Our second annual online Christmas letter

Last year we liked the idea of posting our Christmas letter to our blog so much that we've decided to do it again! So, here goes our Christmas letter in which I faun over each member of our family, picking out only the cool things that happened to each of us in the last year.


Dallin

The little man turned three in November. He uses only object pronouns (me, us, him, her), so he basically sounds like a caveman toddler. I've actually never heard him say "I" or "we." At least he's consistent! It's actually kind of cute (Where us going? Me no like that!) and, in a show of solidarity, we will often restrict ourselves to the approved pronouns.

Sadie was never into toys all that much, so Dallin is picking up the slack. For whatever reason, Dallin really, really likes PLAYMOBIL toys. He has a castle set and a pirate set. He's also a very physical kid, which has its pros and cons. It makes him a great snuggler and wrestler, but it can get annoying when he sits on your head.

He doesn't eat after about 3 pm. Seriously. The kid has a solid breakfast (usually oatmeal), nibbles at lunch, has a few snacks, and then usually rips on whatever we're having for dinner (me no like that!). At least he likes fruit.

Sadie

Sadie turned six in September. She's in first grade. She's a fantastic reader (her teachers have all been really impressed) and she has a colossal imagination. She's (usually) a joy to be around and it's always fun to hear what new craziness she comes up with. She's amazingly patient with her rambunctious little brother.

It's fun to think about what she'll do when she's older. Choir or drama or something like that is probably a safe bet. Recently, we've started having guitar sing-alongs, which she thoroughly enjoys. Now if we could just get her to have a better attitude about helping around the house . . .

Carrie

Carrie just got glasses, in case you missed it. Exciting.

She's stepped up her crafty stuff a notch. She opened a shop at etsy.com. Her shop has had a lot of visits, but no sales yet. Fortunately, she's had some requests from friends and family. She makes some killer snowflakes and some nice baby stuff. I think she really enjoys doing it. And it helps that one night a week she bails on us right before bedtime to go do crafty stuff with her friends (in all honesty, though, I'm really glad that she gets at least that one good break every week).

She's pretty involved at Sadie's school, too. She volunteers in the classroom occasionally and helps with Daisy Scouts (which, I hear, Sadie isn't too fond of thus far).

She's been teaching Gospel Doctrine at church for some time now. I always like to hear her recount what crazy comments were offered and how she steered away from disaster. I'm kidding (mostly).

She wanted to make sure I included the fact that she's read over 10,000 pages this year. Um, yeah. She likes to read.

I continue to be amazed at Carrie's dedication to motherhood. And fortunately I'm a heavy sleeper and I sleep on the side of the bed furthest from the door, so I miss all the middle-of-the-night events like nightmares and leaky pull-ups.

Me

I had a pretty nice year. In the spring, I turned in my defended and approved master's thesis. A revised version of that thesis was recently accepted for publication in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. It will probably appear next year sometime. I have a couple co-authored publications in the works, too. I'm aiming to take my comprehensive exam in the spring.

Over the summer, I fulfilled my long-time desire to start playing guitar. I even upgraded to a Martin, which I love (they're made right here in Pennsylvania, too - we toured the factory a couple months ago). I'm not very good yet, but I sure do enjoy it. I'd love to get lessons sometime. Carrie just wants me to finish the song that I started writing for her. Soon, my dear. Soon.

By far the coolest thing I did this year, though, was playing rugby. I happened to catch a replay of the college national championship between BYU and Cal on ESPNU (BYU won!) and I was hooked. I loved it. So, I got on the Google and looked up rugby here in State College. I found a team here and saw on their website that they're always looking for new players. So, I contacted them, even as I could feel my muscles and bones protesting. I'm not very good at rugby, either, but it's a blast. I healed nicely from the obligatory MCL sprain and had a nice season after that. I hope to see more playing time next spring when we have more B-side matches. By the way, go see Invictus. It's great, and you don't need to know anything about rugby.

Well, that's it. The only thing that bugs me about these letters is that they're basically like a promotional pamphlet your family. So let me throw in the fact that we sometimes yell, we often let our kids watch TV so we can go back to sleep, and sometimes it gets old to go to different churches on Sunday. But I'd like to think that we've got a pretty great little family. Love abounds, and I think that's all that really matters.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everybody.

It's been awhile. . .

You know what it's like when you look at a pile of ironing? It's pretty big and it needs to be done, but not just now. It just sits there waiting for you. Finally you get to the point that you are ready to do it, but it's just been so darn long that it can wait for awhile longer. Well, I did my ironing today, and it didn't take very long (secretly I kind of like doing it) Now I am tackling my other pile: my blog. I can't believe it's been three months. I think I was waiting for something spectacular to happen . . . but since every day is spectacular, nothing really stuck out. What was the thing that prompted me to finally post? I got new glasses. Wow. Maybe I was just looking for a reason, but it's always hard to break the blogging ice. We don't have babies to announce, or Ph.D. news. We don't have a new job and Sadie hasn't lost any teeth. Dallin is potty trained, but still pees the bed (every night). I still haven't sold anything on Etsy, but Steve does have a paper that was accepted for publication.

So, my news and my great picture is about my glasses. What do you think? It turns out that it wasn't church that was giving me a headache every week, it was my eyes. Now I can watch movies and drive without headaches too. Small miracles that cost us $200. Oh well.