Yes, we are! So very excited! Why, you may ask...
Because it's CHRISTMAS, of course! We Wootens are celebrating our second Christmas here in North Carolina. The Christmas season is always a busy one, but last year, our first Christmas here happened just one week after the moving truck came to unload all the boxes we'd packed up back in our "Old Kentucky" home. While we DID manage to get our tree up last year, we are thankful to have had this year's tree decorated for a while now, and we are certainly better-able to enjoy this special time with our family, friends, and neighbors. As we celebrate JESUS, God's GREATEST gift, we also enjoy looking back upon, and giving thanks for, the many other ways the Lord has blessed us this year!
Mary Beth turned ten years old this past January. Always the event coordinator and social butterfly, she has been so blessed to find MANY friends from like-minded Christian families here in our new town!
Mary Beth will always miss her cousins, grandparents, and friends from Thomasville, but we are so very thankful to the Lord for giving her some precious girls as friends up here! Mary Beth has done extremely well in her schoolwork this year! She has her father's amazing math sense and spends most of her free time dreaming and scheming about the day spa she wants to one day run.
Earlier this year, Mary Beth participated in a 10-week sewing course with one of her friends. She made some pretty amazing creations--a pin cushion, a pencil holder, a scarf, a microwavable heating pad, and others! We are saving up to buy our own sewing machine so she can teach Mom how to sew!
She also has a knack for creative writing. She has written several excellent papers, including one we recently posted here on our blog, this year. Mary Beth is growing into a very mature and responsible young lady!
She is a terrific big sister, and she is a huge help with Tuck when Mom needs an extra set of arms.
Noah is also smitten with his little brother! As you might expect, many of Tuck's biggest belly laughs are because of Noah's tricks! Whether it's coming up with "morning exercises" for Tuck, building a fort out of construction scraps and shower curtains, or re-enacting moving scenes (complete with vocal impressions--frequently from "The Hobbit"),
we have yet to find the limits of this boy's creativity!
Noah turned 8 in July. He also has been blessed with some amazing little boys to play with here in North Carolina. As a matter of fact, FIVE little boys have yards that touch the border of our property, so Noah and his buddies are often found in our yard playing basketball, building forts, or climbing trees.
Both Mary Beth and Noah have enjoyed ClubHouseRock, the kids' ministry at our church, but Noah's walk with the Lord has definitely been "kicked up a notch" since we've moved to Salisbury. He is discovering and growing in his spiritual gifts of service and intercession. If you have a problem and Noah knows about it, you can pretty much bet he's going to be praying for you!
Noah is also very helpful around the house. He can make some amazing scrambled eggs with cheese, and he is our official "trash-taker-outter," too!
Noah loves to sing! All of we Wootens do, actually, but we've recently discovered that Noah has an especially good voice! He participated in Rowan County Home School Association's brand new homeschool choir this past semester. They recently gave a rather amazing Christmas concert. We can't wait to see what they're going to come up with for their Spring performance!
Last Christmas, Mom's belly looked pretty much like this...
...and it just kept growing until March 15, when we went to the hospital in Statesville, and after God BLEW OUR MINDS with an AMAZINGLY EASY labor and delivery,
JEREMIAH TUCK joined us at about 10p.m., weighing in at 8lbs, 2oz.
It has been a joy to watch him grow...
To hear him laugh...
To help him taste new foods...
To pretend to snack on his toes...
To enjoy his slobbery kisses...
and to snuggle him while he snoozes!
We are all so grateful for the way God has blessed us with this precious little life! We can't wait to see what the Lord will do in and through Him in the days to come!
Chad has had a very busy year this year! While he's stayed very busy with his work for Flowers Foods (but, thankfully, we ARE able to pop in at his office on occasion),
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he's also made a huge effort to spend lots of quality time with the kids.
Mary Beth frequently goes with him to band practice at the church on the weeks when he is scheduled to play bass guitar, and she also LOVES to work out with him! Thanks to the months he spent working out at Crossfit Rowan, he's learned some pretty impressive exercises.
