Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year from the Alpha Gang!

Hope you are all doing well. We have so much to be thankful for this year.

Our year began with buying our first home on Valentine’s Day. Our neighborhood is a dead-end subdivision. The neighbors are friendly, and have become like family. The kids love our large yard, riding bikes, and playing on their new swing set.

On April 2nd, April and Daniel celebrated seven years of marriage. April had just found out she was 12-weeks pregnant with baby #3.

On May 28th, Cassie turned two years old.

In June, we did our first home remodel to add a dishwasher. We also added a smaller member to our family, our beloved Buster. We figure he’s about 7-8 years old. He’s a long-haired dachshund, quiet, sweet and loves riding in the car. Then at the end of June, we attended the Patrick Reunion in Ottumwa, Iowa.

On October 17 at 4:23am, our third child entered the world – Emily Rose Breon. Born two days late, she weighed in at 9lbs, 1oz and 20.5 inches long. She looks just like our other two, but has brown hair like Daddy (though it does have a red tint to it too).

On November 23, Benjamin turned six years old. He started Kindergarten this fall. He went to summer school the month of June and several VBSs this summer. He’s learning to play basketball with the school team but is not very good at it.

April has continued as a stay-home mom, keeping busy with our threesome and still attending MOPS.

Daniel is still working with JPMChase in Springfield (will be four years in February). He has earned site-wide “Employee of the Month” twice now! Yea, Daniel! He is also holding a second job right now at the Ozark Nursing Home as janitor/maintenance. This is a nice, relaxing job and is even teaching him some basic maintenance that’s helping at home. He works 7am-3:30pm seven days a week. L We hope he won’t have to work the second job much longer.


We enjoyed seeing Daniel’s family for Thanksgiving Day. The Breon family has grown by two this year, Deanna’s engagement to Luis Cecenas and baby Emily (5 weeks in pic). Deanna and Luis both finished their Bachelor degrees and graduated in May. Deborah is a sophomore this year at SBU in Bolivar.

Then we celebrated a second Thanksgiving with April’s family on the weekend. It’s been a pretty quiet year for the Hissink family. Grandpa, Gerald Bonnette, turned 92 in August. We are so proud of him. He wears a baseball cap that says, “WWII veteran,” and everywhere we go, people stop and tell him, “thank you for serving.” Dad, John Hissink, finally got a job after three years without, working as janitor at a nearby Christian school. Brian and Charity celebrated one year in August.

**Note: On Christmas Day, Grandpa Gerald had a stroke in his left brain. It looks that he could recover, but still has not awakened. At 92, he was still bowling three times a week and still living alone. Please pray for him, we’re praying a miracle that he’ll return to us.

May God richly bless you this year!
April, Daniel, Benjamin, Cassie, Emily and Buster