Message from Mom, Etc.

Dear Family,

Happy New Year! We want to wish everyone happiness, peace, health, prosperity and whatever may be virtuous, lovely, of good report or praiseworthy. In other words, we wish you the best for the new year.

Dad and I took advantage of the holidays to drive up to Seattle. We managed the trip up in one looong day plus a couple hours the next. The weather stayed clear and dry until we tried to cross the Cascades about an hour outside of Maple Valley. That hour took all morning as we waited for a snow storm to subside to allow us to continue. We enjoyed a fun celebration with the Atwoods with everything from nature walks along the Cedar River to an exciting evening downtown. Their home kept us comfy while the family put magic into Christmas.

We returned home with another pleasant drive staying just ahead of storms all the way. Chris and Summer invited us over for front row seats to their paint ball war and dinner with McKay and Keresa. Our vacation was fun, exciting, relaxing and short.

May 2007 bring as many wonderful blessings as 2006. May the family calendar continue to grow. May we all enjoy frequent visits with each other and happy times together.

Love & prayers, Mom

Loved and Beloved Children,

Wow, 2007! Who'd a thunk? I guess for you youngsters, 2007 is nothing, but for us oldsters, George Orwell's futuristic novel, 1984, was a long way in the future. Regardless, here we are. I am proud of you all. Sometimes I lie awake at night waiting for the other shoe to drop. Five of you, not by accident mind you, have gorgeous, intelligent and whole healthy children. You have beautiful or handsome hard-working spouses. Together you have decided to raise families in times when it is not popular nor chic to do so. I'm proud of the choices you make. I imagine Matt will follow in the same path when the time is right.

We love you all, Dad

Atwoods in December

I don't want to come across as a weather reporter, but we have really had some exciting storms here in Maple Valley. Maybe you saw the news in mid-December: we had this horrible windstorm that blew trees right out of the ground. It damaged so many power lines that the entire Western side of WA was out of power. On our block we had giant trees plucked out by the roots and fences down and tons of debris. We were one of 3 lucky neighborhoods in the area that kept power, although the power company did turn off our power for about 18 hours to repair other power. So now we can say that we didn't miss out on the whole after-storm experience.

It's ironic or maybe an answer to a little prayer in a very strange sort of way. The Sunday before everything happened, I was looking over the family calendar and the office schedule and helplessly wondering how we could accomplish everything that needed attention (without the help of a clone) i.e. Kids' piano recital, preparing food and music for and attending the ward party, Christmas shopping, Kambri's Christmas choir concert, dipping chocolates in time to give them to all the teachers, tithing settlement, caroling party, two field trips to chaperone, musical number for enrichment dinner, plus the usual chaos i.e. dance classes, gymnastics, scouts, play group at our house, dirty laundry, dishes and dinner. Then we had the worst wind storm in recorded history for this area, and suddenly everything came to a complete and screeching halt.

I'm not saying that I am in anyway thankful for all the damage the storm caused, and it may just make for an unusually busy January with all the rescheduling, but I couldn't help thinking about how we puny humans think we have these "important" plans when ultimately we really are at the mercy of some much greater plan.

To make a long story short, Christmas came and went, and it was an awesome day, even without all the hoop-la that we usually heap into the month. And we grand finaled 2006 a stronger, more unified family through it all!

Tip up your bottle of Pellegrino Water to an even better 2007!!

Love, Andy & Melanie & kids

PS we are working on a card to send out at an undisclosed time in the future.

Martha & Jeremy

I don't remember much before December 14th. Since the 14th though, it's been a party! It's so much fun with our little baby girl around, that is, unless it's the middle of the night. Lyle's first reaction to her was, "It's just a baby because she doesn't have a bow in her hair!" She's been wearing bows ever since! Rummy's reaction was, in a high-pitched voice straining with excitement, "My baby sister, my baby sister!" We all competed to hold her during the first few days. I think Lyle won.

After the novelty of playing with their baby sister wore off a little, Christmas came and the boys' excitement heightened to a new level. Rummy couldn't get over the food and treats in his stocking, and Lyle couldn't get over the fact that Santa brought all his favorite toys. Jeremy and the boys played and played and finally, I got to hold Elizabeth as much as I wanted.

After Christmas Day the new baby adrenaline wore off and was replaced with fatigue. I turned the phones off (Becca, I think you were one of the last people I talked to on the phone) and we all stayed in our pjs for the rest of the week. We had fun playing with the new toys, watching new videos and eating meals we could prepare in 5 minutes or less. It was so nice and relaxing, I'm tempted to keep the phones turned off and to stay in pjs!

Love, the Tanners

Becca & Nick

I want to record a story about something funny Jonathan said once, so I guess that is how I'll start. In our house in Tucson, about 75% of the floors were hard surfaces. Monthly, the exterminator, or bug man as we called him, came and sprayed around the inside perimeter of the house. I'd always tell the kids to be careful and stay away from the poison until it dried. It was about May of last year (2006) when my story takes place. It was just before bed, and Jonathan was saying his prayers. He asked to "please bless the bug man and the bugs, that the bugs will slip and fall and die." When the kids weren't careful they would sometimes slip in the wet poison and fall. I guess Jonathan must have figured out that that must be how the bugs died. It makes me wonder just what goes on in that head of his...

