Merry Christmas from the Lindsays!

Greetings family and friends! Here is our annual end-of-the-year rundown.

Craig “Daddy” (40) – He continues to sing with the Parkview Praise Team and Choir and lead WAK (Worship Arts for Kids - Children’s Choir). He planted his 2nd vegetable garden this spring, at the right time this go-around. He got in some more tennis “lessons” with the kids, and coached Cameron in basketball, Luke and Cameron in baseball, and Luke in flag football. He and PawPaw Rick played softball again for Parkview, where they both helped lead the team. Craig continues his instrument engineering work at Jacobs Engineering, where he had the opportunity to be a lead engineer for the first time, on 3 projects.

Candi “Mommy” (37) – She is busy homeschooling the kids and continues to blog about homeschool and family activities. She also teaches Bible drill at church and assists Craig with WAK. She assists her friend Amy with fieldtrips in their homeschool group Bayou Cajun Homeschoolers.

	Luke “Grasshopper” (9½) – He is in 5th grade and excels in math. He continues to love all sports and played basketball, baseball and football again this year. This year he began music lessons for both piano and guitar and participated in music camps during the summer. He also participated in Spring Bible Drill where he passed the State Drill in May.
	Cameron “C-Bob” (8) – He is in 3rd grade and just usually tries to finish his school work as quickly as possible. He now enjoys sports almost as much as Luke and played basketball, baseball, and football as well. He started piano lessons too and had his 1st speaking part in a musical during Art is In Camp this summer.
	Miriam “Axl” (6½) – She is in 1st grade and is reading really well. Miriam started speech therapy in the summer and has improved her “r” sounds greatly. She has started piano lessons as well, and got to move up to the “big kids” Children’s Choir at Parkview. Over Thanksgiving, she took a “dadventure” to Arkansas with Daddy. She also enjoyed sleep-overs at ZeeZee’s.
	Levi “Chicken-Man” (5½) – He is in Kindergarten and is currently breezing through everything. He will begin learning to read at the first of the year. Levi played t-ball (with the coach pitching to him sometimes) and flag football. He’s starting to grow up and actually play with the older boys when they’re out playing sports in the backyard.
	Micah “Slash” (4½) – She is in Preschool doing more structured work, but it doesn’t seem to fit with her learning style so we might have to try something else. She’s working on learning to write her name right now. She definitely has the letter “M” down. She finally got to be a cheerleader this year for flag football and it definitely fits her personality.
	Cole “The Cole Train” (2) – He is in what we call “Totschool” touching on letters, numbers, colors and shapes using crafts. He loves to be in the kitchen with the older kids while they are doing their work and he wants to be right there doing stuff too. When he is finished with his work, he proudly holds it up and shows Luke. He loves little cars and trains right now, and drives them all over the house and parks them on the furniture.
	Melody “TBD” (10 months) – Melody Pearl was born on February 23, 2012 (Miriam’s 6th birthday) weighing 8 lbs, 6 oz and was 20 ¼ inches long. She is currently crawling and trying to pull up on stuff. She loves to be around her siblings who keep her laughing and entertained.

Here are some highlights of family activities this past year – Miriam and Micah with Daddy at the Annual Father/Daughter Dance (Jan), Levi & Cole moving across the house to their new room (June), Swimming at our wonderful neighbors the Putnam’s, Living through Hurricane Isaac (Aug), Craig giving Luke and Cameron their first standardized tests (Jun, Jul)

Trips - Monroe (Feb, June, Nov, Dec), Dermott, AR (Feb, June, Dec), Houston (Aug), Gulf Shores with the Stanford’s and other Lindsay’s (Sep), Auburn (Sep), Clinton, MS (June, Oct), LSU at Arkansas (Nov)

We mourn the loss and celebrate the lives of Craig’s Uncle Leo Pitchford (1/25), our Pastor’s son Samuel Wimberly (2/25), and Candi’s MawMaw Colleen Stanford (7/16), but we are comforted by knowing they are all in God’s permanent presence.

Although we have experienced heartache with the death of Samuel and the paralyzing injury to our great friend Rob Shelby, we’ve learned from these experiences two very important things: Always cherish the time with your children, because you don’t know how long you’ll have them, and, glorify God no matter what circumstance He puts you in.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year, and please do not forget the reason for it in all the busyness. “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Colossians 3:17