Wednesday, December 30, 2009
A Window into Cade's Soul
I am on an organizing rampage and since he is sleeping, I thought I would organize the eldest child's shelves in playroom, which he is EXTREMELY possessive of. Contents of said shelf include: 2 alarm clocks, 6 old cell phones and chargers, a roll up drum set, a globe, his camera, his dice collection, a plug-in flashlight, an electronic coin jar, a 3-drawer box of tapes from the 80's, 2 CD wallets filled with CD's, a card shuffler, a headset, his wallet filled with fake credit cards, a toy laptop, a Lightning McQueen CD player, a tape player with a microphone to sing along, a Halloween tree that plays "The Adams Family", and his latest prized Christmas acquisition: a record player and some of my dad's old records from the 70's. Strange, strange child, that one.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
2009 Christmas Letter
We post this letter on Christmas Eve with many apologies that the Christmas cards that typically accompany it will undoubtedly be late since we just put them in the mailbox a few minutes ago. We traveled for a week at Thanksgiving, again the first weekend in December, and left to spend Christmas in Salt Lake on December 19th. It was a whirlwind holiday season this year, and our Christmas cards were unfortunately one of the casualties. You can thank us later for extending the joy of your holiday season by delivering the cards a week late. Merry Christmas to all!
Dear Friends and Family,
Our 2009 letter picks up where last year's left off. We are pleased to report that we did achieve our 2009 New Year's resolution NOT to have another baby this year. While little Joshie has been the light of our lives, the arrival of the third boy in less than five years has made our hearts and our hands feel very full and possible cured Cara's baby fever forever. Life has been so busy, in fact, that you will find this blog sorely neglected. With time of the essence we are communicating "boy stories" via Facebook (with great frequency) and Twitter (not so frequently) - you can find us there.
Beyond "busy", 2009 can best be described as a year of transition for the Fox Family. Our biggest boy started kindergarten this fall, which has been a total family experience. Never what you would call early risers, we've had to adjust from a 9 am school start time at a school across the street from our house to an 8 am start time at a school 20 minutes away. It would be fair to say that Cade can frequently be found squeaking into school at 7:59. Scheduling aside, he absolutely adores his new school and frequently comes home with tidbits of information on obscure topics such as Kandinsky and hoodoos, in addition to ABC's and 123's. Much to Aaron's relief, Cade recently started reading, because God forbid we have an illiterate first-grader on our hands. Everyone has been very happy with Cade's school.
Drew has also seen changes this year as he struggled to adapt to the daytime loss of his best playmate, Cade. Fortunately, he has a little buddy at school that even surpasses Cade in playmate compatibility, so the two can frequently be found at each other's houses after Drew gets out of Pre-K at noon. Spurred by participation in Cade's homework and his naturally competitive nature, Drew is also reading. It has been a very cool thing to watch the two boys take "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" reading responsibilities off our hands.
Josh has had a huge year, tackling crawling, walking, teething and talking. He attends Parents Morning Out one morning a week, which he loves. He spends the rest of his time alternately being babied by mom and doing his best to be a 5-year old in a 1-year old body so he can keep up with the Bigs.
Cara enjoyed a successful professional transition this year as she and a partner started The Development Team, a company that provides fundraising and development consulting for small non-profits. Despite the recession, business has been really good and 2010 promises to even better. Cara's also still blogging at Baby Bunching, which has such a wonderful and loyal following that plans for a book on the same topic have been derailed a little as we've spent time nurturing the little online community that has developed.
Aaron spent the year getting settled in at Bain. 2009 was the quietest year he's had in a long time, transition-wise, and he was grateful for it.
We also got to witness the life transition of lots of loved ones this year. We traveled to Indiana at Thanksgiving to see Cara's sister get married, to Texas to see her other sister graduate from college, to Virginia to see Cara's friend Linda's (the other half of Baby Bunching) new house, and back to Texas to see her friend Andrea's new (ish) baby who is the same age as Josh. We also took a huge family trip to Tennessee for a week where we had lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins to keep us busy. We rounded out the year with a trip to Salt Lake City to spend Christmas with Aaron's mom, "Bubbe". In retrospect, we realized that we get around pretty good for a family with a flock of small children.
