Christmas Letter 2015

This is the pic from my cell phone. Like it?

Merry Christmas, family and friends! So many things have happened during this past year, where to begin…

January was an amazing month with Bossy and Gamer and their family being sealed for all eternity in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. They have not been without their struggles this year, but overall they have been healthy and the kids are trying hard in school. Taco and Burrito played baseball and football and Fajita played Softball for Bingham’s team. Bean Dip also enjoyed a season of baseball and I believe he is now taller than his dad although I think Gamer might argue that point…

Beauty and The Beast were married in the Salt Lake Temple the end of December last year and they have enjoyed making their home in the valley. They have added to their numbers with their dogs, Franco and Mollie, and their cats, Steve and I believe they finally settled on the name of Gusto although I could be wrong on that point too. The Beast graduated with his BS in Business Management from Western Governors University and Beauty is in her last semester of classes at SLCC. Both of them work at the bank where they met and they both work with the YM and YW of their ward.

Drama Queen returned home from Nephi so that she could serve a mission and she ultimately began her service as a Young Church Service Missionary working at the Publishing Studios in Provo. She will serve for 12 months and she began her mission in June. She is also working part time as a personal assistant.

Teach was engaged last weekend to Twiz and they plan to be married on February 13, 2016 in the Jordan River temple. She is currently teaching 5^th grade at an elementary school in the Granite School District. She loves her job! Twiz is a student at BYU Idaho and will be transferring to BYU next year. Teach is also working on her Masters Degree at UVU.

The Dog Walker graduated from SLCC as a Graduate of Excellence for the College of Humanities. Each college picks one student to represent them so this is quite an honor. He got to carry their flag at graduation. He finished his Young Church Service Mission in June and now attends a singles ward so he can find a wife. He is also attending UVU with an eye on their elementary education program. He would like to be a special ed teacher.

Princess graduated from Bingham and from SLCC in the spring. She advanced all the way to the state competition for Sterling Scholar in Family and Consumer Science. She also earned a trip to Nationals so she could compete with her STAR event in Washington DC. She fulfilled her lifelong dream of becoming Sweethearts Queen at Bingham and she sent her missionary off a couple of weeks ago. She also got a job at Smith’s working in the deli and she is currently in the Elementary Ed program at UVU on full academic scholarships.

Prima Donna is a senior at Bingham and they just finished their musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. She got the part of Mrs. Halloum which is what she wanted when it became evident that she wouldn’t really be able to dance because she fell and broke both bones in her leg at Girls’ Camp. This resulted in surgery and six weeks on a scooter. She has finished all of the requirements to graduate from SLCC in the spring when she receives her diploma from Bingham. She has set her sites on Weber to finish her degree in Drama. Prima Donna also earned her Gold Award this year for Girl Scouts and she loves finally being the president of our troop now that Princess has graduated.

Crafty is a 9^th grader. She loves to dance and she spends nearly every night at the studio. On the days she doesn’t have class, she is an assistant teacher at the studio. She is in all the top companies and performing teams and she is looking forward to the Nutcracker performance this weekend. She is a 4.0 student and she hates playing the clarinet in the symphonic band but her mother insists. One thing the girls did this year was dance at the National Girl Scout Convention. They spent a weekend at Trefoil learning the routine with a professional choreographer from New York. It was so fun to watch them! This included Princess, Prima Donna, Crafty, and Scout.

Sport is a 7^th grader. He loves sports of all kinds and his football team just won the state championship. He played baseball and was a terrific pitcher and 1^st baseman. He is also a 4.0 student and he earned the highest award given by the Kiwanis Club to only two students in his elementary school class, the Hope of America Award. Sport plays the trumpet in the concert band and loves passing the sacrament on Sundays.

Scout is a 4^th . She plays the clarinet in the band and loves playing softball, basketball, and dancing. This is her first year on a performing team and she is loving it! She is a good student and she makes friends easily. She enjoys girl scouts and Activity Days (now that I’m the leader for both), but not getting up early.

Curly is a 2^nd grader. He loves sports as well, especially football. This was his first year playing tackle and he seems born to do it. He loves watching the game with his dad. He is a Tiger Scout and he loves school and getting up early. He was also able to keep up with his dance classes even with football and baseball. He does ballet, tap, and Jazz.

Baby Doll just missed the deadline for kindergarten, so I get to keep her at home for one more year which is totally fine with me. She loves preschool and girl scouts. She also attends and participates in every Activity Days project. She is dancing more than ever, adding jazz to her already busy schedule of ballet and tap.

My sweetie continues to work long hours and he has spent several weeks on the east coast. We have never had to deal much with travel, but I think we have made up for it this year. He is getting better at it and the fact that he lost 60 pounds has made it much easier for him to be comfortable on a plane for 7 hours. He was finally released as the Cubmaster and promptly put in as the Young Men’s Secretary. He has very little free time, but when he does he still loves to watch the kids play sports and dance and tinker around in the yard.

I am doing all the same things, girl scouts, Activity Days, stake sports, and raising kids. I still sell a little Tupperware from time to time, but most of my evenings are wrapped up in activities for the kids and running the carpool here and there. I had my knee scoped last week to remove some debris that was causing me to slow down a little; you know we can’t have that. Our family enjoyed a two-week trip to Texas in August to see where Teach (and Twiz) served their missions. Did I tell you he was a missionary in Fort Worth at the same time as she was? They hooked up at a mission reunion. So now we are planning a wedding over the top of Christmas again this year. Not that I care, I love seeing the kids getting married and settling into their own lives. We hope you have had a happy and healthy 2015.

Love,

Sandy and the Clan