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A trip to the AirBound trampoline park in Winston-Salem (where Noah can literally bounce off the walls!)
the acquisition of a groovy skull from some roadkill in the church parking lot (for Noah, of course!),
a sweet time at a women's ministry event,
and to snuggle him while he snoozes!
We are all so grateful for the way God has blessed us with this precious little life! We can't wait to see what the Lord will do in and through Him in the days to come!
Chad has had a very busy year this year! While he's stayed very busy with his work for Flowers Foods (but, thankfully, we ARE able to pop in at his office on occasion),
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Mary Beth frequently goes with him to band practice at the church on the weeks when he is scheduled to play bass guitar, and she also LOVES to work out with him! Thanks to the months he spent working out at Crossfit Rowan, he's learned some pretty impressive exercises.
The big kids love when Daddy takes them to the rock wall at the YMCA!
Daddy even asked them to join him for the Marine Mud Run at Pilot Mountain this past Spring!
Daddy then decided to take on a HUGE challenge, and he ran a Spartan Beast in South Carolina in November!
When he's not working, playing bass guitar, training for a run, or playing in the yard with our big two kiddos and their friends, Daddy can be found kissing Mom while the kids gag, or showing the big, wide world to his favorite nine-month-old.
While Mom would love to spend her days doing this,
she has actually found herself VERY busy this year!
In addition to getting odds and ends settled in the new house, nursing a baby 6-9 times per day, attempting to keep the laundry and dishes clean, shopping for healthy food in an area with very few quality grocery options, and homeschooling Mary Beth and Noah,
she has also opened and begun directing Salisbury's new Classical Conversations Foundations and Essentials home school community. Our group is ENJOYING a very small beginning, with just six participating families, but we are also excited as we prepare for our group size to more-than double next year!
Starting the community involved many hours of business and academic training, as well as conducting informational meetings and seeking out ways to recruit other families to join ours.
The Salisbury Post was very helpful in this endeavor and even published a front-page article about our group in the Sunday paper!
Part of our Classical Conversations program involves an afternoon "Essentials of the English Language" course, which is a wonderfully-intense course in English grammar and writing structures and styles. Since none of the other moms in our group were comfortable leading that class, Mom embraced the challenge. While she LOVES all she's learning (and getting to teach Mary Beth!), the course does require her to put in a good bit of time studying!
We've been so blessed to enjoy many wonderful experiences in 2013!
There have been a few trips to Thomasville to celebrate birthdays and visit friends and family!
We were also very excited when grandparents came to visit us!
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Our Owens friends came from Georgia to visit in October! Tuck fell in love with Mrs. Liz!
We've been blessed with a few trips to Panama City Beach! We were even able to bring friends along on three of the trips!
Right here in North Carolina, we've enjoyed some special excitement, too!
Backyard marshmallow roasts with neighbors,
super-sweet gatherings with our N-House community group from church (they've been like extra aunts and uncles to Tuck, since his all live far away!)
A trip down to Charlotte to watch a NASCAR race,
A visit to the Rowan County Fair (where Mary Beth starred as an assistant to the clown),
A fun photo shoot in front of Salisbury's historical downtown mural,
A stop at the farmer's market's pumpkin patch,
play time at a nifty local corn maze,
fun summer swimming play dates with some Classical Conversations friends,
shopping in Downtown Salisbury,
a sweet time at a women's ministry event,
installation of a fantastic swing in our big front yard tree,
playing in the rain,
and most recently,
a super-fun family trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Concord!
As we put together this post and recall so many fond memories, we realize we do, indeed, have MUCH to be thankful for! Still, even more than all these other blessings, we give thanks to God for sending us the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ...for we know that true, abundant life is ONLY possible through, and because of, Him! We pray this Christmas season finds you keenly aware of God's great love for you, and enjoying His many blessings!
With much love,
Chad, Kristie, Mary Beth, Noah, and Tuck Wooten
