Dearest Friends
and Family,
Happy holidays from Singer Lane! It’s been another blessed year and we’re
hoping this letter finds you healthy, joyful and ready for another holiday
season and year. Here’s what we’ve been up
to in 2015:
In January we sat the boys down again
and talked to them about our goals for 2015. When we asked them what we
should do to make us closer to God and to make God happy Ben said,
"We should go to Heaven and do what God says." That boy is smart! We certainly tried our best, but there’s
always room for improvement, right?! Lord willing it looks like we’ll get another
year of doing what God says so we can go to Heaven. We also memorized the beatitudes and reviewed
our books of the Bible and previous memory verses too.
Charlie.
Oh our Charlie boy is an active, imaginative, very smart, strong leader,
logical, musical, loving, competitive, witty, determined guy! He finished out 1st grade with
flying colors and is doing so incredibly well in 2nd grade this
year. I’m so proud of him for not
getting bogged down and doing what he needs to do to do well in school – even
when it’s hard or there’s other things he’d rather do. He does his best and that’s all we ask of
him. One of our favorite memories from
this past year was on the first day of school when we asked him what he wanted
to be when he’s an adult. He said he,
Joe (cousin), and Ben are all going to be police officers and eat Taco Bell
every day for lunch. Ha! In
April, we had our first (and hopefully our last) ER visit for an injury.
Charlie was spinning around in the great room. It really was not that
fast and he seemed very much in control. I was watching him the entire
time. Then out of nowhere he ran into the corner molding on the
shelves/entertainment center in the great room.
He ended up with 5 stitches and was very brave! The good news is I’m getting better and
better about staying calm and keeping the kids calm especially when these
things happen and Dave’s not around. Charlie
is thriving as a big brother, he gives piggy back rides, he helps Ben with his
sight words, he plays with True and my favorite is he reads books to his brothers
almost every night before bed. Charlie is continuing his piano lessons with
me and we’ve been going strong almost a year and a half. I might be biased, but I think he is so good,
he obviously inherited it from his father, but man he just “gets” music. It’s so great to see him want to practice and
he’ll go on his own and play on the piano pretty much daily. This year for his 7th birthday
Dave took him for a ride on the back of his motorcycle. He had a blast…unfortunatelyJ. Charlie also completed his first season of
soccer this fall. It was rough for me at
first because practices were so long and it was consistently close to 100
degrees outside, but after the first month or so and weather cooled down a bit
and the boys started learning skills and understanding the game more it was really
fun to watch him play. He loves to play
goalie…which is by far the most stressful position for a parentJ. He was known for his “big boot” or drop
kicks. Charlie will play baseball this
spring for the third year. I’m not a
sports fan, but there is something exciting and captivating about watching my
own kids play.
Ben. Benny boy finished up preschool with flying
colors and is thriving in kindergarten this year. He has the same kindergarten teacher Charlie
had and I couldn’t be happier about that!
Ben is such a kind, considerate guy and really tries his best in all he
does at school and at home. He’s really
catching on to reading and it is so great seeing him loving it and doing so
well. I just started piano lessons with
Ben about a month ago. He started asking
me when he was going to start lessons a couple of months ago and I think he
sees Charlie enjoying it so much and he wants to see what it’s all about
too. Ben got to have a birthday party this year, so
for his 5th birthday he wanted a lego party. This boy loves all things legos, so it was
perfect. We also have a rule in our
house that you can’t chew gum until your 5, so Ben also got to chew gum for the
first time…he’s hooked. Just this past
week I finally got around to teaching Ben how to tie his shoes. You should have seen the look on his face
when he did it. His big brown eyes tell
all. He was so proud of himself. Ben is so great at encouraging others and
showing others he cares for them and has such a giving heart. We are so proud of this boy and just love
watching him grow and learn. Ben is
excited to start baseball this year. It
will be interesting…er…fun to see how having two kids playing sports goes. J I’m excited for
him to experience playing rather than in the stands. He’s going to love it!
Truman.
True will be 3 in March…CRAZY! Well,
actually he’s is almost 3 going on 9. He
does his best to keep up with his big brothers and he is as tough as they come,
but he gives the sweetest kisses and the best hugs. He’s stubborn, but has a definite sweet, soft
side too. He’s also a goofball like his
brothers and dadJ.
