Our 2011 Family Letter with Additions

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas!!  We hope everyone has had a good year and has much to celebrate this Christmas season.  We certainly have much to be thankful for in our family.

At the end of 2010 we announced that we were expecting identical twins.  On May 30 we welcomed our two little boys, Peter Xavier and Ethan Alexander, into our family.  We feel incredibly blessed to have them in our lives.  Their arrival came after several interesting months that included two hospital stays (thankfully short ones), approximately four months of bed rest (made better by many incredible friends who helped Kerri out), and eventually a c-section delivery (which went very smoothly).  The boys have been growing well, learning to roll over, smiling nice and big, talking up a storm, and completely changing our lives!

The birth of our twin boys is definitely the biggest news of 2011 for us, yet the year was filled with many other events as well.

In early February we had the privilege of going down to Atlanta to surprise Kerri’s mother on her fifth anniversary of being cancer free.  We were so happy to be able to be there for such a joyful occasion.

In the spring Kerri learned that she had received her promotion to Librarian I, the highest rank for librarians at the university.  This was a great accomplishment!

In July we celebrated Peter and Ethan’s Baptisms surrounded by family and friends.  We were so happy to be able to welcome our two boys into the Catholic Church surrounded by so many loved ones.

In October we grieved the death of Chris’ paternal grandmother.  All four of us attended her funeral in Remington, IN.   She lived a long life and will be missed by many.

This fall Kerri and several friends began a new blog called Catholic Sistas (www.catholicsistas.com).  Although a relatively new blog, it has already been getting a lot of traffic and select articles have been linked to from some well-known Catholic sites, including New Advent and the National Catholic Register.

Also this fall, we put our house on the market.  We hope the New Year will bring an offer so we can begin the search for a new home for our family.

As we look forward to the New Year, we feel lucky that Kerri will have the opportunity to work from home the first six months of 2012.  She will be on sabbatical and the boys will be able to be home during that time period.  Hopefully, Kerri will find a way to get some work done while surrounded by such cuteness!! 

Addendum:

As we begin 2012 we have a lot to look forward to.  We'll have a new niece arriving sometime in February and another new niece or nephew arriving in June.  Wedding plans will also be underway as Kerri's sister gets ready to wed in 2013.  Also we'll have the opportunity to once again travel to Hilton Head  in the early fall for a week with Kerri's family.  At about 15 months old, the boys will have such a fun time seeing the beach and the ocean for the first time.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!  Much love from our family to yours,

Chris, Kerri, Peter, and Ethan

The Boys' First Christmas
Chris with Ethan and Kerri with Peter