In early 2008 I got hooked on reading my friend Sherry's blog and decided to do one of mine own and thus began New Nothings. No one has asked me about my blog title, but I feel some explanation is required. My life is full of NEW -sometimes meaningful and sometimes insignificant- NOTHINGS. I enjoy just logging on to type- to let loose how I feel. And sometimes what I have to say means much more. That's just me. So this year, I thought I'd save a tree and post my Christmas letter on here! I hope that you all enjoy!
~ Brynn
It's hard to think of what to say when it's been a year since you last had to write it all down. Kids have grown, jobs have happened, hair has been cut and colored, tears have been shed, laughs have been given, lives have changed, people have been moved to different houses. And more.
Let's go youngest to oldest!
Liam turned 1 this past September, so his year has been full of new adventures. Liam is all smiles and is never really unhappy unless it's time to change his diaper. He brings constant joy to this home. Our boy decided to take his time learning about life. He didn't roll over till he was almost 6 months old and finally got his first 2 teeth right after we celebrated his first birthday. We thought that he'd heard too many stories about his Uncle Jared and decided to emulate him by doing the "army" crawl FOREVER. It was wonderful to see him eventually get on all fours. He just started walking this month. Brynn is overjoyed at this as he has been the biggest of all three kids and the slowest to walk- she now says she could do an arms of steel DVD (though buns of steel is what she wants.) He is a hoot to have around and brings MUCH "boy" energy to the predominately female enviroment. We all love his grunts and yells, nothing can top his dinner time ritual of clenching his food in both his fists and saying, "AAAARRRRRGGHHHH." Ahhh, to see him tackle Evie and take her graham cracker away is priceless (she only weighs about 5 lbs. more than he does.) How has Brynn coped these past years playing only with Barbies and holding tea parties? How we look forward to our little man's growth into a big man and we wait eagerly for the day when we can tell him (and his future wife) he once ate toilet paper out of the toilet when he was a baby...
Evie is our mischievous, stubborn, happy little stealth ninja who prefers to run around in princess dresses and swing like a monkey from what ever she can find to swing from. Her favorite thing is snuggle time with Jason or Brynn whenever she can get a moment. Evie is one unique kid. Eating fried eggs with Jason is something she LOVES- as long as there is ketchup. Ketchup is as important as air in Evie's life. Thanksgiving dinner was eaten with ketchup, all of it. Mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, biscuit, turkey, sweet potato casserole. All of it. It's a mystery. We had the major accomplishment of getting her potty trained at the age of 4 in 2008. Brynn learned the valuable lesson of "what is easy with one kid might not be so with the next one" when it comes to this subject. Having only one child in diapers at a time is a precious thing. Evie is still at home this year as Grandma Nancy asked her once if she wanted to go to school or not and Evie replied that she just wanted to stay with Brynn and eat snacks. Life with Evie is never boring!
Katie. What can we say about Katie? Where as life with Evie is never boring, life with Katie is never quiet. She is our chatterbox! Jason once noted that every thought that runs through Katie's mind comes out her mouth. Even if you walk out of the room Katie continues to talk to you. Her imagination is like no other! And she flit-floats from one thing to another always finding joy in life. She is a huge ball of energy that flattens Jason and Brynn everyday! She has continued to grow and have adventures in first grade this year. She is back at Our Savior Lutheran School and is doing very well. We found it interesting when one of her teachers sent home an award certificate this year for Halloween naming Katie and her costume as "most EXOCTIC." Katie usually makes perfect A's on her spelling tests, and we have high hopes that Katie will one day be the most special and "exoctic" person that people know! We feel confident that Katie's love of the Lord and love of others will take her far in life and we can't wait to see the Father's plans for our first born.
