"New Year" letter

Well, as you know, it has a LONG time since we have last updated this blog, don't ask me why because this is Sarah writing this and I have my own blog. You can complain to Mom if you want to know why. Any way here is the family "New Year" (instead of Christmas) letter. Enjoy!

Dear Family and Friends, January, 2010

I promised I would write a family letter for this year, so here it is! (Better late than never!) We hope this finds everyone well and happy, having enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Season and now into a great New Year. It was fun to hear from some of you and learn what has been happening in your lives. We have enjoyed a great year. We put a new barn/shop up on our property, had a great garden and produced lots of grapes, blackberries, and goji berries. Dixie had nine cute puppies! Elisabeth, our oldest granddaughter, was baptized in July. We also had a wonderful family reunion in July in Afton, Wyoming. In August, our twelfth grandchild was born, and now we have
announcements that three more are on the way!

Following are some fun pictures and brief updates on the family.

Dave and Louise are enjoying the grandparent role! With such beautiful grandchildren, it is a joy! Dave is excited for his retirement (after almost 26 years at Lockheed Martin) at the end of January. He will then have plenty of time to pursue all his other interests: Gogi berries, rabbits, honey bees, greenhouse, garden, plant cloning machine, woodworking, family history, temple work, etc. etc. etc. He is still serving as bishop and loves the opportunity it gives to love and work with the people of the ward. Louise is busy keeping up with everyone else and helping where needed. She is still homeschooling Matthew and Sarah and is a Relief Society teacher and organist at church.



Jason, Kristine and kids (Elisabeth, Rebekah, Jonathan, Jacob and Kayla) are doing great in Lehi, Utah. With five kids, life is always fun and busy at their house, and Kristine keeps on smiling! We were thrilled to participate in Elisabeth’s baptism in July. Jason was quite the hunter this year, getting a deer and an elk! http://jkfamily814.blogspot.com/



Jared and Laura and their three kids, Erin, Alex and Marissa, are loving life in Florida. Laura graduated in December with her Architectural Degree. What a great accomplishment! Jared is still working for Motorola. They just announced that baby #4 (a boy) is on the way! We had so much fun with them when they were here during the summer, we wished they lived closer. http://jldanielsfamily.blogspot.com/



Rick and Brenda and little Patcy are now living next door in the basement apartment. They were living in our basement for a year, but are now enjoying the extra space and their own kitchen. Rick continues to go to school at Utah State. Brenda is still working for Oracle. It is fun to have them close and be able to play with Patcy, who is so cute! They are excited to be having another little girl the first of April.
http://rbkeizer.blogspot.com/




Alan and Robin, with Kimberly and Benjamin, are doing well in Arizona. Shortly after closing on their house last January, Alan was laid off from his job. Things were tight as Alan did freelance work and Robin did substitute teaching and real estate; but, finally, after being Mr. Mom for about six months, Alan got a good job doing sales/marketing for an online university. Robin is glad to be back home full-time. We miss them and wish they were closer! http://www.alandanielsfamily.blogspot.com/




Brian and Callie are doing great. Brian graduated in June from USU in Structural Engineering. It took a few months, but he finally got a great job at an engineering firm. Callie is still working at Honeyville Grain. They are living in Brigham City with Callie’s parents temporarily while saving and looking for the right place to buy a house...it may even be down in St. George. The most exciting news is that they are expecting a baby girl the end of March!
http://brianandcallie.blogspot.com









Jon and Rachel were thrilled to have little Josephine Omeara join them in August. She is such a cutie and so much fun; and, of course, she is a BYU fan already! Jon is in his last semester at BYU, graduating this April. He will be looking for a teaching job in the area. Rachel is working for Workforce Services. She is still hopeful that in the near future they will allow her to work from home.
http://gosslovin.blogspot.com

Steven is in his second year at Utah State, studying Mechanical Engineering. He is doing great! He is also involved in the Institute as a Institute Men’s Association leader. He has worked with Apx Alarm Systems doing installations for two summers and plans to do it for a third. It is great money. He needs the money to support his hobby – Remote Control Airplanes. He is becoming an expert at designing, building and flying them. And of course, he is busy dating (we hope!) You can find him on Facebook.



