Greetings family and friends! Here is our annual end-of-the-year rundown.
Craig “Daddy” (41) – He continues to sing with the Parkview Praise Team and Choir and lead WAK (Worship Arts for Kids - Children’s Choir). He got in some more tennis “lessons” with the kids, coached Luke in basketball, Levi in baseball, and Luke & Cameron in flag football. He enjoyed taking the older kids to many sporting events, and taking the girls to the annual Father-Daughter Sweetheart dance. He and PawPaw Rick again played softball for Parkview. Craig also continues his Instrument and Control Systems Engineering work at Jacobs Engineering, where he worked on 3 new projects this year.
Candi “Mommy” (38) – 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. She is expecting our 8th child due in January 2014.
 | Luke “Grasshopper” (10½) – He is in 6th grade and continues to excel in math doing Pre-Algebra this year. He continues to love all sports and played basketball, kids-pitch baseball, and football again this year. He continued his piano lessons but took a break from guitar for the fall semester. He participated in the Louisiana Baptist Honor Choir in Pineville in the spring, music camps during the summer, and passed the State Bible Drill again in May. |
 | Cameron “C-Bob” (9) – He is in 4th 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 flag football. He continued piano lessons and started guitar lessons in the fall. He also sang his first solos this summer during summer music camps. |
 | Miriam “Axl” (7½) – She is in 2nd grade and does really well with all her subjects. She continued her piano lessons, started gymnastics through a homeschool class, and participated in summer music camps. She really enjoys spending time with PawPaw & ZeeZee, and going to early church with Daddy. |
 | Levi “Chicken Man” (6½) – He is in 1st grade and catches on to everything easily. He played coaches-pitch baseball and flag football, and will play basketball for the first time starting in January, with Daddy coaching. He also began piano lessons, participated in summer music camps, and moved up to the big kids choir at church. |
 | Micah “Slash” (5½) – She is in Kindergarten and doing considerably well, except for handwriting. She tried t-ball in the spring, but it wasn’t really her thing. She participated in summer music camps for the first time. She is taking a homeschool gymnastics class, but doesn’t seem to enjoy it as much as Miriam. |
 | Cole “The Cole Train” (3) – He is doing some PreK3 workbooks and does hands-on play while we do school work. He wants to be a “big boy” by picking out his own clothes and often picks his “Mettenberger” or “Naked-burger” jersey. |
 | Melody “TBD” (1½) – Melody celebrated her 1st birthday in February with Miriam with a music themed party. She loves music, dancing, demonstrating football penalties, and has already started babbling some words. |
This year we would like to express how blessed we are to have so many beautiful and educational places in the gulf coast for our kids and a large homeschool group to tour for fieldtrips, all of them very reasonably priced or free of charge. Thank you to Amy Shelby for putting everything together for us and all these wonderful families. These were the 2013 fieldtrips:
- Jan - West Baton Rouge Museum
- Feb - Highland Road BREC Park Astronomical Observatory
- Mar - Bluebonnet Swamp
- Apr - Landry-Poche Strawberry Farm, DPW Traffic Engineering, Crawfish Farm (4 families)
- May - Louisiana Regional Airport
- Jun - Baton Rouge Police K-9 Division & Motorcycle Division
- Jul - Barn Hill Preserve, Houston Museum of Natural Science (our family & extended family)
- Aug - Livingston Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)
- Sep - NASA Infinity Science Center & Stennis Space Center
- Oct - Port Hudson Living History Day, Baton Rouge Symphony Discovery Concert
- Nov - Bayou Cajun Homeschoolers 6th Annual Thanksgiving Celebration
- Dec - Audubon State Historic Site Colonial Christmas
Finally, we mourn the loss and celebrate the life of Candi’s Uncle Brian, but we know he is in God’s permanent presence.
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
