I was more on top of things this year, being as I am not 8 months pregnant this Christmas, but still couldn't quite get it together to send Christmas cards to anyone other than immediate family. But I still had it together enough to write a Christmas blog post, much like a Christmas letter, except this time you don't have to throw it away when you are done reading it. I'm saving the world, man, so maybe this will become a tradition. I really do enjoy reading family letters and reading about goings on in other people's lives, so I decided to share the love. Plus, this way you can see more photos, like this awesome family photo in front of our chicken-less chicken coop:
One major thing that happened this year was that we bought our first house. It's located in Taylorsville, just a few miles outside of Salt Lake City. The location is perfect for us- it is so easy to get anywhere in the valley. The schools I work at are only 5 minutes away, and although Nate's commute increased slightly, it's still only 17 minutes. This next year, we are planning on planting an epic garden and are considering getting chickens for the chicken coop. We can't have furry pets because Madelynn is horribly allergic to pretty much anything with fur, so she has been asking us for a pet chicken.
The most noteworthy thing that happened this year was that we added a new member to our family. Rhys Nowlin Garrett was born on Valentine's Day, and was 7 lb 14 oz and 21 inches long.
He completed our family, which is both exciting and a little bit sad as well knowing that we're done having babies, but after a difficult recovery and being away from family, I don't really want to go through that again.
Rhys is 10 months old, and is starting to walk. He loves to climb all over Daddy, eat, play with his older siblings, eat, go on walks in his stroller,climb in boxes, playing along with music on random instruments, eat, laugh, babble, eat, play with cords, and eat some more. He is our best eater, and our chunkiest baby. The other two were always pretty long and skinny babies, so having a roly poly baby is a new and fun experience. Ironically, he also has a really severe food allergy as well called Food Protein-Induced Entercolitis Syndrome (FPIES) and is on a severely restricted diet until we can begin slowly introducing new foods when he is 1.
Ian began his 2nd year of preschool this year and is 4. He loves being able to go 4 days a week now instead of 2 like he did last year. His favorite thing at school is playing on the playground. Ian loves to play with cars and trains and dressing up like Spiderman. One day I came home from work on a break to nurse the baby, and found Ian lying on the ground in his Spiderman costume, wearing his Spiderman backpack and Spiderman shoes, and coloring on his Spiderman dry erase board. He also loves to help mom cook (especially bake because it's fun to taste the batter), building forts, playing with play-dough and coloring. He started playing rec league soccer this year, and absolutely loves it. He scored his first goal..... well, okay, his first goal going the right direction just this past week.
Madelynn started 1st grade this year and will be 7 at the beginning of January. She is excelling in all subjects at school, though I'm pretty sure her favorite is recess. She's extremely friendly and social, and sometimes gets a bit too chatty in class. She says her favorite things at school are lunchtime, recess, and going on iPods for math. She started dancing at a new studio and recently had her Christmas Dance Recital where she rocked it. Madelynn loves drawing, making crafts, and anything related to Descandants (Evie is her favorite.) She is amazingly talented at drawing- this is what she drew just from watching youtube videos:
Madelynn recently began taking piano lessons from Mommy just a few months ago and likes it, although she doesn't willingly practice on her own. She is also a great helper with her baby brother, which is great when Mom wants to take a shower or eat food without being climbed on.
I (Emily) am still working half-time in the local school district as a Speech-Language Pathologist with preschoolers. I love my job, and I love that my schedule is flexible and allows me to nurse Rhys and take Ian to school in the middle of the day. I haven't had much time for hobbies between work, moving, and raising 3 kids, but I do still play the piano when I'm able to and will begin playing the organ for church in January. I like to plan fun outings with the family and try new places for food and adventures. Honestly, one of my favorite things to do right now is to just sit down and snuggle with my kids. I know that it won't be long before they won't want to hold my hand or snuggle or acknowledge me in public, so I'm taking what I can get.
Nate is in his 2nd year of teaching at Cyprus High School. This year, he is teaching all upper-level Spanish classes and is head of the Spanish program since the previous head retired last year. He coached JV girls soccer again this fall, and is now coaching Sophomore girls basketball, which is great because basketball is a big passion and he's always wanted to coach basketball. He continues to have an ever-improving Christmas sweater that he wears to school once a year with some epic facial hair to go with it. He won the ugly Christmas sweater contest this year at work (and also a salsa-making contest earlier this year) and was trending on instagram at his school that day. Alas, we do not have any photos at the moment of him in his Christmas sweater, but you can see how he wore his facial hair to school. He's planning a trip for students next school year during Spring break to Spain and Italy, so he's started learning Italian. I'm pretty excited about it as well, because I'm planning on going as a chaperone, so I suppose I should brush up on my Spanish. A lot. Or just be glad that Nate speaks multiple languages and hope that I never get separated from him while traveling.
We are feeling much more comfortable living here in Utah now, and finding lots of fun things to do and meeting some great people. We're planning some fun shenanigans for the coming year and looking forward to having more visitors!
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE GARRETT FAMILY!
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