kids. I hate missing even one minute of it (even though I'm learning that sometimes a break can do you good). Honestly, I'm in a real transition point of my life and am just waiting to figure out what our next step will be. This semester I am very excited about some new curriculum I created for a first year seminar course. It focuses on cross-cultural awareness and my class is half domestic and half international students. It has been great.

I will really try to stay on top of things this semester! Here are some recent shots of the kids on our warm days.

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