I feel like a one-woman email chain. :) -- Connie

I am determined not to let this die!!!  I want to know what's going on in all of your lives--so I keep chiming, in hopes that you all will.  :)

Well, another section of our fence blew down up on top, and also the left side at the front of our house.  So nice to know that the H.A. will fix it up on top, but we're going to have to replace that front piece, which we've been meaning to do anyway.  I would love for the back fence management to replace the whole fence, and we would even chip in, but looks like they're going to do this piece-meal thing which I will not complain about one bit.  But I do hope this extreme wind we've been having will be short-lived.

It was way windy at the temple yesterday for Brittany Persson's wedding. SO FUN to be there with so much extended family.  We had a Chipotle family luncheon, and the reception was absolutely lovely at the Overlook Chapel.  She sure married a nice guy with a wonderful family! SUPER happy for her/them.

Tonight we head out to Lodi for the NYEve party, so hope we don't have extreme weather for that trip.  Just saw a post about how treacherous that was for someone yesterday and I have no desire to blow off the road and into the surrounding water....ugh....so here's hoping for a less blustery day!  :)

Alison and Chris are staying with us and I have been waiting for hours with biscuits and gravy for them, it's almost noon and they just began stirring up there....so it will be lunch instead of breakfast.  :)  Oh, the good 'ol days of being able to sleep in like that.  The older one gets, the less possible that becomes....and just when one might have time to do it!!  :)  Oh life....it just keeps us on our toes.  :) :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR to each and every one of you!!  Pipe in and tell us all about your lives.  We really hope that all is well with all of you.

Love forever and ever,

Mom

Another Update -- Bryce

Sorry to hear about the fence issues are a continuing saga. I'd be surprised if your home insurance wouldn't replace the whole thing, though, since it's all just about falling over at this point. (Assuming the fence is covered.) Might be worth looking into. 

Oh, and Kev and Mom both: most homeowner and/or renter insurance policies have limited coverage for identity theft issues, usually capped at or under $2K. If either of you end up out any cash, it's worth taking a look through the insurance policy (assuming you have a renter policy, Kev) to see if you can make a claim. In fact, if either of you is continuing to have problems with your bank or the credit agencies, feel free to give me a call and we can talk about what the banks/credit agencies have to do for you. Maybe you can use that info to get them off their keisters. 

We don't have a lot to add to our last update, since all we've done is add nasty colds to the mix. I'm the healthiest, but I still worked from home today to avoid dropping a biological bomb on my office. (I get to work from home more these days because a good friend of ours hooked me up with two huge monitors for free. I need a lot of screen real estate to work effectively, so I used to have to stay at the office late or go in on weekends to have access to my dual monitor setup. Thank heaven for wonderful, generous friends.) We're pulling out of it just fine, though, so it hasn't been a huge deal.

We have Everett's kindergarten information meeting next week, which seems sort of surreal. Good thing we'll fill up the house a little more before he starts school. :)

That's about it for us. As E would say, "I love you all the numbers down to zero!"

Happy New Year's Eve -- Shauna

I'll follow the example of my eldest brother and update you guys on what's going on over here with us :)

As mom hinted at, Mike and I have been trying to get to the temple every week for the last couple weeks. Our second time going together (1st time at Provo) we got asked to be the witness couple :) very cool experience but man I was nervous! Haha last weekend we went to the Timpanogos temple since the Provo one is closed. We were rushing to make it to the last session and barely got in on time (or so we thought) and got asked to be the witness couple again! What are the chances?! So funny! And again, a great experience :) especially in our temple! Love it. Last night we went and did a session at the Salt Lake temple. Seeing it live was an interesting experience but it was a fun thing to go do :) we saw the lights afterward and got some dinner at Panda which was a great way to end our all day date! (We went bowling before and got a couple things done before heading out to Salt Lake for the 5pm session. It was FREEZING!!) 

Other than that, we're just getting caught up on management stuff and enjoying all the time together :) Oh yeah! A couple weeks ago, I sang a duet with Rita for their wards Christmas Musical Fireside so I learned a song in Spanish and it was really fun to bond with my mother in law doing that :) Mike accompanied us (making it his own awesome arrangement of a primary song) and I always love hearing him play!! He really has an amazing musical gift :)

We might play games with all the little brothers tonight (and maybe Ben and Skye) which will be fun! We love those guys.

Oooh! I just remembered another thing that happened! :) Mike and his little brothers were dealing with the snow so I was cleaning out an apartment since the couple had left pretty quickly and didn't have time to clean everything before they left (they wanted to beat the storm that was coming so we said do what you can and we'll charge you for what we have to clean.) they had left a lot of stuff but one thing was a queen mattress. Mike decided it would be fun to put some old snowboards and skis under it (attached with duct tape) and take it sledding. So we called Mike's little brothers, janelle and Darin and Merritt's kids to join us. As we kinda already figured, the mattress was a fail but we still had a ton of fun sledding with the real sleds!

Okay I'm done for real with our update now haha :) Life is great and we're loving it!!

Love you all!! Happy New Years Eve!!

Update -- Connie

Thanks for the update, Brycee!  So sorry about Everett's foot getting hurt, dang it all!  But a cool boot....that'll take some of the sting out of it for sure.  :) 

Wow we've sure got some intense weather going on in this country!  Hope you are all safe and warm and happy on Christmas!!  We will be with each of you in our hearts.

