Christmas Newsletter 2012

For the past few years, rather than spending precious time picking out a design for, composing, typing, and printing out a family newsletter to stuff in the envelope with our Christmas card, I've been putting something along the lines of "Merry Christmas- If you actually want to know anything about us, check the blog."

Not in those exact words, of course.  I try not to sound quite so surly on Christmas cards.

The really ironic part is that I love reading other people's newsletters.  So if you usually send one, please don't stop.  Don't be like me.


Now, for those of you that were sent here via our cards:  Welcome!  For those of you that are here on your once-a-year check of the blog:  Welcome back!  For those of you that are regulars around here:  I love you!


Curious to know just what we've been up to over the course of the past year?

How about a month-by-month blog recap?

[Just a quick note: For anyone new here who may not consider themselves to be the most tech savvy person in the world, I'm going to be providing links to previous posts about our family embedded within each month's paragraph; the links will be a different color than the rest of the text.  Simply click on any alternate-colored words to read the story.]

January

Adelaide turned six in May and absolutely loves to read; I soon learned I can no longer leave just any reading material lying around the house.  Caedmon, who turned two in September, taught me I can't take my eyes off him for two seconds at the grocery store.  We still don't have any pets at this point, but our kiddos are making do.  You may also be interested to know that because we have three little kids in the house, we spend most of the winter season battling some kind of cold or illness. (Like right now, as a matter of fact.)  I also decided to take the advice of a random parenting article and started reading from Grimm's Fairy Tales to Adelaide.  It was an interesting lesson for us both.  

February

Atticus celebrated his fourth birthday in October.  He's a hilarious and active little guy.  He also suffers from what we believe are night terrors, which means I can pretty much guarantee that on any given day Derek and I are both operating on minimal amounts of sleep.  I (that would be Kristy; I refuse to speak in the third-person for the entirety of this post) decided that 29 is the appropriate age to become a curmudgeon.  Caedmon chose the month of February to really drive home the point that Derek is his favorite person on earth.  Right around Valentine's Day is when we found that Adelaide seems to have inherited her father's perfectionism and her mother's excruciatingly slow pace.  I got to go see my sisters, who were both expecting their first babies, and it was painfully exciting.  Shortly after my visit, my youngest sister and her husband survived a tornado, even if their house didn't.  

March

March reminded me that our children are crazy.  But that's okay, because I am, too.  I also let a little bit of my inner grammar freak slip, and I've been getting good-natured crap for it ever since.  The three kids spent much of the spring reinforcing my politically incorrect gender bias.  My spring gardening reminded me how much I hate rabbits.  This was also the month my sister Kelli had my sweet little niece Charlotte.  Adelaide showed everyone that she, too, is a curmudgeon-in-training.  Atticus reminded me that there's a sharp learning curve to this whole 'raising boys' thing.

April

Derek got to go fishing in April.  I decided that Atticus is scared of all the wrong things.  I made a grievous mistake due to a lack of sleep.

May

One of our kiddos got sick.  Again.  We had another typical day in the Crisler household.  I shared my views on childhood boredom.  Adelaide turned six and said more inappropriate things.  My youngest sister Steph also had her first baby girl: Vada.  I had to wait over a month to meet her.

June

Our daughter gets emotional at times, and I had trouble dealing with it this month.  Atticus proved that he was paying attention during our summer "Fruits of Spirit" lessons.  Adelaide said the "F" word.  The kids and I had great fun completing a Father's Day questionnaire to celebrate Derek.  They were also super helpful when I went swimsuit shopping.  

July

We traveled south for Charlotte's baptism and to finally meet Vada.  Whilst traveling, I pledged my undying love for certain fast food chains.  I also battled ants and proved what an exceptional friend I am.  Japanese beetles wreaked havoc on my gardens this month- this coupled with the rabbits made me turn to Derek for some rather unconventional help.  

August

Caedmon continued to rub his preference for Daddy in my face.  We made our annual pilgrimage to the Iowa State Fair.  Adelaide finally began losing her baby teeth.  She also tried out cheerleading, and ultimately decided it's not the sport for her.  Atticus loved a very specific part of the Olympics. 

September

This month I was strangely heartened to see another mother at Aldi having trouble with her little ones.  Caedmon decided he does not like having his picture taken.  We spent a wonderful weekend at a wedding, but I had a little trouble packing for the trip.  I survived an imaginary home invasion.  I posted a ton of photos of Caedmon (just because I can), and wrote him a letter for his second birthday.  

