Merry Christmas 2025!
(Link to 13-minute end-of-year slideshow)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ruEYe349CdbPtofQ6
Prayers that this message finds you & yours loved and cared for this Christmas season. 2025 has been a year of change for our family, but also a year of blessings. Some family highlights:
*Our 2 oldest are out of the house right now - McKinley on her mission in Iowa, Ireland living off-campus at SUU. Kezia is very busy & we don't see her much, so it's often mom, dad & "the littles" at home now-days.
*Wild ride with Jason's job this year. So many cuts in the government. Two deferred resignation program offers. Jason took a job with a local company, but ended up back with APHIS. We are so thankful he has a job & pray that we will not have to end up moving to a hub.
*Heidi & Jason celebrated 25 years this year! We had a yummy dinner, an extra night in Vegas, and almost a week at the cabin. We are so grateful for 25 years together.
*Lots of family time at the cabin this year with family & friends!
*Two of our nephews left for their missions this year - Daken (Philippines) and Hayden (Mexico City). We're so blessed to have so many missionaries in our lives!
*The year of 6 7! (oh my goodness, I hope one day we look back & realize how ridiculous we are), and KPop Demon Hunters (We can all get behind this one :) )
.jpg)
As mentioned above, things with Jason's work were pretty crazy this past year. We did a lot of talking, praying, fasting and going to the temple to try & figure out God's will for our family. Jason worked with Sleep Dentistry for about 5 months, but just in the past month has gone back to APHIS. We are moving forward in faith and will continue to be prayerful about all that lies ahead. Jason got more fishing time in this year - he took both Noelle and Oaklyn fishing near Brian Head and then took them on separate, special fishing trips with daddy to Panguitch Lake. They also fished quite a bit at Lowder Pond. It's so wonderful to have a cabin close to some great fishing spots! Jason was called to be the Sunday School President and has learned a lot with that.
FAVE MEMORY: Hiking with the Graffs, general conference weekends, spending time at the cabin.
LOOKING FORWARD TO: Cancun and McKinley coming home!
.jpg)
Heidi was asked to be the shift coordinator for her Friday morning baptistry shift & she really enjoys working with her co-coordinator, Lisa, and all the people on her shift. She continues to volunteer with Share & go to the hospital when she can after a loss and help with making molds, taking pictures, and supporting people and events. She loves to work on family history - she still has a lot to learn, but is working on figuring out how to research. Heidi still LOVES to be on the mountain and goes up as much as she can for a hike or to the cabin. She also still loves to read & joined a book club this year, which has been so much fun!
FAVE MEMORY: All the dates with her hubby & the meteor shower
LOOKING FORWARD TO: Ireland's senior trip at Brian Head. Cancun & Asia. McKinley coming home!
McKinley has now been on her mission for a full year! Wow! We have missed her so much, but are so grateful we can talk to her on Mondays and now on Sunday evenings too! She got a new mission president in July and they now have a Zoom devotional on Sunday evenings with some spiritual thoughts and a miracle video which is so fun to see her in. She was in Des Moines for the first 6 months of her mission & really loved the people there, then she was transferred to Quad cities, and now is in Iowa City, Iowa as a Sister Training Leader. The summer was humid and it was -3 when we last talked to her and she sure misses the mountains, but she loved seeing the fireflies and the corn fields and she has learned so much from so many Spanish people from all over the world. We love Hermana Hamilton & are grateful for her service every day.
.jpg)
Ireland got her Certified Nurse Assistant at Southwest Tech in February and got a job with Cedar Health and Rehabilitation - an assisted nursing and rehabilitation facility. It is a LOT and she gets overwhelmed sometimes with meeting the needs of everyone all the time, but she is doing great and already got a raise. In May, Ireland went to an end-of-school-year party at Red Peaks Gym, did a backflip, and ended up blowing out her knee. Total ACL & MCL and she destroyed her meniscus on top of that. She "walked" for graduation with crutches and had a 3+ hour surgery the next day. Dr. Delcore said it was one of the worst he's seen. Recovery was frustrating and slower than Ireland would have liked, but after LOTS of PT and time, she finally saw the day when she could lay her crutches down. Thankfully, she could walk before she started college in the fall at SUU. She's living off-campus with 3 other girls, all of whom she didn't know beforehand - Becka, Allie, and Cindy. College has challenged her, but she has done SO well in all of her classes and in keeping that academic scholarship. She's gotten more into running the past few months and her work has been good to work with her - both with her injury and with scaling back to focus on college. Ireland went out with 2 guys as a result of her injury - Luke, who was at the gym when she had her accident, and Andy, who was a PT assistant. She's learning all about "adulting" and has done really well :)
FAVE MEMORY: Getting to know & spend time with Allie & her other roomies.
