A Magical Christmas Gift!

This is an incredible video. I hope you can all see it. This was taken at a Russian Talent Show. These kids are incredible.

Merry Christmas

Dear Family and Friends,

I missed last year for my annual Christmas Newsletter and almost missed this year. Needless to say, a lot has happened in the past two years.

As of our last newsletter dated December 2007 we had some sad news. My father, who came to live with us in January of 2007, passed away on December9, 2007. It was a very spiritual experience for me as I was able to have him in our home for the last year of his life. I knew his time was coming during the final few weeks we had. He wasn’t eating very much the last few days and I knew it was close. On Sunday, Steve went to Church. I felt the need to go sit by his side and hold his hand. Every once in awhile he would squeeze my hand a little. Shortly after Steve got home my Dad took his last breath. He died peacefully in his sleep and I was so grateful I was able to be by his side. He was a loving and gentle father, grandfather and great grandfather. It was truly a wonderful blessing for our whole family to have him with us.

Douhet and Kylee

The most exciting news Douhet and Kylee had during the past two years is the birth of a SON. After four beautiful girls, Griffyn Leavitt Wilcox was born on September 21, 2009. He is adorable and a very sweet baby. Of course, having 5 children in a 2 bedroom house is likely to drive Kylee crazy. We are hoping they will be able to begin work on the “new” house portion of their house this year.

Laila is 11 years old and in middle school. She is growing up so fast and is a great asset to her mom and dad. I can’t believe she will be going into Young Women’s this year. I couldn’t be more pleased with the outstanding young woman she is becoming.

Alyson is 7, soon to be 8. She will be baptized in January (or February depending on when they hold the Stake baptisms.) She is working hard to learn her Articles of Faith before her birthday. She is growing into a beautiful young lady.

Audrey is 5 and started school this fall. She loves being in kindergarten. She likes to learn and works very hard. She is also as “Audrey” as ever. I don’t think I’ve met anyone who can talk as much as Audrey. And Audrey is a typical blond and all the blond jokes apply. She is a sweetheart and a delight to be around.

Kinzley just turned 4. She has the most beautiful wavy hair and very striking features. Douhet is going to have his hands full fighting off the boys with all these beautiful girls. Kinzley is in preschool and doing very well. She is a delightful little girl and growing up so fast.

Season and Sara

The newest addition to this household arrived on January24, 2008. Karsten Ryan Wilcox made is debut at 12:39 AM and checked in at 9 lbs 4oz and 19.5 inches long. He is ALL boy! Season has called him Hurricane Karsten or Dr. Karstvorkian. I can relate to the Hurricane name as we used to call Season “Monsoon”. Dr. Karstvorkian came about after Karsten got blamed for the demise their cat by feeding him dental floss. He is nearly 2 and look how much he has accomplished so far. I always knew Season would get at least one child like he was.

Madison is 6 ½ and a very BIG 6 ½ year old too. She is in first grade and loves to play school. Madison is a ballerina and loves to perform. We have been thrilled to see her in The Toy Shop and Hansel and Gretel over the last two years. She dances very well.

Brooklyn is 4 going on 8. She is very intelligent and seems much older than she is. She just started taking ballet this year and we haven’t seen her in a performance yet. I can hardly wait to see her. She reminds me a lot of Season too, as she always tries to keep up with Madison…which is why she is so smart.

MyLiege and Sean

They have wonderful news. MyLiege and Sean will be expecting number 4 in March of 2010. If the ultra sound is correct they will be having a daughter, much to the delight of Anna. She loves to talk about her little sister.

The other news for this family is they moved to Canby this year. They now have a much bigger house and Sean is much closer to work. Of course that just means he can stay at work longer and still get home at the same time as he used too.

Djeryd was baptized in January 2008. He is the biggest lego fan in the world and is probably going to be some kind of engineer because he loves to build incredible things with his legos. He is also an avid reader. He is a great cub scout and has advanced to the rank of Bear. Djeryd is in the 4th grade.

Erik is 6 and in the first grade. He could also be called Monsoon as he is a VERY busy boy. Sometimes he seems to have no sense of what is going on. He can be told to not do something and he turns around and does exactly what he was told not too. On the other hand, he can be the sweetest, most helpful kid around. Trying to get a balance between behaviors is a real challenge.

Anna is 3 ½ and very much her mother’s daughter. I am amazed at how much of MyLiege I see in her. Not in looks but definitely in actions. She is a delightful little girl with a mind of her own. I think MyLiege is heading into some “challenging” times ahead.