October

We embarked on a family golf outing, which was especially appropriate given that Atticus turned four this month, and golf is one of his very favorite things.  He also inadvertently humiliated me at the store.  We went trick-or-treating for Halloween and Caedmon got creative in his greeting of strangers.

November

In November we had fun visiting our local pumpkin patch.  Our older two showed me just how much they love their daily chores.  I got strangely sentimental watching our boys play with Derek.  Atticus was indignant at the nurses' treatment of him at his yearly doctor's exam.  Adelaide informed me that her tooth fairy isn't as generous as her friends'.  We spent Thanksgiving at Derek's parents' house, where I got my baby fix.  Atticus waged war against a nightmare chicken.  Adelaide said some more stuff that was either really strange or really wise.  

December

So far this month, we've discussed the vast differences between Derek's brain and my own, Adelaide had her school Christmas concert, Derek wrote a surprise post for my 30th birthday, and I talked about how grateful I am to be 30 and healthy.




I hope you've all had a wonderful 2012- Merry Christmas!

The Year in Review

I've been meaning to send out a family newsletter along with our Christmas cards for the past several years, in part because I love reading everyone else's that we receive in our mailbox. November rolled around and I knew that a newsletter definitely wasn't happening for us this year, so instead I have decided to make an online version and post it to our blog. Perhaps not as fun as ink and paper (I'm all about being able to hold something tangible in my hands), but at least our family and friends will have the opportunity to see what we've been up to for the past year. So here goes!

Derek has had a busy year work-wise, expanding and improving Channels 12 and 84 in Ames. He seems to cram a massive amount of work into each workday, then comes home to his other job: Caring for a wife and three(!) kids. Atticus and Adelaide usually greet his daily homecoming with much shrieking and hugging, vying for his attention- even Caedmon usually has a smile for Daddy.
Derek still loves to golf (although the aforementioned children have drastically cut down on his course time), and January brought Derek's annual Florida golf trip, where he enjoyed much milder weather than we were experiencing here in Iowa. This sanity-restoring vacation combines Derek's love of golf, reuniting with old friends from ESPN, and Disney World. His obsession- I mean, passion for the Minnesota Vikings has not waned; it's been a rough year for us all.

Kristy had an eventful year, gestating and bringing forth our third addition to the family: Caedmon James (sorry about all the "bringing forth" business, but it's honestly the only wording I can think of- we've been reading alot of the Christmas Story lately, so the phrase "Mary brought forth a child" has been ricocheting around my head). She continues to read just about anything she can get her hands on, and even managed to start (and finish!) multiple cross-stitch projects this year. She is also really enjoying living in small-town Huxley, where she has found many other moms of young children just trying to keep it together. Having three children in four and a half years has proven to be challenging, but rewarding.

Adelaide danced in her first dance recital in the spring. She looked lovely in her blue costume (although she wished it were pink), and did very well remembering all the steps to her ballet dance, not a whisp of stage fright (but decided not to continue with ballet). She turned 4 in May, and in the fall began a much-anticipated program: Preschool. She loves school, so much that she continually reminds us that she can't wait until next year, when she gets to start Kindergarten, which means she'll get to go to school all day, five days a week. We hope this enthusiasm for education continues for a long time.

Atticus (aka the Destroyer) has changed so much in the past year. He started the year as a new walker, babbling nonsense sprinkled with a few legitimate words, and is now running-stomping-jumping-dancing just about any time he's awake, speaking in (somewhat intelligible) sentences, and singing his favorite songs (the ABC's, the Itsby Bitsy Spider, Jesus Loves Me). He and Adelaide get along reasonably well. They love to play together, although he is just learning what fun it is terrorize and purposely irritate his big sister. It's hard to believe he turned 2 in October.

Caedmon has probably had the biggest year of us all: he was born September 21 (just one day after his due date), at 7 lbs, 13 oz, and 22 inches long. He's changing so fast; he smiles so much now, and just recently began experimenting with laughing. He lifts his head easily during tummy time, and has begun the rocking back-and-forth motion that precedes rolling over. He nearly always has a smile for Mommy and Daddy, and loves his brother and sister (particularly Adelaide, who likes to sit close to him and talk in an extremely high-pitched voice; whereas just about all he can expect from Atticus are snotty kisses). For the most part, he seems to have outgrown his colic, for which we are all grateful.

2010 has been a full and blessed year for the Crisler family, and we have so much for which to be thankful. We hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.



We all enjoyed a visit to Adventureland last summer:  Adelaide liked the amusement park...



...and Atticus liked the waterpark.



We'll see what Caedmon thinks of Adventureland next summer.