HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2011 just went too fast. I never got around to making my annual Christmas letter so I decided to send out a Happy New Year letter instead.

Actually, I think I have missed a couple of years so I’ll try and catch up.
Steve and I continue to be as busy as ever. I love my job at HawkSoft, Inc. It is a GREAT place to work with wonderful people and a terrific atmosphere. We are a big family. Of course that is truer for me because I work for my son-in-law, but it is still a great family atmosphere.

HawkSoft has been growing in this struggling economy. Not only have they added people, but we are in the process of building a brand new building in Canby that will have a little room to grow. It will be nice to all

be in one building again

DOUHET AND KYLEE
The big news for Douhet and Kylee is the house addition

is started!!! We worked hard all summer building the new addition. We managed to get it roofed before the big rains came. We took a little break for a while, but are getting ready to start on the interior. The house is going to be beautiful and oh, so big when it is done.The addition will really be a new house with the old section becoming the girl’s bedrooms and play room. The dormer on the left is going to become Griffyn’s room. We are calling it Griffyndorm! It will be so nice for them to finally have room!

SEASON AND SARA
Our big news here is the birth of our newest grandchild.

Garren Mychael Wilcox was born on Sara’s birthday, August 18th. He was 8 lb ½ oz. He brings their family to 2 adorable girls and 2 delightful little boys. Since Sara was in the hospital while family picture above with Grandma and Grandpa and all the grand kids. We were able to pick up Madison, Brooklyn and Karsten at the hospital and take them to the coast with us. We got to see the baby and take pictures to show everyone, too.the rest of the family was on the annual family vacation, Garren was not in the family picture above.

They had another big event in July when Madison was baptized. This has been a great year for their little family.

MYLIEGE AND SEAN

MyLiege and Sean have been busy with their little family. Alyx is growing so fast and is running all over the place. Anna started kindergarten this year and LOVES school. Erik was baptized with his cousin Emma after we got home from our family vacation to the beach. Djeryd turns 12 in just a few days and will be ordained a Deacon. He has been able to do a lot of the scout activities even though he is only 11 because his Dad is the scoutmaster. He enjoyed Scout Camp. One of the highlights of the year was the family beach trip.

They also had a wonderful vacation with Season and Sara’s family at Disneyland.

SIERRA AND SHONEE

This family had 2 big news events. The first was Montana receiving the Aaronic Priesthood. He was very excited to be able to pass the Sacrament.
The next big event was Emma’s baptism. We had three grandchildren baptized within about 6 weeks.

Sierra continues to home school her kids and they are all brilliant. Alena is learning to play the violin. Savannah is learning to read. They are such a fun family.

STEVE AND LESLEE
Steve is semi-retired this year and enjoying doing other things. He and Kylee are breeding dogs for extra money to help build the house. He also has been very helpful helping on the house and building chicken coops, dog houses and whatever else is needed.

Steve was also called to serve on the High Council and he is working at the Temple one day a week. You can see he is keeping busy. I continue to teach Seminary and love it very much despite getting up at 4:15 every morning. I am also working out at Curves and have made much needed progress on my weight by losing 19.5 pounds and over 24 inches. I still have a ways to go, but I can see the end in sight.

HAVE A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

Getting Away

We decided to give each other a little vacation for Christmas this year. So three days after Christmas we packed our bags and headed to Lincoln City for a few days. We didn't have any kind of agenda. We didn't have a wedding to attend or family to visit or meetings to attend. We didn't have anything that we had to do. We just wanted to get away for a few days.

We left about noon on Wednesday, after my sweetie re-sealed the shower. We had been getting some black mold growing and it was gross. We thought giving it a good three days to seal and dry would be a good thing. It looks great now. I decided to exercise on the Wii while Steve worked on the shower.

We arrived at the coast around 3 and went to a late lunch or early dinner. Our Entertainment book app on my phone showed us where all the local deals were so we were able to get a nice buy 1 get 2 meal deal. The weather was kind of stormy so we headed to the hotel to get settled in.

This vacation we

wanted to take advantage of the hotel amenities. We used their workout room, pool and hot tub. The pool was a very nice size for doing some nice laps as well as just floating and relaxing. The hot tub was perfect for our after workout, after swim activities. The room had a very comfortable king size bed and with a nice big flat screen TV and DVD player. We brought along some of our favorite movies too.

After a nice free, hot breakfast we ventured out on Thursday to do a little shopping and to visit the ocean. Since it was raining we just watched the waves from the car. We again, enjoyed the workout room, pool and hot tub. We played games and just enjoyed our time together without other obligations.

