I’ve written my Christmas letter, edited it for length and humility, printed it out, bought dresses for my girls, taken a zillion pictures, got one that was good, let Alissa photoshop it for me (thanks Alissa!), printed them at Costco, put everything together and mailed them all out. An embarrassingly large number. I’m not telling how many. But considering that we’ve moved twice this year we had a lot of people that I wanted to know where we were.

I agonize over my Christmas letter. I want it to be funny- but not unnaturally funny. I want to share what we did this year- but not in a bragging sort of way. I want to be honest that life at our house isn’t perfect- but not in a negative I hate my life sort of way. My original version this year was 3 1/2 pages long. That is just not acceptable in Christmas letter etiquette, so I edited for length. After reading this post at Mormon Mommy Wars I’m agonizing after the fact… Oh well right? I’ve added my blog address for the last two years hoping that more people will keep up with us that way- in reality I’m not sure it makes a difference, of course some of those people (you know who you are) read with out commenting (seriously- stop it already! Oust yourself!) or read it and then call me to comment (Beth) which I love actually. Anyway, this year as a Christmas gift for you all, and because I promised more details for those who were truly interested, and because it’s my end of the year wrap up I’m posting the longer longer longer version below, with links and pictures and all sorts of goodies. Are you excited yet?? (If you are here for the first time because of my christmas letter- I promise most posts aren’t this long and self involved. Or maybe they are and I’m just fooling myself. Okay, well, it’s a blog about me- so I guess they all are self involved- who am I trying to fool?) My point is (I think I have one) comment and say hello if you’re here for the first time (or the 100th or anywhere in between).

The Soggy Family 2007 (I’ve changed some stuff to make it a little less identifying)

Short Version: (For people with short attention spans) I did send out a short copy and a long copy with each letter- I’m hoping people find it amusing and not obnoxious- things I didn’t cut out- but I’m just discussing will be in blue.

We’ve moved to _______, Utah. Everyone is good. We went a lot of places and did a lot of stuff. Our new address is:

(not sharing) Utah

emails are:

Steve: (not sharing)

Amber: amberlicious@gmail.com

Ashley: (not sharing)

Family Blog: www.soggycheerios.com

Love you all and Merry Christmas!

The (VERY MUCH) longer version: (For people who love us more) Notice the guilt?

Dear Family and Friends,

It seems like for a while we announced a new baby in every Christmas letter, now it appears that our new trend is announcing a new move with every Christmas letter. This year there have been two.

We ended last year feeling like we were going to live in Las Vegas forever the foreseeable future forever and that we were staying put for a while. Then in March Steve was unexpectedly laid off his job and in less than a week had a couple of offers- and the one that we felt best about was with homebuilder Joe in Utah. We moved to Utah in April and went back several times to pick up extra loads and to help Amber’s mom move to ______ where she decided to move since she likes Amber best. (no really). I decided even though it’s our family joke to talk about who mom’s favorite it most people wouldn’t get it.

We faced the difficulty of selling our home (Remember we tried to rent it too) I miss that house. in a buyer’s market and were very blessed to sell it quickly without too much of a loss financially. I wasn’t sure about this last part- but ultimately left it in. We moved to a small/cheap apartment while waiting for our house to sell and Amber was relieved to move from there as soon as possible and to a place with a little more space. Not sure if that sounded snooty either. But I don’t think I ever shared my fruit fly problem with you guys. Here is an example of a trap I made and the amount of fruit flies I caught after just 20 minutes. It was disgusting there.

We’ve decided to wait out the Utah housing market so we’re in another rental- but this time it’s a house with a yard and a garage in a neighborhood full of little girls and their really nice parents. Moving is still Amber’s least favorite pastime, but she is getting better at it- as long as you don’t look too closely in the closets or in the storage room. Knowing that we’re moving in about a year (probably before you get our next yearly letter) are the things that Amber’s nightmares are made of.

What started out feeling like a devastating blow has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We’ve learned about resiliency and faith as well as having our testimony of food storage grow. Steve has moved into a better professional position then he was in at his company in Las Vegas and while we miss our friends and family in Las Vegas we’ve made even more friends here in Utah. Ashley is in a (much) better school and we’ve grown closer as a family through this trial. I cut this whole paragraph because it felt preachy.

We travel a lot- and as much as I want to document and share that I still worry about if it’s bragging to talk about taking trips.

For being such a turbulent year we still managed several fun trips and made some great family memories. The very end of last year Amber went to Baltimore with her mom and sister Hannah to go with her brother and his wife to the Washington D.C. Temple as they were first sealed to each other and then to Samantha, who Spencer officially adopted later in the year. Now I’m starting to add pictures- but all of these obviously weren’t in my original letter.

Shortly after she returned from that trip the whole family went to visit Steve’s sister in Hawaii for 10 days and had a great visit with them. Here are some of my favorite pictures from Hawaii. I haven’t shared this yet- but Steve’s sister Pam and her family moved a couple weeks ago from Hawaii to Southern California. I’m so excited that we can see them more then once ever couple of years now!!

From 2007 wrap up

We went to Phoenix to visit Amber’s sister Katie and attend the blessing of their youngest daughter in February.

In March we came up to Utah to celebrate the 90^th birthday of Steve’s grandmother

(this was the same weekend that Steve was laid off and resulted in the finding of the job in _________). We then made multiple trips between Utah and Las Vegas to move up to _________ and then to help Amber’s mom move up to ______.

