Christmas Newsletter

2012 has been a busy year for the Royer family!  We have been blessed beyond measure and it is with hearts full of gratitude that we share a little bit about what we have been up to this year.

Gavin will be turning five this month and he continues to bring so much love and laughter to our family.  His quick mind and inquisitive nature definitely keep us on our toes!  We enrolled him in the Kinder Connections program at the Dry Hollow Elementary School here in town which has been a great opportunity for him to get a taste of what kindergarten will be like; it is a four day-per-week program that is the same length of time as a kindergarten session.  They even get to take part in Dry Hollow’s assemblies, reading buddies, library, and PE.  Besides starting preschool, another noteworthy accomplishment for Gavin is that he had NO broken bones this year!  He continues to have checkups for his eyes every two months and a recent checkup informed us that his vision has improved to 20/50 with correction.  Gavin loves all things superhero, playing ball, reading books, listening to music and going to the park.

If you can believe it, our baby Jaynee Rose will be turning three in March.  She is a ray of sunshine and she keeps us laughing all day long.  She gets to go to Grandpa’s house for babysitting one day per week (the reason for that is described later) and she loves spending time with Grandpa, Uncle Matt and, most of all, her cousin-dog Rex.  She is definitely the “pack leader” when it comes to Rex; she has no fear of this large goldendoodle and can often be found pushing him around to various places in the house.  Jaynee has also been able to go to a toddler group two days per week and she absolutely LOVES it - she calls it "toddwer school".  In fact, she thinks she is such a little student now, there was a day when she tagged along to drop off Gavin at school and she went right over to the carpet and sat down, all ready for class to start!  Jaynee is talking up a storm now and you can find her singing pretty much anytime, anywhere.   Jaynee loves books, music, My Little Pony, Dora and anything animal related.

One of the bigger pieces of news for our family is that Stephanie went back to work full time this past August.  She was approached with a long-term substitute job for an open special education position at Dry Hollow, which ended up being a “test drive” for the position, an opportunity most people don’t get.  Although she went into it as a substitute, not wanting to go back to work full time, she discovered that the coworkers, location (one block from our awesome daycare and at the same school as Gavin), and case load were great and tailored for our situation.  If that wasn’t enough, the topic for her thesis can easily be addressed with research at this school.  So, after MUCH thought and prayer, we decided that she should apply.  Since Stephanie had an attitude that “if this is meant to be, it will be,” she had one of the least stressful application and interviewing experiences she has ever had.  That stress-free feeling didn’t last long, though, after being hired to fill the position; we believe in keeping things real on this blog, so we will be up front in saying that this has been a very difficult transition for our family.   However, we recognize what a blessing we have been given to have two full-time incomes for now and an opportunity for Stephanie to work while Jared goes to school in the future.

In addition to working, Stephanie is keeping busy with her church calling in the Primary and building her home “store” with the freebies she gets while couponing.  Other than that, she has scaled back on a lot of “extras” so that she can focus on the family when she is home.  Home improvements and scrapbooking will have to wait until summer vacation! 

Jared continues to work full time at Les Schwab, which is a blessing that we recognize every day.  With so much going on in the economy, the fact that Jared was able to log his full time hours in addition to some overtime was a huge blessing to our family.  He will be looking at starting school at some point in the next year or two, after Stephanie is finished with her masters degree.  Jared gets one day off during the school week, which is when he likes to take the kids out on special outings.  He has had to get a little more creative with the colder weather, but he always looks forward to spending time with the kids.  Jared has also been serving in the Elders Quorum for our church and is enjoying that calling.  He has also been finding time to work out in the basement early in the morning before the kids are awake; where he gets the energy is a mystery to Stephanie.  Jared has also scaled back a lot on extra things (like home improvement projects) so that he can focus on our family when we are all together.

In family news, we were able to go on a long vacation this summer.  Thanks to the generosity of Stephanie’s parents, we were able to spend several days in Seattle and then take a week-long cruise to Alaska with Stephanie’s family.  We had a lot of wonderful experiences and saw some amazing things.  The kids were in heaven since it was a Nickelodeon cruise; Gavin even got selected out of the audience to participate in one of the on-board game shows.

 Although we have scaled back since August, we did get several home improvement projects finished (or nearly finished) this year.  Even in its “in progress” state, we look forward to any opportunity we have to share our home with friends and family who are passing through, so please look us up the next time you are close by!

We recognize the hand of our Heavenly Father in the blessings that we have received this year, as well as His comfort during the more trying times that we have experienced.  We hope that you can feel of His love this holiday season as we celebrate the birth of His Son.

  With love,

The Royer Family