Christmas Letter 2008

Merry Christmas Everyone! Of course we hope this letter finds you well and as excited for the holidays as we are!

This year has been very exciting, and so much more relaxing than previous years. Relatively low key, which is always a good thing….

Jeff graduated school!!! He was employed before he graduated at a rehabilitation center in Murray Utah. Then to our dismay, due to a poorly run company, they lost some of their facilities, and had to lay off most of their employees. Of course we were a little worried, but both had faith that God was in control. We didn’t even need to look around, because one of Jeff’s classmates told him that the company he worked for was looking for someone, and he got a job right away. He loves the new company, and that makes any wife thankful! Jeff bought a motorcycle (well mainly parts) To work on this winter for a hobby, he plans to have it ready to ride by summer. We also recently joined a new church, and Jeff has been very involved there.

I (crystal) have been busier than I ever could have imagined. Going from one child too two has been such an adjustment. It is the most wonderful thing in the world to watch Noah and Ava become best friends. Noah is so protective of Ava, and wants her with him all the time, if Ava is sleeping, he crawls over to her door, and say’s “get sissy up, get sissy up”. Ava thinks her brother is the coolest kid on the block. She watches everything he does and giggles whenever he does anything funny. My heart has grown so big this past year, sometime I think it will break out of my chest. God is so good. My salon is finished, and business has been great, I mostly have clients that have turned into great friends, and are fine hearing Noah play his piano as loud as the volume can go! It’s so nice to have so many people love my kids! I have been doing a lot more lately, getting out of the house, visiting friends, going to the store. Jeff and I have been able to go on more dates now, due to the fact that my best friend Jen now lives just down the road, and loves to watch them. It has been great for our marriage to actually be together, instead of just a Hi in the hallway, or a quick hug after work!

Noah is 3 years old, and officially in a pre-school class. He goes 2 days a week for 2 hours. Not a lot of time, honestly I think he could go more and be fine, his teachers say he is the best behaved kid in the class. Every time we get home from school, he will be playing with his toys and out of the blue say a new phrase like “3..2..1..BLASTOFF” or “Sit by me” He is a stubborn little bum,because his teachers also say he won’t ever repeat what they are trying to work on.
He will just ignore them, they don’t realize he is picking everything up. That is our Noah, but like Nana tells me everyday when I think I will go crazy with his stubbornness “he wouldn’t be alive if he weren’t stubborn.” It is good for my soul to see him getting so big and I ndependent. He is still about 16 months behind, but we are making progress and that is what counts.
Walking is still a challenge. He has a walker, but doesn’t like to use it, except when he going in and out of preschool, I think he likes to be a big boy, and also there is a purpose, to get from the car to his class, he wants nothing to do with it when we are just practicing. Noah recently received another round of botox injections, we are still waiting to see how much more flexibility he will have, the results were amazing when we got them done in June, unfortunately they wear off after about 6 months. His muscles are getting tighter, I’m pretty sure tendon lengthening is in our future. He still won’t wear his glasses. He hasn’t figured out that they will help him see yet,. Some of Noah’s favorite things to do are Play his Piano and sing, he loves to play the drums and watch Veggie Tales and Elmo. He also is a huge cuddle bug, he still has had a fondness for Daddy over me boo hoo.

Ava just turned One. Time has flown by, I feel like I just had her. We call her our “wild woman” and our “walking tornado” She is a drama queen I have to say. Everything she does is like a soap opera, like when she wants a bottle, she wails as loud as she can, throws her head back and lifts her arms to the sky…. I have to say though, she has brought so much joy to our life. She has the most amazing smile, that can turn a bad day around. She has the biggest eyes, and every where we go (no joke) people stop us to comment on how beautiful she is and how her eyes are so captivating. It is amazing to see how different the kids are, Ava has no fear, she usually doesn’t think before she does anything, At her last doctors appt, she was about 3-5% in everything….she is about the size of a 6 month old. It is hilarious to see her standing up, because she looks way to small. She is very close to walking, I imagine right around Christmas she will take off. Ava’s favorite thing to do is go to the store with me and stand up in the front of the cart like she is the queen of the store, she loves to grab at anything within her reach, and turn around and look at me with whatever she has managed to collect with a big smile to ask for approval! She loves to get into everything she can, she isn’t incredible fond of toys, she prefers to get into kitchen cabinets, dog food, rip out every Kleenex and wipes from the box, pull out all the DVD’s and sprawl them all over the living room. Our lives would be so dull without our little wild woman!

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!