2012 letter

Our Christmas letter:

Nathan:

Nathan celebrated his 30th birthday in February by going on to a comedy club with friends, having a special birthday lunch, and a birthday dinner with family including a chocolate fountain. Here is the video Sarah made to commemorate the milestone of 30-years-old



He is still in the bishopric in our ward (3 years now) and still works at Contractor Plan Center (7 years now). He continues to build his photography business Oregon En-vision photography and has had several major photo shoots and video projects this year. He also made videos for the church including filming and creating a presentation for our Stake's 40th anniversary, heading the camera crew for the multi-stake youth conference and creating a dvd for that, and doing small video projects in our ward for the young men and women.

Sarah:

Sarah also turned 30 this year and celebrated with a dinner party and two custom made chocolate cakes (one made by a teenager in the ward and it was the best cake we've probably ever had). She spent her time taking care of the kids and trying to record as much of their childhood as possible through pictures, video, scrap booking, and writing down the cute things they do and say. She developed some back issues with this last pregnancy, which has been helped by visiting a chiropractor, but she still has a weak back. She improved her cooking/baking skills this year and developed several dishes that actually turn out well every time. She learned how to make homemade bread and rolls and canned pears for the first time. She also helps with Nathan's video projects and supports him in the other activities he does, as well as keeping up the with the never ending task of trying to keep a home clean with three little mess makers living in it. You can see her favorite pictures she's taken this year here. (The folder of pictures goes all the way back to 2007, but the top ones are from this year)



Jared:

Jared turned 5 this year. He got his first two-wheel bike and loves the freedom it brings. He also made friends with the neighbor kids this summer and they spent a lot of time running back and forth between houses. He started kindergarten in the fall. He likes school and is excited about writing and spelling and learning how to add numbers. He has also made lots of friends at school. He's behind in school academically and maturity-wise, so he will be repeating kindergarten. But we're not totally surprised, since Nathan also repeated kindergarten. Also, Jared is the youngest kid in the class, since he only turned 5 a few weeks before school started. He continues to be a very intense kid, very expressive with all his emotions and preferences. He absolutely loved all things Captain America this year. He also continued to be a very affectionate kid.

Here's Jared's milestone video when he turned 5:



Kayla:

Kayla turned 3 this year. She discovered that she loves disney princesses and dressing up in costumes. It was not unusual for her to want to wear a princess dress instead of regular clothes at least once a week, if not every day. She was potty trained this year. She had a little difficulty getting number #2 down, but she is now fully trained, even at night. She continues to love animals, especially dogs and cats. She has a couple stuffed ones that she carries around everywhere. She really wants a real cat, but mommy doesn't, so we settled for visiting other people's cats. There's a family we know with lots of cats and who had a litter of kittens this summer and we visited them probably 9 times in the month of September, just so Kayla could hold and play with the kittens. She also loves farm animals and loved when we visited a local pumpkin patch this fall that has barn animals. Now that it's Christmas time she always points out the animals that are in the Nativity scenes she sees. She is a very sweet considerate, empathetic and affectionate kid.

And so as to not leave her out, here's a video for Kayla from this year. I have plans to make her one about being 3 year old. The song is super cute, so stay tuned.



Logan:

Logan started the year off as a tiny newborn and is ending it as a wobbly toddler with a big appetite who wants to do everything his brother and sister can do. He's very social and cuddly. But the best way to summarize his first year is through this video:



Here are Logan's other videos: First month



2-6 months:



7-12 months:



Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!