Milestones

It's been a month of milestones here. Noelle turned 15 which means we are now in driving mode with her (so far only in the empty church parking lot). She is going to wait to get her learner's permit because she has a lot of lines to study for in Dorothy (by the way, her performance date has been moved to February 21st.) She also has some big parts to practice for with winter guard so studying for a driving test is being put on hold. We had a family birthday party for her on her birthday (camera date must be off). Kayla made her a cake and decorated it too. It was yummy. We bought her ticktes to see "Wicked" the musical (take off from the Wizard of Oz) which Kayla, Noelle and I will see after Christmas in St. Louis.

Joel is officially finished with high school. He will walk in May, but he is done with classes. He was pretty much ready to be out of the high school scene. Everyone keeps asking me how I'm doing with this and I'm just choosing not to think about it! I really just had him the other day. Time goes way too fast. We took a "last day of school" picture to match his first day of school picture. He's grown a little! (The object in his hand is a pinata for a Spanish class project. It's a Fed Ex box.)

After MANY months of beating my head against the wall on potty training Ryan I downloaded a book for $7.00 off of the internet. It has a money back guarantee so what do I have to lose, right? Little man has just been REFUSING to learn this valuable skill and since he will be 4 soon I am pushing very hard for this. Most people start before kids are two years old, but because of his trauma before we got him he just hasn't been ready so we gave him an extra year. We started when he turned three and we're still starting. UGH! How can I successfully potty train three kids (thank goodness Angie came potty trained) and not get this one? This milestone WILL be past soon, I hope.

We want to wish all of you a very merry Christmas! With all that's going on here I have yet to get a Christmas letter out. (I know...you're all surprised!) It will come...don't worry. It just might look a little odd getting a Christmas card in the spring (just kidding!)

Until the next Grand Adventure,

Jim, Yvonne and kids