Good Morning, Britt,

Eight years old, wow. Momma’s too young for an eight year old. We are in our brand new house, and to your disappointment you have your own room. You have a room full of Transformers, super heroes, angry birds, all of your American flag and Texas stuff. It’s all in one room for you.


The biggest new change in our life, is that you are again a big brother. This time to Katherine Hope – Kate! I knew you were excited to hopefully have a brother, but we are thankful to at least be blessed with a healthy baby girl. This gives you the opportunity to be really helpful to Momma. Whether that’s just as simple as throwing away diapers, or picking up the floor so that Kate doesn’t choke on anything, or keep her entertained like you did when Ruth and Rebecca were little. It will be interesting to see how you interact with the youngest being 8 years apart. But I think you’ll be a great brother, just like you have been to Ruth and Rebecca. I think this coming year you’ll be able to help her eat, maybe change some diapers, read to her, and tell her stories. I think this will be an opportunity to grow and mature, to be more of a leader. I think if you can be a good example, particularly with Rebecca, you can help a lot.


We’ve had another year of baseball. For the first time we had you and both of the girls playing t-ball, and Lord help us, Daddy being the coach for t-ball. I personally didn’t get to work much with you on baseball, because I coached your sisters’ team, but you continue to show improvement in your throwing and hitting. We still need to work on catching and not being scared of the baseball. You’ve started riding your bike in the last few months. Maybe this year we’ll get the training wheels off.


You’ve had another full year of homeschool. And you continue to do great in your math. And you have improved considerably on your handwriting. When you can focus, your reading too has improved. I would like you though when Momma works with you on school, that you focus and try to do your school work efficiently. So, that you can have more fun doing fun things like science projects or playing outside or getting on the wii. That would also give Momma more time to help Ruth and Rebecca with their school projects.


There are things we want to work on this year. We want to focus your energy and excitement on improving your reading. Momma tells me that this time last year you were only reading short vowels and learning long vowels. Now she tells me that you have learned all the phonics rules, that you just need practice for speed and fluency. We know you have lots of energy and a great imagination. I think it’s important that we help you focus that on something constructive. Another thing we want to really work on this year, is our volume inside the house. There is now going to be four kids in the house, and it’s going to be important to try to not holler and scream, particularly so you don’t wake the baby, but also to be courteous of one another. If you can keep your voice down inside the house or car, then that means Rebecca won’t be trying to scream even louder to be heard over you and Ruth.

We love you son, and look forward to tackling the changes and challenges coming down the road. It’s also exciting and fun to be able to do bigger things with you like fishing or camping.

Love,
Daddy