A Belated Christmas Greeting

Christmas Greetings

2017 was a year of new beginnings! We welcomed home Christian from serving for two years in Ecuador and one day earlier Grandma and Grandpa Wilkey from New Zealand. A quick trip to Disneyland as soon as Christian got home together. Two trips to Bear Lake for both the Hall and Wilkey family reunions. A memorable trip to Hawaii. Then once school started we experienced children starting in every level of school: Kindergarten and 4th grade at the Elementary School, Junior High, High School and College.

Heidi (29)

Heidi faithfully served the young women of our ward and though it was hard to leave them now is serving the sisters of the ward on the Relief Society activities committee. She continues to donate a lot of her time to the kids schools both on the PTA and in the kids classes especially with Lia each week. She also pretends to be a dance "coach" to Addy and her dance partner with weekly lessons and practices.

Blain (Almost over the hill)

Celebrated 10 years working at Sundance which he loves (most of the time). Was released from teaching youth Sunday School and now serves on the Stake High Counsel which is a new experience for him. Blain kept busy this year with some minor flood restoration in the basement and new work responsibilities. He still loves to schedule family camping trips once a month from April to October.

Christian (21)

Christian honorably returned from Ecuador after faithfully serving for two years which flew by for both he and us. Seeing him again for the first time in two years will be a cherished memory for the entire family and especially his mother! Since being home Christian moved into an apartment with friends, started BYU, declared his major (Mechanical Engineering) and was blessed with a wonderful job working for his uncle Gerrad in flood and disaster restoration.

Addy (14)

Loves ballroom dance! She made the BYU Junior ballroom dance team and also competed in "open competitions" with her partner throughout the year. She loves to get "dolled up" in her dress and makeup and continues to excel in partner competitions and team dances (the pains in her knees and feet are proof of the work she puts in each week). Addy also started High School this year as a freshman and especially loves her peer tutoring (special education) class.

Jack (12)

Jack turned 12 this year and became a deacon and received the Aaronic priesthood. He started Junior High and loves his coding class and maybe doesn't love choir as much. He continues to play city league soccer, flag football and basketball. The most significant event of the year was his 12 year old trip with Mom and Dad and he got to go to...Maui! Dad had a work trip to Maui which we stayed longer on and Jack got to hike, swim, snorkel and sail in paradise for a week. We even had his 6th grade graduation on the beach in Maui.

Lauren (9)

Is our 4th grade thoughtful helper who serves on the school Hope Squad (peer mentoring group). She has been tumbling for just over a year and just mastered her round-off back tuck. Lauren loves to ride her bike around the neighborhood and play with her American Girl dolls. She is still the queen of hugs and thoughtful notes for everyone in the family. At her SEP conference her teacher showed us a wall of notes from her students and 24 of the 28 were from Lauren.

Lia (5)

Started kindergarten and loves it! She's part of the Kindness Club and is advanced in her reading and writing and loves to "help" the teacher and other students. She also started tumbling this year to be like her big sister and is working on her bridge kick over. Lia makes us laugh with her use of big words that are usually used correctly (but not always)! She refuses to stop growing up even though we want her to stay our baby.

We hope 2018 finds you all in good health and prosperity. And if not, then we hope that you will at least find comfort in the grace our Savior, who is the source of all peace.
God bless you all!