Family Christmas Letter 2012

I have never really typed up a family letter before. This year I got one put together, but I know myself well enough to know I may not get it in the mail. So I am sharing it here with the few who still check in to my blog. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Dear Friends & Family,

    With another year gone sooner than we expected, we thought we would draft a Christmas letter and try to get it sent out before Valentine’s Day. There have been a lot of changes this year that we wanted to share with you.

    Matt has set a family record by both graduating from high school and attending college. We really miss him, especially when it is time to split wood, but we are incredibly proud of him.

    Chet is still ignoring his diagnosis, and is rebelling against the list of “don’ts” by keeping busy in band, chess club, and texting his lovely girlfriend. If you text Jennifer and get a funky reply, you should know it is Chet on the other end. If you don’t get a reply at all, it is because Chet is on the other end.

    For some reason, the National Guard and Marines are actively recruiting Faith. We aren’t sure if it is her
propensity to sing everywhere she goes or her insane ability to peel potatoes that makes her such an attractive prospective recruit for them.

    Kyle is playing football, baseball, and basketball. He has also discovered a passion for hunting. We never
expected to have a fully-armed child, but it is what it is. We encourage him in all his activites, as long as he doesn’t shoot his teammates or tackle a deer.

    Todd spends the majority of his free time reading, and uses his brilliant mind to come up with zingers. Most recently he quipped, “Mom, you stuck?” when he walked in and found Jennifer stretching. He wants you to know that you should keep the Christmas card he signed so you won’t have to track him down for an autograph when he is famous.

    Beth is still wildly obsessed with frogs. This works out great for us in the spring and summer, when she can catch all the pet frogs she wants and we don’t have to feed them.

    Speaking of feeding the animals, all of the kids are growing very tall and have bigger feet than their mother. At last she can seek revenge by borrowing their shoes and then “forgetting” them in her room, the car, or a friend’s house.

    Jennifer started a full time job at a boys’ ranch a few months ago. With this new schedule, we tend to have a lot of Hamburger Helper or PBJ sandwiches for dinner. We have both on feast nights.

    Jack is following in his dad’s footsteps, which means his hair has turned almost all white. We plan to dress
him up as a grinchy Santa Claus sometime in a future Christmas season and rent him out to the malls to earn some extra cash.

    It has been another great year where we can thankfully say that disease, fire, and pestulance haven’t done us in. We still combat the stress with as much laughter as possible, blanket everything in prayer, and trust that God has us in His hands and is our great provider. We love you and miss you all, and hope and pray that the new year brings you all peace and prosperity.

With much love and a touch of insanity,

The Wellborn Family
December 2011 (or January 2012, depending on when we get this mailed.)

I am a pitiful blogger

It is sad that all of this last year's posts fit on the front page of my blog. I miss blogging, though.

I have managed to squeeze some time in to scrap in the last couple of months. I figured if I shared some of those, I might get a few things covered at once.

Basically, my kids are growing. (Faster everyday.)

Chet is still being seen regularly and staying pretty stable.

We had a fun, busy summer!

I still get a kick out of letting the kids and grandkids do silly things.

School has been going well, and I don't have pictures up yet, but we got Matt off to college where he is thriving!

Did I mention my kids are growing up too fast?

We have had a great year with family visiting.

And even though there are always struggles to deal with, we still spend as much time laughing and enjoying life as we can.

So how have you all been?

Portraiture

Beth has been working on her art skills. Her siblings have been her unwitting models.

I love how she showed her series of practice portraits on Faith's drawing. Faith has been asking me to let her dye her hair. I think this shade of blue looks stunning on her. 

Beth really captured Todd's personality in the expression on his face in this one. I don't think she missed a single freckle! He does have two ears in real life, though. I know - I counted them when he was born!

Apparently Beth only sees Kyle in black and white. And he doesn't even get a name banner or hearts on his page. At least she still sees him as human, though....

because she apparently thinks Todd is a little bit "squirrely."