Brynn is. Her year has gone up, down, sideways, backwards and forwards as she wears the many "mom" hats. She and Jason still enjoy time with the Jr. High and High School students at their church as youth group leaders. They named the group R.O.C.K.- which stands for Relying On Christ the King. Brynn had a ton of fun and lost 5 lbs. when they took everyone tubing on the river for a day. Acting is still a priority for her and she was able to participate in a play this Summer called "Dora the Dishwasher." Brynn can now do an entire grocery store run and speak in a Southern accent the whole time and fool all! Acting at church has continued too, ask anyone at Pagosa Bible Church about the cheerleading skit. It's famous. :-) Bringing smiles to faces this year has been something Brynn has really enjoyed.
Well, we went youngest to oldest so that means it's Jason's turn! (We have the wonderful task of celebrating Jason's 30th birthday in 2009!!!!) Jason has been a busy man this year. Always a hard worker he has continued in his apprenticeship as a plumber and should soon be getting his residential license. Jason also had his first experience of building a fence to keep our kids off the street after we moved into a new house this past June. Working and moving with 3 small kids and an insane/perfectionistic wife is not an easy thing, but Jason survived to recommend not doing it to any one else. As most of our R.O.C.K. students are guys, Jason has had a really great time getting to hang with them and go snowboarding in the winter and wake boarding in the summer. As Brynn is typing this Christmas letter at 12:11 am- Jason is at work with his brother, shoveling snow and helping to plow the parking lots at the 2 local grocery stores. Brynn thanks the Lord for the hard working husband and loving father her Heavenly Father has blessed her with.
Except for our R.O.C.K. "responsibilities" we have taken a break from previous years service at Pagosa Bible Church. Jason has taken a break from his ushering duties and Brynn has taken a break from teaching preschool. God impressed upon us that our focus needed to be at home, so home- for now -is where it is.
Thank you for spending a few moments reading about our crazy, somewhat disjointed lives! Feel free to read more about our past year in older posts. (There are pictures in them!!!) And make sure you check back often, you never know when there will be a funny family story to bring a smile to your face!
Love to all and God Bless,
Jason, Brynn, Katie, Evie & Liam
Jarrod and Amber performed a sand ceremony rather than unity candles. They poured 2 different colors of sand into the same vase at once and they blended together. As the pastor put it, "Try separating that!"
Winter vases & name tags-
On September 16th, Liam turned one, but we celebrated on my actual birthday of September 20th. We had a bunch of close friends and family come and enjoy the evening with us. I was excited to enjoy all the "good" food that's "bad" for you as my birthday dinner- fried chicken, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, biscuits, green salad, corn and watermelon, which I guess balanced out the other stuff. I made a chocolate-chocolate cake for Liam in the shape of a bear and of course there was ice cream. A real "Southern dinner for the Texan girl," as Jason put it.
We couldn't wait to see how Liam reacted to his cake. Katie enjoyed her first piece of cake and got somewhat messy, Evie ate only the icing and picked at it with 2 fingers hardly needing even a paper towel to clean her up, but Liam....Liam needed a fire hose to get clean. We set his cake in front of him on a little plate and he proceeded to dump it off immediately. He then grabbed the cake with both hands and squished it in his fingers all the while making this very boy noise of "ooouuugggghhhh." After he was done smashing it up beyond recognition he started to stuff it in his mouth. After a few bites he thought it was pretty funny and smeared it in his hair. Anyone standing in a 2 foot radius found out that Liam likes to "swish" his highchair tray (wipe his hands across the tray as fast as he can and watch the food fly) and they very quickly backed up to avoid chocolate on their clothes. All in all he had everyone in stitches and was really fun to watch him enjoy his cake!
One of the highlights was that I got to go for a ride on my brother-in-laws Harley. I have been asking for a ride since he got it a year ago and he finally took me! After we got back Katie convinced him to try on her princess hat and he did so, he then proceeded to go for another ride on his bike wearing it! (My brother-in-law is a former Marine, if you didn't know and did two tours in Iraq.) Ok, now you should understand why this was so funny to us. 
So Happy Birthday to me and to Liam.