Our Christmas Letter
Here is the letter we sent out in our Christmas cards...
Merry Christmas to our family and friends on both coasts and everywhere in-between,
2004 has been an interesting year in the Heironimus family. The children are growing and are wonderful. I hope to briefly summarize our year for you.
We traveled to north west Arkansas in late April for a log cabin vacation. It was very relaxing and enjoyable and only about two hours from home.
The day we returned, Adam was diagnosed with bronchitis and the next morning (May 1)John was admitted to the hospital with bronchitis and difficulty breathing. He spent three nights there, on oxygen for two. Two days after he got home, Rachel was diagnosed with recurrent pneumonia, which she had had the week after Easter. The day after she was declared well, she swallowed the metal tip from her overall buckle, which had popped off when she used the bathroom. After a trip to urgent care, overnight hospitalization, and surgery to retrieve it from her esophagus, she was fine, or so we thought. Eight days later she did it again, except this time it was the metal middle part of a cheapy clothes pin. When they put her out for the surgery, her body relaxed and the metal ended up in her stomach. So, not only did she require the ear-nose-and throat surgeon who had done her first surgery, this time she also needed a gastroenterologist . She spent another night in the hospital and was released Memorial Day weekend. Needless to way, we were glad to see May come to an end.
Moving- We found our home in the country and moved on September 24. We survived the move with four little ones and a dog! It had been a month short of 10 years since our last move and I am planning on waiting at least that long before the next !
New House— We bought a home built in 1974 on almost 1.75 acres that is only about 10 minutes from our old house. We are very close to town, but have to drive a state highway and two farm roads to get home. It took me a little bit to get used to driving in the country again.
The thing that attracted us most to the house was actually the property. We fell in love with it at first sight! It is partially wooded, with a large open lot and lots of trees scattered around the yard. The boys haven't gotten bored yet. They are forever dragging a load of rocks, an old dead tree limb or some other treasure around the yard.
The house is interesting too, with lots of antique woodwork throughout, pine floors and a brick kitchen floor. Kyle has done a lot of updating of lights, one bathroom and general repair. Our bedroom has been completely re-done.
When we met with the home inspector he said it was a good, sturdy house, but since it is older and we are out in the country, we would never run out of projects to do on the weekends. I thought he was exaggerating....well, he was not!
We have a new baby due on June 4. We are all excited and anxiously anticipating his or her arrival (especially mom!)The children have decided that we need another girl!
Kyle and I both come from small families and aren't particularly close to our siblings and the older we get, the more we realize that and wish things were different. That, coupled with the fun we have with our children made us decide to have a large family. How large, only God knows. With every pregnancy, I say I can't do this again, but I am very blessed to have very good pregnancies and keeping up with the littles ones keeps the weight off!
Our hope is that they will all stay close at they get older. I think homeschooling is a definite plus in that area. They share common interests and do things together, rather than being separated all day with a herd of children their individual ages.
All of the children love to be read to and we have found several series of Christian and Historical heroes that Kyle reads to us at night. We also enjoy historical fiction, such as the Little House series. We just finished Sarah Plain and Tall last night. Barnes and Noble is holding the rest of the series for me to pick up for Christmas. Our homeschool curriculum, Sonlight, has introduced us to many of our favorites.
John is a wonderful, adorable handful. He is 16 months old now and very active. Anything that could possibly be climbed is fair game, from the usual- -step stools, kitchen chairs and couches to the make-shift--economy size bundles of toilet paper from Sam's, suitcases, etc. He loves to come up to his brothers and sister and lay his head on them and cuddle. He loves his Daddy. They rough house by wacking heads and giggling and have a good time together.
Rachel turned four this month. She is our beautiful curly-haired, blue-eyed little princess. She loves anything pink, purple and girly. She started wearing dresses full-time last spring. She loves to be held, cuddled and touched in any way, shape or form. She inherited the doctor kit that started with Adam and takes very good care of anyone that is sick or has a bump. She loves to play with her babies and dolls and play with dress up clothes. She also enjoys singing and arts and crafts.
Luke turned six in August. He has dark, wavy hair and gorgeous green eyes (like his mother!). He is our tender-hearted, generous, sympathetic big guy. He loves to help others and is our worrier. He is becoming quite the handy man around the house. He is going to be our mechanical/structural engineer. He likes gadgets, dogs and spending time with his daddy. He just started riding his bike proficiently this month and loves it. He working on learning to read.
Adam turned eight in July. He is very much like Kyle in many ways. He has a one-track mind when he is concentrating on something and can get lost in his own world when he is reading, which is something he does often. I tease him, but I really am envious of this ability. He loves to learn and research whatever he is interested in and memorizes almost everything he reads! He likes to draw and has made several books. He is a great help to me when we are out and about. I can send him in to the library, or small stores to pick things up and he is very confident and always completes his missions well.
Kyle has been an electrical engineer at Digital Monitoring Products (DMP) since June, 1993. His dream is to start his own company, but we're not sure how to realistically/practically make that happen. We know several people who have gone off on their own in different fields, but most of them had wives that worked full-time (for pay, that is!).
He is a great father and loves to spend time with the children. He has taken the boys on bike rides around our new neighborhood and strenuous hikes down to the river that is on conservation land adjacent to our property. He does cuddly, girly things with Rachel and spoils her terribly and bonded like super glue with John over the Thanksgiving weekend, when our travel plans were changed due to sickness.
He is a constant source of encouragement and strength for me, when I am feeling tired and out-numbered after a long day. He has grown tremendously spiritually in the last few years and is becoming a great spiritual leader for our family. He does the opening session in the boys' Sunday School class and substitute teaches. He gets discouraged that he can't do more with and for us, but I am amazed at his energy. For all of those reasons, I am forever grateful to him!
I keep busy with the children. We are still homeschooling and the boys are doing very well, sthough the first half of this school year didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked. I have chalked it up to moving and first-trimester blahs and hope to get on a better schedule and make a fresh start in 2005. I help at church with coordinating donations to the food pantry supported by the Baptist churches in Greene County and doing short-term odds-and-ends when I am needed and able with the children. They are very hard, willing workers who care about people and have definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. They are doing what we have been trying to teach them (but don't necessarily do ourselves), which is exactly what Jesus wants them to.
We are members of The Summit Church, in Rogersville, MO. It started two years ago as a mission of Second Baptist, where we were members for over five years. I miss Dr. Marshall's preaching at Second, but I don't miss fighting the crowd of 2,500 plus on a Sunday morning. The Summit has around 100 in attendance!
Please come for a visit and bring your grubbies, we'll put you to work raking leaves, hauling branches , unpacking boxes that are still in the garage and sorting things to donate!
Our new address is: 5537 E. Riverview St., Springfield, MO 65809. Our phone is the same: 417-887-4827.
E-mails: kyle@heironimus.com or beth@heironimus.com. Kyle has designed and tinkers with a family website: www.heironimus.com . There are a number of pictures and silly day-in-the-life type stories on it.
Please keep in touch, we would love to hear from you!