Christmas was fun as usual... Santa came after all. Matt didn't even see him come, and he slept in the living room. Although Matt did do the assembling dirty work for the red man. Estelle has been making soup for the family with her kitchen he brought her. And Jonathan hasn't left the house yet without his cowboy belt and pistols strapped around his waist. He tops off the look with an old hat of Nick's that Jonathan says looks just like Jim Cole's hat from the Man from Snowy River. When he is all outfitted, he talks out of the side of his mouth and warns everyone not to say nice things to him, or he'll shoot. He makes one tough cowboy! Nick helped out the elves this year by building a playground. It was a pretty involved project that took a few full days, 1 Dad, 1 brother, and 2 brothers-in-law. Even though they weren't done by Christmas, Santa still brought a slide and some swings to go with it.

Elissa has gained more voice this month as she has learned how to scream. She'll be giving a great big toothless grin, and just as you think she is going to give you a sweet little "coo," she lets out a high-pitch scream instead, although it does sound sweet too. After Sunday school last week about five different people commented that I had a "screamer."

Love, the Bryces

McKay & Keresa

Sydney, the other day when we were pulling up to the grocery store, she looked around and told her mom and me, "Albertson's. Shopping." Then later that same day we were stopped at a stop light where there is a McDonald's within sight, and similarly she let us know that we were next to the, "McDonald's. Hamburger." She thinks she is Jackson's mom. She walks quietly up to him and says, "Hi little guy. Doo doo goo boo doo."

Jackson only fit #2 diapers for one box worth, then onto the next. He may have that same super-growth gene that Bronson has. So just in case next time you see our family it looks like Sydney has a big brother instead of a little brother, it's Jackson.

We got to have a New Year's Eve bash with Chris and Summer and their kids. Grandpa and Grandma Whit showed up for a few hours of fun, but were scared off when Chris and Summer pulled out their new Christmas presents-- paintball guns! Let's just say they were wise to have left before there were any shots fired.

MK KGW SRW JGW

Matthias

So I've got a pretty good Christmas to report on this year. I spent Christmas eve with Becca and Nick's family and some time also with Megan's family in Sierra Vista... and I'll tell you what, you get twice as many presents visiting two houses for Christmas! I only wish I would have told someone else to expect me so Santa would have filled me three stockings! At Becca and Nick's house, after spending Christmas eve helping Santa Claus set up Stelli's new play kitchen and setting out Jonathan's toy guns and tools, Santa made a second trip to drop me off a tool set and a George Foreman grill after I'd gone to bed! That Santa never ceases to amaze me! But my other gifts require a little bit of background storytelling...

In the beginning of November, we were having a Dance Dance Party at my apartment to celebrate one of my roommate's birthdays, when one of my long standing faithful and heavily duct taped dance pads ceased to function. Noooooo! My sadness was deep, and I didn't know what to do. I went over a month without playing dance dance and fell into a deep depression, well, in respect to dance dance. Then on the night before my final and hardest exam, the optics exam, Megan insisted I take a break from my two-day long study session and take her out to Eegee's to get my mind off the exam. I declined and told her I wanted to look over a few more things and then go to bed, but she was quite persistent. So as our Eegee's order tray came out, I noticed that Megan had slipped a piece of paper underneath my eegee. I looked at it, and it appeared to be the first clue of a treasure hunt. In my horrible grouchy, over-studied mood, I groaned and complained about being appreciative that she was doing something nice for me to ease the stress before my last exam, but that I wasn't at all interested in going on a treasure hunt all around town and whatever else. But I played along like a good sport and went to different friends' houses collecting clues to the treasure hunt while sipping my eegee. Then at one destination, there was a large gift-wrapped item. I opened it to reveal...a piece of a dance pad? What was this? I continued on, now with peaked interest, to find two more pieces and a final clue that led back to my apartment where the final piece of a brand new dance pad lay along with a bunch of friends ready to have a dance dance party! Megan had been organizing a fund-raising effort with all my friends from my ward and the institute to get enough money to buy me a new dance pad! Along with the pad was a card signed by close to 25 people wishing me a happy dance dance! I was practically glowing! She didn't just buy me a dance pad, but had shown that enough people care enough about me to help me continue enjoying dance dance!

So back to Christmas. After enjoying Christmas morning with Becca's family, I drove to Sierra Vista where a second round of presents was awaiting! There was another stuffed stocking from Santa, a knitted Gryffindor Scarf to go with my hat, a can of nacho cheese, and an awkwardly large wrapped present under the tree. Lo and behold, it was a second brand new dance pad! I guess she said that with all the people who had donated (some offering as much as $10) there had been plenty to buy me two new dance pads for Christmas! It was amazing.

At the Institute's Almost New Year's Eve party last Saturday night (one poster advertised "this dance has been endorsed by the First Presidency" and another announced "Happy 2006.999999999999") I sought an opportunity to show off my new dance pads and give back to the community that gave me new dance pads. So I set them up with the institute's projector and large speakers apart from the main dance to have a little dance dance section off to the side. It was a hit!

Well, hope your Christmas hauls were as great as mine, and have a happy 2007!

Con Amor, Matthias