Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!—This sentiment is especially aimed at those with young children, for whom “good nights” are hard to come by. This morning after William’s cold woke him up extra early I decided there’s no time like the present to get our Christmas letter written.
2016 has been a wonderful year for our family. We grew by +1 with the addition of Andrew James Baxter in March. He’s a happy baby and has been the best sleeper of the bunch. His arrival brought visitors from Wisconsin and Iowa. The Wisconsin visitors (Grandma Laura and Grandpa Bruce) helped out with a variety of projects during their visit, including building a pretty amazing sandbox for the boys, wiring in a new porch light, replacing a toilet, and installing some drip line for our flowerbeds. (Grandma Laura mostly held the new baby). We look forward to their visits each and every time.
We continue to be thankful for Jason’s job at Fidelity Investments. It allowed him 6 weeks of paid paternity leave for the arrival of Andrew. The insurance (and other) benefits are amazing. The new position he accepted last year has allowed him to learn and progress, and his new boss is wonderful. He is now able to do a portion of his work from home, which has allowed him the flexibility to get the boys to and from daycare, thus taking some of the load off me.
After maternity leave, I went back to working fulltime at TOSH. I’m thankful for a job with phenomenal coworkers and the flexibility to make fulltime work and family a reality. Our daycare provider Debbie and her daughters (Kimmie and Alyssa) are the final piece of the puzzle that holds our chaotic little world together. I’m so happy I had the courage to knock on her door almost 5 years ago! She makes our boys part of her family and they are all learning such great things!
Our family is now complete and I have recently invested time in putting myself physically (and in some ways mentally) back together. With Jason’s help and encouragement I started taking an exercise class two mornings each week and feel better than I have in years. Turns out it takes quite a bit of energy to keep up with 3 energetic little boys!
Speaking of boys—William and Christopher are best buds. This year has brought many new fun adventures for them including trips to the Natural History Museum, Living Planet Aquarium, Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival, Hill Air Force Museum, Red Butte Gardens, and soon the Christmas lights at Temple Square. Our house is filled with the constant noise of fighting bad guys and playing pretend. William likes to be in charge, but Christopher is usually his willing companion.
We managed one trip to the Midwest this year which occurred in October. It was our first trip travelling as a family of five. It was touch and go at times (I thought we’d lose someone for sure in O’Hare) but we safely made it. During our visit we celebrated the 60th wedding anniversary of Grandma and Grandpa DeBaets, visited with the Koenig grandparents, and met our newest niece Clara. Perhaps it is also worth mentioning we met our newest “nephew” Lloyd—Jim and Jen’s 1 year old golden doodle. Clara was cute and sleepy. Lloyd just humped my leg. Each visit I wish there was more time to see everyone. We will be back again before William starts kindergarten next year!
We hope this letter finds you happy, healthy, and looking forward to 2017! Feel free to visit us in Utah any time. We have a nice guest room and love to have company. If you want to read up on more details of our year, I still keep up with my blog www.aroundherelately.com . Take Care!
The Baxters-Jason, Stephanie, William, Christopher, and Andrew
