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.

Etsy!

I did it! I started my own site on Etsy! I am really excited, but also a little nervous. For those of you who don't know what Etsy is, it's basically a website where people can sell their homemade items. Since I love making crafty stuff, I decided to try and sell it there. I haven't been particularly successful selling it at craft fairs since most of it is baby stuff. You can check my work out at the side of the blog (it's hard to miss) Check it out often because I'm adding a lot of things since I'm just getting started. You can also register with Etsy and "heart" my shop . . . it would be a great help if you can't buy anything. Let me know if you want email updates of my new items. Send good vibes and (are you allowed to pray for etsy shops?)

Summer at the Merino house

It's been too long since Carrie or I have posted, so I thought I'd share a bit about what we've been up to this summer.

Carrie just got back from a mommy vacation with a friend. No kids, no husbands, just the two of them. They went to West Virginia for the weekend. I think she enjoyed it. They mostly sat around and did crafty stuff and talked. She says that WV looks a lot like central Pennsylvania. I can imagine that. I bet I'd like the mountain biking. Anyway, we managed OK at home. Went swimming, ate pizza, stayed up late.

The kids are enjoying summer. We got Dallin a new bike and he probably spends an hour or two a day just riding in circles around our courtyard. Dallin cracks me up. His desire to speak and learn new words definitely exceeds his actual verbal ability, and some pretty funny things result. He has this funny habit of just repeating the last couple words of whatever you last said, often with a question inflection on the end. It really threw him for a loop when I shaved off my beard recently. For about a week he just kept asking me about it and wanting to touch my face. Alas, I already have about two weeks growth on my face again, and now he just talks about how scratchy it is.

Sadie is looking forward to first grade and her upcoming birthday. She spends most the time outside playing. She's lost a bit of the zeal for reading that she had right after school ended, but she did pick up a newspaper when we were in downtown State College yesterday and took it home and asked me questions about all the articles. It was cute.

We went camping a few weeks ago. It was great. We went to Raystown Lake, which is about an hour or so from us. We went swimming, played, hiked, and so on. They recently finished a new system of trails designed especially for mountain bikers. They were amazing. So fun that a week later I went back for a night by myself.

I've had a busy summer. I finally picked up our guitar that had been gathering dust since we got it a while back. I've been playing a bit every day and having a blast with it. It's amazing how much progress you can make it just a little bit of time. I already have the beginnings of a couple songs (well, some really cool chord progressions). I had a revise and resubmit on a paper (my master's thesis, essentially). I just finished that and I'm waiting for the result. I had an outright rejection (fun!), and a professor and I have finished two papers we're submitting right now. So, busy summer from that perspective.

But by far the coolest thing I've done this summer was starting to play rugby. Yes, rugby. It's a blast. I caught a replay of the college national championship between BYU and Cal a while back and just loved it. I started looking around on the internet and found out that Penn State has a team, and that there is a local rugby club for grad students and non-students. I contacted them and they said that they're always looking for new players. So, I started practicing with them over the summer (well, just touch rugby with a mix of girls, high school students, college students, and so on). We just started our real practices and our first match is on the 29th. It's still a bit overwhelming, but the guys have been really supportive and helpful when I mess up or have questions. Great sport, rugby. Very under-appreciated in the U.S. I love the emphasis on teamwork, equal participation, camaraderie, sportsmanship, and respect. Of course, it's brutal and rough, but not in an American football kind of way. More like in a wrestling with your brothers in the back yard kind of way. And it looks chaotic and crazy when you don't know what's going on, but it's actually very organized and controlled. And it definitely requires a lot of teamwork to score.

Celtic Fling

Recently, we went to the Celtic Fling at the Renaissance Festival grounds. The kids loved the music (if it wasn't too loud) they loved looking at all the shops and they loved dressing up.

This is in front of the band "Enter the Haggis" I don't really know how to describe their music . . . you'll have to ask Steve. He has really been into the smaller groups lately and loves to travel around to listen to them. His next goal is to go to the Philly Folk Festival next month.

This ride was great. It was powered by a pirate. As you can see, Dallin lost the thrill once it got going too fast. But the pirate was great and stopped the ride for him. It was a great 3 dollar ride! Although we didn't get any pictures, we also saw some Irish dancers. My next goal is to get Sadie involved with Celtic dancing. I think she would do great. They just reminded me of her with all the bouncing and jumping.

Little Women

With the last Scholastic book order, I ordered some Junie B. books. Sadie has been asking me when they are coming for quite awhile. She keeps telling me that she is ready to read chapter books because she is a really good reader. I just told her they would come soon. Yesterday she picked up a Great Classics for Children version of Little Women. The girl read 54 pages yesterday! There are pictures on about every other page, and the print is large, but still . . . 54 pages. She was really proud of herself. I don't think we were impressed enough for her though, because she kept telling us how hard it was and how good of a reader she was. It was really cute. I let her read a couple of chapters to me before she went to bed. It reminds me of myself when I was younger. It's nice to have her be entertained so quietly too! I am really proud of my girl!

For Mother's Day, Steve took the family to a place that he likes to go mountain biking. Shingletown Gap. I think the name is cool enough to warrant going. It's not very far from where we live, and yet it felt like we were out in the wilderness (not quite, but you get my point) That's one of the reasons why I love State College -- you don't have to go very far to get away. It was great to be out in the woods. We let the kids take their time walking because the terrain was pretty rough. At first Dallin was a little afraid of the fast moving creek, but after he got over it, there was nothing else that he would talk about. I think he said the word "water" about 500 times. Maybe more.

Sadie kept creating photo opportunities by finding a rock to sit on or a tree to stand by. It was kind of funny because it seemed like she was doing it on purpose because she knew I would take a picture. I don't think she was aware of that though. There is a romantic soul in that girl.

Steve would show me the trails he would have to carry his bike up in order to find the trail to ride. I don't know how he rides on those trails. They are extremely rocky and rooty (is that a word?) It all seems a little dangerous to me, especially when I see how steep they are. Maybe he shouldn't have shown me, because now I will worry even more. Oh, well, he loves it. He's also in an incredible mood after a bike ride. It's worth it.

The whole outing was very relaxing and fun. We didn't have a destination or a goal, we just walked and explored. It reminded me of outings into the forest as a kid. One in particular, Dad led us to some old beaver dams. We collected some salamander eggs and even caught some. I tried to drink some water just coming out of the pond and was instructed about all the things that could be living in that water. There's something to be said about connecting with nature. It makes you appreciate life in all it's forms. For me, my testimony of God's existence and His love for us is strengthened. I miss wandering through the woods and can't wait to go camping this year.