(7 minute review slideshow)
Hello from the Hamiltons!
We hope 2017 has found you healthy and happy. We feel very blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. Here is our short update for 2017:
FAMILY:
*The Potts family retreat was in January in Southern Utah. We had a wonderful time, including a trip to Tonaquint Park, golfing for the boys, ice skating, movie watching, swimming, playing games, Discovery Park, singing at a care center, going to glitter mountain, and lots of eating and visiting.
*In February, we attended two funerals :( One for Heidi's Uncle Burton's baby, who died at a month old. One for Heidi's Uncle Richard. There was a lot of traveling. We are grateful for family & our knowledge of the Plan of Salvation
*We enjoyed a good amount of "camping" this year :) We stayed in a tiny Forest Service cabin in Pineview in April, we stayed in our old trailer in Mapleton in May, In July, we camped in a cabin at Fishlake for a week, and in October we got to stay in the Benson cabin for a few days. We love spending time in the outdoors!
*In June we went to the Grand Canyon for the day and were left in awe! It was really amazing!
*We did some fun races this year - Mom & Grandpa Potts did the Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon & Cedar Half marathon, while Jason & the girls did the 5ks.
*We had LOTS of big birthdays this year! Daddy turned 40, Oaklyn turned 1, McKinley turned 12, and Kezia turned 8!
*In September, after a year of the girls giving up half their birthday $, half their allowances, half their Christmas, and also doing a lemonade stand and selling some things, WE WENT TO DISNEYLAND! We enjoyed 3 days at Disney, 1 day at Universal, and a day at the beach. Mom & Dad just took the 3 older girls & the littles stayed with Grandma & Grandpa Potts. It was a wonderful time & we made so many great memories!
*Added new members to our family - Truly, Zhane, and Daizy the puppy dog!
*Our Cedar City Temple is completed!!!! This is HUGE news for us and we celebrate and offer gratitude every day for this BEAUTIFUL, amazing, blessing! It is only a mile from our home!
*One other fun thing this year - we downloaded the Marco Polo app and have had so much fun sending videos back and forth to loved ones near and far and getting to see what they're up to as well! We have felt so much more connected with family and friends!
*If you know our family, you know we're HUGE Studio C fans. In line at DL, we played "which Studio C episode?" with lines from the shows. It was a lot of fun. We never miss a new episode :)
*If you know our family, you know we're HUGE Studio C fans. In line at DL, we played "which Studio C episode?" with lines from the shows. It was a lot of fun. We never miss a new episode :)
JASON: Jason turned 40 this year! Heidi threw him a (kind of) surprise party in St.
George at her parents house. Lots of people showed up, we watched a "this is your life" slideshow, we wrote 40 things we love about Jason, and Cindy even made him a toilet cake that said "You're older than crap!" :) For his 40th birthday, we went to the Deff Leappard/Poison concert with Jeff & Keeley. It was a lot of fun! Jason stays busy with his calling (Elder's Quorum President) and work (Admin Officer at the Dixie National Forest), but finds time to be a wonderful husband and dad & we are so thankful for him! At the end of the year, he took on our healthy habit challenge and rocked it! He's hitting the gym almost every day and doing great. We love you Jason! 
HEIDI: In January, Heidi enjoyed kidnapping her sister Cindy with her other sister for a couple days to celebrate her 40th birthday. They saw a play, went shopping, watched movies, went to a bookstore, and just enjoyed talking. Jason took the girls so Heidi could & she enjoyed it so much! Heidi got called to be the Primary Secretary in June, and has been busy with that calling, but enjoys getting to see her girls in church on Sunday. She also went to her 20-year WJHS class reunion in June. It was fun to see some familiar faces and catch up :) Heidi decided to start a little hiking group and went hiking almost every week for a few months after the girls went back to school in August. It was awesome! Very soul-filling :) Heidi continues to have bad luck in the phone department & went through 2 phones this year. She has been listening to inspirational books, and reading novels, and loving it. For Christmas in 2017, Heidi finally made the Ancestor ABC book that she's been wanting to do for so long & she learned so much! In 2018, Heidi is looking forward to going on more hikes & spending more time outdoors. Her goals are all deeper connections with her loved ones here and on the other side, her home, and her body. 
McKINLEY: At the beginning of the year, McKinley played Mrs. Mayor in her school's production of Suessical Jr! She did so great! McKinley started Cedar Middle School this year! And is in 6th grade. She turned 12 in September and is really enjoying Young Women and she's been to do baptisms at the temple three times already! Her first time going, Grandpa & Grandma Potts & GG Tew came! McKinley got to have a birthday party this year and invited all her friends for her book themed birthday party - it was a great time! McKinley has really been excelling in piano! She played "Baptism" at Kezia's baptism program and did great, and she played a beautiful Christmas song for the Ward Christmas Party. She also is doing great in cello, making the intermediate orchestra - we love to watch her perform and we love to listen to her practice. McKinley tried out volleyball this year and learned a lot and had fun with her teammates! McKinley is in the National Honors Society in middle school and she also finished the Book of Mormon this year!! Another amazing thing McKinley got to be involved in this year was the cultural celebration for our new temple! She, along with 3,600 other youth, sang and danced for our church leaders (Elder Eyring, Holland, etc) and it was beautiful! McKinley got her dream come true this year and got a puppy dog! She is a 15 week-old 75% golden retriever and very beautiful. McKinley just loves her and is so cute with her. We are all so proud of our beautiful, talented, kind, and smart girl and are so thankful for her in our lives. She is growing up so fast and is only a couple inches shorter than mom! Some of McKinley's favorite friends: Karmiyah, Olivia, Addison, Micaela, and Lizzy. In 2018, McKinley is looking forward to going to Girls Camp. Her goal is to do at least 8 personal progress experiences. 
