Happy 2022 from The Bloods

 Belated “Christmas card” from our family to yours!

Seth (13) spends most of his days designing and coding Roblox games. He applied to a magnet program focusing on computer science for high school next year (!!!). His greatest accomplishment has been surpassing his mother in both height and weight. Next year's goal: pass up Dad.

 
Catherine (10) opted to give public school a try after beginning the year homeschooling. It was a bit rough to transition mid-year, but after making a new neighbor friend and falling in love with the clarinet, she's all in! Current loves include piano, rollerblading, drawing, and perfecting the tweenage scowl.

 
Aaron (8 ) still loves math, still hates reading, still would prefer if we would just let him play on his iPad all day. But since we won't, he contents himself with chopping sticks into tiny bits with a shovel or playing card games with Catherine. He also loves quantifying his life via his new Fitbit. Numbers are life.

 
Elise (5) started kindergarten and it was THE BEST DAY EVER! She cries on the weekends because she just loves school so much. She’s my little sidekick, always helping me cook. Our little Sunshine Princess, full of glitter, rainbows, sugar and spice.

Elijah (2) still speaks fluent caveman (“Want milk”) and has been pretending to potty train for several months now. He lives for construction vehicles, especially “gullbozers.” He also screams at our Google if it dares play any song that isn’t “The Imperial March”, which he calls the “pew pew song”.

Jon is still working for the US Army doing lots and lots of data analysis. He won a competition for designing a self-learning program to help predict repairs for the Army. His free time is full of cleaning, helping Seth with programming, and playing with his new pet: a robotic lawn mower named Mow-Mow.

Megan is still homeschooling the boys while trying to navigate public school for the girls. She’s also taken up running for fun (much to middle-school Megan’s bafflement). At church she works with the teenage girls, which is how she ended up with her first pair of Vans since high school. Still staying up too late reading, as usual.

 

Wishing you all the best in 2022!

Love, The Bloods

(We took these pictures in November because the fall leaves were still pretty. But I happened to choose the windiest, coldest day of the month. There were mighty complaints and basically zero cooperation from anyone. Melissa was a trooper and managed to get these very, very realistic family photos for us. And no, Seth isn't taller than Jon. He's just up on a slight hill.)