Things are a little rough around here right now.  I am under the weather a bit, so Dad is on Grandma patrol...and we are not together, which reallllly stinks.  It's hard to see the changes in Grandma's personality right now, so if you call her, please be aware that things are not quite 'normal' right now and don't take anything personally.  She might be just fine on the phone, but you never know.  And I know she would love a phone call--even a really short one.

Living on my memories of being together with all of you....just wishing we could all somehow live right next to each other forever....guess that will have to be in our mansions on high. :) I better shape up!!!!  You are all so wonderful and we love you beyond words. 

Let us know how you spent the Christmas money!  We want to make sure you got yourselves something that you really want, otherwise you will force us to buy, wrap and ship in the future, and you may end up with Superman footie pajamas or the like---so FOLLOW THE RULES and spend that Christmas money frivolously!  Every red cent of it!  :) :)  It's okay if you say you're waiting for post-holiday sales....that will be acceptable.  ;)

Happy Christmas Eve....we are counting our many, many, many blessings....and you kids/grandbabies are at the tippy top!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you with all my heart,

Mom

Update -- Kevin

Bummer to hear about Everett’s foot. Hopefully it gets all the way better soon.

As for us, there doesn’t seem to be that much to write about. It’s been nice having a few days off from school, though I have been able to use the time to get caught up with studying a little bit. Rachel’s family has been slowly trickling into town, with Sharla and Jeff’s family getting here late on Monday (Sharla’s b-day). So to celebrate, we went to Outback Steakhouse last night and then went and saw the final Hobbit movie. Not bad, but not one I plan on ever buying.

I think the most entertaining part of our lives is being the parents of a very quotable 2 year old. Seriously, this girl is something else. The other day I told her as she was eating lunch that—if she finished it—she could have a special snack afterwards (i.e., I’m going to eat a snack, and if you finish your meal I’ll share with you). When I promised her the snack, I had forgotten that she had already been snacking before lunch on something she got at church. Rachel kind of tried to do damage control and get us out of the new obligation, but since I really wanted to eat the snack, I just made the executive decision that we would proceed as planned. I said something along the lines of, “It’s okay. We can still have the snack. Daddy makes decisions around here sometimes, too.” (As a side note, I tend to run everything past Mommy before giving permission because I’m not at home enough to learn how things are done here.) In a way that only Audrey can say it, her eyes got wide with excitement and she enthusiastically responded with, “You make GOOD decisions!” I thought Rachel and I would never recover from laughing about that.

As for Esther, I can’t believe how fast she is growing into a cute little chunky baby. She is also getting very good at holding her little head up, and has been able to effectively roll from tummy to back (to the left or right) for well over a month now. I didn’t know that was even possible at this age. She is also sleeping very well at night, but is still very particular about when she wants to be held (always), who she wants holding her (Mommy), and how she wants to be held (any way but the way I’m currently holding her). Okay, it’s not quite that bad, but it feels like it sometimes. At least she has (finally) started warming up to me… “which is nice.”

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Love you lots!

-Kev

Update -- Bryce

Aw yeah, check me out, gettin' my Baptist on with the hand motions and all.

So, we do have a little update for this Christmas Eve. Ginny knocked Haley's harp over on Sunday, and it landed on Everett's ankle. Poor kid was really, really hurt. We iced it and got it wrapped in an ace bandage that night. He still couldn't put weight on it Monday morning, so Haley took him in to the doctor. When she finally got in to see the doctor that afternoon, the doc took one look at his ankle and said, "I'm not charging you for this visit. You need to take him to an orthopedist for x-rays." Pretty cool of the doc to not charge us, but bummer on the extra visit. So Haley took him in to an orthopedist yesterday and dropped Gins off with me at work. Turns out Everett's ankle wasn't broken (or if it was, it didn't require setting or a cast), so they put him in a boot and set up a follow-up appointment for two weeks later. Now he's cruising around, loving being mobile again with his astronaut boot. Meanwhile, Gins and I had a great time at work, especially when we realized a mail cart can double as a red flyer wagon. (It was a very dignified and professional afternoon. :) )

Anyway, Haley had mentioned the harp incident on Facebook so I figured I'd let you know all is well. Love you guys to pieces, and Merry Christmas!

Bryce in Sacrament Meeting -- Connie

You are not going to believe this one.  I was on FB last night (ok, I know you believe that part) and my friend from our branch in Italy posted that she was on her way to Raleigh.  I just said, "hey, our son lives in Raleigh!" and didn't think a thing about it.  Well....just a few minutes ago, Bryce texted me that our friends from Italy were in their ward today!  And I got on here and Patti had TAKEN A PICTURE OF BRYCE WHILE HE WAS GIVING A TALK IN SACRAMENT MEETING  and sent it in a private message, telling me that she just realized who that was, and that he was giving a very sweet, very spiritual talk about the Savior.....

Now I ask you:  WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF THAT?!  Pretty darn amazing, if you ask me!!  I love that this happened!  She and her husband had both served missions in Italy, and just as we were getting ready to move back to the states, the Lord sent them to take over Dad's job as being the Italian-speaking-problem-solving-resident-caretaker of our precious little American Branch in Aviano.....I'm not even kidding.  They stepped in just as we stepped out.  It is amazing how the Lord watches over his people, and the entire time we were in Italy, Dad went to doctors, hospitals, landlord disputes--anything where our branch friends needed him to interpret, HE WAS THERE.....and then when we were leaving....in come the Johannsens.  It was amazing.  

Anyway, I'll try to attach that picture....but....I may not know how to do that.... :)  :)

Love to all!  Happy Sabbath!

Mom