Here we are again! This year has been a whirlwind. At the end of 2020 we were finishing up our old house and looking for a new one. We started the year off finishing our house so we could sell it. We somehow managed to sell our house, have a baby, and buy a house all within a two week period. Our realtor, Cyle Ossiander was AMAZING and we are so grateful for everything that he did to make it happen. We officially closed on our old house February 5th, had a baby the same day, and closed on our new house two weeks later. We started house shopping with the expectation that we would have to give up a lot of things on our wish list to stay within our budget. Long story short, we got everything we wanted in a house within our budget! We love it where we are now and our kids have become a little free range out here. You can read more about our house hunting and moving here.

We celebrated Granville’s 4th birthday on February 2nd with pizza and cake!

Orwell was born on February 5th…barely. The other kids were so excited to meet him when we came home from the hospital.

I haven’t posted his birth story yet as I’m still working on that blog post and some of the emotional heaviness that came with his birth. Orwell has been the perfect addition to our family and we can’t imagine our lives without that little accident!

We officially moved into our new house in March. We are on 10 acres now which our kids absolutely love! We have a lot of dreams for this property and house that we are slowly working towards. We are working hard to make things more comfortable here. I’m hoping to have pictures on the walls sometime in this decade. I hate decorating so if anyone enjoys doing that and wants to come do it for me, that would be great!

We did a few things to the house before it was ready to move in and have been doing some projects since we’ve been here as well. One of our big projects was getting Austin a workspace outside. There were already a few small outbuildings on the property so Austin used one of them to build a workspace until we are ready to build a larger shop. We poured concrete on the outside of the building to put a lift up. Then we closed in one stall of the barn and poured concrete there as well. Someday we would love to build a large shop but we move at the speed of cash so it might be awhile before that happens.

Thanks for all your hard work, Garrett!

In April, we sent in Orwell’s genetic test for Marfan syndrome which came back negative. That was a huge answer to prayer! All of our other kids had to have blood drawn for this test. This time, the geneticist sent us a cheek swab that we mailed back to them. I went back and forth thinking that some days he had the signs of Marfans and other days he didn’t. His long toes made me think that he had it but all of our kids have long toes. 🤷🏻‍♀️

On April 19th, we celebrated Emery turning two. He has that “third kid personality” that no parent is ready for. He makes life interesting around here!

In the spring, we really enjoyed all of the surprises our yard held. We discovered daffodils, irises, Lillies, poppies, and so much more! We don’t know what we will do with the garden in the future but we were pleasantly surprised to see that it bloomed all spring and summer. I think I’m going to need to brush up on my gardening skills and be ready to get my hands dirty next year.

We bought a Ford Excursion in the spring as well. We really thought it would be the perfect family vehicle but decided pretty quickly to cut our losses on it and buy something bigger…much bigger. We bought a 15 passenger van from our church and now I’m trying to convince Austin to let me fill it.

We spent our summer at T-Ball games, ballet recitals, riding the four wheeler, eating mulberries, and taking a few camping trips. We bought something this summer called a water blob. It was so worth the $30 we paid for it!

Ellie learned how to paddle board this summer.
Gran is going through a very photogenic stage right now.

My mom and I managed to surprise Austin and the kids with some special guests while we were in Branson. Like usual, we visited Silver Dollar City and had a blast! We did a little shopping while we were there and Ellie discovered Vera Bradley. She is still quite the fashionista.

We had the firetruck in a parade over the summer where it won second place for being “On fire for Christ!”

We are homeschooling the kids still. Ellie is in second grade this year. She’s a total bookworm and I love it! Gran is working on the basics but we aren’t following a curriculum with him yet.

I’m September, we celebrated my oldest brother’s wedding. Ellie was a flower girl in the wedding and she took her job very seriously.

This fall, Austin and I both took on way more side work than we should have. For Halloween this year, we took the easy route and bought everyone cheap costumes. Wells got to wear something that was already in his closet and we called it a costume.

At the end of November, we celebrated Ellie’s 7th birthday. She requested a girls only party at Chuck E. Cheese so we that’s what we did. I’m not sure who had more fun though, the kids or us.

Ellie danced in the Nutcracker again this year which kept us pretty busy from October to December 19th. She was a small soldier this year. She loves to perform and works really hard at ballet. We are getting better at dressing appropriately for ballets. Austin didn’t wear a tactical Fanny pack this year but he did wear flannel with a cowboy hat. Gran wore a suit…with his boots over the top of his pants. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Now I’m just working on getting Austin to understand the storyline and not make inappropriate remarks throughout the whole show.

This year saw a lot of change for our family. We are so grateful for all of the people in our lives who saw us through those changes and were here for the hardest parts. We are so blessed by all of you and we can’t thank you enough for all that you do for us! We pray that all of our friends and family members have a wonderful holiday season this year!

Merry Christmas!

The Francis Family