Sierra and Shonee

Sierra and Shonee sold their home and moved to a little “farm” in the country. They are renting to see if they like it. After nearly a year, they decided they are ready to buy again and it looks like they will be moving again in January. I haven’t seen the new house yet, other than pictures. They are hoping it will be the last move for a long while. I can relate to that.

Montana is 10 and in the 5th grade. He is in “virtual” school and doing very well. I believe the move is near the middle school that Sierra wants Montana to go to. He is also a big Lego fan and loves to create Lego characters. Tana is also a writer and has written several books. I honestly believe they should try and get some of them published. They are that good.

Alena was baptized in August. I can’t believe how big she is getting. She reminds me of Sierra more every day. She is older than her years and very grown up. She is also in virtual school in the third grade and doing very well. She got her ears pierced for her 8th birthday. She, too, is a beautiful girl.

Emma Dawn is as precocious as ever. Her beautiful curly hair is very becoming. Because of her birthday in September, she couldn’t start school last year with her cousins so she started kindergarten this year in the virtual school. She is really smart and was already reading chapter books before she started school. Needless to say she has already passed kindergarten and is in first grade with her cousins. She is on track to be completely caught up by the end of the year.

Savannah turned 3 in October. Her best friend is Anna and they love to play together. They don’t get to see each other as often as they would like. Savannah is already learning to read as she tries to keep up with her older siblings.

Steve and Leslee

With the economy in the shape it is many people have been hit hard. We finally succumbed last December and had to close our doors for the final time on The Water Doctor. We were struggling with sales and when the big snow storm hit the Northwest for three weeks it did us completely in.

Through it all we were still able to see the Lord’s hand blessing us everywhere we turned. I was able to get a great job I love working for HawkSoft, Inc. This is a wonderful company owned by my son-in-law, Sean and his father and brother-in-law. I didn’t even really have any down time at all. Steve was also blessed to be able to work for the dealership in Washington that took over our area. He still works with many of our old customers. The only problem is they don’t keep him quite as busy as he would like, but somehow we are managing to stay afloat.

Well, that brings us to a close of another year. We have come to appreciate even more how much family and friends mean to us. We are grateful families can be together forever. We are grateful for our Lord and Savior whose birth we celebrate this time of year. We are grateful He loves us so much. He is our Redeemer, the Prince of Peace. We love Him! May you be filled with the pure love of Christ now and forever.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!
Our Love and Prayers,
Steve and Leslee Wilcox

Thanksgiving

I love this time of year because we have lots of opportunities to get together as a family. As my children got married I devised a plan so I could have the whole family together for both Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. It was simple. I would let the in-laws have the kids for the actual holiday and I would get them the day after Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve. The first could of years we had a conflict with one of our daughter's in laws. They wanted them on Christmas Eve too. After a few years of trading back and forth, we decided to invite the in-laws to our house for Christmas Eve so they could see our family traditions and why we needed all the kids there. It worked. After that year they agreed we could have them every year and they moved their celebration to a different day.

Our family gatherings have grown over the years. We are now up to 25 people! Next year will bring the total to 26. We have so much fun just being together. All the grand kids love playing with their cousins and they all get along very well. This Thanksgiving there was so much laughter during dinner we could hardly carry on a conversation. They food is great and abundant. After dinner we played Apples to Apples and have a wonderful time.

I really look forward to Christmas Eve. We all gather at our son's house to enjoy the holiday. He has the perfect house to entertain. Last year it snowed so we met earlier than normal. They kids had a great time playing in the snow. Everyone decided they want to start earlier this year so the kids can play outside again.

There is usually a fun activity for the kids to do, such as making ginger bread houses or Christmas ornaments. After we've played and eaten we gather for our traditional nativity play. We have been doing this since our children were small. Now the grand kids perform. We still have one adult in the play. That is our son who always plays the Inn Keeper. Sometimes he enlists the help of a couple other grownups, but it is always very entertaining. Our Inn Keeper has been a number of characters over the years from Shrek and Donkey, to the three characters from Princess Bride, to a newscaster and weather reporter last year during the snow storm. We can hardly wait to see who he is going to be this year. Of course he always brings it back to the true Nativity and why we celebrate Christmas. But it is always a treat to be entertained with his great imagination and spontaneity.

I wonder who he will be this year?