Valencic Family Newsletter

September 17th, 2007 edition

I need to get better at updating!  Summers are crazy, but you think the school year would be crazier!

I love fall.  I like when the weather cools down and we can do more outside, harvesting the garden, Halloween and fall activities, the beauty as the leaves change colors... too bad it still feels like summer around here, hehe.  Well, kind of, but it IS cooling off right now.

Most everyone should have received the news by now, but we are expecting our 8th child, official due date, April 2nd, unofficial due date, April fool's!  Baby's site is here complete with pictures (ultrasound).  We are very excited, though a tiny bit surprised.  Our babies are usually a little farther apart than this.  Timothy will be 16 months when this baby is due.  Plus, we seem to like to do everything at once.  Over a period of 3 weeks, there will be Easter, Nathanael will turn 5, the baby will be born, General Conference will happen, Emilie will turn 8, Emilie will be baptized, and the baby will most likely be blessed the same day she is confirmed.  Oh, and then Tom has a birthday, but that's a little later in the month.  Let us know if you want to come visit at that time.  Oh, and even more reason to look for a 12 passenger van, after Amanda needs her car back.  :)  It's saving us right now!

Tom and I are still doing all the stuff we were doing before, parenting, callings, job, homeschooling, yardwork, housework, playing, only now I have a job as well.  It's only part time evenings and Saturdays, but I enjoy it.  I work at Sears Portrait Studio.  They seem to like me there haha.  I like the discount.  They like my pictures.  It works.  Oh, Tom has a new calling.  He is now Cubmaster for our Cub Scouts.  And no, they didn't release him as Ward Mission Leader, either.

Looking at our last newsletter, I never did make a GeoTrax page but everyone still loves trains!  Timothy loves turning a train on and then chasing it across the floor.  He still is affectionately known as our train-wrecker.   Tom got track sets for his birthday.

Michael is nearly 11 years old (in November) and almost has his Arrow of Light for Cub Scouts.  He is doing 5th/6th grade work right now for school and is completely fascinated by the world of electronics.  He took apart an old calculator and had fun with that.  He loves figuring out how it all works, wants to build a robot of his own design, and is well beyond his mother in electronic knowledge.  Help!  Thank goodness for the library.  He still loves antique cars, legos, drawing, reading, cartooning, Cub Scouts, Calvin and Hobbes, math, science, and many other things.  He is hard to keep up with!   His site is here.  I'll update it after his birthday.

Benjamin will be 9 in 17 days.  (I had to go count)  He hasn't earned as many Arrow Points for his Wolf as he wanted to, but has a lot of other things going on right now.  He loves helping with his baby brother and isn't so keen on schoolwork this year.  He's in 3rd grade and things seem to take too much time, to him.  His writing is improving tremendously and he is currently reading Harry Potter, now that he has finished all the Magic Tree House books.  He loves jokes and biology.  He also loves science, being outdoors, being active, Transformers, Legos, Harry Potter, running, jumping, and many other things.  He is excited about being a Bear scout and being able to do more in scouts.  His site is here, and will be updated soon!

Emilie is 7 1/2.  She is learning something new every day, and we are frequently told how smart she is.  We just tell her she needs to act like it!  She is reading very well and loves homeschooling.  She is now in 2nd grade.  She is excited (still) about being baptized next April.  She is also excited about a new baby at that time, and hopes and prays that the baby is a sister, not another brother.  We know she will love either one.  She loves playing girl stuff, being outside, playing loud, dancing, singing, and reading.  She's not too happy about being quiet, being still, or doing something that wasn't her idea, or having her own room.  We weren't able to get her into dance this spring or fall, but maybe soon.  She loves Junie B. Jones books, Amelia Bedelia, and is trying to read Harry Potter as well.  Her site is here.

Nathanael is 4 1/2.  He knows he will turn 5 after Christmas.  And then we tell him it will also be after Samuel's birthday, and after Valentine's day, and after St. Patrick's Day, and even after Easter this coming year.  And then right after his birthday he will get a new baby brother or sister!  Nathanael says this baby is definitely a girl.  We'll see!   He is learning to read, write, and loves anything homeschooling.  He loves playing with Samuel though it's not always a good thing, and loves trains.  He loves to color and draw, play with legos, and anything Samuel is doing.  He is my first child to constantly ask me questions about where something comes from, what does this word mean, what does this say, what do these eat, where does this go?  His site is here.  He loves his Primary class and his teacher.  He can sing "The Spirit of God" from start to finish from memory, and "Lord, I would Follow Thee".  These are hymns we've recently learned as a family.

Samuel is constantly talking.  He is 2, and will be 3 in January.  He actually talks very well, but you'd never know it if you weren't here in our home as a fly on our wall.  He refuses to talk to anyone else besides family.  His teachers in Nursery think he doesn't talk at all.  He knows all his letters, numbers, colors, shapes, most of the hymns we've learned as a family (his favorite hymn is "The Spirit of God") and some Primary songs.  He can "read" all the names in our family.  That might be partially because all the kids' names start with different letters.  We might keep that up, we're not sure.  It sure makes it easier to mark things with initials :)  He doesn't want to potty train.  I'm not sure if I want 3 in diapers again though, we'll try again soon.  He loves to color, loves Elmo, runs around the house being "Super Turtle".  (don't ask) but loves Superman and being Super Samuel alongside Super Nathanael.  He has a huge imagination and is just a joy.  Most of the time.  His site is here.

Timothy is growing like a weed, and moves even faster.  He is 10 months old and trying to walk.  He stands up, from the floor, and laughs at us.  But he refused to take a step.  He is as tall as our kitchen table, and can reach way too many things.  Nothing is safe!   He is in sizes 18 months-24 mos, but we still try and fit him in a 12 months every now and then.  I need to separate out his sizes again.  He can crawl faster than I can walk sometimes, depending on what I'm carrying and what's on the floor.  He has 4 teeth.  He is still nursing, but that will probably end when he's a year, depending on other things.  I really need to update his site, as he has grown so much since May!  He babbles, can blow raspberries very well, and will bite your toes if you leave them where he can reach them.  He has a great giggle.  He loves his family, and we love him!

Baby 8 is not doing much that we can tell, though we know he/she is moving around quite well, has a strong heartbeat, and growing well.  You can get to his/her site here.  The next doctor appointment is October 1st, so we will most likely not have any updates until then except for maybe amusing notes from this side of the womb.  We have no feelings either way on whether this baby is a boy or a girl, though the timing suggests that it could possibly not be a boy according to our history, haha.  I'm also carrying differently, though that could just be because I'm in better shape than with my last few pregnancies.  However, there is no way we would be disappointed with either gender.  I will not speak for Emilie, however.

Please call, write, email, and/or visit anytime.

Love, Tabitha, Tom, Michael, Benjamin, Emilie, (Joseph), Nathanael, Samuel, Timothy, and ??