LOOKING FORWARD TO: Finishing freshman year at SUU & McKinley coming home!
Kezia is a busy girl! She finished her freshman year - really loved her teachers & classes. Summer was camps and work and friends. Sophomore year classes & teachers haven't been as epic, but she's doing well and having fun. She was able to be part of the 7-girl varsity team in cross-country this year, but was plagued by injury. Mostly shin splints. She did a lot of icing and stretching, but had to miss 3 of the races. Still, she was strong and even got to compete at State. Cedar took 3rd! Sadly, afterwards she had an MRI & it appears she was running on a stress fracture. She is currently aqua jogging for recovery. She did great with violin this year - competing with a quartet at Solo & Ensemble and also getting superior at Strings Festival for her solo. Kezia joined National Honors Society this year & has enjoyed getting more service hours in. The week of Oct 22-29 was the Kezi show! She had her huge 7-hour birthday party on the mountain (we even hired a astronomy guy with a telescope) with all her friends, went to Sadie Hawkins with Logan Orton (and they made it official - boyfriend/girlfriend), had her ACTUAL 16th birthday on Sunday (with homemade pain au chocolat of course!), competed at State XC, went on her first "real" date with her dad, AND got her driver's license! Whew! Like I said, BUSY! She still loves her work at Pizza Cart (even went on a backpacking trip with them to Escalante!), hanging out with her friends (a whole new world with kids that can drive!), music (she's gotten more into vinyl), baking (Sundays!), and the temple (she tries to go at least once/week).
FAVE MEMORY: Birthday Party, Northern Lights, & dances
LOOKING FORWARD TO: Full XC season, more dances
Noelle finished up elementary & headed to middle school this year (!!!) We can still hardly believe our sunrise girl is in 6th. She decided to play the viola and her teacher, Min, is awesome and an SUU student. She is progressing well! Noelle did the CCCMT Jungle Book play in the spring and was a monkey. It was so fun to watch her :) She also did swim and soccer in the spring & is a great athlete! Mom got to go with Noelle to her 5th grade field trip up to the state capital and aquatic center. It was fun to see Noelle interact with her teachers and friends. In the transition to middle school, she's kept most of her dual immersion friends, especially her "Keeper of the Lost Cities Book Series Fans" friends :) Noelle is still our bibliophile and consumes books at an astonishing rate - reading, and re-reading her favorites, but not turning away a new read usually either. With McKinley & Ireland leaving, Noelle has taken over the care of both dogs & is so good to do that. She still loves all animals (esp dogs, cats, lizards) and has done quite a bit of fishing this year!
FAVE MEMORY: Meteor shower & fishing with her dad
LOOKING FORWARD TO: Starting YW and going to the temple
Oaklyn is in 3rd grade this year & first time to have a boy teacher - her Spanish teacher, Senor Gabonal. She enjoys school and her friends a lot! Charlotte is still her BFF and we also had a new family move in down the street from us who have 10 & 6-year-old girls and Oaklyn loves to play with them too! It's SO nice to have built-in playdates :) Oaklyn reads well, but her love is math! She really does well with numbers and it's awesome! She and Brielle (another of Oaklyn's friends who we carpool with) love to do the multiplication raps on the way to school. Oaklyn was BIG BIG into Kpop Demon Hunters this year, along with many of the kids her age & was Rumi for Halloween, complete with purple hair extensions. Oaklyn LOVES her kitty Bluetooth headphones and will connect them to her Alexa and jam out to all her favorite songs. She was a bee in the CCCMT Jungle Book play and had a lot of fun! She also had fun with soccer and did really well with swimming this year! Oaklyn & Noelle really like to play Minecraft :)
FAVE MEMORY: Birthday fun & high dive belly flop!
LOOKING FORWARD TO: Turning 10 & ears pierced!
