Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2006 was a landmark year for our family, due in large part to the birth of our fourth daughter Anne Marit on April 4. We now have the same number of children as many of our grandparents had two generations ago, something we never would have imagined when we got married in 1994! It feels large—like a farm family should, we once would have thought. But in our cozy Minneapolis home, it also feels wonderful…yet big enough, that’s for sure. So don’t anticipate a fifth child from us: Anne has the special designation of being our final child! And she is doing very well—she is an especially happy and good-natured baby, though she was also rather challenging in that she refused to nurse from a bottle until she was eight months old. (!) A sign of independence, or perhaps a sophisticated preference for only what is authentic? Who knows…we admit, it’s hard to spin that to the positive…it was a trying eight months indeed!

Our next oldest, Emma, turned 3 on March 31, so she is fast approaching four at the end of 2006. She is in many ways the most mysterious of our four girls. She can be shy one moment and exuberant the next. Her cryptic pronouncements (her speech is still rather unclear) make for interesting stories and conversation. And she is undeniably sweet most of the time, even though she has recently been going through some Terrible Three moments this fall (a belated Terrible Twos?). In spite of this, Emma also had a great year, and it’s hard to believe that after this school year she will have only one more year of pre-school before starting kindergarten in fall 2008! She also started swimming lessons this year, so it can be a busy pool at the YMCA with all of the Layon girls in it at once.

Grace, who turned 6 on July 21, had some dramatic moments in 2006. She finished kindergarten last May, started to loose her baby teeth, learned to ride her bike without training wheels in August, and has recently been growing like a weed (a full inch during one six-week period this fall!). Her reading has also taken huge strides—it is so thrilling to have her read to us at bedtime now! She is also our most spontaneous child: very theatrical, and with a powerful and lyrical voice. At this point, we should mention that our home could often be mistaken for a theater school—there is nearly always singing, acting, or other role-playing events taking place. Grace is often leading such creative excursions; she even fancies herself a conductor, and was seen trying to direct a string quartet at our church this fall (mercifully, they didn’t appear to be distracted by her waving arms).

And Sarah, who turned 9 on November 17, is in fourth grade at our neighborhood school. She is a crossing guard, takes piano and flute lessons, and recently participated for the second year in her school’s “Kids on Broadway” production for 3-5 graders. She had a brief solo part in Hairspray, and was also an ensemble singer for other musical selections including songs from Wicked, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, West Side Story, and Singing in the Rain. In August, Sarah also completed her second children’s triathlon, and in November she graduated to a new multi-geared bike with 24” wheels. Somehow she also had some time to play soccer (as did Grace), and sing in choir at church. It’s safe to say that she lives life richly, and is also growing up faster than we had ever imagined children could!

Of course, keeping up with all of this has also meant a busy year for us, too. Our very favorite jobs (as tiring as they are!) are being parents to our girls. The job descriptions include many tasks: washing, driving, packing lunches, giving baths, helping with homework, overseeing music rehearsals, and tackling a pile of laundry that seems to never, ever work its way down to being completely gone (are there clothes at the very bottom that have been dirty for several months, if not years?) And in addition to that, we also each continue to pursue careers; Kris as a web designer (and adjunct design instructor) and at the University of Minnesota, and Katie is an emergency physician at Fairview Southdale Hospital. And to help keep things balanced, Katie works 60%, which helps a great deal with keeping up with many of the domestic tasks listed above—she certainly deserves most of the credit for keeping our house in order, children on time, tummies full, and pantry stocked!

Finally, in addition to the everyday victories of family life, Kris set a huge goal for 2006 and met it: to run and finish Grandma’s Marathon. Starting last winter he trained three times per week, and successfully crossed the finish line of Grandma’s on June 17, 2006, with a time of 5 hours and 2 minutes. It was a big day, made even more exciting by the challenging race conditions (hot and humid), it being the 30th anniversary of the race, and it also being Sharon’s (Kris’s mom’s) birthday!

So it’s been a very blessed year for our family, and we hope that your year has been a good one as well. May your 2007 be filled with good health, peace, and opportunities to see each other and share good cheer.

Sincerely,

Kris & Katie (and Sarah, Grace, Emma, and Anne)

P.S. - For some photos from 2006, please visit our photo site at pbase.com.

Annie in NYC

Katie had a medical conference in New York last week and I wanted to go along, so we left the older girls in care of their grandparents and took Annie along to the Big Apple.

I will get around to posting more photos later, but here are two. The trip was great, though it was cut a half-day short due to us not feeling well on Sunday morning. =(