It's a fine balance in sharing the hilarity of our daily lives with our unique children, yet respecting their privacy, but also not giving an inaccurate depiction of them (our ourselves) on a public blog such as this. Maybe we'll go private, but in the meantime I'll try and do a little CPR on this dying blog and see if we can't get it up and running once again.

Stephen is on a quest to read and/or skim every interesting book in the library of his youth.  He comes back with stacks and stacks of books and then returns several days later to do it all over again. He finds something interesting he reads and then somehow manages to simplifying/make it way more interesting than it really is for the kids and tells about what he learns as their daddy "homeschool" time right before bed.  He's still doing research for Baylor whom we love, but got permission to teach an eternal family class at the religion department at BYU.

Christian is doing his first year in public school.  It's been an adjustment, but he doesn't beg to be homeschooled everyday like he did the first month, so that's good?  No, he's really doing fine and we think it's been good for him.  That said, I miss him--even when he's home, he just seems more distant.  Maybe he'll forgive me one day?  He's as curious as ever, but history and mythology are still his favorites---especially acting them outside in the front yard with a stick. About a year ago he started to listen at church all on his own.  He's a thoughtful zealous kid. and I'm excited to see the good he does.

Simeon started kindergarten and has been doing really well.  He is making his own friends instead of just tagging along with whoever Christian is playing with and it's good to see him come into his own. Piano, chess, and anything with a toy gun seem to capture his attention these days.   He asks us to practice and will practice multiple times a day.  I say this not so much in bragging (because I have nothing to do with it though the fact that his Oma is his teacher might), but that anyone who has interacted with this boy even as late as 4 months ago would probably be a little surprised by this.  He wakes up most mornings and asks to cuddle with me while having me tell him what he was like as a baby.  It's the sweetest.

Joshua is four. I can hardly believe how tall he is getting.  He flails his arms and legs and sometimes it seems his head is pulling him one direction and his body another.  We've concluded that he is just growing so quickly it's hard for him to keep up with himself.  He continues to love drawing.  Markers are constantly losing caps and every time I'm tempted to throw it away I look at how his art has become so detailed and I can't. He loves to tell me stories and seems a little more into fantasy than our older two.

Levi: Alive.  It appears my last update he was just born.  He is now nearly 6 months and our little sweetheart.  It's hard to guess at his personality; some days he's fussy, the other days not.  He had an incredibly difficult time sucking and lost a lot of weight when he was first born.  I had to pump everything for the first four months, but he finally started nursing like a normal kid!