Friday came all too quickly. We worked out and swam again before we finally packed up to leave. We went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium for the afternoon. It was fun to see all those amazing creatures in our oceans.

We still had three more days of "vacation" before our work week begins again. It has been very nice to just get away for a few days. I think I am rejuvenated again and can tackle anything.

New Beginnings

The new year is always a good time to take a look at who you are, where you have been and where you are going. We sometimes call them New Years Resolutions, but I prefer to think of it as a life evaluation.

I've been thinking about where I stand in my life right now. A lot of things have changed over the last couple of years and I have grown a lot. I have also hung on to several habits that I really need to loose. Some of these habits I have tried to loose many times over the years, but have not succeeded. I am going to try again.

I think part of the reason I have failed in the past is I left it up to strictly will power. For me, strictly will power never works for very long. I can do OK for a few days or even a few weeks and then I have a weak moment and give in to the habit again. Instead of accepting the minor set back and starting again, I give up and loose myself to my habit. I think this is my personality, because I do it time and time again with different habits. I really want to break that pattern.

I have made progress with one bad habit over the last several months. I have been involved in a weight loss program called Curves Complete for the last 3 months. I haven't lost all I have wanted, but I have lost steadily and consistently. I have had a day now and then where I have blown it, but I have jumped back in immediately and continued making progress. I hope that is an indication I can do that with my other habits as well.

One habit I really want to break is wasting time with playing Spider Solitaire on the computer. I certainly don't do it all the time, mainly because I'm too busy with work, seminary, and exercises. But when I feel I have a little "free" time I seem to waste it all on playing that game. I don't know why I do that. There are so many other things I would like to do with my free time, but never seem to do. Then I complain that I never have enough time to do other things.

I've decided to try a 5 minute blog approach. One of the things I never seem to have enough time to do is write my blog. I would always say, "Oh, I'll just play one game since I have a few minutes." But that few minutes so easily turns into 30 minutes or even an hour or more. I can write a short blog in a few minutes and it would be more beneficial and cleaning for me. I have so many things going around in my head that I need to express. My blog is a perfect place to get them out, ,ponder them, examine them, tweak them, change them, implement them into my life, or just let it all hang out.

Wish me luck!

Happy Birthday, Sierra!

The day was November 8th many years ago when I went to the hospital to give birth to my last child. I had many mixed emotions that day. I already have 3 very active little ones and I wasn't sure I could handle a 4th just now so I was a little scared. I was also told that I couldn't have any more children and that depressed me because I had always wanted 8 kids. I had to have my children c-section so I was nervous about the surgery. But above all, I was excited to meet this new little person who had been inside me for 9 months. We didn't know if we were having a boy or girl, although I "knew" we were having another little girl.

We had lots of complications with her birth and almost lost her, but she fought hard and before long she was breathing and crying like a newborn should. She was much smaller than my other children and we found out she was 3 1/2 weeks early. Within a week we were both able to go home and meet the rest of the family.

Sierra completed our family. Where 3 kids seemed difficult, 4 was the perfect number. Even numbers are just better I guess. Sierra not only evened out our family, but she also brought a peaceful spirit with her. At a very young age she seemed to know when Mom was stressed and needed her calming influence. She could barely walk and talk, but she knew Mom needed her. She would grab my finger and pull me to the rocking chair and say, "rocky, mommy, rocky". I would sit and rock her for as long as it took for me to calm down and regain my sanity.

Sierra was good for everyone. She was very observant and learned so many things simply because she watched others. She observed when her siblings would do things to get in trouble and she would avoid that behavior. The kids liked to play school and since she was the youngest she was always the student. Consequently she learned a lot and was reading before she every started school.

She learned she could do anything she set her mind to. She learned to play several instruments and to sing beautifully. She is a wonderful artist too. She has taught herself home skills such as cooking, sewing, quilting and even handy work around the house. She is an amazing mother and home schools her children. Her oldest is in 7th grade and the youngest just starting kindergarten this year.

I am so grateful Sierra chose to come to our family. She has blessed my life so much. Happy Birthday, Sierra!!!

Love,
MoM

The Latest on the House

We left off with the floor joists having been completed. We put the deck on and started on the walls.
Notice the cool blueprint table that Dad made for Douhet!

Most of the walls weren't too hard to set up except the ones with the great big beams on top.
Griffyn is a BIG helper, but doesn't like the noise!

More beams! These beams will be exposed underneath the catwalk. They will be beautifully finished when we are done.