Anziano Daniels is serving an LDS mission in the Rome Italy Mission. He LOVES it! He has loved the people and the opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He has shared with us some great stories about the people he has met and taught and some of the fun differences in the culture. (You’ll have to ask him about maggot cheese!) He was thrilled with the news that a temple will be built in Rome. He will be returning home the first part of May.


Sarah is now 15 and a beautiful young woman! She is currently enrolled in Online High School of Utah, an online charter school. So far she has really enjoyed it and has done very well. She also goes to the local school for Seminary and Choir. She stays busy with Young Women’s, sports, baby- sitting and helping around here. Last summer she attended EFY, Stake Youth Conference (Handcart Trek), Girl’s Camp and our family reunion. She was also busy helping with rabbits, irrigating, weeding, picking blackberries and goji berries, etc. http://smileysarahsblog.blogspot.com



Matthew will be turning 10 soon and is a great kid! He stays busy with his studies (homeschool), cub scouts, playing with friends and being a great uncle to all his little nieces and nephews. He had a good time playing baseball last spring; he is quite the hitter! He also loves running with Dave. He is a great help out back with the watering, rabbits, weeding, driving the tractor, etc.


As you can see, we have been truly blessed. We are so grateful for all we have, especially the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. May you all enjoy a wonderful 2010! Stop by and see us anytime you are in the area!


Love to all, Dave and Louise and family 1045 West 3600 South Perry, UT 84302
435-734-0091
drdscooter@msn.com

Matthew's Hair Cut

Matthew got a buzz!! He looks very different. Here's before and after. I know the picture's not the best but it's the best I could do. Scary!!!

My New Blog

This is a new update on me(Sarah). I actually have my own blog now so I probably won't write in here again for a while. My blog is smileysarahsblog.blogspot.com. I also got my bottom braces off! It wasn't too exciting though 'cause I already have my top ones off.

Oh and how could I forget the kittens! Yes one of our cats(Socks) had 7 kittens! They are very cute! Here are a few pictures. Just FYI we are giving them away for free so if you know someone in Perry or wants to come down to Perry who wants a kitten then you can tell them.

Mi-Ko has come and gone

Since I forgot to update this while Mi-Ko was here I guess I'll do it now. Mi-Ko had a lot of fun here. We worked a lot. We played even more. And we slept out on the trampoline a lot. We went to Lagoon, we went swimming, Mi-Ko made delicious Japanese food, we went horseback riding, we went to family reunion and hit a pinate, played baseball with Rick, made churros, and after a bit of Mi-Ko getting used to her we played with Dixie. Mi-Ko even died her hair a little brown! Oh, and I can't forget that the rabbits had babies and since the Moms didn't take care of the babies we hand fed them! Here are a few pictures of things we did.

Braces Finally Off!!!

I can't believe my braces are finally off! It feels weird having them off. It's definitely something to get used to. But my retainer that I had to get today definitely doesn't help. At least the retainer looks cool! Here's what I look like without my top braces on. Pretty huh! Here's my awesome retainer.
As for the rest of my life? Misaki's (She's gonna be our Japanese Exchange Student) coming on the 26th! She'll be here 'till August 19th. I can't wait!
Brenda and Rick and Patcy are coming and are going to live in our basement!! But what's cool is Misaki will still be here when they come! Yes, August will be a very interesting month. Well, that's my life right now! Toodles!

Newsy Letter Sent to Greg

Dear Greg, Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Good Morning! How are you this fine day? Probably not much new on your end, since you do pretty much the same thing every day! How is the Italian? How is your nose? What else about MTC life can you share with us?

