2007 Year in Review

OK, so here is the Christmas letter you've all been anxiously awaiting. Thank you for being so patient! It has been a hectic month, no surprises there...it's the Larges, it's December, the holidays are upon us, need I say more? It's been difficult trying to make time to just sit down and try to 'remember' what's been happening this year. As you have most likely already heard, we bought a new house and moved in during the week of Thanksgiving. We celebrated Thanksgiving in our new home. Our new home is about 20 miles east of our old house. It is a 7 bedroom basement home, almost 4500 square feet on about 1/2 acre with a large pool. We absolutely love it and are adjusting to the added driving time back and forth to school, work, and other activities. The girls and Dean are looking forward to attending their new schools in January. Brandon will finish up his senior year at Westwood. Patrick will also be changing schools in January. We love our new church ward and the few neighbors we've met have been very nice. There is a nice little neighborhood park right down the street that the kids love. It does have an HOA, which we swore we would never have, but they seem to be fairly relaxed and well, so far, so good...

Chris moved to Flagstaff in April to complete his internship at the Orpheum Theater. He was hired on and is also working at the bowling alley and has decided to go back to school at the community college as well. He loves Flagstaff "it's beautiful and the weather is great". He likes to ride the trails on his mountain bike and does some hiking as well. Chris has been dating his girlfriend Tiffany for over a year now but she lives here so he doesn't get to see her as often as he would like. He is considering moving back to the valley in a few months.

Tyler graduated in May and is still working at Bergeron Marine (now full time). He has decided to purchase our old house and moved in there as soon as we moved out. He has been fixing up the house and adding his own 'personal touches', including new carpet, paint and a pool table. His girlfriend Sharon lives with him as well as another family who lived with him at the other house (it's nice to have someone to help make the house payments). He spends his free time fixing up cars and riding his quad and sandrail.

Brandon continues to be the sports nut. He was the starting quarterback for the varsity football team and has been getting letters from many colleges/universities (some of whom have come to the school to talk to him). He doesn't have any official solid offers for scholarships yet but is sending out game film and hopes to get something soon. He definitely wants to play football at the college/university level though so it will be exciting to see where he ends up. Brandon received 1st Team All Region Quarterback and also earned 2nd Team at the state level. He skipped baseball his junior year but has been promising 'Dad' that he will play his senior year. He is currently playing on the varsity basketball team and they have been playing in several tournaments including one in Yuma where they took 3rd place and one in San Diego where they placed 4th. He also has a 4.0 GPA and is looking forward to having a short schedule next semester with only 2 classes starting at noon so he can 'sleep in'. Brandon also recently completed all the requirements to earn his Eagle Scout award.

Patrick played on the varsity football team and is now playing on the JV soccer team. His soccer team is doing really well. He has been attending the East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) participating in their Health Sciences program. He would like to become a dentist. He has been working at Chick-Fil-A but will be looking for a new job closer to our new home. He just got his permit on Christmas Eve and is very excited about that. He will be attending Skyline starting next semester (January 3rd) and is not too happy about that but he will still be able to attend EVIT from there as well.

Kimberly is doing well. She is in the school and church choirs. She is doing well in school and loves to socialize! She loves having her own bedroom in our new house and is excited to meet new friends at her new school.

Tiffany is still dancing (surprise, surprise). She absolutely LOVES to dance. She helps teach the younger kids as well. Tiffany also loves to sing and is in the advanced choir at school. She is very excited to start attending her new school and is looking forward to meeting new friends. Her favorite thing to do is 'hang out' with her friends.

Heather loves our new ward and is making lots of friends there and looking forward to attending her new school. She didn't want to wait for the semester break but wanted to change schools as soon as we moved! She is in advanced orchestra, still playing the violin which she loves. She has also been playing the piano a lot lately and wants to take piano lessons again. She also loves having her own bedroom in our new house. She has been babysitting more and really likes that, especially the money that comes with it!

Dean is in 2nd grade now and is just the coolest kid ever! He loves hanging out with his older brothers (especially Tyler). He loves to work on cars and do all the cool stuff that Tyler does. He played baseball in the spring and is anxious to start playing some other sports (football and soccer). He is looking forward to getting baptized in February and is also excited to start attending his new school.

Molly (the mini Schnauzer) is still as spoiled as ever. I think she is more spoiled than our kids are and that is pretty bad! She and Misty (the Boxer) are adjusting well to the new house. They both love the big back yard.

Derek moved from working at the tow copany to another division within the same corporation, running their auto auctions. He has been enjoying that and has advanced again to Operations Manager, managing the auctions as well as the rest of the tow company. He has been working very hard to get our new home.

Cathy is still working at SRP and with the kids activities and moving hasn't had time to do too much else. Ocassionally she finds time to get a little scrapbooking in (although that's been only at the 2 retreats she organized with a few friends this year). She also started back to school, working toward her degree that she might some day reach! We've been having fun shopping for furniture and getting our house organized and decorated.

