Our Eternal Family: December 2014

Dear family and friends!

We've missed you! I have such gratitude for technology and the simple ways we have to communicate and share our life with those we love who are far away. Thanks for coming to our blog to see what we've been up to.

Oh my GOSH! Or in Utah speak, I should say, "Oh my HECK!" What a year this has been! Such a roller-coaster ride! From multiple baby births and a wedding, to a major relocation and everything in between. There have been days of pure joy spent gathered with family and days of deep sadness spent far away from family and dear friends in a new place as foreign as a far off land. 2014 has been nothing less than a whirlwind of activity and emotion.

It really all began in November of 2013 when Doug was released as Bishop after 5 wonderful years serving in that capacity. There is nothing more life changing and refining as a long period of time spent completely immersed in the service of your fellow man and in constant communication with Father above! We both grew and loved and settled and became more in tune with what life is really all about. At the end of something so constantly consuming its difficult to imagine what will be next. What will consume time? Where will all the experience and refined perspective be put to use? What on earth will we do now? It wasn't long before a plan (definitely not ours, but our Heavenly Fathers) was taking shape and we came to the realization that we would be moving out of state. We decided to obey promptings and anxious days of planning began. In February, the day to day operations of Doug's recently sold company were moved to Texas. This further released us to be obedient to promptings we were receiving and we began discussions with a custom home contractor to build on a lot we were prompted to buy the year before in North Logan, Utah.  By spring the importance of relocating to Utah by mid August, in time for Kyle and Hailey to start the new school year, became obvious and our preparations began in earnest. We put our beautiful, recently remodeled, beloved home of 18 years on the market the end of July and by mid August we were on the road to a new home and state. Coincidentally (but not really) both up and downstairs tenants of one of our rental properties in Logan moved out leaving us a comfortable place to hang our hats while we wait for the new home to be completed.  The little house, acquired only as an investment has become home and we are content and comfortable temporarily! While the move has been exquisitely painful for Doug and I the kids have done well and are adjusting to the new and different EVERYTHING extremely well. We are all having a great time watching the new home take shape, making sure that everything about it will be absolutely perfect and anxiously awaiting its completion approximately the end of February.

Simultaneous to all of that upheaval three adorable new grand children were added to the family! Isabelle was born in February to Jason and Janessa, Kaydence in July to Mark and Kelsey and Brian in August to Chris and Sara. They are absolutely perfect and bring the grand count to nine. There is nothing better than grandchildren! They are all smart, beautiful and handsome, fun, entertaining, and bring and amazing joy to our expanding family. We had the wonderful good fortune to be able to gather with the whole family, all of us together, twice for the baby's blessings in May and October.

In June we also had the incredible blessing of adding a wonderful new daughter-in-law to the family! Bryce and Alyssa were married June 7th in the Langley British Columbia Temple and we were again grateful to be all together to celebrate their sealing for eternity. Bryce was also the benefactor of witnessing our Heavenly Fathers plan for him unfold when, in 2013, he followed promptings to attend Western Washington University in Bellingham, and met Alyssa the first weekend he was there.

In all the happy chaos of moving family here and there to share each other's life events we've been able to have a lot of fun with Kyle and Hailey. They are so great! In April we took a spring break trip to Hawaii and had a blast hiking, sight seeing and enjoying the ocean and Hawaiian culture. They are so lucky to be young at this stage of our lives and they completely own the opportunities we're able to be blessed with.

Kyle is an intelligent, grounded, wonderful 13, soon to be 14 year old. Before leaving California this summer, he worked hard and completed 16 merit badges at scout camp.  So impressive! He's been a rock solid foundation during the move and has confidently soaked up the newness, pointing out only the positives in all that's new in his life. He's enjoying the new school, and has been given the opportunity to play club soccer, which is exciting and acceptable here in Northern Utah where they don't play games on Sunday. Right now, during off season, the team is playing in an indoor league and Kyle loves it! Soccer year round is a happy event for us all!

Hailey just turned 7 and is an exuberant, bubbly, beautiful girly girl. She loves anything shiny and glittery and is beginning to define her talents and interests. Because of the move timing she was disappointed to miss a soccer season but has been begging me to find a dance studio and piano teacher. She puts her love for others in words and drawings and never misses the opportunity to grab paper and markers to express her feelings. She's still extremely strong willed with high expectations for everything but has a huge heart and an immense amount of love to share. She was so excited to start second grade that it didn't matter to her where she did it, making the move basically a non-issue for her.

The rest of the kids are grown and busy in successful lives with their own adorable little families. Kirk, Alicen and Tyson are in Riverton, UT. Kirk just completed his masters degree and Alicen is teaching and deep in the middle of getting her masters degree. Chris, Sara and Christopher, Brooklyn, Matthew and Brian are in Chino, CA happily balancing all that a busy career and young family demand. Ryan, Nancy and Raglan are in Huntington Beach, CA and are excited to welcome their second boy, and our 10th grand, in May. Jason and Janessa are in Sandy, UT. In January besides being busy with their little family Jason will receive the 2015 Sales and Marketer of the Year Award from Utah Business Magazine and Janessa is traveling to Ethiopia on a mission trip with "Ordinary Hero". Bryce and Alyssa are loving married life, happily working and going to school in Bellingham, Washington. Kelsey graduated in May from Utah State University with a BS in Family, Consumer and Human Development.  She, Mark and Kaydence live in Logan, UT where Mark is working and going to school. We love and adore our family and are proud of all their accomplishments both in the everyday important things of life as well as their extra not so everyday important accomplishments. You can find links to their blogs and catch up with them to the right.

We send our love to you at this sacred time of year and all year long! May the Christmas season find you enjoying wonderful relationship with your family and dear friends! And may joy and life's choicest blessings be yours throughout the year ahead!

With love,
Doug and Paige