Family Update!

Ella

Asa

Anson

The Rollins Family

The Camp Family

Instead of trying to fit this into every Christmas card, I decided to post it on our blog! Here is our family update in a nutshell!

Merry Christmas! We hope you are having a wonderful season! We LOVE this time of year! This year is is especially nice being so close to our family! As you probably know, we moved to DeLand Florida in the beginning of June. I feel like we are still settling in! It is somewhat of a culture shock to be back in a small town after living in the big city for so long but we love DeLand.

After many years of talking about it and praying about it, we finally decided to move back to Florida. We had lived in Atlanta for 12 years, the longest Dusty had ever been in one city! We realized that we could run our commercial painting business from anywhere (the crews travel so much anyway) so why not be close to our families? In DeLand we are 10 minutes from Arin's parents, an hour from Amy and Andy (Arin's sister) and 1 and 1/2 half hours from the majority of Dusty's whole family! Arin's sister Aly is still in Maine and she and Brad have six children now!!! We just enjoyed a visit from them at Thanksgiving!

When we decided to move we started looking for a house in DeLand big enough for our family and at a price we liked. We were able to find both! After some pretty extensive renovations, we now live in a 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bath, 2 story home that was built in 1925! It has a lot of "character" and is perfect for our family. So now for the family part of the update:

Dusty is still running a commercial painting business out of Atlanta. He does not have to go to Atlanta as much as we had anticipated. Business is going very well and God has blessed! We recently hired an assistant to help with office work and we rented an office in Downtown DeLand. Having an office outside our home has helped Dusty get connected in our new town and meet some people. He also has time now to develop his insurance business which he has been working on for a few years now. He is very excited about this! We also live very close to the ocean and the St. Johns River which allows Dusty to go fishing when he gets the itch!

Arin is still staying at home with Anson, Ella and Asa. And since we hired our assistant, Kristen, I actually have time to home-school Anson who is in Kindergarten this year! Kristen is doing much of what I had been doing... bookkeeping, scheduling, calling, faxing, website and trying to keep Dusty in order! :o) She is much appreciated! Since moving back to DeLand I started playing my clarinet again in a group based at Stetson University called Southern Winds. We had our first concert in November and it was so nice to play in a wind ensemble again. I had not played since I graduated from college! I love being able to stay home with the kids and I learn so much as a Mom every day. They are as much fun as they are challenging!

Anson turned 5 in June! He was supposed to start Kindergarten this fall but we are keeping him home. We needed some time to get acquainted with the schools in the area before deciding where to send him. We have since found a very nice Christian school where we will pursue enrollment for 1st grade. He is such a fun kid! He is full of energy and passion for life! Everything is exciting to him, especially dinosaurs. If you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up he will say "a paleontogolist" (pronounced the way it is spelled!) He learns things very quickly and remembers everything! He also loves going fishing with his Daddy, playing outside, and watching dinosaur and nature shows. His favorite toy right now is his big box of animal figures which he plays with every day during nap time. He is allowed to play quietly while the others rest. He is a very sweet boy and we are so proud of him!

Ella turned 3 in September! She talks up a storm all day long and loves to sing and tell stories that all begin with "Once upon a time ago..." She gives new meaning to the phrase "filled with the dickens"! You just never quite know what she is going to come up with! Just recently her Papa was talking to an older gentleman and he said that he has 9 grandchildren with brown eyes but she was the first to have blue. The man asked Ella to show him her eyes. He said "Oh my, you have beautiful eyes!" and she instinctively cocked her head to the side, tossed back her hair and batted her eyelashes at him! :o) Like I said, full of the dickens! She is so much fun! She loves to play with her dolls and has a favorite stuffed doggie that goes everywhere with her. Her favorite colors are purple and green and she loves princesses and castles. We have been to visit Cinderella at Disney a few times this year... one of the perks of living in Florida! Ella adds flair to our little family and we are so thankful for her!

And our baby Asa was born on January 25th! He is the sweetest, happiest baby! He has the most adorable belly laugh that you have ever heard. He attracts a lot of attention when we are out and people just can't help but laugh when they hear him! He is our little peanut of the bunch and was born just shy of 7 pounds. He is rolling and scooting and getting up on all fours but not quite crawling yet. I am in no rush to have him mobilized! He is still quite bald which makes him all the more adorable and has bright blue eyes. Anson and Ella adore him and love to hold him. Asa is a blessing to our family and we are so thankful for him!

So to sum things up, this year we thank God particularly for sending His Son Jesus as the greatest gift, for quality time with our family, continued good health, and our happy home in Florida! We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Very Happy 2011!

Love,

Dusty, Arin, Anson, Ella and Asa