We have been truly blessed this year and love this time of year when we can celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ and count our blessings for all he has given us!

We hope you all had a great Christmas and have a very happy, healthy, prosperous New Year!!!

November 28, 2007

Well we pretty much have everything moved over. Of course it isn't all put away (or even close) yet but we're working on it. We still need to get furniture for the dining room, living room and family room as well. We have all of our Christmas decorations at the new house but just haven't found the time to put them up yet. Tyler says he won't be putting them up this year so Brandon & Patrick said they would. The only problem is, they are never home to do it.

Tyler has decided he and his roommates will move in to our old house (he is planning to buy it as soon as he builds up some credit). He has been working very hard to get our stuff out and get it cleaned up so he can begin moving over. He has great plans so it will be exciting to see what he does with it.

We spent half the day on Saturday working on Brandon's Eagle Scout service project; cutting down trees and cleaning up the area next to one of the church buildings in our stake. Thanks to all who came out to help! We got a lot done with only a few minor injuries.

We attended our new church on Sunday. The people were very friendly and we learned of two families that are in our new ward that used to be in our old ward. Kimberly & Heather went to mutual with the new ward last night. They went to Temple Lights and had a great time.

Brandon played his first basketball game last night. They played his cousin, Carl's team. They lost but it was fun.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Wow, we have so much to be thankful for this holiday. We have a beautiful new home; we have an amazing family; we are all in great health; we have been blessed with some wonderful friends; we have the knowledge of the gospel in our lives and great blessings that come from that; and the list goes on and on...

We have been having SO much fun moving that we've decided we'll do it again in about 6 months or so! Yeah, right! Just kidding. We are pretty sure we never want to move again. The girls are getting excited to start their new school in January. Unfortunately, until then, things are pretty hectic trying to get everyone to school with 4 different start times. Fortunately, we hope to not be doing that much longer.

Patrick tried out for WW soccer and made the varsity team. Pretty good for never having played soccer before. Dean will be starting flag football soon and will be playing with his best buddy.

A special "THANKS" goes out to all who helped us move (and brought us food) over the past week. We truly do appreciate your service.

We hope you all have a wonderful THANKSGIVING!

IT'S A GREAT DAY!!!

It's been a great day today. The house closed today. It's all official...and it's all OURS! We are so excited! The carpets were cleaned today so we will be officially moving in within the next few days. We spent part of the day today cleaning but need to go back and do some more tomorrow as well as continue packing. We took the first load out last night but it's all in the garage until the carpets are dry.

In addition to the excitement of closing on the house today. There was a BIG game tonight. Westwood played Hamilton (the best team in the state). It was a truly amazing game. Our boys played AWESOME. The score was tied until about 3 minutes left in the 4th quarter and unfortunately they weren't able to beat them but we are very proud of our team. They are true Warriors! What a great game it was. After the game Brandon was told that he made 1st Team All Region QB! Way to go Brandon!!! Now, on to basketball...first game is Tuesday (11/27). He also told the baseball coach today that he would be playing baseball!

We'll keep you posted as the packing/moving proceeds...

OUR HOUSE

We finally signed papers this afternoon and have keys to our new home!!! Everything won't officially be closed until tomorrow but it's a very exciting day! Just wanted to share. We'll try to keep you updated on the packing & moving process over the next couple of weeks but it probably won't be too often.

As if all of that weren't enough during this Thanksgiving holiday, Brandon is also working on getting his Eagle Scout project completed and signed off before his birthday next month. Some of you may be hearing from us to come out and help with his project next weekend!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Sorry it's been a while since we've posted. We are now busy packing, packing, and...oh, did I say packing!!! What great fun that is! We should be signing papers on Tuesday, Nov.13th! It's very exciting. There are a few things we need to do (like cleaning, having carpets cleaned, have utilities turned on, etc) before we actually start moving stuff in but we hope to be able to start moving in by next weekend and plan to have our first thanksgiving in our new home (most likely surrounded by boxes) the following week. The kids think we should just start moving stuff in LAST WEEK! They aren't the least bit excited or anything :)

November 1, 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER!!!! I should have taken a picture of him to post but didn't think about it until now and it's a little late. I'll try to get one tomorrow...

Well, Monterey was great but it is good to be home. It has been a long week. We are planning to go to the house on Saturday morning. If you are interested in seeing it, give us a call and we will give you directions and times. We are hoping to close in about a week and a half! It probably would be a good idea to start packing, UGH!!! So, it looks like we'll be busy doing that for the next couple weeks (or months)!

Monterey

Well, Monterey is beautiful, as always. The weather is great; it's actually pretty chilly today. The first couple days of conference have been very informative. I took a walk this evening to visit the sea lions. They were closing the pier right after I arrived so I didn't get to go out where they all hang out but I did find a few. These dark red starfish are pretty interesting.

