Biennial Christmas Greetings

It was the best of times…. It was the worst of times…
The last couple of years have been full of challenges and happy moments. Thankfully, more of the challenges were last year and so many blessings came this year. (Perhaps that’s why I never even sent out Christmas cards or letters last year so you get the double issue this time around on the blog). Last year Jared and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary with a fun overnight getaway to Island Park. This year was a bit simpler. We left our less than 2 week old baby with a friend for a 1 hour getaway to a restaurant.

After a lot of restructuring at LDSFS Jared became the Counseling Manager here in the ID office and was so excited to have one of his best friends from graduate school come to join him in the office this summer . He is truly blessed to work in a “heavenly” atmosphere. Springtime is now full of excitement and busyness around our house because the boys have started wrestling. I think Jared gets even more excited than the boys when they participate in wrestling tournaments. He also enjoyed coaching Dan’s tee ball team for the past 2 years and staying fit with early morning basketball.

Heidi is very happy to be done riding the emotional/physical/hormonal roller coaster she was experiencing last year. After a couple of early miscarriages last year and a rough pregnancy she delivered our 5th child this June. She is enjoying her new calling teaching Relief Society after having served in the Primary Presidency for a year. She really enjoys teaching piano to our children and a few other students and has joined the piano teaching blogging world with her own piano blog – http://heidispianonotes.blogspot.com

Rebecca continues to excel in school. She had fun this year taking theater classes and performing as one of the orphans in the play Annie. She still plays the piano… but only so she can earn internet privileges to read blogs and compose her own stories. She also enjoys cooking concoctions in the kitchen with her friends when her nose is not in a book.

Jacob was baptized this summer and is enjoying participating in Cub Scouts. He loves to constantly improve his athletic skills and is out throwing the football rain or shine. He surprised us with a 12-4 and 13-3 record his first 2 wrestling seasons when he ended up pinning to win the majority of his matches. Then he would stand with a humble almost apologetic look on his face after defeating his opponents. He also played flag football and tee ball. He loves helping out his baby sister Alyssa.

Daniel has participated in wrestling and tee ball the past 2 years. He started Kindergarten this year and loves playing with his friends at recess and riding the bus. He also squeezes in a bit of piano practice occasionally. He loves spending quality time with his dad working or playing and thinks it is not fair that mom gets to go on more dates with Jared than he does.

Emily is glad that she is not the “littlest” in the family anymore. She loves everything princess and would wear a dress everyday if she could. Heidi loves spending piano and preschool time with her on the days when the other kids are at school. She amazes us with her ability to focus and absorb new concepts.

We were so excited to have Alyssa join our family this year. She is such a sweet little baby. She looks like a nice medley of all of our other kids and is plenty plump (90th percentile for weight and height). She recently learned to sit up on her own and will soon attempt to be a replacement for our vacuum :). All of her siblings love to dote over her.
We hope you have “the best of times” this Christmas and enjoy all the blessings of a Happy New Year!