Cyber Sanchez Christmas Card Extravaganza!

 

 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