Christmas 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
This year has been filled with tons of things - rocks to be more specific. In February, we moved into our new home just outside of Blackfoot which meant that in the spring, we began the work of getting the yard ready to plant grass. After renting a bobcat and a rock rake we decided that heavy equipment should not be run by novices like ourselves. Chuck felt like he had been riding a bucking bronco all day - not that he has ever ridden one - but you get the idea. And, the equipment didn't do as good of a job as we had hoped - We were hoping to get out of all the raking. We didn't. We raked and raked and raked and raked until we had nice, thick calluses on our soft city hands (I guess we really did move to the country). Then after the rains came, more rocks appeared - magically! Did you know that rocks multiply like rabbits, except that the gestation period is much shorter. So, after much manual labor, we finally planted the grass seed, put our rakes down and prayed that the grass would grow. Thankfully, it did. By next summer, we should have nice thick grass to play frisbee, or football, or volleyball, or kickball, or whatever we want. One nice thing about last summer - no mowing!
Our family has grown this year - no, we did not have another child. All of the girls have changed shoe sizes at least 3 times and then it seemed like the "floods" came much more quickly. Here is a run down of what they are doing:
Emily (12) is in the 7th grade at the Middle School and will officially be a teenager in February, although she has been practicing to become one for months now. She decided to skip choir this year and try her hand at the flute. We rented a flute through the summer and Emily taught herself how to play and caught up to rest of her class, who were in band last year. She enjoys piano and has made a lot of progress. She loves being in Young Women's and has served as the secretary for her class. This last summer, Emily participated (with her parents) in the youth pioneer trek at Martin's Cove and Sixth Crossing. We had a memorable experience representing our direct ancestors, the Mortensen family, who were in the Willie Company. Emily's favorite part was playing in the stream.
Colie (11) attends a school entirely for 6th graders. She decided to play the trumpet this year and is one of the best in her class. Her teacher even asked her to switch classes in order to help some of the struggling trumpet players. She was thrilled when she played a short solo at her Christmas concert. Colie just finished playing basketball and learned a lot. She is very quick and usually had
Katie (8) absolutely loves school. As a third grader, she enjoys learning pretty much about everything. She turned eight this year and was baptized by Chuck. She was so excited. This fall she had her tonsils taken out and tubes put in her ears and was miserable for about five days but didn't complain at all. She was happy to finally eat real food again. Over time her eating habits have improved, eating meat now, only if there is plenty of BBQ sauce to smother it in. The day she eats mashed or baked potatoes is the day you will hear a tremendous cheer coming from
Lauren (6) graduated from preschool in May. She enjoys kindergarten and rides the bus to and from school. We weren't sure how she was going to adapt to this, but she put on a brave face and has ridden that big bus every day. A couple of months ago, Lauren wanted to make a Nephi chart and keep track of the times she acted like Nephi in the Book of Mormon. She was a different girl from the day the chart was made. She was disappointed when a mark was made on the Laman and Lemuel side. That story changed all of our lives for the better. She loves to pretend Primary, school, and house in her make believe world. She gathers everything she needs around her and basically "sets up camp".
Hallie (4) is a bundle of fun, smiles and giggles. We love listening to Hallie pray. Although there were a few times when Mom was caught off guard and burst out laughing (oops), we think Heavenly Father must have been giggling too. A month ago, we were driving past the
Chuck (almost 40! Yeah, baby bring it on!) has really enjoyed his work at Basic American Foods in Blackfoot as a planning analyst and statistician and has received some good recognition for his contributions. He recently finished teaching a beginning statistics class for some of the managers and engineers at the company which was very successful. All Kristin knows is that that stuff is way over her head! Chuck continues to work with the young men in the ward and is loving every minute of it. Being a kid at heart helps him manage a bunch of twelve year olds.
Chuck traveled quite a bit this year for work which wasn't so fun, however, when it enabled the two of us to get away to
Kristin (ageless) has been busy with the usual - laundry, cooking, chauffeuring, cleaning, grocery shopping, tutoring, nursing, volunteering, etc - all the basic mom things. She still serves as the ward music chairman and frequently needs to convince people that they really do want to share their talents with the ward for a musical number. It really isn't too bad. And, most importantly, Kristin is finally feeling like she belongs in
One of the highlights of the year was the return of Grandma and Grandpa Jensen from their mission in
In all, our family has had a good year. The Lord has truly blessed us for which we are so thankful. May you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New.
