Christmas Turned New Year Letter

Intro: This is our Christmas turned New Year letter. I took a Statistics class up on campus this past sememster and it took every bit of extra time I had up until December 12th. What this meant for our family is that anything Christmas waited until 2 weeks before Christmas-UGH!Our Christmas letter unfortunately got put as last priority and did not get out until after Christmas. But atleast it got out.....

2008: The Whitesides Year of Many Firsts...

Kayla (13) started Junior High this year. She also started taking piano from a professional piano teacher. It is fun to see her develop her piano skills. Kayla started learning ballroom dance and loves it. She loves playing with her younger siblings and wearing her “feet jammies.” She loves to wrestle with Dad and is now a significant challenge for him. She almost got straight A’s this past trimester; something she worked hard to achieve.

Nathan (9) started swim team this year and still loves soccer and skiing. He is the first one to cheer when it snows which means much rejoicing lately. Nathan and Mom went on their first mom-and-me camp-out this summer. We had lots of fun kayaking and eating over the fire. Nathan loves life; he is one to always look at the bright side of life and thinks that “if your not having fun then its your own fault.” Nathan is playing piano and sang “Believe” for our families Christmas CD.

Brittany (6) started Kindergarten this year and always comes home with a smile. She learned how to ride a two-wheel bike this year and found that a sucker dipped in chocolate fondue tastes pretty good. She learned how to ski this past season and giggled all the way down the mountain. Brittany started taking piano lessons from Kayla and loves to play jingle bells.

Cami (3) is always doing something new whether it is trying out new recipes with random ingredients or seeing if my cell phone can be cooked in the microwave. She cut her own hair 5 times! (I promise I put the scissors up!) Cami loves helping Mom cook and playing princesses with her friends and sisters and of course anything pink.

Emily (1) is a so fun to have around, a complete joy. She has us all wrapped around her finger. It is amazing how well she keeps up with all her siblings. She has the cutest smiles and giggles. It is fun to see the personality of this little person develop. Emily is our smallest baby by far she only weighs 19 lbs! Emily is our little “monkey” because she is so light- weight and is always crawling and climbing.

Mike is enjoying working with the students on campus at BYU-I. He also qualified for triathlon national championships in his age group this summer. We had a great time meeting many of our family members in Portland and cheering Dad on. Mike is teaching Gospel Doctrine (the adult Sunday school class) at church. He is really enjoying learning and teaching about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jeni went back to school this past semester, starting with a challenging but fun statistics class (this is why our letter turned from a Christmas to a New Year letter). Jeni also ran her first half-marathon (13.1 miles) this summer on behalf of Hope Arising, a non-profit organization that is building water lines for people in Ethiopia. The Mesa Falls Half was beautiful for the first 4 miles, then the hills started and they didn’t stop! Next year Jeni is thinking that a “flat half” sounds really nice.

As a family we had many “firsts”. We purchased a family season ski pass at our local ski resort. Skiing really helped us to embrace the cold weather a little more. We got to have almost the whole Whitesides family spend a fun weekend with us skiing before Justin and Jenni went to Poland to teach English (we miss you!). We were able to attend the dedication of the new Rexburg, ID temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. After the winter thaw we held our first Whitesides family triathlon. We were brave this summer and went camping for a whole week at beautiful Jenny Lake,WY and Yellowstone. We feel blessed to have been able to visit with family a lot this year and to have Paul, mike’s dad, living close.

We are so blessed to have you as part of our lives. We are grateful for the person this holiday season centers around. What wonderful gifts our Savior brings to our lives. We truly hope you have a wonderful Christmas season and a joyful year to come.


With Love,
Mike, Jeni, Kayla, Nathan, Brittany, Cambria, and Emily