Hello friends and family! We are ditching the traditional
Christmas card this year in favor of a straight-to-your-screen,
don’t-have-to-walk-to-the-mailbox cyberspace version. I’m hoping to get back to
the traditional paper letters in the next year or two, but for now I’d love to
bring everyone up to speed on life in the Sanchez household this way. In the
interests of ‘keeping it real,’ I may overshare. My apologies. : )
Judah Bear will turn three in March and is such a fun little
man! He is still kind of small for his age but I am convinced this kid is made
of solid cement. He is so strong and so tough and his love for his sisters is
beyond adorable. Judah is also a total cheeseball! He has this great big smile
(just like Adaleine!) that he flashes to just about anyone he sees. He started
swim lessons a couple of months ago and told his teacher in his very first
class that he wanted to do it all by himself. I have no idea where he gets this
stubbornness ; )
*Reality Check* This freaking kid will not sleep in his own
bed through the night. I will accept a good portion of the blame because when
he was a baby it was so much easier just to let him in bed with me than trying
to calm and quiet him. But seriously, dude. Sleep in your own bed!
Adaleine Grace just turned five in November and requested we
celebrate with a Fancy Nancy birthday party. She is in her second year of
preschool and loves getting to go to school three days a week. She is mommy’s
little helper at home; she loves folding laundry and helping with lunch. She
also loves riding her bike and playing outside with her brother and sister. Ada
started Awana (kid’s church group) this year and is getting lots of patches to
put on her vest for memorizing Bible verses. Adaleine and Eden both started
swim lessons in March of this year and are both doing swimmingly! I’m sorry. I
had to.
*Reality Check* I would argue that Sissy is one of the
sweetest little kids that has ever walked the earth. She is beautiful and a
true blessing. I have two small suggestions to this little ray of sunshine:
L-I-S-T-E-N to what I am saying to you or I’m going to lose my ever-loving
mind, and please for the love of all that is good in this world try to put your
shoes on the right feet!
Miss Eden turned six in June and is in first grade (gulp!).
We had a rough patch last year when she didn’t like school for a bit, but once
she got the hang of reading all of that disappeared. She is now one of the top
readers in her grade and even enjoys math! (She must not be my daughter.) Eden
loves learning new things and is really interested in animals right now. This
is her first year of Awana too and she is having so much fun with the games and
memorization, along with making new friends in her group. She lost her first
loose tooth and is turning into a young lady before our very eyes.
*Reality Check* At the ripe age of 6 1/2, Miss Eden truly
has the whole shoes-on-the-right-feet thing down pat. Here’s my big struggle
with Eden: breakfast. The kid doesn’t like cereal. Doesn’t like cereal bars.
Doesn’t like anything that’s fast or that she could make herself. And she’s a
morning person. She is so not my daughter.
As for me (Brittany), I am still keeping busy as a
stay-at-home momma. Between running around for the kiddos, packing school
lunches, and helping with our Mom’s Small Group at church I’m pretty spent! We
also moved yet again this year when our landlords decided to list the house we
were renting for sale. This was our third or fourth big move in just over two
years—depending on how you count them—and to say it was a hard move for me is a
gross understatement. But God continues to provide and we are in a really great
house in a nice neighborhood that is so close to the girls’ school. We have
been very blessed!
*Reality Check* There are days when I feel like I’ve got
this whole ‘mom-ing’ thing totally down, but for the most part it’s mostly me
spending my days navigating laundry, feeding the kids again and wondering how
all the fruit snacks wind up in the sofa cushions. Confession: I hate putting
away laundry. With a passion. Consequently, there are currently three baskets
of folded laundry in my bedroom waiting to be put away. Sigh.
Landon continues on as a locomotive engineer for BNSF
Railroad. His job takes him away from home a lot and his schedule is wildly
unpredictable, but that just makes the times that we’re all home together even
more special. He participated in the Spartan Run in October with a close friend
and really enjoyed it. The kids and I all had fun watching him climb across
monkey bars, crawl under barbed wire through mud pits, and throw a javelin.
*Reality Check* Landon broke one of my brooms to make his
practice javelin, which I’m totally over. Whatever. Also, he is now the
reluctant proud owner of a ‘honey do’ list, which I’m confident will be nothing
but helpful in our ongoing quest for world domination organization and peace
throughout our home.
Thanks for sticking with me through our family report! We
hope you are all having a safe and happy Christmas season and pray for a
blessed new year!
With love,
Landon, Brittany, Eden, Adaleine & Judah
