Our Christmas Letter—2007

This has been a great year for us—primarily due to our newest addition to the family. Abigail Maye was born at the end of September and is such a cute thing! We love her sweet and feisty spirit! We’ll get back to more details about her later.

Our year started off with Richard in school at UVSC and working at Western Standard Publishing. Richard is the CTO or Chief Technical Officer for the company. He has done a lot this year in helping his company do a project for the government. His boss repeatedly tells him he is so glad he hired Richard. Richard just finished taking his tests at school and we’re hoping he’ll be able to test out of a few more and actually be done. Prayers are appreciated in this area. Richard is still serving as an Elders Quorum instructor and together we put together the Ward Newsletter. This summer he built a trebuchet with his brothers and a friend. On their first attempt to launch it, the counterweight broke through the support, ruining the whole thing. They at least had fun working on it.

I started off the year working at Micron for Hoffman Construction as a buyer in the purchasing department. In February or so I began to feel really sick. We thought we might be miscarrying again but at about 6 weeks, we realized we were pregnant. At about 3 months I told the VP of the company that I was pregnant and within 2 weeks, I was let go. Interesting how those things happen huh? It really was a blessing to get away from the environment of that job. I wasn’t able to get another job—who is going to hire a pregnant woman? Oh well. I was able to do some odd jobs for a previous employer and we managed. Because I wasn’t working, I was called to be a part of Activity Days and I have loved being around all of those girls.

The only trip we took this year was to St. George in May for a vacation that we won. Our main project this year was building a pond & waterfall in our backyard. We were surprised at how easily we put it together. We started to buy goldfish to fill it and we figured a lot of them would die. We were wrong and we now have 22 goldfish with the longest at about 5 inches (they all started around an inch or so). They are now enjoying the winter inside our garage. Richard was also able to help his friend do a lot of projects on his house, which Richard was happy about. He loves to help people and build things.

There are several other great things that have happened this year. Well, this one actually started at the end of last year. Brett & Jenna moved into our ward last November & have become life-long friends. We have spent a lot of time with them this year and have loved every minute. We’re so grateful that they moved in and that we have become such great friends. Another great thing is last month, one of Richard’s friends got married and we are so happy for him. Also, my parents were able to visit over the Thanksgiving Holiday and we are so glad they were able to come and meet Abigail.

Speaking of Abigail, she is absolutely adorable and we love her so much. We can’t imagine life without her and it is amazing to see her change almost every day. She slept through the night on December 10th and we are so grateful for that. She also has started to laugh and talks up a storm. She loves her Daddy and he certainly loves her back.

This has been a wonderful year and we are so glad to have friends and family to share our news with. We’re so thankful for our little girl and that we are sealed together for Eternity. We are grateful for our home and for all of our modern conveniences. We are most grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and His atonement and what a far-reaching blessing that is. We wish you health and happiness for the upcoming year.

Love, Richard, Dedra, and Abigail