Merry Christmas 2012

 

 

Merry Christmas 2012

   As this this year comes to a close, we wanted to take the opportunity to wish our family and friends a Merry Christmas. What an awesome time of the year, to reflect on the Birth of our Savior and look upon his life. We have been blessed this last year and would like to share some of our happenings with you.

   This year Joy had her Eighth Birthday on March 10 and was baptized by her father. Also on this day, Lewis was blessed. We had a lot of family and friends in attendance and had a great time visiting with all those that came for this event.

   Our next adventure came in the month of May, when Dale and Amanda went to the Bahamas as reward from Home Depot for the great performance of his store. While in the Bahamas, we had the opportunity to attend church. This was an awesome experience and a chance for us to see the culture outside of the resort. While in the Bahamas we snorkeled, parasailed, played on the beach, went to the water park, took a tour of the downtown, toured the aquariums, and ate some great food. We loved the seafood, which included grouper, conk, red snapper, and lobster. We enjoyed fried plantains, pineapple upside down spice cake, and mango sorbet. We are grateful to Grandma Bjarnson, Flint and Jan, and Sam and Sarah, Isaac and Jenny, the Sullivans and Ruddys for watching our kids.

   In May, Joy competed in the 1 mile fun run at school. Joy did an amazing job and was first place among the girls she competed against in her school with a time of 7 minutes 56 seconds. We finished off the month with a trip to Mesa for Cooper Rogers’ baptism. What a month!

Our summer never slowed down. Dale went to scout camp for week with his scouts. Amanda and the kids spent that week in Phoenix with her parents. In July, we had a whirlwind trip to Utah where we visited grandparents and cousins, and had a great time. While there we rode the train to downtown Salt Lake. Eli thought that was the greatest thing in the world and talked about that for weeks. He still loves trains! From Utah, we drove to Colorado for the Jack Family Reunion, where we had a great time with more cousins. The highlights of the reunion included: the kids hand fishing trout out of a large trough; The Jacked Cook-off Challenge; and the whole pig, which was smoked overnight and then devoured.

   School began in August, with Joy in third grade and Lucy in kindergarten. Both girls absolutely love school and have great teachers and friends there. That leaves Eli and Lewis at home with their mama. Eli at first missed his sisters, and this took some getting used to. Eli and Lucy took tumbling this fall and both have enjoyed this, especially Eli who loves to roll and play. Eli and Lucy had their recital yesterday for tumbling. It was Eli’s first recital and he hammed it up and enjoyed every minute he got in the spotlight. Joy and Lucy played soccer this fall with Dale coaching Lucy’s soccer team. Both girls enjoyed this and Joy made the All Star Team.  Lewis turned one in November and is a happy little guy. He quickly crawls to the door when daddy comes home and says ‘Hi.’ Lewis is close to walking but has not gotten up the courage quite yet. It won’t be long before he is running, jumping, and playing with his brother and sisters. Amanda went to Time Out for Women in November with her mother and a good friend. She left the kids for the weekend and had a good time.

We hope this letter finds all to be well and we hope you all had a great year! We love you!

Love, Dale, Amanda, Joy, Lucy, Eli, and Lewis Rogers

                                                                         The Rogers 2012