Merry Christmas 2010!

This has been a very eventful year for us! The biggest event, and blessing, of the year was the birth of Hunter James on April 14th (see pictures in previous blog posts, below) The birth went remarkably smooth. We are hippies now, it seems, and to prove it we not only had Hunter at home (and named him Hunter) but he also had a ‘water birth’. Yes, this means his first moments outside the womb were lived under water. If you would like to contribute, we’ve started a fund to pay for the counseling that will likely be required for him later.

Seriously, Hunter is a very happy, laid back, slightly chunky, dude. He cut in his first two teeth over Thanksgiving and is very willing to show them off in a smile. Since then he has learned how to stay in the sitting position on his own and seems content at that level of mobility (Kiana was asking for the car keys at Hunter's age).

The second biggest event of the year was the loss of Jake’s job at Quest. The layoff was stressfull, but taught us a lot. Mostly, it reinforced that we have overwhelming support all around us. (Thank you) We also learned that there is work. In the four weeks of unemployed time Jake worked some side jobs (that turned out to be pretty good exercise for a mouse-clicking engineer); and had multiple interviews. Praise God! The conclusion of the job search was to decline an offer from Boeing to take an opportunity with Tamarack Aerospace Group (TAG) right here in Sandpoint. We feel very blessed to have found another aircraft engineering job in town.

Ruth enjoys being a mom to Kiana and Hunter; and has been adjusting to keeping up with two kids. She has also been really busy with the conservatory that she co-founded last year with her business partner, Karin. (A conservatory is a music school ... for the non-music-elites who might be reading this.)  Ruth and Karin were excited to find a nice location to rent downtown Sandpoint in the spring. It is in a restored fire station which is a beautiful part of historic downtown.  Music Conservatory of Sandpoint (MCS) is now offering violin (of course), voice, piano, flute, harp, guitar, and recorder. Their organization has doubled in size since last year, which is very exciting!

Kiana turned three this year and she continues to be 100% girl. We painted her room pink this spring - to match all of her belongings. Earlier this year she picked up a British accent from one of her cartoons and then began using it when asking "Can you help me?"  She has a daring side that became more appearant this summer when the motorcycle came out for the season. She not only insisted on a ride almost everytime the bike was out; but also that we go "really fast".

We’ve enjoyed home ownership over the past year, for the most part. Al Gore dropped us a line to let us know that our carbon footprint had actually gone negative so we worked on getting back to carbon neutral by removing close to 20 trees from our yard this summer. We also spent a good portion of our early winter painting the entire inside of the house which was a welcome improvement.

Benjamin, Emma & Kiana just after killing an Aspen tree

We hope this update finds you well.  May the joy of Christ's love find you this holiday season and throughout 2011!