Year-end Wrap Up

We ended our year, like most nights, with everybody laying around in the boys' room. Taking turns, everybody went around and shared their roses, buds and thorns from 2017. Rose - something that was great. Bud - something that you're looking forward to. And thorn - something that made you sad or mad or just stressed. The kids, thankfully, had a lot of roses and buds, with only a few thorns. For Tom and I, however...it might have been 50/50. Let's just say, I'm glad that this year is over and I'm really hoping 2018 has more roses than thorns in our garden.


Tom
The year started with a new house needing major work and a job change. Halfway through the year he experienced a very scary medical event. Thankfully God has cleared everything up and he's 100% again.








Everything with a motor and/or wheels seemed, at some point, to break down and need his time, energy and money to fix. Thankfully he's very skilled at watching fix-it videos on youtube and has continued to prove himself to be quite the handyman.


 Sometimes the house-remodeling gets him down and the weight of all that still needs to be done feels overwhelming. What he lacks sometimes in motivation to work on the house, he makes up for in his love and dedication to his family and his desire to love and serve his heavenly father. I am blessed to call him mine.

On another up-side, some major projects around the house got done and he's, for the most part, loving his job.



















Livvy
Livvy started 2017 as a tween in glasses, a half of an inch shorter than her mama. Now she's a full-fledged teenager, is a good inch taller than me (she makes sure to remind me of her height every time she hugs me), and has moved on to wearing contacts.

She went to Hume Christian camp for a week this summer for free because she sold the most enchiladas!! Also this summer she played another season of soccer. For numerous reasons, we're combining her 7th and 8th grade year which she's doing great with.

This past semester she took a wood-working class, helped out in MOPs, was on the Student Relations Teams for Operation Christmas Child, filled 41 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes and raised the money to pay for all of their shipping plus some, taught Danner preschool, and learned a lot at a girls' Bible study.

Livvy is an absolutely beautiful girl inside and out - I can only thank God for His goodness and grace for who she is today. She blesses me so much with her willingness to jump into any situation and help out. She's an amazing big sister to all her brothers, but thoroughly loves being second mom to Jon, Danner and Zac.

Livvy's birthday party - packing 41 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes!



Sam
This kid continues to amaze me. Barely 11, he has proven himself to be quite the worker. Playing soccer over the summer, he pushed hard to better himself (he loved every minute). In school he's already finished two subjects because he decided to double, triple, or quadruple what was assigned so that he could be done.

Wanting to save money so he could buy himself a dirt bike, he became the king of finding odd jobs around the neighborhood. If it snowed, he'd grab a brother and walk around asking if they could shovel peoples' driveways or sidewalks. On Saturdays when the weather warmed up, he'd again grab a brother or friend and rake pine needles, chop and stack wood, or whatever someone was willing to pay him to do. After saving and saving and saving, he was able to buy (with a little loan from Dad, which he's almost half way paid off) a used Honda CRF80 (with helmet, boots, and chest pad) that he's teaching himself to ride around our property.

Sam got drawn for elk for the second year in a row. Unfortunately, after days of camping, hiking, and hunting, they were skunked once again. I know it was a huge bummer for him, but he's had an amazing positive attitude about the situation. Start praying now that next year is his year.

Currently he's suffering from a concussion so he's unable to do much of anything. It's been quite the task keeping this kid down. "No. You have to just sit there."






Ben
I think Ben has had kind of a tough year; or maybe better said, I had a hard year with Ben. Being a middle brother, he's struggled more this year than others to define himself, allow himself to fail so he can shine. He has to really fight his first instinct of throwing in the towel when things get rough, and push through so he can learn and grow. Poor kid, he's just like his mama.

Being a natural athlete, Ben had another fabulous season of soccer this past summer. He celebrated his ninth birthday by going fishing with his friends. He usually accompanied Sam on his Saturday search for odd jobs. He's saved a fair amount of money but doesn't quite know what to do with it yet. He switched from piano to guitar, learning the intro to Smoke on the Water on the electric guitar for his first recital. Having officially been diagnosed with some learning difficulties, he's learning to push through some tough things to become a better reader, listener and learner. He also started going to speech therapy at the local elementary school twice a week. We've seen real improvement in his pronunciation of his r's.