There are some things you hear all the time when you have a houseful of kids. One of the top ten has to be, "I would go insane with all those kids around!" Naaahhh... I don't have time to be insane, but more importantly, I like these strange little people. I like picking a new "favorite" everyday. I like experiencing all their different personalities and quirks, and I like to laugh. The simple truth is that no matter how busy, how stressful, or how downright worrisome life can be sometimes, these guys keep me laughing with all their antics. All. The. Time.

I have to laugh when Beth just has to kiss the first frog she has caught this season.  I won't let her kiss me until she has sterilized her face, but I will laugh! (Nope, this one wasn't a prince either.)

I have to laugh when Ariel thinks seeing Beth kiss that frog is the funniest thing she has seen in a while. (I am so used to Beth's froggy antics that I forget what it can be like for someone new to witness the obsession first hand.)

I have to laugh when my little boys decide to play "World War Z"... and then arm themselves with pillows, hunting caps, skate helmets, baseball helmets, hoodies, blanket capes, nerf guns, and paper guns to go save the world. Apparently with all that protection, Todd doesn't need shoes. Shoes are for wimps!

I have to laugh when Faith falls asleep in the middle of solving a puzzle, but won't let go of the pen as I unsuccessfully try to take it out of her hand without waking her. Her sleeping death grip is amazing.

I have to laugh while Chet is so engrossed in reading a book that he doesn't hear an entire baseball audience hollering, "Chet!!!! Head's Up!!!!" This was funny until the ball landed four feet away from him. Jack sent him to the truck to read. Chet jokingly wondered why he was being 86'ed from a game. That is what happens when you give your dad a heart attack when he sees a ball flying pretty much straight to your lost-in-your-book head!

Jack and I both started laughing when we pulled up to pick Faith up from track practice, and saw her grinning at us around a bag of ice pressed to her cheek. Instead of going over the hurdle she went through it, and then proceeded to drag the hurdle another 25 feet face first in the dirt. It doesn't sound like it should be funny, but her remarks were hilarious.She is so proud that she didn't cry, and is mostly disappointed that it didn't turn into a brilliant black and blue eye. Yep, if you're not going to cry about it, it is best to laugh it off!

And I have to laugh when I am driving down the road, and hear Todd and Kyle joking around in the back seat, causing Todd to laugh so hard he starts crying, which makes Kyle laugh more, which makes Todd laugh and cry harder, which makes Kyle start snorting, which makes Todd laugh so hard he loses his breath. I don't even know what they were joking about. It must have been pretty funny, though.

They say with kids there is never a dull moment.

I beg to differ. In my life, there is never a dull nano-second. I never know what they will say, do, or come up with next.

And I like it that way.

First Family Photos

There are lots of firsts in marriage and parenthood, and sometimes you just never know how long certain firsts will take to happen. We had a phenomenal first for our family last month. Jocelyn, her hubby Brian, and their girls came out to see us. For the first time ever we had all 8 kids and all 3 grandkids together at the same time. It was frrrreeeezing cold outside, but I wasn't putting off taking photos of us all together another minute. Carpe diem.

I gave Brian a crash course in using my camera, and he took this one of the thirteen of us. I'm still not sure if the little bit of camera shake is just because he was cold or if my little pep talk included the phrase "Don't be nervous, but you better not cut anybody's head off!"

I was giddy as I took this one. I have waited so long to take this picture! Would it be a bit over the top if I turned it into an entire wall mural instead of just framing it?

The weather didn't allow for much time to play around with positioning, but Jocelyn and Brian have decided to stay a while. So as soon as it truly warms up we are going to find a lovely day to take pictures of us all again, and do some different groupings. That should eliminate the shivering and give us a chance to maybe get everyone to look at the camera at once. Chet... are you paying attention??

I remembered to take one of all the daughters and granddaughters.

And this one of the daughters. (Aren't they gorgeous?)

Then I snapped one of the sons, son-in-law, and giggly little grandson.

And one of this group of particularly handsome sons. Todd was trying to smile big enough the first time to not have to sit there for another shot.

