Christmas Letter 2011

Another busy year is coming to an end!  It was a LONG year, yet it seemed to fly by. This has been another very eventful year.  In May we lost an important person in our lives with the passing of Eric's mother.  It has been a tough subject to deal with, especially with the kids.  Ian of course took it pretty hard, we are working through it. 

In July, my mom volunteered to take on the 3 kids while Eric, Nick and I took a trip out to Arizona to see my Brother Jon and his family.  This is the first time to Arizona for me.  What a cool place.  July was not a great option for pleasant weather out there. There were several days that the thermometer in the car read over 115 degrees.  Man it was hot.  We did, once again, coordinate our vacation with the baseball schedule of the LA Dodgers.  We visited many sites out there and got some beautiful pictures.  This was a first, for any of us to see the grand canyon.  It was pretty amazing.  ( Michelle Dolder did come down and help mom out. . . so a BIG THANK YOU to the both of you!!!!!)

This summer/fall we went to visit my uncle Bruce while he raced his model sailboat on the small lake in the Jordan Creek complex.  The kids loved watching and even getting to drive the boat.  There were geese that we got to feed.  What a great use for the stale chips and cereal that we get at our house. :)

We have been busy with school lately. Ian is in Kindergarten and still adjusting to the structured classroom and paperwork.  The beginning of the year has been a challenge to say the least, but things are getting better there!  He is into Legos and Star Wars. He loved having the pool and really seems to like the trampoline too.   He has been a great big brother.  He is still really protective of Nora.  

Maren is in preschool and LOVING it.  She is getting along great.  She still loves to color and for sure has some of her mommy’s art ability.  She is getting so big. Maren is still a drama queen and over exaggerates everything.  We are hoping she will grow out of this!

Nora continues to be awesome!  She is so fun to be around.  Nora finally got teeth at about 14 months.  She is an awesome eater and is so silly.  Nora loves music and dancing.  Recently she has started to pick up on the coloring that her big sis likes to do.  She is a very independent little girl. 

Eric is still enjoying work at ITAGroup in West Des Moines. He has been promoted to Business Analyst 3, which was a pleasant surprise in October! Eric has a pretty steady honey-do list that he has been working on this year. The bathroom in the back of the house is more complete now, with the addition of a vanity/sink and a shower.  It’s nice to have a second bathroom downstairs! We built a deck on to the back of the house and have a pool now.  After the pool came out, we put a trampoline in it’s place.  The kids love it and we now use a part of our yard that we hadn’t used previously.  Later in the summer we took a window out of the kids playroom and added a door onto the deck.  It’s a great addition to our house.  This fall our house changed colors from the blue it was, to a khaki green.  It looks wonderful!  We had some hail damage to the house and cars this spring and so we got the barn roof replaced just this past month. This was a much needed improvement and the fine people at the insurance company helped us do it just a little earlier than previously planned.

I am still at Orient Macksburg and loving it.  This is my best year so far.  I have a great group of students.  It is a little different having Ian in my classes this year.  He is adapting to that.  At the beginning was a little bossy in the art room.  Now that the novelty has worn off, things are calming down! I have been a little stir crazy and have been trying to fit more art production into my life. So far, so good! :)  

Family Photos.

 

It's that time of year again.  We have new pictures.  LeAnne has done a wonderful job as always. Here is a link to the entire album. I wish I would keep on top of this blog more.  Facebook is so much easier to update.  Maybe I should make it a new years resolution.  Cousin Abby does such a wonderful job with hers. . .

a finished painting! It's been a long time comin'

Well, this picture doesn't do it justice.  I put up a piece of canvas last year and slowly painted on this.  At first I started out using paint that my students had left from their projects. Eventually I moved on and started using my tubes of paint to paint with, I love doing that.  After school started back up this year, I decided that I needed to be done. So, using some mixed media techniques I had picked up over the summer, I dove in and finished.  The kids love it. Of course they have all seen it as a work in progress and it is nice to now have it hanging in the elementary.  

Wow

Wow. It has been four months since posting I used to be fairly good at keeping up with this. . .I am failing my blog followers. Summer at the Hoffmann house has been not too bad overall. With the chaos that filled our lives this spring, it has been nice to just sit back and enjoy the kids. Ian has been really interested in legos and star wars. He would play playstation or in he computer all day if you let him. He is his fathers son! He has improved his swimming abilities this summer and has gone from arm floaties to being able to swim. He will even do flips off of the side of the pool. (We, meaning Eric and I started off the summer by building a deck that curves up to the edge of a pool.) Ian and Maren, just this past week passed swim lessons. I am still hoping to get Maren a little more confident in the pool before the end of the summer.
Nora is a little trooper! She loves the water most of the time. She thinks that she is beyond the baby float thing we bought her at Target. She prefers the freedom that the arm floaties provide her. Nora has been extrely patient with her brother and sister as they are constantly picking her up to take her places other than where they are playing. Ian and Maren don't appreciate Nora's enthusiastic approach to play time. Eric and I have been on tooth watch for what seems like forever! This past week I thought that I felt a tooth on the bottom gum line, so I got a flashlight out to get a better look. I was very surprised to find 2 molars through the gums in the back! This child is not cutting teeth in order. She seems to have a couple of teeth poking through. ( her front left) She is a fun little girl, and is making the summer just that much better :).
Maren has really been into coloring and cutting things up this summer! I have no doubt that she will be following in mamma's artistic footsteps. (Nora is seeming interested too!) Maren has been quite the drama queen this summer! I am looking forward to getting her into preschool here in a few weeks! She has spent most of her summer either swimming, coloring, commandeering my iPhone and iPod for netflix enjoyment, or playing legos with Ian.
There are 2 weeks left if summer, and I am back to work! It has flown by. . . Bring on the new school year.

We are still here.

It has been FOREVER since blogging on this blog!  I have been really busy with life in general.  Between school, art fair and a mobile 9 month old, we have been also trying to find a solution to an aggressive 5 yr old.  So far so good. . . Ian has been doing much better with the behavior at school.  After figuring him out, Miss Maren and the DIVA she has become will be next on my things to correct.  She has become quite mouthy and it's not OK.  Other than a few behavioral setbacks, the kids are doing great.  Ian is enjoying his Preschool Days ( even more when he isn't in trouble) and Maren has been frequenting the daycare at school. . .Nora, like I said before, is mobile.  She pulls herself up on things ( she has been doing this for about a month) and will walk along things, and behind toys with wheels.  It won't be long before she is walking.  She has no teeth at the moment, but with the large quantities of drool that comes out of her little mouth, I am guessing it won't be long.  She has been a trooper with the babyfood. . . now if only we could get the sleeping all night down. . .
We have been spending a lot of time out of town.  We had Christmases to go to in December and January, we have made some trips back to Walnut to see Hoffmann's.
This past 2 weeks have been long.  Barb's cancer has progressed enough that she is no longer able to do the things she once could.  She is now in a hospital bed, on hospice and is fortunate to have not only a awesome husband to watch over her, but an awesome extended family to help out.  Prayers would be appreciated not only for Barb and Nick, but everyone involved in these tough times.
On February 24th my grandma Opal passed on.  She lived a long life (92 yrs) and was still at home until the end.  She will be missed.  The kids seemed to handle that funeral and activities pretty well.  Questions were asked and answered, it will be a preview of what is soon to come with their Grandma. . .