2025
Parents of older children often tell me how fast the time goes, and it’s true. Our family that used to be “3 under 4 years old” is now solidly in school-age as I try to understand how they became these wonderful little humans we have in our home.
Hannah completed first grade in June, turned seven in July, and started second grade in the fall. She’s constantly creating art, making up games to play with her brothers, and finding new ways to enjoy her new skills. This was really the first year she became interested in pop culture, starting with a healthy obsession with K-Pop Demon Hunters over the summer. We’ve also started reading Harry Potter to her in the evening (the same copies I read fervently back in the ‘90s), and she’s wholly invested. She still loves animals, especially turtles, and more recently, ostriches.
Owen has moved up a couple of classrooms in preschool and is enjoying the freedom of being a four-year-old. He loves art, making music, and learning to spell (always asking how to spell things). Not to mention everything with food (cooking, eating, daydreaming about). As he and Nolan spent part of the year in different classrooms, he’s gotten some practice in being his own person instead of always being in a pair. He’s graduated from wearing leg braces, and is still doing very well in physical therapy.
Nolan has also moved up a couple of classrooms in preschool, and has been really loving a lot of the perks that come with being 4. He’s doing great in solo swimming lessons (no more Mom and Dad in the pool!), still loves puzzles and legos (the more intricate, the better!), and he still looks up dearly to Hannah. He’s doing wonderful in speech therapy and loves the games he gets to play there!
Sara is still at IBM, and did some more traveling than usual for work this year. Evan is rounding out his second full year with Zoom, and tries to fill whatever free time he can with running, writing, songwriting, and of course, video games.
We continued to acclimate our children to travel this year, getting used to traveling with Nolan’s food allergies:
In June, Evan and his sisters hosted a 40th wedding anniversary party back in Lindsay, Nebraska, where they invited a ton of people. Gary and Carla had a lot of fun showing off their grandkids to their family and friends.
In August, we went back to Whitetail Regional Park and stayed two nights in a row, along with Sara’s parents, Dick and Colleen. Dick made a campfire for the kids, and they got s’mores with freshly roasted marshmallows!
In October, Evan and Hannah did a quick trip to Lincoln, Nebraska where Evan and his mom got to see the play Pivot by Alex Lubischer take advantage of Grandpa babysitting!
In November, the whole family went down to Omaha, Nebraska for Evan’s cousin’s wedding. It was great to see so much family over a quick trip.
In December, the whole family went back to Lindsay, Nebraska for Christmas with Evan’s sisters and their families. Fifteen people in a single house for five days is a lot of commotion, but it’s good commotion.
2025 was a challenging year on many fronts for our family. We pushed ourselves to do more, and sometimes the world pushed us, too. It’s good to try, it’s good to grow, and it’s good to aim a little higher than the year before.
We hope you had a good year, and we wish you all the best in 2026. If you ever find yourself in Minnesota, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d love to see you.
This was created entirely without the use of AI.