October 26, 2007

Well, the lasagna dinner for the football team on Wednesday went great. Well, all but the breadsticks that we ordered from Fazoli's that weren't ready for us. They were actually very rude and didn't even attempt to fix the situation. It was very frustrating but the boys loved the meal anyway. A special thanks to everyone who helped out.

Chris came down from Flagstaff today. It's always great to see him when he is able to make the trip. He's doing well and really likes it up there.

Well, I may not be posting for a week or so. I'm heading to California tomorrow morning for a library conference in Monterey. If I have time, I'll try to post some pictures of the sea lions and/or otters.

In case we don't get anything else posted before... We would like to wish everyone a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

October 23, 2007

Sorry it's taking so long to get the photos posted. There have been some difficulties getting them uploaded. There are still a few more yet to post. We've been busy trying to get paperwork to the loan officer and doing inspection on the house to make sure everything is ok.

Wednesday we are feeding the football team (homemade lasagna). It should be quite interesting (lots of work, but, well... it will be fun). We can't complain, it will be the last opportunity we have to do this while Brandon is on the team.

Still more photos

More photos... master bedroom
master bathroom
half of master closet

backyard

upstairs bathroom

More House Photos

OK, here are a few more...
Kitchen/dining room/familyroom, garage, laundry room, living room, (food) storage closet-downstairs, and the next two are Patrick's room

House Photos

OK, we were at the fair for approximately 3 hours on Saturday and actually got sunburned. It's the craziest thing. When we got in the car to go home the car thermostat said 103 and lowered down to 95 as we drove home. It is the middle of OCTOBER!!!!!!! There is something definitely wrong with this picture! Anyway, the girls did great and had a blast riding a few rides. Afterwards, we went out to start inspection on the house. Here are some photos. We have photos of just about everything but Heather's & Kim's bedrooms and the scrapbooking room because for some reason the camera wouldn't take a photo in those rooms. Anyway, it will only allow me to upload a few at a time. So, I'll post these and then try to post some more...

This is the front of the house, entryway, large family room downstairs,
downstairs bathroom, Brandon's bedroom and Tiffany's bedroom.

WW Football Senior Night

Well, they lost their game tonight but Brandon did well. He had about 60 yards rushing and a touchdown and about 130 yards passing. Unfortunately his coach doesn't let him pass enough. They move the ball when he passes and get stopped when they run and he continues to call running plays. We don't understand it and it's very frustrating. We are afraid this is hindering his chances at getting a good scholarship. Anyway, it was also senior night so I'm including a photo (it's not the greatest but...) WE LOVE YOU B. LARGE!!!

For those of you who have asked, here's a photo of Brandon's football banner that we hang up at all the games. In case you're wondering, "The Glory is Division 1" refers to Brandon's strong desire to attend a Division 1 university. I'm also working on painting one for Patrick so I'll have to post that one too when I get it finished. We gave Brandon his letterman jacket tonight also. He was very excited; now if it will just cool off enough for him to wear it, that would be nice. I'll try to get a picture of him in in and post it soon.

House Hunting

WOOHOOO, we have some GREAT news... the househunting is now over. Our offer was accepted! We should be closing on the 19th. Now, we just have to complete the daunting task of finance paperwork, closing, packing, etc. No STRESS here, right? It's actually pretty close to being move-in ready; other than cleaning and a few minor things. I'll post some photos when we go out again. We are trying to find out what ward/stake it is in. When we took the kids to see the house there was a flyer in the door about a neighborhood BBQ this Saturday. RSVPs were supposed to be called in by the 15th but we are thinking of calling to see if we can show up to meet some of our 'new' neighbors. Should be exciting!

October 18, 2007

So, we are still in negotiations for the house. It's looking promising at this point. Hopefully we'll know more tomorrow!

There's been a change in the date for the Roadshow. It's been rescheduled to November 7th.

Friday night is the big WW rivalry game against MV. It's also 'Senior night' where they honor the seniors. It's hard to believe that Brandon will be graduating soon and we only have a few more high school games to watch him play in. Fortunately, we hope to catch some games in the next few years as he plays at the next level.

October 17, 2007

Well, the househunting is still going strong. We are negotiating back and forth right now on the latest offer. We are actually tired to looking at houses and the kids are all very anxious to move. Hopefully it will all be over soon and we will be on our way to a new home.
Football is still in full swing so we've been keeping busy with that. We'll be making homemade lasagna on Wednesday to feed the entire football team. That should be interesting! Only 3 regular season games left and then on to the playoffs! Brandon is doing a great job and still waiting for the college offers to come in. He's had lots of communications from them but no actual offers yet.
Tiffany is still dancing her heart out. She and Heather will be dancing at the fair on Saturday.
Patrick, Tiffany, Kim, and Heather will be participating in a 'Roadshow' at church on the 24th.

Stay tuned ...

This is the first (test) entry for our new family blog. We will keep you up-to-date on the current happenings of our "Large" family! Of course, our hope is that we can actually find the time to keep the postings current. We'll try it out and see how it goes. Please let us know what you think.