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Merry Christmas Everyone,

Can another year have already passed?  I must be getting older.  I like staying at home more than going out, I spend weekends canning fruits and vegetables out of my garden, and time seems to pass very quickly.  But getting old is ok, it is definitely better then being younger.

This letter is an update on the Bertoch clan.  It may be boring.  I take no responsibility if you read on.  In fact, it has become somewhat formulaic, based on past letters.  Maybe I shouldn’t read all the past letters right before I write a new one.  Ok, here goes:

2005 has been a lot like 2002 .  In 2002, I had a home, a good job that I enjoyed, and my family was all healthy.  2003, and 2004 were challenging.  But this year has been a great one.

This year in July, we had our fourth baby.  We named him Hiram.  We call him baby Hiram.  It will be funny if that sticks.  When he is 30, ‘come here baby Hiram’.  It has been kind of strange for me to adjust to having another Hiram in the family, or anywhere for that matter.  I only knew one other Hiram, and he called himself Seth.  I am used to Hiram being me.  Now every time someone says ‘Hiram is soooo cute’, it is great, because I think they are talking about me. 

He is a big, healthy boy.  He laughs a lot, and sleeps deeply.  He makes it through the night often without waking up.  He is a good baby, a lot like his older Sister Hannah.  It is amazing how different each one is though.

Hannah started Kindergarten this year.  We home taught her for a couple months.  We have been working with her for a long time on reading, math, etc.  My experience working for Bridges has been a tremendous help.  She is already reading six and seven letter words, and loves to read story books.  She can add, and subtract pretty good size numbers.  We thought that Kindergarten was too easy for her, and wanted to keep her progressing, so we worked with her at home.  But after a couple months, Hannah said she wanted to go to school.  Her friends at church talk about school, and she felt left out.  So we signed her up.  We are still teaching her at home as well.  She is also taking piano lessons.

Ben is a sweet boy.  He is in his second year of preschool.  He is still very shy, but he does have his moments, when he surprises us by going way outside of what he is usually willing to do. 
Emma is finally out of her brat stage.  She is the sweetest little angel.  She is doing great health wise.  We are coming up on about 10 months since she has had an extended hospital stay.  In July she had her cardiology appointment, where they told us everything looks great.  She will have this appointment annually until she is done growing.  She tries hard to choose the right, and please her mom and dad.  She still does not like to snuggle too much, but she is more snuggly then she was before.

Anna is wonderful as always.  I have the flu today, and she has taken care of me all day long.  We men are wimps when it comes to being sick aren’t we.  She is a great mother, and person.  She is pursuing her hobbies, such as crocheting, painting, and more.  She is also addicted to blogging I should mention.  I couldn’t talk her into writing her own letter, so she will just have to be happy with one paragraph.

Lets see, time to talk about myself.  Well, like I said above, I am happy.  I am enjoying my job, my church calling, my family, I feel very blessed right now.  By the way, I didn’t order those based on importance.

This year, I planted a garden for the third year.  I really enjoy gardening.  I also enjoy canning what we grow, and eating it is of course fun as well.  As a family, we canned several hundred quarts this year, and also froze enough stuff to fill an entire standup freezer.  My websites are doing great.  I have launched two new ones this year including kidsnumbers.com, and kidsmemory.com.  I am working now with others, on kidsspanish, kidsbiology, and kidsdoctrine.com. 

We love you all.  Please take a minute to let us know how you are doing.
Love all yall
The Bertoch Clan