This summer was the Maple Family Reunion in Virginia Beach, Virginia and we drove from Utah to Baltimore with all the kids plus Amber’s sister Hannah, attended a baby blessing for Amber’s brother’s baby and the drove to Virginia beach. Although there was a bad accident involving Amber’s brother and his wife on the way to Virginia Beach a few snags remember the accident? I had issues with this too- seemed like too much information to share about the accident- but at the same time glossing over it with ‘a few snags’ seemed to trite. we still had a good time and made some great memories with Amber’s extended family.

The drive home we took yet another sister so that every seat in our car was full- yet we managed to make the cross country trip in less than three days, even stopping to visit with Amber’s Aunt Hope and cousin Emily in Indiana along the way. We spent Labor day in Las Vegas visiting with Grandparents and attending the Baptism of Ashley’s best friend. Then for Thanksgiving we went to visit Amber’s sister in Albuquerque (and learned how to spell Albuquerque) in their new home.

We didn’t get much camping in this year- but we’re hoping to spend the next year a little closer to home (and put fewer miles on our car) and do more camping now that we’re so close to so many beautiful places to be outdoors. It seemed lame to talk about what we didn’t do- when we did do so much. So I axed it.

Corinne

turned 2 in May and has begun to live up to the diva within. Everything is about her and she frequently tells her sisters when they tease her, ‘That’s not punny!’

She is a joy to have around and is more often a kitty then a little girl, meowing and licking people (eww!)

Cori also thinks she can do anything her sisters can do and impressively knows her alphabet, can recognize letters and knows most of their sounds- thank you alphabet factory! What I didn’t add about Cori is that she pretty much always looks like the above picture. You know, like she has a mom who’s too busy blogging or being a lazy bum to wash her face? I do wash it every time I change her diaper though- but it’s her finger sucking- it doesn’t lead to a clean face.

Annika

just turned 4 a week ago and loves all things girly. She is the Drama Queen in every sense of the term and is either extremely happy and bubbly, or crying hysterically. Usually all within the manner of minutes, we’re hoping this is phase that gets better with age and not worse.

She loves to play babies and be the mom- as well as repeating everything that Amber says to anyone in a bossy voice- which they don’t appreciate.

Can you find annika in this picture?

What I didn’t add about Annika is her ability to whine/cry for hours. I’m not exaggerating either.

Megan turned 5 in September, just five days too late to go to kindergarten- much to her and Amber’s dismay.

But she’s learned to make friends and play with people other then her sisters this year.

She’s also had friends just her age within walking distance at both places we’ve moved to this year- which has been a huge blessing and an answer to prayers for her to have friends close by. Megan has grown by leaps and bounds and is more and more a little girl then a preschooler. She’s become quite the big helper around the house and has also become quite articulate.
(She also plays with annika a lot- or fights with her a lot- generally they’re either really happy together or really upset- there isn’t much in between).

They also like to pose for weird pictures together.

Ashley has had a big year as she turned eight in February and was baptized the first weekend in March.

Ashley’s now in third grade and is loving school. This year has been harder as she’s learning to do multiplication and division as well as writing in cursive.

Ashley had a really hard time leaving her friends in Las Vegas but she is very good at making friends wherever we go.

Ashley’s become quite responsible and even baby-sits her sisters for short periods of time. She’s also in a special writing program at school where she’s learning more about writing stories and developing them.

The top picture is all the letters she recieved one day from her old class in Las Vegas, isn’t that cool!

The bottom one is our lemonade/otter pop stand.

My own paragraph is the hardest to write. I feel like I’m bragging on myself- but I don’t want to dismiss that I do stuff too. Also I have issues with making it the same length as Steve- but mine is usually twice as long as his.

Amber is wondering why she’s talking about herself in the third person, but realizes that for the rest of the letter it makes it flow better- so is willing to sacrifice the oddness of this one paragraph for that. Amber is still sane (mostly) after all the moving and readjusting that it requires of not only household goods but also of children who seem to think that the rules change every time their environment does. She’s also still blogging away at www.soggycheerios.com and if you want to see pictures or hear more about us then you need to stop by. Amber firmly believes that everyone needs a blog- so if you have one stop by and drop a link- if not get one so that her life will be easier. Dang- think I pimped my blog enough? We’ll see if it worked. Amber obviously hasn’t learned that the world doesn’t revolve around her. Amber’s (yes, still writing in third person) most notable accomplishment (well- after the accomplishments of keeping everyone here mostly fed and dressed) was participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November where she wrote 50,093 words of a novel, which isn’t finished yet, but it’s now an official work in progress. That she could write so many words is probably no surprise now that you’ve seen the length of this update. But suddenly Amber is feeling pressure to make sure this Christmas letter is edited well. Amber is also teaching the 6-year-olds in primary and just lost her co-teacher (Steve).

Steve is really enjoying his new job as the controller of ______, which is a homebuilder here in Northern Utah. His office is less than 10 minutes from our house so he comes home for lunch every day, which the rest of us really enjoy (and he does too). Steve is making the drive in the mustang he bought for himself at the beginning of the year. It was a significant purchase- but seemed braggy so I cut it. But just for kicks and giggles here’s a picture of Steve’s car and the cake I made him for his birthday.

It’s probably the only nice thing he’s ever bought for himself. Steve was just called to be an assistant ward clerk, which amazingly is the first time that he’s ever been a clerk in a ward.

We wish you and your family a very merry Christmas Season and look forward to hearing from all (or some) of you soon. If you make it up to Davis County give us a call (801) 555-5555 and stop by and say hello.

Love, The Soggy Family

Steve, Amber, Ashley, Megan, Annika and Corinne

Our family picture the end of last year

Some outtakes pre/photoshopped pictures from this year

I can’t believe you made it this far. For reading this tomorrow I’m making you cookies.

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