We are now in mid-January. Last week, we survived some of the coldest temperatures that I can remember during my time living in Michigan. Some of the daily low temperatures were -15 with a windchill of -33!! To put that in perspective, think about it this way. I had to stop at the ATM on my way to a patient's house on the coldest of those mornings. When I reached my hand out of the window of my car to use the keypad on the ATM, I swear that I lost feeling in my finger tips before they ever hit the keypad. It was literally the craziest sensation ever. Miraculously, 20 minutes later I was on a ferry crossing the river between Algonac and Harsen's Island. It was very interesting to see a completely frozen over river on either side as we passed to the other side.
Caraline is scrapbooking with Kate at the moment, singing her favorite song, "Hairy Christmas". It is a Duck Dynasty song that is on their Christmas CD. She is in love with "Willy's song" as she calls it. Constantly were hear, "Hunt you down a Christmas tree. Thank God Mama's cooking is free. Round up your redneck family and watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer! Like Jesus and Santa Claus, we got love behind these beards. Wishing you a hairy Christmas and a happy, happy, happy New Year." While it is cute, it is also, well, obsessive. Kate picked her up a free DD poster yesterday at the Christian book store. It now adorns one of the walls on the basement stairs. Last night, Cara had to tell Willy goodnight....
Emma and Carter have both done very well so far in 5th and 3rd grade. They love their teachers. Emma is continuing with horseback riding. She is now taking weekly lessons. Next week, in fact, she will get to "canter" for the first time. For those of us who don't speak horse, that means the horse will essentially be jogging. She loves it and though it is a bity pricey, we are beyond happy that she has found something that is "hers" to enjoy.
Carter is continuing with Scouts. This year he is a Bear Scout. He really enjoys the meetings, but this year has proved to be a little difficult because of logistical changes in our den schedule. We now meet on Sundays once a month and our den leader really tries to accommodate us regarding the parenting schedule. He is super excited about the upcoming Pinewood derby race in April. Hopefully we will finally break the Southern Family curse of producing cars that finish dead last every race. Seriously. This is our goal. DO. NOT. FINISH. LAST.
Kate is back working with MISD again this year. She is working at 3 different schools on a part-time basis. As crazy as that sounds, she actually loves it. The part-time aspect allows her to take Caraline to a Praise and Play pre-school at Immanuel. That has been a blessing in and of itself. Watching her faith bloom has been amazing to watch.
Coleton had his 6 month checkup today. He weighs 17lbs and is 26 inches long. Percentage wise, he is in the 25th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight. His head circumference is in the 75th percentile. He is getting quite good at a few baby tricks. He can say the most important word in his early vocabulary, "da-da". He rolls to get where he wants to go. He's almost figured out how to crawl, but does more of a rocking motion at the moment. It is quite entertaining to watch. The older kids love him. He still hasn't figured out how to sleep through the night yet, but we are really hoping that he gets it together shortly. We have faith that he will.
Until next time....cheers!
