Our Family Holiday Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! In the effort to force you all into reading our blog, I've decided to post our first online holiday newsletter!

2009 was a very exciting year for The Dufour Family. On July 3, we welcomed (our fourth and FINAL member) our son, Brendyn. Since I haven't blogged about him lately, I'll start with our youngest addition. Brendyn is currently 5 months old and he weighs 18 lbs 4 ounces and is wearing nine month clothing! His bottom two teeth are already showing and with the way he's drooling I am sure we're going to see more soon! His skill set includes rolling over from his back to his tummy and can even manage to roll around on the floor and is working on sitting up. This month he started eating baby food and of course he loves it! He had no problem eating off the spoon. The only problem we do have during feeding time is that I don't get the food in his mouth fast enough!

We often refer to Brendyn as our "mellow fellow." He is the most quiet and content baby and is alway so happy to be part of anything that we are doing so long as he has a full tummy. WIth a family full of talkers, Joey and I were initially worried that Kate would do all the talking for Brendyn, but we stopped worrying a couple of months ago! He found his voice and has no problem making noise when he wants our undivided attention. Last weekend, we all heard Brendyn's belly laugh for the first time. I'll post that video too. He's just precious and perfect and we love him so much!

This year was also a very busy year for Kate. Kate is now three-years-old. This summer, we enrolled her in her first dance class and this fall she played in the Happy Feet Soccer League. She was the youngest and only female player on her team. A future Mia Hamm, she had no problem keeping up with the 4 to 5-year-old boys! Kate is also enjoying pre-school. Currently, her class is working on the alphabet and learning the sounds that each letter makes. Joey and I are learning lots of new pre-school songs associated with the alphabet.

This year, I had an opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with Kate from February-June, when my employment was reduced from full-time to part-time. I got to "briefly" experience life as a stay at home mom. We enjoyed some mommy-daughter time; meeting up with some of my other mom friends and playing with our friends who we don't always get to see on a regular basis. Spending majority of 2009 pregnant, it became increasingly tougher to entertain a toddler all day long and as my belly grew, I had to throw out some of our daily activities like going to Monkey Joes and the park -- when it came time to wrap things up, Kate would find a way to climb to the top of the tallest playground equipment in the park and I'm sure the residents of Roswell enjoyed watching me -- a very pregnant woman-- climb up there after her.

Joey and I also spent some time teaching Kate's two-year-old Sunday school class earlier in the year and then we decided to take a break and rejoin our adult friends in our own Sunday School class. We also completed Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, which was also offered through our church. Joey and I both learned alot and are currently working on the baby steps 1, 2 & 3! I have an additional baby step to work on and that is breaking up with Starbucks. For some reason, I just can't bring myself to do it. :)

All kidding aside, we do feel very fortunate to have made it through a very difficult year. We count our blessings each day!

On behalf of the Dufour Family, I wish each of you a healthy, happy and prosperous 2010! We look forward to seeing you soon!