January 2012
Like many other people, I'm always surprised that yet another year has gone by so quickly. Seems like as I get older, time passes much faster.
Our 2011 has been exciting, challenging and overwhelming at times.
Carter is going to turn five this month. His favorite things to do are: play with friends, follow & model Preston in everything, fall asleep in the car, couch and sometimes the dinner table. He can hardly be serious for anything, he used to be our calm & serious child. Not anymore! He is a giggling crazy man. Everything is a joke (well most things) and requires a silly face or a silly noise. He is very quiet & obedient in his church classes, but will slip in a silly moment every now & then.
Preston will turn seven next month & thinks 1st grade is the easiest thing on the planet! I (Charlie) homeschool him and he is a really good student. His favorite things to do are play with his brother, wrestle with his dad, play Legos. Those are the things he is usually doing at any given moment. He & Carter are really great friends these days, they don't understand how they can be friends since they are brothers, but they are friends nonetheless. Preston takes PE, Music at the public school & gets to see a couple friends from church in that class and he also takes a homeschool PE class at a gymnastics academy close by. All of which he loves and is excited to have some time outside of Mom. ;-)
Alexis just turned nine & is in third grade (homeschool). She has really fell in love with reading! She was given the first Nancy Drew Detective books last year for Christmas and that started her off. She was reading some other books already, but didn't do much reading without being told to read. She gets to stay up as late as she wants as long as she is reading a book. She often will fall asleep reading & we have some great photos to put together one day when she is older of all those times. Her favorite things to do are: make crafty things from her imagination (an alarm that signals her when anyone comes into her room while she's sleeping-hasn't quite mastered that one though), reading, listening to Adventures in Odyssey. She can memorize like nobody's business and would love to join a local Drama Club, which we all know she's great at drama!! ;-) Alexis also takes PE & Music at the public school & a homeschool PE class at the gymnastics academy with Preston.
All kids are still involved with AWANA and look forward to going every week and we look forward to it too!
I (Charlie) still homeschool all the kids and have made a lot of changes to be more intentional about being with them & not just around them. I am no longer in my Mothers Bible Study at church, the days that I had study made for long & challenging days with school work. Everything else is really just your average stay-at-home, homeschooling mom type of stuff, so not really worthy of an update letter. Really, it's all about the kids isn't it?
Travis has had a lot of changes this last year. He was fired from his job at Combined Insurance last February after working for them for nine years. We knew it was coming and we were happy the way it all came about. He had been traveling so much the last year, that he was only home a couple weekends the whole month! He had started traveling awhile before that, but the last year was the worst.
To say that his coming home was an adjustment would be an understatement for sure! The kids & I were used to being on our own most of the time, and so was Travis. We had to relearn being one unit again, now we're fine. ;-)
God has been faithful to provide for us and we are always aware of his care and provision.
Travis has started out on his own. He buys and sells houses, this is not his job mind you, this is his business for himself. He works hard, spends a lot of time learning & seeking wisdom/help from his mentor.
The other venture he started is trading the markets! Again, he devotes time to learning and seeking wisdom from his mentor in this arena. I believe that he is much more passionate about this because of all the rules and if you didn't know, Travis is a rule-follower!!
We still live in Hillsboro, OR (almost four years now) and still have the goal of moving back to Eugene where we both grew up and where our parents are. We just spent a whole week in Eugene with both families for Christmas and have renewed excitement about moving back. We do have a date in mind . . . by the end of 2012. But of course “we've” had plans before so we'll see what the Lord's plans are for our family.
It's been an exciting 2011 for sure and we are holding on to the belief that 2012 is “our year”, praying it's your year too!
Love to all,
The Daggetts
Travis, Charlie, Alexis, Preston & Carter
