Saint Nicolas' Day

Abby's Ballet Performance

Abby has loved her ballet class this year.  As I mentioned in the post below, she happily performs for anyone who shows an interest in her!  Her class had a small performance this week.  We loved seeing all of the sweet little ballerinas dancing!

Snapshots of the Caprons

It has been a very long time since I've given an update on each member of the family. Life has been busy, but I know these long days are full of treasured moments.  In the busy-ness of the Christmas season, we have all been a little stressed out, but I don't want to just make it through these days, I want to truly cherish them,  Six years of parenting has definitely shown me that my babies will not stay little forever.  Here is a snapshot of each of us as we are rounding out 2013.

Our big boy Caleb is doing great in 1st grade.  He doesn't really love going to school, but he seems to be happy enough once he is actually there.  Jon continues to take Caleb to school on the pegs of his bike.  I have had more than one person stop me and say something like, "Oh your husband is the one with the bike."  Caleb has started basketball, and we were a bit nervous because soccer didn't work out so well two years ago.  However, so far he is enjoying it.  His team is a good spot for him because they all have a lot to learn!  Over the years, Caleb has expressed a deep concern that he will not like playing with trains when he is older.  He just kept commenting on how sad that will be, and he really couldn't imagine such a day coming.  Lately playtime has been all about Lego Star Wars, so I asked Caleb last night if he still likes trains as much as he used to like them.  He said, "Not really."  I asked if that made him sad, and he said no and didn't show much emotion about it at all.  On the other hand I am quite sad!  It is one of those moments when I just have to sit back and be amazed that a phase of life has slipped through our hands without us noticing it.  Caleb will be seven in just a few months.  Time really needs to stop!  Lord, teach us to number our days!

We sure do love having our sweet Abby girl in between our two boys!  She is ALL girl.  She loves princesses and glitter and ballet.  She is also very into art.  It is not at all uncommon for me to wake up and find her drawing a picture at the craft table first thing in the morning.  She will be getting a fun craft set for Christmas, and I know she is going to LOVE it.  She enjoys going to preschool and has a sweet set of friends in her class.  They spend their gym and playground time running around and throwing "fairy dust" into the air.  Abby loves to help me cook in the kitchen, and I am trying to make an effort to really let her help- despite the time that it takes to have a little helper!  Abby has actually blossomed out of her shy personality.  For a long time she would just stare at adults unable to respond to their greetings.  Lately she has really transformed in that regard.  The other night, she had her ballet outfit on at a track party because I had forgotten to bring a change of clothes.  The sweet track girls asked her to dance for them, and she gave a very animated little performance!  She seems to enjoy being the center of attention!

Luke is two and a half, and he is a lot of fun!  He absolutely adores airplanes and is constantly pretending to go on an airplane to Uncle Eric's house.  He wants to read books about planes again and again, and he carries his little toy planes with him everywhere.  He also really enjoys playing football and basketball.  We have definitely had to deal with some two year old meltdowns lately, and we are working our way through this phase!  He is at the stage where he is quite insulted to be spanked or corrected and that leads into the next crying meltdown!  I guess we are all still a work in process!  We love Luke, and I have to say that the difficult stages seem easier with kid number three because I can see that the other two made it through them!

Last of all are Jon and I.  Jon is still coaching track and field at Baylor and stays busy with that.  He also helps teach Abby's Sunday school class with me, and he teaches boys' missions.  He is an avid bicycle collector.  He has picked up three new bicycles from Craig's List in the last several weeks.  One of them is a fun tandem bike.  I am still in MOPS (this is my 7th year!), love my Bible study group, and have been spending lots of time in the kids' school volunteering.  Just keeping everyone's backpacks organized keeps me pretty busy!  We have a lot going on, and I am constantly reminding myself to be thankful for the simple things in life.  This past year has held a good amount of grief and struggle, but we have had so very many blessings along the way!

Thanksgiving 2013

For Thanksgiving we headed to Irvine, CA to stay with the SoCal Capron family.  There was lots of family fun, and we ate plenty of yummy food too!  We were blessed to be able to see all of Eric's family, Jon's mom from Washington state, Jon's sister and her family from Greece, Jon's Dad and Rhonda from Sacramento, and Jon's cousins from Lake Tahoe.  So much to be thankful for!

Park Time

Beach Time (with a random non-Capron kiddo in there... just wanted to point that out in case anyone is counting kids!)

Treasure Hunt on the Beach

Chefs Abby and Sarah making pancakes

Present Time

Time to Eat!

Choir 2013

The kids' choirs sang at church several weeks ago.  Caleb used to just hate this sort of thing, but he seemed okay with it this year.  Even still I don't see a singing performing career in his future!  Abby, on the other hang, loved it!  She was animated, knew the motions, and actually sang the words.  Not much of that can be said for Caleb, but he did follow our directions about not picking his nose or randomly falling down on stage.  Improvement and progress!

Every time I take these kinds of pictures, I remember the ones of me from when I was little.  Some of my best friends are in those pictures, and I have very dear memories of time spent together in our church youth group when we were older.  It is so fun to imagine this sweet little group of 4 and 6 year olds and all of the fun friendships and memories that they have ahead of themselves!

Sieverts in Waco

Last week my sister, Katie, and her two kids came to visit us in Waco.  These 5 cousins were so so excited to be together.  We did lots of fun things around town, and we spent lots of time playing at the house.  I love seeing these kids form friendships and family bonds!

In these pictures, Luke explained that he was "setting up for the track meet".  It made us laugh.  Daddy does a whole lot of that!