Merry Christmas, Dear Family and Friends!

If you walked into our home unannounced (this in itself might be a scary prospect), you would find MESSES (huge hunks of food that Alana has thrown down from her high chair, and probably an un-flushed toilet or two), NOISE ("Give it back!....Mama, she hit me....she hit me first...Mama I got bleed..."), AFFECTION ("Mama you are such a good cooker!...Daddy, you are my best friend."), and some BUSY-NESS thrown in ("Cate, the bus is coming in 3 minutes...where are your shoes?!").  

Messes, noise, affection and a little busy-ness...not only a picture of our home, but a summary of our year!  Some days in 2012 have been so LONG and even hard, but I always tell myself at the end of the day, "I am living my dream!  I am married to the Best Husband on the planet and I have a house full of kids."  (As a side note, who knew that kids were so loud?!)  As Will has been declaring boldly, "We are a FAMILY, guys! "

Let me share some highlights of our messy, noisy, wonderful year!

Troy is doing so well at work that he was promoted to Lead Project Manager.  We are proud of Daddy!!  He has continued to impact other daddies through leading a small group of men at our church in Bible study.  I can't think of a better man to be influencing fellow daddies.  One of his daddy-highlights this year has been spending a couple of hours each Saturday morning doing Daddy-Daughter and Daddy-Son dates, usually beginning with a breakfast at The Awful Waffle...um, I mean, the Waffle House.

Cate is a Kindergartner!  She is a "natural" as a student and a friend.  Wilson Creek Elementary has proven to be as good as its reputation, plus we just love her teachers, Ms. Betts and Mrs. Kenny.  Her best school friend is our sweet little neighbor Rebecca.  Every morning at 7:05 Cate meets her at the bus stop and they begin a day of fun together.  Then after school all the Burwell kids, plus Rebecca and a few more, come over and climb our big tree for a hour or so.  I think our record number at the front-yard-party so far was 13 kids.  

Ri-Ri has come so far in the past year that i am just amazed!  We just celebrated one-year since her legal adoption (you remember, it was followed by her first Burwell spanking soon after we got home from the court house!), and these days we spend a lot less time disciplining her and a lot more time just enjoying her!  She is a smart girl and is soooo ready to join Cate at school, but she has 9 "long" months to wait.  She does a lot of writing and drawing and water-color painting.  And what a little athlete that girl is.  Especially when it comes to climbing...she climbs that front yard tree so far up that all the other neighborhood kids are impressed.

Will loves it when I call him "my favorite son" as I often do.  (Tonight he informed me that I am his favorite mama!)  He is all boy, so one minute he is driving me crazy, and then next he is winning my heart.  He loves tree-climbing too, and running and biking around the neighborhood.  He loves time alone with Daddy, and Troy tries to give him lots of it...you know, "escape from the women" time!  They are way-outnumbered.  Also, he loved his summer soccer-camp and still wears his soccer jersey...stains, holes, and all.

Alana is almost 16 months old.  She has been walking for 7 months already...since she was 9 months old!  I think she just stood up and started running for her life from her rambunctious siblings.  She runs, jumps, spins, eats heartily, sings, and even does a pretty decent version of the Georgia Bulldogs cheer.  She has been so easy, an angel child, and just what we needed. 

The hands-down highlight of my year has been "starting school" with Cate.  It has been so fun to go to the bus stop twice a day and meet my neighbors!  I have made some great friends.  And to think that I have lived just a few houses down and never really knew them.  I love eating lunch with Cate at school and then going to her class as a parent reader.  I know almost all the kids' names and have really come to love her little class.  And I have gotten to meet many of the parents...especially at the birthday parties; they are always a chance to make a new fellow-parent-friend.  I was always such a "schoolie" myself so it just warms my heart to be BACK in school!

Being a mommy has been super hard but so good for me.  I told a friend recently, "I have never sinned so much in my whole life as I have since having and adopting these kids!"  My friend got a worried look on her face, like maybe she should be calling DFACS or something, that maybe I have become Crazy Mama.  But all I meant is that being a parent  has shown me the sin in my heart and mouth more than anything that I have ever experienced.  I am often getting mad at the kids for messing up MY plans, changing MY agenda, making ME late, eating MY food, drinking MY water, waking me up from MY nap, and interrupting MY computer time.  ME ME ME...it is like I think that it is all about ME.  One would think that four kids would have cured me of this, but selfishness is apparently rooted way deep.   I see how much I need The Lord more every day.  I see how bad I am. I see how good Jesus is.  I see that there is no way I would have ever earned my way to heaven.  I see that I am no better than anyone else, and probably worse than a lot of people.  I see my hypocrisy.  You get the idea. So really, my kids are teaching me as much as i am teaching them.  That has been on my mind a lot in 2012, so i thought i would share it.  Probably many of you can identify!  

Anyways, this just seemed like the perfect time to send that big update and tell you all what we wish we had time to tell in person, all the fun life events that our family is sharing together.  the Burwells are soooo excited about Christmas around here and hope you are too!  Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and we love y'all!