Christmas Newsletter

If you are visiting our blog for the first time, welcome! You can access our archives to see what we have been up to and we hope that you continue to visit us in the future. It has been quite a year for our family - we are definitely putting the "news" in newsletter this year. :)

First and foremost this year was the birth of Jaynee Rose. She is nine months old and has already brought so much joy to our family. She is happy and healthy, although we are still waiting for those teeth! She loves to "dance", spend time with family, be read to, clap her hands, and EAT. She has been crawling since last month and she is now pulling herself to stand at furniture. She is a busy little girl already!

Another very substantial event in our family this year was an injury that Gavin sustained after falling from a swing. His fractured femur resulted in eight weeks of him sporting a spica cast. If you're not familiar with a spica cast, the picture says it all. We were amazed at the patience Gavin had during this ordeal. He was such a good sport, which made the experience more tolerable for his mom and dad. You can browse our archives for more pictures and information regarding this ordeal.

Gavin's fractured femur was definitely not his only accomplishment this year. For starters, he has been 90% potty trained...TWICE (we had to start over after the cast). He also got to replace his old glasses with some fancy new frames. He amazes us every day with his intelligence, humor, and sweet demeanor. He continues to love books, music, animals, and anything related to Toy Story and Diego. He is looking forward to his 3rd birthday which is coming up right before Christmas.

In April of this year, after much thought and prayer, we decided to move to The Dalles, where Stephanie grew up. So Jared put in for a transfer and we put our house up for sale. Our house had an offer from the first showing, after only five days on the market and from there everything else fell into place. We lived with Stephanie's parents for the summer, which provided an amazing amount of support during Gavin's injury. A rental property fell into our laps and we have been renting our home since September. It has not been the easiest transition, leaving family and friends in Hermiston and going from homeowners to tenants, but we know that this is where we are supposed to be right now.

One reason for this perspective is that Stephanie was called to be the Primary President in our ward shortly after moving to town. She has always loved working with the children of the church and she really enjoys serving in this calling. She has also been able to substitute teach more since moving to The Dalles. With the ability to trade babysitting with a sister-in-law who also substitutes, she has been able to log all of the hours that our family needs. She has also gotten back into her Masters coursework after taking some time off and hopes to be finished in about 18 months (she can only take her last few credits one class per term - not by choice).

Jared has been getting used to his new work location and gets along well with his new co-workers. Snow rush is winding down so we have been seeing more of him lately, for which we are all grateful. He also received a new church calling when we moved to town and is working in the Young Men organization. He teaches the boys on Sundays and also attends their Wednesday activities. He looks forward to getting out and exploring the Gorge via biking and hiking when the weather is nice again (we missed that during our first summer here due to Gavin's injury).

However, the spica cast didn't get in the way of our scheduled vacation to Disneyland. Grandma and Grandpa Hodges funded a trip to California for all of their kids and grandchildren, so in August we all drove to California and had an AMAZING time with all of Stephanie's siblings and their families. Due to Gavin's age, he really was able to go on all of the rides he would have been able to go on anyway, the only difference being that he didn't have to wait in line for many of them due to his wheelchair. Jared, Gavin, and Jaynee all enjoyed their first trip to Disneyland and we look forward to going back some day.

That's our year in a nutshell. After a flurry of activity we look forward to a relaxing Christmas season so that we can reflect on the birth of our Savior. We have truly felt of His love this past year and we hope that He will touch your lives not only in this season but in the year to come.

Thank you for the love and support that you give to our family.

Love, The Royers