Here is what has been going on in the Benisch Family since January 2009. (For a recap of 2008, scroll down and read Doug’s Christmas letter.)

Amy – After nearly two years at home, I returned to full-time work outside the home on February 2nd. It was a true blessing from God that I was able to find a great job in this economy. I am enjoying it very much! While, there are a few wrinkles to work out, the family has adjusted quite well to mom being back at work. I had discovered that being a stay-at-home mom was not a very good fit for me, and I was finding myself more and more unhappy in that role.
I can’t say that being back at work has made me a better mom, but it certainly has made me a happier mom. I can’t help but believe that in the long run that will be the best I can offer my kids.
Family time has become much more important to us now that we are both working full-time outside of the home. Besides having dinner as a family every night, our evenings are dedicated to TV-free family play time. Both of the kids really seem to enjoy this special time with mom & dad.
Now that I have “officially” recovered from Mia’s birth, I have returned to belly dancing classes once a week. This is a great opportunity for some exercise and “me” time. My dear friend Joy has joined me in class this session. It is great to have someone to laugh with, when you can’t fathom how the teacher expects you to move your body the same way she just did!! I would also like to find time to squeeze in a yoga class. But, I haven’t found one that works with my schedule yet. I may just have to become disciplined enough to do yoga at home. I am still pursuing my MBA. To better accommodate my work and family, I have switched to an on-line program. I will be switching my emphasis from marketing to health care administration.

Charlie - Charlie goes to a wonderful Montessori school. The transition from three half-days to three full-days and one half-day has been pretty smooth. Charlie loves school and is excited to go. (On most days) In fact, one day last week when I went into to wake him up he said “Let’s hurry mom, so I can get to school and play with my friend Isabelle.” I am so grateful that Charlie has such great and caring teachers. Charlie has also been working on his ice skating, so he can be a hockey goalie when he grows up. Doug and Charlie were going skating one a week for practice.
He is quite the goofy little boy, making us laugh often. He also has an obsession with farting and has been known to pray to God about farts. His prayer last night went something like this “Dear God, please don’t give me any scary dreams, but if you give me scary dreams I will fart on you.” I guess Doug and I need to work on a little theology with him.
He is a great big brother, smothering Mia with hugs and kisses. He always includes her in everything we do, and takes care of her. He has been known to clean her face, hold her, play with her and in general helps us out when we need him to.
Charlie also is a typical almost 4 year-old, and he can be extremely trying at times. It is amazing how much (or how little) patience you have. But over all he truly is one of the greatest joys in my life!!!

Doug - Doug is still enjoying work; he was hoping to move to four – 10’s when Mia was born, so the kids would only be in daycare 3 days a week. At least for the foreseeable future, Doug will have to continue to work five days a week. However, he does get off early on Thursday, so the kids are only in daycare 3 ½ days a week.
Since I have returned to work, Doug has taken over making dinner during the week. He quickly discovered that trying to cook with an almost 4 year old and a 3 months old is more difficult than cooking with just one child under two.  But, Doug is a trooper, and a really good cook, so he is making the best of it!!! I expect us to use the crock-pot more in the up coming weeks!
Doug is still playing hockey, and loves it!! It gives him some much needed “me” time. The kids and I don’t often get to watch him play since most of his games start after bedtime for the kiddos. But, he has an early game today, so after nap, I will load the kids up and go watch him play. Charlie LOVES watching his daddy play hockey.

Mia – Sweet Mia is growing bigger everyday. She still is a petite little girl, only 8 lbs at her last doctors’ visit, but she is already full of spunk. In addition to loving her brother’s hugs and kisses, she is also tough enough to handle it when he gets a little rough. She is babbling up a storm, rolling over, sleeping through the night and she loves to lie on the floor and move her arms & legs a million miles an hour. She is much more active than Charlie, less likely to cuddle and definitely a better sleeper. Mia is also a thumb sucker, and I am not sure how I feel about that.
Mia has transitioned well to daycare and has quickly become one of the teachers’ favorites. I get a detailed report everyday of how she spent her day. It is nice to see that she gets cuddled and held several times a day.
Her hair still sticks up all over, we are constantly being stopped by strangers who are amazed by her hair.

Well, I think that is all for now – my goal is to update the blog weekly with the adventures of the Benisch clan.