Douhet hard at work. It is amazing how he knows just what to do to make everything come out right.

Here you can see the second floor going up. This looks down from the entertainment area into what will be the kitchen. Kylee is in the kitchen doorway.

It looks pretty massive with the walls all closed up. This is the front of the house.

These are called scissor trusses. I'm so glad they put them on the second floor so we didn't have to hoist them up by hand! It was hard enough putting them into place by hand. It was pretty scary sometimes.


We lifted each one into position and secured it in place. It was especially tricky over the open areas like the living room and the entry way.

Kylee is using the nail gun to help secure the trusses in place.

Now we are putting the sheeting on the roof. The first two sheets weren't too hard. We hired someone else to do the really high ones.

This is the second floor from the existing house spanning the entire new addition.

Working on the roof was pretty scary. We prayed everyday for safety!

The cute little dormer is going to be Griffyn's room. We are calling it GriffynDorm!!!

These trusses we had to lift up by hand. It is a 16 x 27 covered deck out the back of the house. We are so grateful for the help we received putting those up. Everyone was amazing!

Here Douhet and Season are putting sheeting on the wrap around porch roof.

That is Brother Miller up on the roof working on the sheeting. Bishop Glenn is on the ladder putting the sheeting on the end of the outside extension.

More work on the outside extension.

We are just about ready to have the roofers start on the shingles.

The roofers started roofing the front of the house on Tuesday. I haven't been home early enough to get a picture so I'll have to post that this weekend. It is just about closed in for the winter!!!

Maybe our busiest ever July!

July is only 10 days old and already we've done more in one week than I think we have done for a year. July 4^th started off with the annual flag raising ceremony that Steve was able to participate in. He loves to be a part of that and never tires of honoring his country and the men and women who have fought to protect our freedoms.




Doesn't he look handsome in his uniform?

We followed up the flag raising ceremony with a fun trip to the Willamette Mission Stake Park to watch a Civil War Reenactment. We couldn't have anticipated our chance meeting of MyLiege and Sean on the freeway if we had planned it. Everyone was running a late and as it turned out we were all running on the same time. Sierra and Shonee arrived at the park within a few minutes of us. We remembered ear plugs this year and it made watching the reenactment all the better. After a nice picnic lunch and wandering around the camp sites for a while, (we ran into Ed Turpin at one of the tents), we headed to Sierra and Shonee's for a nice bar-b-que and fun afternoon. The kids, Shonee and Sean even braved the swimming pool although it was very cold. (Sorry, no pictures.)

Three days later we headed off to Youth Conference. MyLiege and Sean were also involved in their ward's youth conference and we were supposed to baby-sit their kids. Thankfully Sierra stepped in to save the day so Steve and I could do our part at our conference. We taught our youth about Temples and had them construct three temples. The first one was the Tabernacle in the wilderness.

The second temple was the Kirtland Temple.

The third temple was the Nauvoo Temple.

We also made cool handouts for the kids as a memento. This is one we made for us on a tile. We did the kids on blocks of wood with the strip down the side of the wood. They looked very cool.

We finished out the week with a very special event. Our little Madison Kendyl turned 8 on July 1^st and was officially baptized into the Church on July 9^th by her father. She was the only child being baptized so our family got to do the whole program. Uncle Shonee played the piano and Grandma Wilcox led the music. Auntie Sierra gave the opening prayer and Grandpa Wilcox gave the closing prayer. Antie MyLiege gave a beautiful talk on baptism and Uncle Douhet gave an awesome talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Great Grandpa Nielsen and Grandpa Wilcox were the witnesses. And all the cousins sang some songs.

Madison, of course, was the Princess for her special day.

We've begun at last!

On June 7 we offically began construction on the new part of the hosue. It was exciting to see the concrete pumper truck that was necessary becasue of the access to the back part of the house.

Here the concrete is being pumped into the forms of the foundation.

Douhet working hard putting up the side joists.

Dad taking the easy job of riding in the tractor moving dirt to get the grade around the foundation. it took a lot more dirt than we expected.

Douhet is securring the joists to the sill boards. These are pressure treated boards that won't transfer moisture from the concrete up into the joists which would rot them away.

Ibid.

Here is all the wood for the rest of the house except the roof trusses, porch and siding.

Here you see some of the roughed in drain plumbing and the lines for the feed water. You can also see the dimensions pretty well. The bump out is for the dining room and the indent is the entry way. Notice the little train tracks the kids have laid. (Stub ends from the joists.) Now all we need is a little train!

Stay tuned for future developments.