Merry Christmas! As you can see, once again mom has taken the easy way out. Or I can disguise it as trying to be “green” and save a few trees by doing our Christmas cards electronically this year. Believe what you will.
So, our biggest news of 
the year…another baby! Patrick Benjamin was born March 29, 2010. He is a happy and healthy baby boy who loves keeping up with the family tradition of early mobility and is almost walking on his own now. Although he recently learned to sleep through the night, so we’re VERY happy with that accomplishment. The picture on the left is of Patrick and Great Grandma Appleby on her birthday. Note the birthday crown on Grandma’s head made by the older kids.
Molly, 4, began her first year of preschool this fall and she totally loves it. Love love loves it. We’ve never seen a little girl who is so strong she can beat up her 9 year old brother but so cute and little she melts your heart. She’s learning fast and enjoys playing outside in the dirt and inside with her dolls. We’re still not sure where she gets her energy but we sure wish we could bottle it! She still likes to dress up as a ballerina too. Not sure how she keeps so warm when our house is 65 degree and she’s running around in a leotard.
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At the left you can see our Dominic ready to bite into another apple (yes, he ate lots of apples off our tree.) Yes, he’s already 2 years old! It’s hard to believe our #5 is now in the *terrific* twos! He’s now talking up a storm and growing like a weed. One of his favorite things is John Deere. Every tractor is called a John Deere. Thomas trains come in a close second. He has a fondness for tractors, trains, and books. Needless to say he is the easiest kid to buy presents for.
Marie, 7, started 1st grade this year. She is doing great at school and loves every minute of it. She is still in the business of collecting hippos and is now trying to learn to sew like mom. She’s especially into American Girl dolls and reading. Honestly, I think she’s into just about anything and everything any 7 year old girl could be interested in at that age!
Calvin, 5, began kindergarten this year. He is doing so well with his work and loves every minute of school. He just started reading and is taking off and he’s so proud of himself (and we are too of course!) His current interests are Legos, Legos, and more Legos. Oh, and he likes anything to do with knights and castles too. Early this year we went down to Carbondale to a medieval play castle made just for kids. Calvin loved it. You can usually catch him dressed up in his knight costume running around the house looking for dragons or trying to get one of his sisters thrown into the dungeon.
Last but not least, Noah. He just turned 9 in October and continues to impress us with his eagerness to learn and how fun he can be. The school change was a challenge socially for him at first, but now he has settled in and gets along with all his classmates and is excelling in all his classes. He’s so good with the younger kids and always taking care of the babies and playing with them. Now that Noah and Calvin have their own room complete with a Lego extravaganza, we sometimes don’t see him for 2 or 3 hours because he is usually building some fun contraption that he invented. He is really enjoying 3rd grade and being the entertainer for his class.
Nate is still working at the College of Education at the Univ. of IL and liking it. He has a few side jobs he takes on for fun and recently turned out thelistmaker.com so we can keep up with the gift lists for our family across the globe. Sharon is at home with the brood keeping up with laundry, meals and potty training. We’re both loving having a large family and feel very blessed God entrusted us with 6 beautiful, healthy children.
We hope you have a happy, healthy 2011 and drop us a line or stop in to say hi!
Nate & Sharon
Noah, Marie, Calvin, Molly, Dominic & Patrick
