Happy New Year!

Here's a quick "catch-up" on the Wild-Westphal clan. We fell off blog mountain sometime back in August, and just found ourselves back at the top ready to try again. We realize that no one may really care about any of this, but we genuinely enjoy reading all of your blogs, so we hope this is somewhat interesting to you as well...or at least the pictures make you smile.

CLAY
Clay has had an interesting year. He turned 13 on July 20, a few days after the "Pioneer Trek". He also finished off well on the Barracuda Swim Team, placing high in breast stroke and improving in all other areas. He has a real love now for swimming and plans to do it again this spring. After a difficult 1st quarter back to Middle School, we decided to try home schooling for the remainder of the year. Many of you know he struggles with Asperger's Syndrome, which makes the already difficult adolescent years even that much more complicated. So far, he is enjoying the time with mom, learning math, reading, writing, and some enrichment in history and science. We have even taken up an elementary Latin course and Clay really enjoys it. He plans to repeat 8th grade next year at a charter school and then go to regular high school in 2011with his buddies from church. We are excited for his future which looks brighter with every passing day. He's a brilliant young man bursting with talent and creativity.

CATIE
Catie is 11 going on 13...she is bright, silly, and generally loves life. 6th grade has been fun for her. She has a large circle of friends, with a best friend named Aina Ahzer. They love to pour over "anime" cartoons, draw pictures, giggle and spend time together. Catie is doing well for a first time Middle Schooler, she has kept her grades high and continues to take honors math and english. Her teachers love her and she brings a lot of joy to our family as well. When she isn't home, things aren't quite as fun. Catie is currently talking guitar lessons from the best teacher in town (her dad...) She shows promise as a musician as it comes so easily to her. We hope she will continue to develop this talent in many areas as we know it will bring her much happiness in the future. Aside from these things, Catie loves to read, read, read. She still loves the "Warrior" series as cats continue to be her favorite animal, but she also likes Fablehaven, Peter and the Star Catchers, and many light "pre-teen" reads. We are so glad Catie is with us. We need her light hearted personality.

LACEY

Lacey has had a fun end to 2009. She is in 4th grade now, and doing well. She also began playing soccer again. She ended up on a really good team, with a fantastic coach (her dad) and they ended as the best team, placing first with the gold. They went to area play offs, and won their first 2 games and lost the last one. The last one was on Sunday, and Lacey opted not to play. She was sad when she heard they lost, but only for a few minutes, in her words "It's just a soccer game, it's not that important." The picture at the left is her with her "Aunt Carrie" her soccer inspiration. Carrie currently plays soccer and was able to make it to one of Lacey's games. Aside from all this, Lacey has taken up learning the flute and has come to love playing. She is very self motivated in practicing and plans to stick with it. Lacey is an entertaining child, very goofy and hardly ever serious. She teases us until we smile, and is good to lend a helping hand with little brothers ans sisters. She likes to do crafts and makes silly movies with her camcorder she got for Christmas.

LUKE
Luke is so much fun to have around. He loves kindergarten and his teacher and she is so good for him. He got an art award for a drawing he made and he couldn't have been more proud. It was a representation of people taking care of their pets and he was chosen as the best display of "Trust & Responsibility" by the art teacher. In addition to this, he also gets good grades and high marks for behavior. He is such a sweet, funny, bright person. He has also become good friends with Christian and they have a blast "being boys" rolling all over the floor, and laughing their heads off. It's so cute.

LEIA

What can you say about Leia? She is hilarious, and such an individual. I've never met a smaller person with a bigger sense of herself than Leia! She is doing equally well in kindergarten in a totally different way than her brother. She is in love with words and all day reads signs and all the words she can find with in the house and on the streets. She also spells things very well (better than her parents...) and is lighthearted, messy and wonderful. Her favorite things are riding her scooter, drawing, helping cook, playing with her brothers and sisters, and reading books. Her talent among many seems to be singing--she has this opera-like voice that is bigger than she is and continually amazes us as well as makes us laugh with her rendetions of popular tunes. We hope that it, along with dancing, are talents that can be shaped and fine tuned along the way. We can't wait to see how she turns out!

CHRISTIAN
Here is a great shot of Christian hugging the Han Solo christmas ornament--(yes, we have a Han Solo Christmas ornament and Luke and Leia too, of course...) Christian is mix of devil and angel all day long. He is usually the first one up and the last one to go to bed. He LOVES orange. He has to eat everything on orange dishes and drink our of an orange cup. He even likes to eat oranges, why? Because they're orange! He is rough and tumble, but can be found cuddling somewhere just before nap with his favorite "doggie" stuffed animal, and will tell you he "doesn't lub you anymore" to see your pained reaction, just before he tackles you with a big hug and says "I lub you" just to see out delighted smiles. He's in that "testing" age and starts his first day of Primary this Sunday at church. He is so proud to be a "big boy" and it's a good thing he's so darn cute or he'd be in more trouble each day than he could handle!

CORA

Aside from being able to double as a garden gnome, Cora spends most of her day flipping through books, coloring, hugging dollies, playing with her brothers and sisters, and making a mess. Cora dazzles us with her how well she understands things and is not afraid of many things. (just people...) We are so glad that we broke the symmetry and went ahead and had a seventh child. Now that she's here, we don't know what we'd do without her. She is in love with life and reminds all of us everyday to be thankful for the amazing world we live in. The name Cora comes from the latin root for "Heart" and that's what she is to us, "our heart".

Well, I know it reads like an annoying Christmas card, but there it is--a short update. We are alive and well, and hope are too! (especially the "alive" part)