Christmas 2006
Dear Family,
Read it here because chances are I'm not mailing you one. :)
Another year has passed and we have many things to be thankful for once again. On March 1st Alyssa Linette was born almost 3 weeks early. She spent 11 days in the NICU at Utah Valley Hospital before coming home on oxygen. She was off her oxygen after only 6 days once home.
After that adventure we decided to take a vacation. At the end of July we went to the Oregon coast where we rented a beach house and had a grand time. We loved the Sea-Lion Caves and the Newport Aquarium. The girls loved playing at a lake with a sandy beach much better than braving the cold wind at the ocean. We had a terrific time and hope to go back again someday. Besides our own vacation we’ve had short vacations with both our extended families and those memories are cherished ones too!
Alan has spent the year continuing to work at BYU and doing a consulting project on the side. He has decided to put off (possibly permanently) the pursuit for a doctorate degree after he didn’t get accepted to the schools he applied to. In his defense he did only apply to the top schools in the nation so the competition was very high. Alan has really enjoyed being the choir director in our ward and was recently asked to change hats and be in the young men’s presidency. Now he gets to go camping and work with 12 –13 year old boys. Yippee for him, I’m glad it’s not me. I am always amazed at how intuitive Alan his when it comes to being a daddy and husband. He is honestly the greatest at both. Although he discovered while I was at the hospital with Alyssa that he isn’t that great at being the mommy. I’m fine with that.
Sarah started kindergarten this year and loves it. Her teacher is superb and is able to challenge her even though she is the only one reading at a 2nd grade level and able to write and work with numbers. We are very pleased with how she is doing at school and at home. Sarah is a wonderful oldest sister. She loves being the boss and also helping me with Alyssa. Sarah and Emmie play very well together most of the time. Sarah’s hobbies are drawing, she’s amazing at it, and reading. She likes to draw princesses, castles, and lately monsters. (Her monsters have hearts on them though so I’m not sure if they qualify as monsters.) Sarah’s blog is me-sarah.blogspot.com
Emily is a darling 3 year old. She enjoys going to the co-op preschool I do with my neighbors and has learned her letters, numbers, shapes, colors and how to write her name. She loves to wear dresses and is rarely in pants. Emmie’s greatest love is playing Princess and she is almost always found in a dress-up princess dress. Emmie also loves to read and do puzzles. She fixates on a video and will choose it when it’s her turn every time for months. During the summer we watched Snow White, the fall was the Muppet Movie, and currently we are hooked on 101 Dalmatians. Since the girls only watch 1 movie a day and generally no television it doesn’t drive me too crazy to hear the same thing for days. Emily’s blog is meemmie.blogspot.com
Alyssa is doing great and seems to be in a hurry to grow up. She has cut 6 teeth and is pulling herself up on everything and climbing stairs. Alyssa is a delight with reddish hair and blue eyes. She is a good baby and when not cutting teeth sleeps well. Her favorite expression is to pucker her lips up to her nose, furrow her brows and breath noisily through her nose. It’s totally cute and she does it a lot. Pictures of Alyssa are on my blog which is got-donuts.blogspot.com
I have had a super year too. Once I recovered from having Alyssa life couldn’t be better. I love my girls and so enjoy being home with them. Being in the primary presidency has also been enjoyable although challenging at times. We have a big primary with 145 children and a big nursery with about 50 little ones. I get to be over the nursery and activity day girls, which are girls ages 8-11. They have a similar program to the cub scouts although not so structured or formal. I was also in charge of writing and organizing the sacrament-meeting program that the primary did and am glad that’s over.
Today was the first big snowstorm and it reminds me of how quickly time flies. It seems like it wasn’t that long ago I was writing last year’s letter. Another year has gone but I have some fantastic memories of a brand new baby, our family in Oregon and of extended family gatherings all over. What a great blessing family is! At Christmas I ponder how the birth of our Savior provided the way for my greatest happiness, that of a good and wholesome family. I’m grateful to my Father in Heaven for blessing me with such superb families: my own, Alan’s, and the one Alan and I have created. At this Christmas season I wish you all a time filled with family and the love for a baby born so long ago in such humble circumstances.
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