Ben continues to develop his creative and sensitive spirit. He's a fantastic big brother to Danner and Zac, especially Zac - he has such a sweet and sensitive spirit towards him and any other little friend. When Sam was practicing riding his dirt bike, Ben came up with the idea to hook up the wagon to the riding lawn mower and take the littles for rides. He loves taking apart things and has quite the knack for creatively solving a problem or coming up with something fun to build. He got a first place in the county fair for a tree he made from leftover stranded cable. He's a real diamond in the rough.



Jon
Jon turned six at the beginning of last year. Preferring to find anything with a button to push or a brother to play a make-believe game with, he's a pretty happy-go-lucky, laid-back kind of kid. He can be very sensitive about some things, especially getting hurt, and is definitely getting into the stage of being his own little man, attitude and all. Jon has a very generous heart and has no real attachment to toys.

He's usually hanging out with all the little girls at church - there's just not a lot of boys his age. He doesn't seem to mind one bit.  He has really taken off with his reading and writing skills, which I'm very thankful for. He, like Ben, loves to read a book to Danner or Zac, providing that they sit still long enough for them to finish.

Here are a couple of sayings we hear very often from Jon:

"I know how to do that. You just push that button..."

"I'm gonna invent...that has this button and guess what? You just have to...and you push and...."














Danner
This "little-big boy" turned four not too long ago. He's a big boy because he's potty-trained (for over a year now) but he's still a little boy because he can't do all the things the big boys are allowed to do. It was an important distinction to make. He's currently working on giving up his thumb; which will help him to be more of a big boy, but probably still not quite big enough.

Danner can spin yarns like no other. After he's finished telling one of his tales (which he presents as truth), we say, "Wow, Danner! That's a great story, isn't it?" He usually flashes us a huge grin with his affirmative.

The youngest Cutlip so far to start riding a bike, Danner needed only the slightest bit of help from me before her started riding all on his own - no training wheels ever. He had been "riding" the glider bike for sometime and that definitely makes the transition to a real bike super easy.


Danner's memorable sayings:

"Heavenly Fadder, worsip da Lord. Dod, help me to obey my mom. Dod, help me to obey my dad. Dod, help me not to 'try (cry). Dod, help me to have a pet dinosaur. Amen."

"Right?" - after anything he happens to be talking about.

"Dess (guess) what?"

Regarding an activity we did before Danner was born:
Danner: "Where was I?"
Dad: "You weren't there. You were just a twinkle in my eye."
Danner: "Did I hurt?"



Zac
The youngest of the Cutlip clan is almost two years old. Zac started walking around 11 months and hasn't slowed down since. He's a funny little character that has displayed more and more of his stubborn willful side - takes after his father.

Zac loves his big sister (second mama) and his big brothers. He's usually right where the action is. If he's not in the midst of everybody, chances are he's getting into trouble somewhere, probably the bathroom sampling the toothpaste...again.

Zac's nicknames:
Zacky, Zackster, Full-speed, Charlie, Jo-Jo, Turd, Sweet Cheeks, and Trouble
















Jenn
As for me...it's been a rough year. Moving, remodeling, trying to figure out how to school everybody. It's been a bit stressful. Every time we find our groove, something interrupts it like Thanksgiving, hunting, Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love all the holidays, I do...as long as I let myself disengage from all the should-be's and could-be's of schooling.









There are epiphany moments when I can clearly see what really matters in God's eye, with the hope and perspective of eternity. In that moment, all the stresses and worries about doing enough and doing everything right are replaced with peace and freedom...and then it fades. Hopefully those moments will last longer and longer as I give more and more over into His hands.










Grammie & Pop Pop
In other news, Tom's mom and dad, are living in Flagstaff permanently. After spending last winter back in Ohio with Jim's sister, they headed to Flagstaff this past spring. We parked their trailer by the side of the house and they lived in that for about two months while looking for a place to rent.

They're now living less than five minutes down the road from us. It's on our way to everything so it's become our habit of dropping a kid off to hang out for the afternoon while the rest of us run an errand or two. The kids look forward to their afternoon with Grammie and Pop Pop - they usually play games, watch a little TV, bake something with Grammie, and sometimes go out for a treat. We also try to have Jim and Carol over a couple of times a week for dinner. It seems to be a very nice situation for everybody.









Well, that's all for our 2017:  Thorns - discussed in other posts, but also just the sin in all of us that mars everything that we do. Roses - great times with friends, school, hiking, our trip to Colorado, and lots of trips down to Phoenix to hang out with Oma and Opa.  And Buds - we'll see what God has planned for us this coming year - more of Him, less of us!





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