Christmas Greetings!

This has been one of the most life changing years of my existence!  I started off the year as a pregnant married woman living in Mesa.  Now, a year later, I am still a wife, but everything else has changed.  We had our perfect, tall, skinny, fast moving, anti-snuggling, little princess in March.  I went back to school in May and then got to spend the whole summer with her.  She gets bigger every day and I am LOVING the little person who is captivating our lives!

Yes, I am still a wife, but marriage with a child is now a family!  John is a much better husband and father than I am at being a wife and mother.  He is very attentive and caring, ALWAYS putting our needs before his.  He is still in school and I am proud to say that he got a 4.0 this semester!  So proud of him and his desire to get an education.  He recently started a new job with Home Depot.  The hours will allow us to tag team so Addie doesn't have to be in day care.  It will make it hard on us, but I feel blessed to have figured out a way to keep Addie in our own home.

One change this last year is that John's sister Katy has been living with us since August.  Words cannot express what my sweet sister has given me.  She has cared for my daughter since then and I am so grateful for that.  She has loved our girl and taken care of her.  I feel so blessed to have someone selfless enough to sacrifice 5 months of her life in service for my family.  I thought many times these past months, "This is such a choice time.  We will look back on these months and cherish them!"  But this time in her life has come to an end and she is heading back to CA on Friday.  Katy just got engaged and is needing to go take care of her life now.  I honestly wish her the best luck in finding a job, a place to live, and planning her wedding.  She has been my angel these past few months and I will be eternally indebted to her.  We are so happy that she found Jacob and that they have made the choice to get married.  I'm excited to have another non-Gardner in the Gardner clan.

As for my Addie, she was sitting up at 3 months, rolling over at 4, crawling at 5, and a week before her 9 month mark, she started full blown walking!  Like I mean walking across the room with no help.  She is a goofball and looks so funny since she is so small.  She likes to growl at everyone (I think it's a form of endearment).  When the dog barks, she starts yelling too as if that is just what you do when the door bell rings.  Her favorite book is called "Mommy Hugs"--it is the only time she will snuggle with me.  She loves bath time more than life itself.  She is still super bald, but we are hopeful that the dark hair will start coming in faster.

Another big event from this year is that we moved...

In May, John and I up and decided to start looking at houses.  I bought our house right before we got engaged and it really wasn't ever our house, so looking was nothing we had ever done before.  What began as simple intrigue quickly spawned as our plan.  We went through the heart break of having offers put on the house only to be withdrawn.  And with that he heart break of not getting houses that we could picture our family growing in.  We finally found our house after about 4 months and although it didn't have everything we were looking for, it is better in so many ways.  It is a 5 bedroom, 3 bath, 2300 sq ft house.  John has an office, I have a craft room/guest room, Katy had a room, Addie has her room, and we have a HUGE master suite with walk-in closets and sitting room.  I love it!  And the best thing is that it is our house!

Other than that, our life has been pretty dull.  Just going through the motions trying to settle in our new place.  Our ward is great!  I am already serving as the Laurel Adviser which I love!  All in all, it's a pretty sweet life!!