Hello all our wonderful friends and family!
We hope you are all doing fantastically well. We miss you and love you and send our holiday greetings to you and your families! Our hearts are full of gratitude this Christmas season as we reflect upon the birth, life, mission, and love of our Savior Jesus Christ. How grateful we are for him, for the joy we feel from following his gospel, and for the many ways he has blessed us and helped us to grow as a family. We share our testimonies that he lives, and loves us, and can make of us better people than we could ever hope to become ourselves. 🙂 2012 has been a wonderful year for us! Below is our family update.
Branson (7.5 years old) went into 2ndgrade this year and absolutely loves it. He is the top of his class in reading and math – but his true passion is art. When Brans has a spare minute you can almost always find him making a card, picture, or book to give to someone. He also enjoys dancing with Mommy, going on hikes and fishing with Daddy, playing xbox games with his brothers, and doting on his favorite little sister whom he ADORES. What a joy Branson is to have in our family!
Harrison (5.5 years old) entered Kindergarten this year and if you ask him what his favorite part of school is he will almost always tell you “chasing all the girls!” Oh boy! 🙂 Harrison is by far our most outgoing boy and he makes friends easily. His big loves right now are anything spiderman, xbox, sports, or puzzles. He also loves to write his letters and currently has a goal to be the first in his class to write to 1000! How grateful we are for our little Harry-bob and the way he brightens our lives!
Dawson (Almost 4) has really matured a lot this year. He went from throwing constant tantrums to being one of our most helpful children! He’s especially great at helping Mommy throughout the day with little chores like changing the laundry, picking up toys, and doing dishes. For fun Dawson loves doing puzzles, pretending, playing with cars and trains, reading books, and watching movies. This year Dawson also mastered potty training after Mom and Dad finally found the proper motivation. No Naps! But Dawson seems to stay pretty happy despite the loss of sleep. He is our happy child that always has a smile on his face and we love him so much!
Adalynn (now 16 months) is a JOY to our family. She by far gets the most attention because EVERYONE dotes on her and can’t keep their hands off her! 🙂 Branson and Harrison especially are fond of her and love to be where she is. She melts her Daddy’s heart by saying “Hi Da.” “Ah ha” “Go-gut” (yogurt) and by resting her head on his shoulder when he cuddles her. She has her Mamma wrapped around her finger with her darling smiles, giggles, snuggles, and cute dance moves. She is a pro at sign language and loves being outside any chance she can get. She especially loves shoes, books, and soft blankets and lovies. We feel so blessed that she is ours!
Adam continues to be an amazing husband and Dad and astounds us daily with his sheer awesomeness! We don’t know how he does it but he always able to make us feel like his highest priority even when other responsibilities keep him insanely busy. In June Adam was released as being the Young Mens President in our ward (after serving for two years) and then he was immediately put in as the new ward mission leader. For some reason I thought this new calling would free up some of his time – but in reality Adam has actually been even busier! Adam finds joy in serving though and has been able to meet and befriend many new and less active families in our ward and neighborhood. In June of this year Adam also accepted a new position as a manager at Adobe where he is now over a team of technical consultants. He has enjoyed the new challenges and travel that come with the job and he is slowly starting to feel like he’s getting the hang of it. Adam also won the “most time spent at the hospital” award in our family when he separated his shoulder in a biking accident in July and then had to go in for nose surgery in November to fix a collapsed nostril. We like teasing him about getting a “nose job” every chance we get! 🙂 How blessed we are to have Adam in our lives!
As for me I continue to act as CEO of our Egbert household and like referring to myself as a “Domestic Goddess!” 🙂 I love being a stay at home Mom and spending time with my little niblets and taking care of our home. I continue to love serving and this year was able to spend a week up in Payson Canyon with our Young Women as camp director and then also taught our adult Gospel Doctrine class. My other hobbies include, blogging, volleyball, online shopping, gardening, indexing, and journaling.
My favorite past time – I have to admit though– is planning vacations and coming up with new fun things for us to do as a family. Because of this we were able to have some fun adventures this year including a ski weekend to Wolfcreek in March, camping trip to Moab in April, staying at our condo in St. George to see the Eclipse in May, camping in Fish Lake in June, and a 7 day cruise up to Alaska for our 10 year anniversary in July. We were also able to attend a family reunion in Wyoming at Teton National Park, spend some time in Idaho visiting good friends, and then go camping and backpacking in the Wind Rivers. August took us up to our Logan cabin for a week, and September took us down to Zions National Park where we were able to meet up with friends and camp along the river. We finished up the year with one last trip to our Logan cabin and then a long weekend in Yellowstone National Park! We sure do love getting out in nature and enjoying the beauty God has created for us!
Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy 2013!
Lots of love to you all!
Adam, Sarah, Branson, Harrison, Dawson, and Adalynn
