Our continued Christmas letter...

Pin It

Merry Christmas family and friends,

Once again, we find ourselves reflecting on the year that has so quickly passed. 2007 was filled with many exciting events that have shaped our lives. Here are the updates for each one of us:

Kempton (15-months-old) is our sweet and fiery red head. He loves to eat everything and anything, especially when it's off the floor. Much to the dismay of his parents, he has always been an excellent sleeper and loves to cuddle. It has been so fun for us to have a second child because we recognize how each of our children are born with their own temperament, straight from heaven! Kempton is becoming a more efficient walker and has gained enough confidence to climb onto everything. In this way, he is a dare devil and all boy! He must have gained back his equilibrium now that he has tubes in his ears! This has been kind of a pain with all of the swimming we did at our gym over the summer, but has been a life saver for his health. Kempton loves to read story after story and will back up onto our laps with a book in hand. He adores his older sister and gets so excited to see her in the morning. Our greatest joy as parents is watching Averie and Kempton play and laugh together. Kempton is still our baby boy and this won't change for a while, even with a new brother or sister on the way.

Averie turned three September 30 and she reminds us of this regularly. For some reason, she is unable to move pass her fairy tale birthday party, where she was a "beautiful princess" and all of her friends were fairy tale characters. Averie loves anything princess and is all girl in this way. She has a great imagination and leads us to a world of fantasy. Her favorite color is pink which means she will only wear her pink tutu to dance class, even after mommy tries to persuade her otherwise. She is a great big sister to her little brother and has a lot of patience when he tries to destroy her stuff! Averie is very caring and sensitive, which just adds to her delightful sense of humor and spunk. She enjoys spending her time doing crafts, reading, writing, singing, dancing, pretending (she's a teacher, crocodile, princess, or mommy), giving hugs and kisses, and playing with her cousins and friends. As usual, she does not enjoy spending her time eating, unless it is breakfast!

Suzette feels incredibly blessed to be home with Averie and Kempton. The days seem to be filled with endless activity and little time to spare! Life as a mother of three children in three years will be even busier, so there is no slowing down any time soon. Still, she manages to sneak in time here and there for her unique hobbies of obsessive organization, home decorating and basement design, selling on ebay, blogging, and excessive budgeting. Unfortunately, her lifelong passion for exercise and nutrition has gone out the window for now. Being pregnant with two toddlers will do that, but she is looking forward to rekindling this relationship once the baby arrives... good luck! Somehow she works her calling as enrichment counselor in the Relief Society presidency in there somewhere? All in all, it is the life she always dreamed of!

Cale mostly runs around like a chicken with his head cut off. It's amazing how he always remains "level headed!" ha, ha. The later part of the year was spent mostly on the road. He spent time out of the country in Venezuela and Canada and time out of state in St. Louis and Deleware. Averie and Kempton missed him horribly, we all dreaded being apart. When Cale is in town, he spends much of the evening finishing our basement. He always makes time for his family, whom he says are his hobby. To top it all off, he turned 3-0 this year! What an old fogie.

During the summer we were able to "adventure" on a three-week trip across the country to visit our many relatives out west. We traveled from Michigan to Cheyenne, then on to Utah, then Idaho, then back to Wyoming, and back home. We had a great time making memories with our family. We also were able to travel together for two weeks to St. Louis for Cale's work where we took advantage of all the free activities this great city has to offer! Our summer ended with a visit to San Antonio to visit "grandma and grandpa with black hair."

We figure our Christmas gift is coming about one month late this year, as we found out that Suzette was surprisingly pregnant the same week her sister Nichole moved back to Utah for school. Nichole stayed with us from Christmas to Memorial Day and juggled three jobs while being our live-in babysitter and housekeeper!

We look forward to 2008 and are excited (and a bit nervous) for what is to come! All in all, we feel very blessed this year by our Heavenly Father and want to send our best wishes to all of you during this holiday season. May the Lord bless you all and may we always remember the true meaning of Christmas and pattern our lives after Him.

With all our love,

Cale, Suzette, Averie, Kempton, and ???