Hello friends! I feel like a broken record saying this, but it’s hard to believe we are already at the end of the year! It seems like it wasn’t that long ago and I was writing updates about our year 2022, and now here we are.

Life hasn’t slowed down, in fact, it feels very much the opposite. Our family is as busy as we’ve ever been, but it’s a good and fulfilling busy. We’ve had some major life changes this year, starting with a new phase of parenting a middle schooler. Yes, our oldest is in middle school. How we are old enough to have a middle schooler I have no idea, but here we are. It’s been an adjustment, but all in all, she is loving it and all of the new opportunities that come with it. With this, we have become newly minted “show choir parents.” I will report back next year after we have our first competition season under our belt, but so far, our girl is loving it and managed to secure a spot on the varsity show choir team. We are so proud of her!! She also decided to tryout out for the competitive program at Nebraska Dance and we’ll be experiencing our first competition season in the coming months.

Speaking of dance, I continue to spend a LOT of time driving the girls to and from classes and watching through the windows, but I also now am IN the studio myself, teaching classes in ballet, tap and lyrical. I am having a blast and love all of my students. I’m still waiting for the sore muscles to go away. 😂 Apparently, I’m not as nimble and bendy as I used to be and waking these rusty muscles up has taken some time. But it has been such a blessing to be back in the studio dancing. It has been fun to see the gifts and passions that God gave me artistically through dance AND photography all intersect this year. I’ve had a busier year with photography clients and continue to work on the business and also launched Camp Cherished this year - a summer camp for tween girls. It was most definitely one of the highlights of my summer and I am looking forward to growing this in my business next year, too!

As you can tell from our card this year, soccer also continues to be a huge part of our family, and the boys continue to be involved coaching/playing with the Academy program at Sporting Omaha. This year, our team competed in its first “out of town” tournament in Kansas City which was a highlight of Beckham’s year. I love watching him play and watching Ron coach! Brooklyn also gave the soccer boots a go this fall (her shoes matched big brother’s and it was the cutest thing ever!) and she really loved playing on her team, “The Mermaids.” She improved so much over the course of several weeks and she is eager to get back on the field again in the spring. She was also lucky enough to have her dad coach her, too!

In addition to soccer boots, our family also donned another kind of boot…cowboy boots this year, both as new members of the Springfield Blue Jeans and Boots 4-H club and our first family vacation to Frontier Days in Wyoming. The kids loved every minute with their cousins and taking everything in at “The Daddy of ‘Em All.” They also did a fabulous job in their first year at 4-H, and while the projects nearly did this mom in with time, preparation and write-ups, not to mention showing a CAT at the companion animal contest, it was fun to see the kids try new things and embrace the life of a 4-H kid.

We Need Christmas

Matthew West

Click Here to Listen

As I reflect back on this year, there is so much for which we are thankful. With all that is going on in the world and in our communities, we are so fortunate and blessed. I want to leave you with another song, much like last year’s Christmas letter. This time, a song that our youngest has latched on to this Christmas season (due in part to the music artist also singing the “Gobble Gobble” song) but nevertheless, she’ll start singing along with her little voice as loud as she can, and pretty soon we are all joining her:

“We need Christmas
Now more than ever to bring us together
We need Christmas
Come on, December, help us remember
The joy, the peace and the hope that love can bring
'Cause we need Christmas.”

Believe - Christmas 2023