2011 Christmas Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

Another year has flown by and I hardly know where it went!! Sometimes I feel like I need to push the pause button and take a breath to savor the moment before plunging on!

The living room of our hotel

We had an eventful summer, when it finally got here…around July.  When Eric got out of school in June, we took a family trip to Washington to spend our anniversary and visit family. We took our time and stayed in Spokane for a few days before heading off to Seattle. Since we are huge fans of the Food Network Show, Diners Drive-ins and Dives, we decided to do a little “food crawl” and visit all the places the show had featured in each city we were in. It was so fun and we were NOT disappointed in the quality of the food…yummy!!!

Wall art at one of the places we ate....love it!

The Children's Museum in Spokane

Riding the gondola over Spokane Falls

Yummy Fish Tacos

 

 Then, when we went to Seattle we got to go to the Museum of Flight, Space Needle and Pike’s place Market where we met up with Joe’s sister Tiffany. Of course Eric and I had to visit the Library…a very heavenly place.

View from the Space Needle

Library in Seattle

Space Needle

 

Then we got spend a few days with Joe’s brother Ted and his wife Kellie who just moved near Seattle from Chicago. We are so excited that they are closer and we will be able to see them more often! Joe’s other brother Dan and his wife Jeyne were visiting too so we had a nice little family reunion with the grandparents and siblings!! I hope we get to do it again soon!

This summer we got a boat, thanks to Ted and Kellie, and a camper! We did several camping trips to the lake and many, many days out on the water!! It was so fun and really helped to relieve the stress of the daily grind! Eric has always been a little more timid about the water so he mostly stayed in the boat. We did get him to try tubing once and he swam some the lake. I actually had my first experience tubing! Besides banging up my chin, it was really fun! Shawn loved tubing...(his way of tubing is being pulled very, very, very slowly, basically floating in the water behind the boat with an adult). He would always have his fists pumping the air, yelling “I’m tooping…woo hoo). 

Joe took me to Spokane for my birthday and we camped at a KOA and had tons of fun!!

Another Triple D location in Spokane that we tried!

Later in the summer we were really busy planning and getting ready for my sister’s Gina’s wedding in August. I was her maid of honor and had a lot of fun designing her invitations and throwing her a 1950’s housewife bridal shower. She and I handmade most of the elements for the wedding and between friends and family, we did almost everything ourselves. It was a lot of work but tons of fun! She had a beautiful outdoor wedding by the lake, surrounded by mountains. We officially added my new brother-in-law John to the family. For the first time in a long time, I had all 11 of my siblings together. It was very special, especially to have my brother Michael come all the way from Pennsylvania to walk Gina down the aisle. 

Eric had a great first year of school in Kindergarten and ended the school year by playing his second year of T-ball. He loves playing baseball and says that this next year he wants to try basketball too. He turned 6 in March and ended up being sick on his birthdayL, but felt good enough to enjoy his Buzz Light-year birthday with family and friends. There were a lot of firsts for him this year including losing his first tooth, having his first sleepover, and experiencing boating and camping for the first time. He started 1^st grade and loves it!!! He is advanced in reading and math, at least 2^nd grade, and I am constantly amazed at his vocabulary and abilities. He really loves school and has a blast with all his friends.  Along with school he did several sessions of swim lessons, really improved his swimming and started learning some basic dives. Eric loves to read, build legos, and help me cook. Some of his chores are doing his own laundry, emptying the dishwasher and keeping his room clean. He loves playing with his little brother and is a huge help to me. He gets them both breakfast and helps keep him occupied when I need to take a shower. I am so proud of my little Eric.

Congratulating the other team...so cute!

 

Eric at VBS, his first time!!! He loved it!

Shawn is changing all the time. He is taking after his brother in early development especially talking very clearly in full sentences. He always surprises me with the things he says. He loves books and will sit forever and bring me books to read. He even has a few memorized that he reads to me. He counts to 11 and is working on learning his colors and animal sounds. He recently started doing the knock knock jokes: “knock knock, who’s there, Shawn, Shawn who, Shawn cutie!!” It is so cute when he prays and picks specific people and things to pray about. He’s decided he wants to potty train and asks to go the bathroom. One of his favorite things to do is sing…. he sings songs word for word and is constantly singing. He is loves using the iPad and iPhone and knows exactly where all the apps are, the volume and how to play and pause his music. When I ask him to give it to me, he says “minute”. He’s a big cuddle bug and loves to snuggle with his daddy. He’s growing up too fast for me!

Joe has been busier than ever at work and was recently made CEO of the Montana Sky Net!!! I am so proud of him and his success…he deserves every bit of it. However we do see him a bit lessL He has had a rough year with his health and has gotten some extremely bad flu’s that have scared us and the doctors. We are working on building his immune system up and helping him to reduce his stress (ha-ha). He really enjoyed the summer boating and found it to be a good outlet for his stress. This winter he looks forward to taking Eric to ski lessons every Saturday.

This year was one of my busiest tax seasons and I really enjoyed it but it got pretty hectic!! I love volunteering at Eric’s school once a week and being involved in his activities. The summer was very busy with planning for my sister’s wedding. I really enjoy designing cards and invites and have had a lot of fun with that. I designed the Christmas card this year and I like to do digital scrapbooking with my program also. This year I started a book club with my sister and a few friends and it has been so fun! We did a Jane Austen themed night to go along with reading Emma. We meet about once a month and it’s become like a fun girl’s night out!

But now it is time to start gearing up for tax season again!!

Our house is busy as usual. My younger siblings come hang out every couple of weekends and we really enjoy that! Joe’s brother, David, moved here from Idaho in February and has been staying with us. It has been really nice to have him close after years of not seeing him much. We have family get-togethers fairly often and just having my siblings and mom over is around 20 people but we love it! From November to January we have 10 birthdays in addition to Thanksgiving and Christmas and that is not counting the cousins and extended family so this time of year is just crazy, but fun crazy!

Turning two!!!

Thanksgiving

This year has also brought a lot of heartache and stress and it has been very hard at times.

Early in the year, the earth lost one of the sweetest people when Joe’s step-mom Sandi passed away February 26^th.  At age 46 she has suffered so much with various illnesses and her leaving has left a very empty hole in our hearts. We miss her so much but we are also happy for her that she is in heaven and is no longer in pain. We love you, Mom, Sandi.

A couple months after Sandi’s passing, Joe’s dad ended up in the hospital with pneumonia and sepsis, an infection in the blood. He was on a breathing machine and in the ICU for days and they were not sure he would make it. Miraculously he pulled through and has been doing better than he has in years. It was a miracle that we praise God for and are glad he is still with us.

I am so thankful for all my friends and family. God has blessed us and is helping us through the hard times. I pray that we all have a good 2012 with good health and take the time to enjoy the little moments with our families.

Merry Christmas,

Moriah, Joe, Eric and Shawn