"4"

It's hard to believe, but our 'little man' is now 4 years old! For the 2nd year in a row, Elliott chose to celebrate his birthday with bowling! And once again, we shared the party with his good friend Emmerson who's birthday is just one day before Elliott's. They are in the same preschool class and her mom and I are very close friends, so this works great for us! I managed to wrangle the group of preschoolers after we got them into their super-cool bowling shoes and before we started knocking down pins! Aren't they adorable???

(back row) Emmerson, Ava & Liam (front row) Ashlyn, Cambelle, Elliott & Aphia

FOUR YEAR OLDS!

Aphia - her giggle made me smile through all the chaos!

Ashlyn - it was her 1st time bowling!

Liam - this kid was a pro. He has me lining up the ramp for the perfect shot!

Cambelle - check out that grin. We were guaranteed fun with her around!

One night after dinner, I found Delaney in her room doing this . . .

I asked what she was doing, and she explained that they were working on essays in school and she was just "writing down her thoughts." She had borrowed books from a neighbor girl and was preparing for her assignment. This struck me for some reason. She's growing up! All of her homework to this point has been reading time or math worksheets - never taking notes from sources to write a paper! I believe Delaney was just so excited to have another opportunity for writing that she couldn't wait until school to get started! I couldn't resist grabbing my camera to document this step in her education.

Recital

Jillian and Delaney took part in their very first piano recital. We were so proud of each of them as the worked to perfect their Christmas songs for this event. Delaney played "Go Tell it on the Mountain" and Jillian performed "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".