Happy New Year 2011

This year saw its share of ups and downs, but happily seemed to consist primarily of ups.

Norah's year started off to a bumpy year with her seizure and hospital stay in March, but she quickly recovered and proceeded to grow ever more beautiful and intelligent. She has full mastery of the alphabet, a great vocabulary, and loves to count. Through the church choir, she has become our little songbird and seems to have a never ending supply of songs.

Justin never ceases to amaze and amuse us. He is a passionate and creative story teller and continues to exhibit boundless energy. He is quickly catching up to Norah with letters and numbers and hopes to put his skills to use someday as a pirate. His attention however, is mostly focused on all things Star Wars.

Jeff's primary focus of the year was becoming fully debt free in March and has continued finding new and creative ways to save money and conserve our resources. This has truly been a family focus, but it is undoubtedly one of his passions. One of his highlights was our vacation to Yellowstone which did much to reconcile his recent lack of nature due to being locked indoors in an office everyday. Additionally he has broken out of his shell somewhat and become very involved in several projects at church, primarily focusing on helping people deal with their doubts.

Heather has been running crazy. She started out running in the Susan G. Komen half marathon to raise money for breast cancer research in memory of Aunt Paula, and concluded the year running her first full length marathon in November. She started babysitting our friend's baby during the day, which has removed the need for her to work nights and weekends at her old job and given us much needed family time. Heather's biggest accomplishment for this year has been continuation of her spiritual direction classes which has become her passion and will likely lead to a very meaningful career.

The year seemed to fly by at a dizzying speed, but we've never been happier, and eagerly await what the next year will bring.