Mia

I am not very good at expressing myself in writing. I just really don't have the patience to sit and write down how I feel. But I love photos and how they can express so much in a single image. I just love this picture of Mia, how it seems to capture her essence.

Why markers and kids don't mix!

25 Random Things About Me

I originally did this on Facebook, but thought I would share with the blog world too!

1.I love children and always wanted to have four. But with the difficulty I have in getting pregnant, staying pregnant and being pregnant, and the high cost of adoption that may not happen.
2.I always thought “good” moms stayed home with their kids. It was hard for me to admit to myself I liked being a work outside the home mom.
3.I am excited to start my new job, but feel a little guilty about leaving the kids.
4.I have a heart for the world’s orphans. It breaks my heart to think of all of the kids who go to bed without a forever family.
5.I am shy and sometimes uncomfortable around people I don’t know. (and sometimes people I do know)
6.I think Charlie is the funniest person alive and I have a bad habit of laughing at him at the wrong time. Like when he called Doug and me “lazy dumb buts” tonight because we were being lazy and didn’t want to go downstairs. Doug was very unhappy that I was laughing while he was trying to discipline Charlie.
7.I am a know-it-all.
8.I enjoy reading mystery novels, but I don’t really like romance novels. I find love stories boring.
9.I wanted to be an anthropologist or archaeologist; instead I became an “accidental sales person”.
10.I love to travel! I enjoy traveling with my family, even just me and the kids.
11.I have taken belly dancing classes for a couple of years, but I am too self-conscious to dance outside of class, even in front of my family.
12.My minor in college was religious studies. I love studying the world’s religions, but due to my studies I have some unorthodox beliefs.
13.Sometimes I wish I could be as organized and into cleaning as my friend Chris. Then maybe I would have liked staying at home more 
14.I am really into politics, but don’t often go out on a limb when discussing my views with people. It just isn’t worth an argument.
15.I am extremely luck to be married to such a great man!!! He is truly my best friend.
16.I am a huge procrastinator!
17.I feel blessed to have the friends and family that I have.
18.It amazes me how much of my personality Charlie has.
19.I like being mom to a boy and would have more boys if I could.
20.Camping is my favorite thing to do in the summer. I enjoy it when it is just Doug & the kiddos. And I enjoy when a large group of friends and family join us.
21.I would like to climb a 14’er.
22.This is harder than it sounds.
23.I have never broken a bone.
24.I love celebrating holidays, some of my favorite are Passover and Chinese New Years.
25.I love to takes nap, but have a hard time going to bed at a decent hour. I always want to read one more chapter or watch one more show.

Hiking

Doug and I have always wanted to climb a 14er. So, to begin our journey to be able to do that, we started taking the kids (including Belle) to an off-leash open space park near our house. On nice days we can hike around. We were climbing to the top of the hill these pictures were taken from, when Charlie got tangled in a cactus. He survived the ordeal just fine, but that is why he is crying in the picture of him on Doug's shoulder.

Stock Show

This year, Doug and I decided to take the kids to the National Western Stock Show. This was the first time Doug had ever been and my first time in nearly 15 years. We had a great time. Charlie loved the tractors and seeing all of the animals. Mia enjoyed all the attention her crazy hair got!! We didn't make it to the rodeo, maybe next year.

2008 Christmas Letter

Here is the letter Doug wrote for our Christmas cards.