I even got this momma and her baby,

and this pretty family...

and some couple shots of Jocelyn and Brian.

I must have had brainfreeze, though, because there should be a picture here of the 3 adorable grandkids together.... and I forgot to take it. The incoming snow clouds must have distracted me.

Then I handed Jessica the camera, and she took this one. Gads, I love this man!

So how is life, you ask? Well... it is busier than ever. It is noisy, and a little crowded, and a big change for everyone. But you know what.... I love being surrounded by talls, smalls, grands, and growns. Sure, a few more grey hairs are beginning to take hold, but I found the cure for that.

Clairol and highlights.

Life is full. Life is a wee bit hectic. And life is good.

The Coolest Blog

I am such a history nerd.

It is a deep-seated, ingrained nerdiness, and while I enjoy reading novels and biographies of nearly any era, I find the medieval Dark Ages to be near and dear to my nerdy heart. (I still hold out hope that someday there will be a Dark Ages Trivial Pursuit game.)

A few months ago I purchased a Kindle, and have been regularly downloading free books when they are available. One of my recent favorites was The Traitor's Wife by Susan Higginbothom. After I read the novel, I went back to Amazon to see what other titles she has so I can add them to my "have to read" someday list. That is when I discovered Susan's blog. It is chock-full of historical tidbits and links to other medieval treats. I cannot wait to read through it all.

I am experiencing a variety of technical difficulties lately that have seriously imposed on my online time, and it has hampered my ability to get photos edited and posted. That is all changing this week, though, and then I will be back to posting, browsing and feeding my inner nerd by adding this blog to my list of regular reads.

I can't wait. I'm sure all my fellow Plantagenet groupies out there can understand!

On My Mind ... Part 1

I was baking cookies with Ariel and Beth the other night. Baking cookies with a 5 and 7 year old takes a lot longer than doing it alone takes.

 

I could have the ingredients measured out in no time, but I have to be patient and let them learn to scoop and level the flour. They need to learn the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon. They need to make sure they aren't adding 3/4 cup of salt instead of sugar, and ruining the entire process.

I don't need to read the instructions to know that the butter and sugars need to be creamed together first before adding eggs and dry ingredients. If I am baking with helpers, though, we need to go through the step-by-step process so they don't end up with butter chunks and flour lumps.

When I am baking solo, the cookie dough is scooped out on the trays quickly, minimizing the chances of it getting too soft to effectively scoop. Little hands take longer to figure out the mechanics of the scooper and where to place the scoops on the tray. By the time we reached the bottom of the bowl, our dough was getting pretty mushy in the warm kitchen.

 
I know it is going to take some time to see the final results when we bake cookies. These two hovered near the oven repeating various versions of "Aren't they done yet?"

I could bake the cookies on my own, but they get so much joy from being part of the process and seeing their efforts produce tangible results. Allowing them to help me brings reciprocal rewards. They love learning something new; I love watching them learn. It is a great bonding time.

It occurred to me that being a willing servant of God works much in the same way.

We have an all-powerful, all-seeing, and all-knowing Heavenly Father. He doesn't need us  to feed the hungry, comfort His children, heal the sick or anything else. He knows exactly what needs to be done. He knows exactly how to do it. He can do it better and faster than we ever possibly could.

He already knows the outcome that will come from simple acts of service, and He knows how far that can spread, but in our impatience we don't wait to see what will happen. Worse, we tend to think we don't have enough training/experience/patience/(insert any other excuse here) to go through the learning process of how to serve others, and therefore find another way to be closer to God.

He doesn't need us to serve others. And yet.... He stands there with us, guides us through the process, and He lets us do it.

Jesus said the two great commandments are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and  to love your neighbor as yourself. To be a willing servant is to obey the two great commandments.

But I can't help but feel that allowing us to be a servant in His stead is more than a commandment.

It is a gift.

A wonderful, far-reaching, and if I know my Heavenly Father, reciprocal gift.