IRELAND: Ireland is "Queen of the elementary" this year at North, and enjoying it very much! She is in Mrs. Brown's 5th grade class & enjoys having her as a teacher. Ireland turned 10 in July and got her ears pierced! She was very brave and has LOVED wearing lots of different kinds of earrings, especially the "3D" kind. Ireland is still loving gymnastics and moved on to level 3 this year! We are so proud of her & love to watch her work on her skills! Ireland read the Harry Potter books to book 4 this year and she is a Harry Potter fan :) Ireland took an art class after school and learned a lot and made some beautiful things! Some of Ireland's favorite friends are Mahina, Hannah, Elle, and Zoe. In 2018, Ireland is looking forward to the Potts Retreat and her goal is to move up to the next level in gymnastics!
KEZIA: Kezia is in 2nd grade and still rocking dual immersion. We love to watch her and her daddy have Spanish conversations and we love hearing her sing her Spanish songs. She is at a 6th grade reading level and very smart! But her teachers always tell us how kind she is, and that we are even prouder of her for that. She did soccer in the spring, and got purple jerseys AGAIN!! :) She did awesome and we love to watch her play! Kezia really got into reading Heidi Hecklebeck books and has read a bunch :) Kezia turned 8 on October 26th and had a costume Halloween/Birthday party that weekend with lots of her friends! We made scary treats, played charades, did musical chairs, ate pizza, had homemade root beer, and did gifts. It was a lot of fun! She got baptized on November 4th and afterwards we went to the Cedar City Temple open house - it was SUCH a special day! In 2018, Kezia is looking forward to (Maybe!) Lagoon. And a goal she has is in 2018 is earning money for hospitals. 
LINK: Link would have turned 5 years old on November 7th. We continue to send gifts in his name on his birthday, and we continue to do temple work to honor him as well. We feel like the Cedar City Temple is a LOVE NOTE from Heavenly Father AND Link! Mom feels so close to him there - especially as the rainbows shine onto the walls from the stain glass windows :) Mom is hoping to do more in 2018 to assist families to have lost babies to SIDS and hopes Link will help her there, too. We felt Link's love, guidance, and protection on many occasions this year & pray he will continue to stay close to us. 
NOELLE: Noelle turned 3 on April 8th, and she likes to tell everyone that's her birthday :) After she turned three, just to assure us that she was not completely out of the "terrible twos," she decided to "sharpie" the entire basement. Walls, couches, toys, light switches, doors, etc. It was rather amazing the destruction she caused and mom ended up painting the entire basement! She is quite a mischief-maker and continues to keep us on our toes! She is super bright and easily memorizes books. She has started to really "read," though and is working through some BOB books and doing great! She also knows how to write her name, though sometimes she forgets letters :) We LOVE that Noelle loves her brother, Link, and talks about him frequently. She says "Link is my brother! He loves me, and I love him!" Another thing we love about Noelle is how she LOVES to watch sunrises & sunsets. She will run into mom & dad's room and pull them into the living room to watch the sunrise, or she will pull them to the porch to watch the sun set. Since she is our "sunrise girl," this is very appropriate :) She still loves watching Dora the Explorer, and she loves Daniel Tiger, too. She enjoyed hikes with mom this year! Noelle is getting bigger and asking more and more for friend dates. She talks a lot about her friends Katelyn, Caleb, Kali, and James. In 2018, she's looking forward to turning FOUR! She's going to get a birthday party and she'll get to go down the big yellow slide! (finally!). She's also looking forward to going to preschool. One goal she has is to read harder books and ride her tricycle by herself! 
OAKLYN: Ohhhh, baby cuteness! (that's what we call her) We love you! Oaklyn turned one in August and is, of course, the baby of our family and therefore can do no wrong. She says about 15 words, including happy! (she says this one over & over again), mom, dada, Daizy, Sydney, , uh-oh, book, hey, wow, and hi! She was our earliest walker, at 10 months, and now is running all over. She doesn't have the best immune system, and seems to get runny noses constantly, and at the end of the year, got fevers and had issues with her hand being swollen. But overall, she is a wonderful, happy baby. At almost 17 months, Oaklyn likes to play in the dog water, take all the cups out of the drawer again & again, climb on to EVERYTHING (she's had quite a few bumps & bruises), play with the dogs, color on things, and put things in her mouth. Oaklyn is lacking in the hair department at the moment, but it looks like it will be blonde and it is CURLY in the back! We love that & pray she keeps it! She also looks like she's going to have green eyes - they are so pretty :) Oaklyn can point to many body parts and she loves cuddles and kisses. She still does the scrunchy-nose smile that we all can't get enough of. She has started to be picky about eating, but if you put grapes or pancakes or a sucker in front of her, watch out! She wants them - and fast!! 