Christmas 2012

Dear Family and Friends: It’s December 20th and I am now sitting down to write our Christmas letter. Phew! What a year it’s been. Behold, our Christmas card!

We took plenty of smiling family shots, but for some reason, Amanda (who is our photographer) felt that this was the best one, and I agree. We're a pretty goofy family so it fits. Here are a few highlights from 2012. Amanda and Kyle: Loving their new Logan apartment and busy with college. Amanda graduates next spring as a registered dietitian. She is more than ready to be done with school. Kyle is busy working on his pre-dental courses, and scoring 4.0 in crazy hard classes, while working and finding time to make fun home movies. Andrea (19): Speaking of 4.0, she got one too!...in her very first semester at USU. She is a Math Education major, loves her college life and is very involved in all the extracurricular activities. Are you surprised? Pretty soon she’ll be running the place. We miss her bubbly personality around the house and love it when she comes home to visit. Dylan (15): Got his driver’s permit this year and his mom is freaking out. Dad is more patient with novice drivers and that’s a good thing! He spends most of his time playing the piano, guitar and singing. He still loves to play soccer and spending time with friends, who are mostly girls If you want to watch him singing with Mal, check out the post right before this one for a video :) Mallory (13): Still continues to play soccer every minute she can, and her daddy loves coaching her team. She got a cell phone this year and mom and dad are wondering if that was a good idea. It’s literally attached to her hand all the time!!. She is loving school and spending time with her friends (when she’s not texting them). Every once in a while mom can steal a hug from her (she hates hugs)… Duane: Busy with work, coaching soccer, and always doing everything in his power to make all of us happy. That pretty much sums it up. He gets a little out of control buying gifts at Christmas time because he loves to spoil all of us. I think he’s the only dad in the world who takes his kids to Rue 21 to shop for clothes and gets excited when he gets Kohls cash and coupons, but yet buys nothing for himself. That’s why we love him! After his hole-in-one this fall he’s hoping to play more golf next year…(that’s what he always says). Janice: As for me, life has been a bit hectic this year. That’s why I’m writing this letter on Dec 20th!!! In May I left my job of 18 years, and in August I accepted a full time faculty position at Weber State University teaching Medical Lab Science. I just finished my first semester (thank goodness for Christmas break!) and all I can say is that teaching college is really, really hard! But I am getting used to it and to be honest, I love the challenge. Everyone says it will get easier, so I am hanging on to that. Being president of our Young Women's group at our church adds another job to my list :). It's fun but I'm not kidding, I call it my second job! As for my health, I am still doing well (just got lab results yesterday!) 8 years cancer free. Still grateful for my blessings and grateful for all of you who always ask how I’m doing and pray for me. I am so blessed. I hope your Christmas is one full of blessings and happiness. We love you!!! Duane, Janice, Amanda and Kyle, Andrea, Dylan, and Mallory

Mallory and Dylan's duet

One of my favorite things to do is watch my kids sing. Karaoke is one of our favorite things to do together. Over the years our children have developed a great love for music and performing. Here's Mallory and Dylan performing Little Talks. I wanted to post this on Facebook but they forbid me from doing it. They were too embarrassed. I think putting it on our blog is MUCH more private...right ;)