This sweet little blue-eyed boy melts my heart and keeps me on my
toes! This picture to the left here….yep, this is life with
a 2 year old. I did get all the keys except one back in, and fortunately
this is an old laptop we purchased when we lived in Texas 3 years
ago. If he’s quiet, then he’s
getting into something. This past summer we took a trip down to my
parent’s house in southern California while Dave took a trip to Israel for
work. While we were there we took the
kids to the beach. Charlie loved the
water, Ben played in the sand and liked the snacks and True was there for the
food and company. He didn’t want
anything to do with the water, until the last 20 minutes we were there I finally
coerced him down to the water and he LOVED it.
I was so proud of him for making it to the water’s edge and he giggled
with pure delight every time the water “tickled” his toes. In August, I was a little nervous about what
Truman would think about both the boys being in school. He actually adjusted pretty well to the
boys being gone half the day. The first
2 weeks he asked where they were a lot and sometimes he would look at me like,
“entertain me”. Now, we enjoy our time
together running errands, getting things done around the house, having
playdates, doing some school work and just spending time together. He is my little shadow and although sometimes
I’d like my space I know in my heart I’m going to miss it like crazy someday. In October, Truman learned how to use the
pedals on his bike. He was so proud of
himself. He kept saying, "I did
it". On one hand it makes me sad
because he’s growing up and really not a baby anymore. On the other hand, it is such a blessing to
have healthy kids who grow, learn, and excel at life.
Dave.
He’s awesome, of course! He had
his annual Tour de Cure for Diabetes band gig in April with some of the guys we
worship with and they played really well again.
Every July 4th, usually around the 7am time frame, Dave will
put on John Philip Sousa to get us all in the mood. Charlie is playing his trombone from
Christmas last year and wearing the white gloves that came with the trombone(hilarious….it
kills me every time), Ben is on the shaker, True is singing in the microphone
(his own words) and Dave is on the trumpet.
I think it’s safe to say that Dave’s dream of raising a band is slowing
coming true J.
As I mentioned above, Dave travelled to Israel this year for the 3rd
time in July. He toured Hezekiah’s
tunnel, Caesarea, and Nazareth. He also
travelled to Costa Rica for the first time for work. He had less than a day for sight-seeing, but
he did squeeze in a jungle cruise (that strangely resembled Disneyland’s jungle
cruise) and a zip-line excursion. He
said the food was awesome….much better than Malaysia, ha! Who wouldn’t’ like to
have fish heads in their pastries? Dave
took Charlie and Ben on the annual hunting trip this October. They all had a great time and made some fun
memories shootin’ and playin’. Dave
completed his 17th year at Intel and is still enjoying the people he is working
with and the challenges of the technology world.
Me.
Well, it’s hard to believe another year has gone by and these kiddos
keep getting bigger and I just love Dave more and more. Blessed just doesn’t describe how I feel, but
it’s close. I’m loving being a mom and
will continue to tell you it’s a HARD job, but I wouldn’t want it any other
way! With that being said, there's lots
of things I miss out on being a mom of boys and not girls, but January 8th
is one day I'll treasure FOREVER! This is the day Charlie and I practiced
tying ties on each other. We worked on it for a good 20 minutes, but we
both got it. The boys wear ties every
Sunday to bible class and worship service and I figured it was time for me to
learn. In April, I got to get away for
3 nights and 4 days with my sisters-in-love Kristen and Katy and my best friend
Wynter to celebrate birthdays. We went
to San Diego and took surfing lesson from Surf Diva’s (Mary Anne was very
patient and so helpful if you’re interested).
It was awesome! I NEVER thought I
would ever go surfing AND like love it!
The break and relaxation was so great!
This summer I had the boys do some more chores around the house and help
out more preparing food. It was great
and entertaining! I have a picture of
Charlie with the upper half of his body in the washing machine and his legs
sticking out tossing wet clothes to Truman who then puts them in the
dryer…seriously it’s never a dull moment around here! I’m so thankful for the help and I like that
my boys are getting more independent. In
September, I had just about had it with all the legos EVERYWHERE. I’ll tell you from first-hand experience they
are the most painful toy to step on and marbles are close second. So I made some huge shelves for the boys’
room. They look nice and now the boys
have a place to display their sets and creations – win, win. One of my other favorite times from this past
year was Halloween. All 3 of the boys
wanted to be ninjas. Charlie was VERY
good about being enthusiastic with his "trick-or-treat" and
"thank you" and Truman kept saying, "Momma next house??
Trick-or-treat and thank you?!?!" It was so cute. He thought
it was pretty awesome to go house to house and get treats. Now that it’s December we took the boys to
see Santa and we’re gearing up for the holidays. The boys are so excited, it really is a
magical time of year.
We’re
healthy and happy and feeling awfully blessed for this past year of memories,
family, good health, and friends. As
always we wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!
Love,
Dave, Michelle, Charlie, Ben, and True
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