Christmas 2014
This has been a wonderful and very busy year. It is a joy now to pause and celebrate the birth of our Savior. We love Him and are so glad to have His influence in our lives helping us to make the changes that we need to make to be more like Him. We are so blessed to have the great family that we have pictured below and glad that we have the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.
We spent last year at this time with Benjamin, Kirsten and family and loved every minute of it (well except for my, Vicki, broken knee). They are still in California and growing like weeds. We got to be with Paige when she was just a little tiny thing. We can?t believe they are all growing so. We miss them and will spend some time with them in March. Kate turns 8 and will be baptized in March so we will be there to celebrate with her and see the rest of the crew. I am sure Granddad and Kate will make fudge and the others will help eat it. It was great to see them several times including family reunion.
Chirsty and Anthony had another little girl this year in February to No?mi?s delight. From her perspective 3 boys was a bit much. Now she has a sister! This picture was taken at Sean?s baptism in Oct. We had almost the whole crew at family reunion in July (See Below). And had each of Christy?s older two boys over for a week pre and post family reunion. They took swimming lessons here. It was great fun for us. We got to be with this little one as a tiny baby also. We have been to their place several times. It is a nice base camp. Especially now that they have finished their basement, including a kitchen, bathroom, family room, TV room and bedroom that we take advantage of periodically. We are already making plans for boy?s swimming lessons for next summer.
Jared and Nichole also had a baby this year; another girl. The other 3, even though they thought a boy might be nice, are all happy clams about this new one. We got to watch Holland and Remi in a Christmas piano concert and as a group of 9 performers as the opening act to a play at the Boise Little Theater. Holland has just been notified that she got the part of Annie in the spring production of ?Annie? by the Boise Children?s theater, so excitement is running amuck at their house. We had Thanksgiving dinner with them and then had them to our house for a night of movies and popcorn (and a short stint at Walmart). We took this picture that night. We will spend Christmas with them this year.
Noel and Rachel are still in Portland and Josh is in Cedar City with Rich and Sherri. This was taken at family reunion this summer. Josh is now 6?3? so Noel and Darwin look a little short. Below is the whole kid crew, except for the one who wasn?t born until after family runion. They are not all too happy about the shot but it shows Josh as the tall pine among the little scub oaks. We love them all.
We hope that you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2015. We have enjoyed our visits with many of you and hope to be able to get to see more of you next year. Much Love. Darwin and Vicki