Dear Friends and Family,
Amy is once again forcing me to do a letter for all of you to throw away. I’ll start out with the traditional tag lines normally reserved for these letters: hope this reaches you all in good health, we hope all of you have had a year that was as exciting as ours, and we so glad to have you all of you in our lives. While all tags lines are true, I believe they are self evident or we wouldn’t have cared enough about you to send you such a gem of letter. Let’s get started with the excitement!
In January (the 1st month of the year), we were up to our eyeballs in paperwork to adopt a girl from Thailand. We decided to turn the page on our quest to have a 2nd biological child. Also in January, we were honored to be asked to be the Godparents for Alex Patricoff. Alex is such a good kid and has a personality that can make anyone smile.
February. Let’s see here. Oh yeah, God threw another surprise our direction when we found out Amy was pregnant. Amazingly, we were granted our 2nd miracle child. While we were happy about the news, we were a little cautious with our excitement about the news because of our past history.
In March, Charlie turned 3. Enough said.
In April, my Mom and Gary got married. It was great to see Mom so happy. I’m pretty sure she is still smiling today because she is married to a really great man. Amy and I got a night out. We went to my plant’s 30th Anniversary celebration. Amy got to put faces to names. It really wasn’t all that memorable though, so I’ll stop there. We left right after dinner, which was underwhelming. Later in the month, we did have a memorable meal. Amy and I took Charlie out to have sushi. We were surprised to see Charlie dive right with his chopsticks and eat some sushi too. He ate both cooked and raw fish. He always seems to surprise us.
May came and so did 10 years of marriage for Amy and me! It was a pretty amazing feat for me. I’m not sure I’ve even been able to keep my parents interested in me for 13 years in row. Seriously though, I’m the luckiest man in the world and Amy has made it easy. I just hope we stay together until I’m wearing diapers again.
June was busy. I got put in the market for a shotgun because we found out we were having a girl! Let the purchasing of everything pink begin. We took a trip to St. Louis for Amy’s Great Grandmother Fuller’s 100th birthday. We had a great time at the birthday. We were able to get a picture with 5 generations of Amy’s family. We also went to Grant’s Farm where Charlie was able to feed animals and run through a mist machine for about an hour straight. We also took Charlie up in the Gateway Arch. It was a fun trip. Charlie had a great time with his grandparents and Aunt Sheryl. We also celebrated Charlie’s cousin Braeden’s 1st birthday. Braeden has some awesome cake eating skills.
In July, my sister Lisa and niece Jesse came to visit from Wisconsin. We celebrated their birthdays and Amy’s together at our house. We also went camping with them up in the mountains. We ended up taking a drive one day and ran into (not literally) a moose along the side of the road. The moose walked within about 15 ft. of the front of our car. Charlie had quite memory to take from the trip. He was so amazed.
August brought some interesting changes for Charlie. He started preschool at Victory Church. He’s in a Montessori program. He goes Monday through Wednesday from 8 am to 11 am. He loves school. Amy and I have been fortunate enough to observe him at school and it’s not the same Charlie we know at home. At home, he is playful and has a very quirky, silly personality. At school, he is very serious about doing his work and has an almost abnormal focus, for a 3 year old, while doing his work. He is also a rule follower at school. Just today, they had their Christmas party at school. Amy and I went. The class had circle time where they sat, sang songs, and prayed. Charlie was fidgeting and obviously had to go to the bathroom. Despite Amy and me pleading with him to tell his teacher he had to go, he would not leave circle time. It was time for circle and apparently nothing gets in the way of that. I am happy to report that Charlie has great bladder control and made it to the bathroom after the very important circle time. Also in August, Charlie and I took ice skating lessons together. We went for 6 weeks and now he can’t wait to play hockey like his daddy does. He actually says he wants to become a goalie. Charlie wanting to be a goalie doesn’t surprise with his personality.
In October, we took our yearly trip to pick pumpkins at a farm a few minutes down the road from us. This year, Charlie had us pick out 5 pumpkins. We had to get Mia and Belle covered. We went to Charlie’s school for their Harvest Moon celebration. It was fun to see Charlie interacting with all his friends. I was fortunate enough to be the only father there. That means all the boys hung on me (literally) when we were on the playground. I even got bit a couple times, but I don’t want to make this a ‘me’ thing. It was fun. Charlie’s trick or treating around the neighborhood with his friends was interesting. He absolutely refused to wear his Buzz Lightyear costume. So, he went dressed like a Charlie.
November came and so did Mia. Vital stats: November 18th at 8:33 pm. 19” and 5lbs. 12oz. Approximately 1 lb. of her body weight was the jet black hair on her head. Charlie can’t get enough of his little sister. Needless to say we are all thrilled to have Mia join the family.
In December, we got selected again for a home visit from Santa. The local fire department comes by on an old fire truck with a Santa. Charlie, Mia, and their cousin Braeden all got to see Santa.

I would like to thank all of you for making this letter necessary. We wish you all a Happy Holiday and a safe New Year.

Peace, Joy & Happiness

Doug, Amy, Charlie & Mia Benisch (Belle too!)