Thought I'd take a few minutes to give a kiddo update...

Emma is turning 9 in about 5 or 6 weeks...I can hardly believe it! It was this time last year that Emma began her mission of helping homeless children in Albany. We had a fun time reminiscing about her Tea Party last year and all of the goodies she helped raise for the Womens and Childrens Shelter at the Rescue Mission. Just the other day she asked me for a bag and told me that she had a lot of things that she wanted to give away and could I find some needy children to give them to... She has a friend whose family takes regular trips to Mexico (just a few hours drive) to help a small church. I think we'll save the bag of toys for their next trip. Emma is taking 2 ballet classes each week. One with the San Angelo Civic Ballet (who staged The Nutcracker) and the other class is for homeschooled girls and is taught by a 15 year old homeschooler. It's great fun for Emma to be with other girls her age who love the Lord AND ballet. She's reading everything in sight and continues to be our drama queen.

Erik had his 3rd basketball game this morning. They are 2 and 1. He's enjoying running up and down the court, is pretty good at defense and is learning the mechanics of the sport. He played flag football this fall and is registered for little league beginning 4/1. He's working on his reading in school and yesterday worked through the first chapter of a Magic Tree House book, Viking Ships at Sunrise to complement our current study of Vikings. He has a best buddy, Joel. They share a love of drawing and its so fun to see them inseparable at our coop, trading drawings that they made for eachother during the week.

Ellie, now that she's 5 is enjoying the benefits of being 5: having her own library card, taking ballet, and participating in AWANA. She attacks all 3 with her usual intensity. She's not overly interested in her own school work of reading, writing and math, but enjoys geography and history with Emma and Erik. She can sing you the Africa countries song...there's I think 55 different countries she has memorized. She can tell you all about the reign of Charlemagne and why Viking longships have flat bottoms....So I guess she's getting an education ;-)

Everson continues to bring much laughter. He refers to himself as "Football". He tried out "Soccer Ball" for a few days, but has stuck with "Football". Its really amusing. Erik is "Guy", Emma is either "Emmie" or "Balleena", and Ellie is simply Ellie. He can hike the ball, shoot a "foop", and kick a soc-cer-ball. He loves neigh neighs, neigh neigh boots, neigh neigh belts and neigh neigh hats. And ducks too. Digging in the dirt in a longsleeved shirt in January is pretty fun too.