Well, here is what has happened over the last week:

Matthew got his top retainer/splitter. It is a retainer that is split down the middle allowing us to “turn the screw” so that is gradually opens up to widen his jaw and create more room for his permanent teeth. He is pretty good about wearing it, and after five days has finally figured out how not to “sluuurrrrrrrp”!

We went to our homeschooling end of the year party. It was cold, but the kids had fun ice blocking on a small hill anyway. We are going to have to find a better hill. I enjoyed visiting with some of the moms. Wednesday, Sarah went to the temple and did baptisms for the dead with the Young Women’s (Dad met them there to help). Then they met up at Gina Harris’ for a campfire/speaker/etc…it was a “Standard’s Day” She enjoyed it.

Friday was Callie’s birthday and she planned a big family party to celebrate! She had her family and ours..total of about 30 people. We were going to have it in our backyard, but the weather was cold and threatening rain, so we went to the church. She had made a pinata and all the kids loved it. They also play “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” Jason and family made it up, as well as Jon and Rachel. (They had planned a camping trip for the weekend, but it fell through, so they came up here and spent the weekend with us!) Everyone had a great time at Callie’s Party!

While we were at the party, we got a call from Jared announcing the arrival of little Marissa! She and Laura are doing great! Grandbaby number ten!

Saturday we finally had some warmer, dryer weather so we could get outside and catch up on some work. We cultivated and weeded the goji berries, which they desperately needed! Jon and Dad took a trip to Smith and Edwards to look at 22’s, and that afternoon Dad, Matthew, Jon and Rachel went shooting the 22’s and 243’s. It was a nice evening, so we were out playing Bocci Ball on the lawn and had a fire. Dad and I went to bed around 10:00, but Alan and Robin stayed until about 11:30pm and Jon and Rachel and Brian and Callie stayed up visiting (seeing who could tell the best story) until after 1:00am. We had everyone over for dinner on Sunday and had a fun time. (Saturday was Elisabeth’s 7th birthday! They had a big day Saturday fishing at Cabela’s and going to the Children’s Museum.)

Sarah and Matthew are busy cleaning the rabbit cages we bought, mowing the lawn, watering the grapes and blackberries, some school work and playing with friends. Donel cut the hay/grass Saturday afternoon…the only problem is he ran over one of the risers (in the grass field). So last night for FHE we went down and dug it out. Dad will go up to Logan and get the pieces to rebuild it. We had the pumps pulled and checked out to see why we weren’t’ getting the pressure we used to. They checked them out and are putting them back in, but I don’t know if it will make any difference.

The garden is all planted and doing all right. We have lots of corn and beans coming up, the tomatoes look good, but the cucumbers and watermelons aren’t doing so well. I think the wind has just dried them out, in spite of keeping them watered. Oh well…we will just have to plant some more. I’m still looking for the cantaloupes, zucchini and a few other things I planed from seed to sprout. We have lots of broccoli, spinach, and swiss chard coming up!

We talked to Brenda and Rick and they are definitely planning on coming here in August and going to school! They will be moving in downstairs, so I need to get in there and finish cleaning up and packing your room! Because Jon and Rachel were coming, I finally got down there and cleaned up the den and the bathroom, but I just closed your door! It will get done eventually!

Well, other than that, life is pretty much the same! We love hearing from you every week! We can tell you are working hard and doing your best to be receptive to the spirit while you are learning “Preach My Gospel” and the discussions. Remember that we are praying for you! Have a great week and keep smiling and keep striving! (Why do I always say that??? I don’t know, I think it is because that is what my Mom always said at the end of her letters.

WE LOVE YOU!

Love, Dad and Mom


PS...do you have a favorite scripture, yet?????

Exchange Student (by Sarah)

Our newest news is that we are having a Japanese Exchange Student, a thirteen year old girl, come live with us for three weeks. Her name is Misaki, and we are going to pick her up on July 26th and take her back August 19th. I am very excited because I will be the one to host Misaki in our family and show her what American life is like.