Christmas 2019 Newsletter

Willow (1 year)

Willow has grown so much this year! We celebrated her first Birthday in May. It has been wonderful to watch her grow and explore her world. She has a growing vocabulary and exercises it liberally. Her main request on the television is a set of music videos from Bigblock Singsong – you can occasionally hear Willow singing “Two Banana Day.”  Willow loves bows and shoes about as much as she loves to play superheroes with her brothers.

Gavin (3)

You might not have guessed based on last year’s Christmas card, but he may no longer be the most disagreeable member of our home. He’s kind of cute again – holding out hope it sticks this time. He is growing into a sweet boy and can often be heard giving encouraging words like, “you’re the best mom ever” or “I’ve always wanted one of these [insert any gift].” It’s really endearing. Watching him play would bring anyone joy as he takes Sheriff Woody on adventures to help Paw Patrol rescue a bunch of Disney Cars, blocks, or whatever – there is a new cast and mission every day. You’ll never see someone more in character than this little boy dressed as ironman. He was pretty convinced he could get a suit that flys him around the neighborhood for Halloween.

Owen (7)

Owen lost his first tooth this year which means he’s on his way to becoming one of those “big kids.” I don’t understand how 6 and 7 year-olds can play organized sports, but we’ve watched Owen and his friends play baseball and basketball this year. You can often find him at any of our many neighbors homes in the cul-de-sac playing with the myriad of neighborhood boys. We’ve had a dozen flag football games sprout up in our back yard this year. That’s probably a trend that will continue – we hope. Oh, did we mention he’s in first grade? The year is going well and he really loves his teacher and classmates. Mom and dad are trying to understand this “new math.”  We’re okay for now but it seems like he’ll probably be ready for calculus by third grade at the rate they are going.

Laura

Laura started the year with a special trip to Ottawa in February celebrating Nana’s 90th Birthday. It was great to see family and friends and everyone got to enjoy a snowy sleigh ride on a beautiful winter night. Owen, Gavin and Willow enjoyed time playing in the snow and they had a blast with their cousins. We got to celebrate bride-to-be-Candice with a Southern Bridal Shower Brunch with biscuits and mimosas. Uncle Dan flew back with Laura and the kids, and they enjoyed a day at the zoo before he returned home. Laura was glad to have her Mom come stay during the month of May; celebrating Willow’s birthday and kicking off summer break with Owen. In September the entire family arrived in Ottawa to join Dan and Candice for their wedding. It was an honour to stand with Candice as a bridesmaid and Laura was happy to welcome her to the family.  The wedding was absolutely beautiful. An end-of-year highlight was running the Graceworks Turkey Trott Thanksgiving morning with Owen.

Travis

This has been another eventful year for Travis.  It’s still amazing to him that he is able to combine his love for medicine (oncology) and computers (informatics) together and have someone pay him for that.  He continues to see patients with lung cancer while balancing research and operational responsibilities. This year, he took on additional responsibilities becoming the Director of Cancer Clinical Informatics for the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center. A main focus of his work continue to be improving access and interoperability of cancer patients’ electronic records – especially through the national work with the Minimal Common Oncology Data Elements (mCODE™) project. Just recently he was awarded a Microsoft Innovator Fellowship that will support his roles as a researcher and educator. In the evenings and weekends, he loves spending time with Laura and the children. Science conversations at the dinner table have become more fun as Owen is now old enough to contemplate interesting questions like whether you can or cannot “see” a black hole. We would be happy to have some of you come visit.

Christmas Present

Christmas Past