We know that 2010 will bring more change, as we debate school options for Drew and are forced to finally confront the fact that we outgrew our house two children ago. Since we're at a loss as to how to solve these issues on our own, we pray that God's hand will guide us and also continue to keep us healthy and happy, along with all of you. Merry Christmas to all and best wishes for a stellar 2010.
Love,
The Foxes
Aaron, Cara, Cade, Drew and Josh
PS Looks like the online Christmas letter has become an annual tradition because it saves trees and is, frankly, just easier. To compensate for our eco-chic laziness, the annual slideshow has become a tradition too. Check out highlights of our year here.
Dear Friends and Family,
Our 2009 letter picks up where last year's left off. We are pleased to report that we did achieve our 2009 New Year's resolution NOT to have another baby this year. While little Joshie has been the light of our lives, the arrival of the third boy in less than five years has made our hearts and our hands feel very full and possible cured Cara's baby fever forever. Life has been so busy, in fact, that you will find this blog sorely neglected. With time of the essence we are communicating "boy stories" via Facebook (with great frequency) and Twitter (not so frequently) - you can find us there.
Beyond "busy", 2009 can best be described as a year of transition for the Fox Family. Our biggest boy started kindergarten this fall, which has been a total family experience. Never what you would call early risers, we've had to adjust from a 9 am school start time at a school across the street from our house to an 8 am start time at a school 20 minutes away. It would be fair to say that Cade can frequently be found squeaking into school at 7:59. Scheduling aside, he absolutely adores his new school and frequently comes home with tidbits of information on obscure topics such as Kandinsky and hoodoos, in addition to ABC's and 123's. Much to Aaron's relief, Cade recently started reading, because God forbid we have an illiterate first-grader on our hands. Everyone has been very happy with Cade's school.
Drew has also seen changes this year as he struggled to adapt to the daytime loss of his best playmate, Cade. Fortunately, he has a little buddy at school that even surpasses Cade in playmate compatibility, so the two can frequently be found at each other's houses after Drew gets out of Pre-K at noon. Spurred by participation in Cade's homework and his naturally competitive nature, Drew is also reading. It has been a very cool thing to watch the two boys take "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" reading responsibilities off our hands.
Josh has had a huge year, tackling crawling, walking, teething and talking. He attends Parents Morning Out one morning a week, which he loves. He spends the rest of his time alternately being babied by mom and doing his best to be a 5-year old in a 1-year old body so he can keep up with the Bigs.
Cara enjoyed a successful professional transition this year as she and a partner started The Development Team, a company that provides fundraising and development consulting for small non-profits. Despite the recession, business has been really good and 2010 promises to even better. Cara's also still blogging at Baby Bunching, which has such a wonderful and loyal following that plans for a book on the same topic have been derailed a little as we've spent time nurturing the little online community that has developed.
Aaron spent the year getting settled in at Bain. 2009 was the quietest year he's had in a long time, transition-wise, and he was grateful for it.
We also got to witness the life transition of lots of loved ones this year. We traveled to Indiana at Thanksgiving to see Cara's sister get married, to Texas to see her other sister graduate from college, to Virginia to see Cara's friend Linda's (the other half of Baby Bunching) new house, and back to Texas to see her friend Andrea's new (ish) baby who is the same age as Josh. We also took a huge family trip to Tennessee for a week where we had lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins to keep us busy. We rounded out the year with a trip to Salt Lake City to spend Christmas with Aaron's mom, "Bubbe". In retrospect, we realized that we get around pretty good for a family with a flock of small children.
We know that 2010 will bring more change, as we debate school options for Drew and are forced to finally confront the fact that we outgrew our house two children ago. Since we're at a loss as to how to solve these issues on our own, we pray that God's hand will guide us and also continue to keep us healthy and happy, along with all of you. Merry Christmas to all and best wishes for a stellar 2010.
Love,
The Foxes
Aaron, Cara, Cade, Drew and Josh
PS Looks like the online Christmas letter has become an annual tradition because it saves trees and is, frankly, just easier. To compensate for our eco-chic laziness, the annual slideshow has become a tradition too. Check out highlights of our year here.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Josh Talks
Tonight Joshie finally spoke his first real, clear word, and it was...
Daddy.
Seriously, is it too much to ask to get a little "mama" out of these kids once in awhile?!?!
Daddy.
Seriously, is it too much to ask to get a little "mama" out of these kids once in awhile?!?!
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