The Annual Christmas Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

                I am happy to be writing another Christmas letter.  Many of you may remember (not so happily) from last year that the tone of the Christmas letter tends to be set by the outcome of a certain football game, and though it’s been over 2 months I still have a little celebration each morning at 6 minutes to 11.               

                Of course the biggest news of the year is that we added another member to the family.  She’s wonderful and perfect and sometimes I just like to stare at her and think about all the good times we’re going to have together.  That’s right folks I bought a truck in July (that last part about staring at the truck really is true, Melissa says I’m pathetic, and she’s probably right).

                It really has been a wonderful year and we have been very blessed with the addition of Jocelyn Melissa Corry to our family.  She was born September 22, and has been a joy in our lives (more of a joy for Melissa than myself as I tend to like children much more than babies, but I am warming up to her).  Both mom and baby are very healthy.

                We moved home to Cedar City in July and have loved every minute of being home.  I finished residency in South Bend, IN at the end of June and we said goodbye to a number of great friends and made our way across the country for what we consider to be our last cross-country move.   I’ve been approached numerous times in the past 5 months and asked if it was all worth it now that we’re home.   My response each time (as corny as it sounds) has been: The experience itself has always been worth it the job and being back home are just icing on the cake.

                Melissa continues to stay busy with our 5 children at home.  Four of the kids have school at some time of the week, but not all together so she spends a fair amount of time running from place to place.  She continues to design, sew, quilt, write tutorials and then blog about it all.  We now live two doors from my mother (which I love) and I have found that the trips to the fabric store are a little more expensive than they were in South Bend, but when you move to a larger sewing room you have to fill up that space with something.  I’m not complaining, I had to fill and empty carport a few months ago.  With all that keeps her so busy, Melissa did find time to participate in a Triathlon with my brother and me last Saturday.  She swam while I biked and Robert ran.  It was a lot of fun and something I hope to do again.

                Spencer, 8, was baptized in January and has amazed his parents with his understanding of that ordinance.  He is currently in 3^rd grade at South Elementary.  He enjoys his class and is being taught by a woman who taught one of the two kindergarten classes when I attended kindergarten there.  He also got glasses a month ago and has been commenting quite a bit about how much he has missed seeing in the past.  He was very surprised to see the Bishops eyes in church his first Sunday with his glasses.  Spencer also went on his first deer hunt this year and enjoyed it immensely.  He wasn’t there when I got my deer (it happened later on in the hunt while he was in school), but is still excited to have the antlers go up on his wall (mom’s not too enamored with that, but she’s not ready to let me build a cabin and it’s not safe to drive around with a rack of antlers in my truck).

                Jessica, 6, is in first grade at South Elementary and loves it.  She reads with her grandmother every day after school.  It’s interesting because she reads for 20 minutes each day but often times we don’t see her until dinner time which is well over an hour after she gets home from school.  She is happy to have her own bedroom downstairs with an attached bathroom and walk-in closet.  I’m a little worried about a 6 year-old being that excited about those things, but whatcha gonna do?

                Kristian, 4, (probably 5 by the time you get this letter, unless you read it on the blog) goes to preschool 4 days a week at a school that is located in what was part of the playground when I was a student at South Elementary.  He’s in class with his cousin and they have really warmed up to each other after what was a little bit of a rocky start.  Kristian is our little athlete as his favorite pastime is wrestling, wrestling and wrestling.  When his uncle Mark came down to visit he had a wrestling camp with the kids.  The other 3 tired quickly, but Kristian was still ready to “belly down” after 30 minutes of drills.

                Kamryn, 2, continues to grow into her personality.  We haven’t figured her out quite yet as she gets into more trouble than the first 3 kids combined ever did.  I can’t remember the last time her feet were free of marker.  She is enamored with her new baby sister and often becomes sad when Josie cries for more than 30 seconds.  She attends a preschool 1 day a week to help with her speech as she tests at the level of a 4 year old for understanding, but at the age of a 1 year old for her speech.  I’m not entirely sure how they measure that stuff, but I believe it as Kami always seems to know the perfect time to flash a smile or give a kiss or hug to get out of trouble.

                Jocelyn, 0, is a baby and I don’t particularly enjoy babies so I have nothing to say here.  Okay that’s probably not nice.  We were very worried about Josie because she failed her first 2 hearing screens and when she went in for the definitive test the machine broke, but she didn’t seem to respond to anything before the machine broke.  A lot of prayers were said and tears were shed.  Two weeks ago she had another test and while she does have some decreased hearing she can, in fact, hear.  She has a repeat test in a couple of months, and we are much less afraid about it.  It’s a new experience for us to be happy when our baby wakes up crying because her siblings are screaming in the hall, but the two times it has happened have been very joyful moments for us.

                We wish you all the best this holiday season.  It has been a wonderful year for our family and we have certainly felt the hand of the Savior in our lives.

Love,

Jacob, Melissa,

 Spencer (Spence) , Jessica (Jessi), Kristian (Nader), Kamryn (Kami, Bubbles), and Jocelyn (Josie)

In case your were wondering we have not lost any from the ranks of the Ute faithful this year, but Nader is still holding strong to his Irish.

Uncle Eric

Jocelyn

Jocelyn was blessed on Sunday.   My parents and Corinne and Dave and their family were able to come down from Salt Lake for the weekend for the special day.  It was so fun to have them all for the weekend and enjoy the time with family.  (Thanks again guys!!)  And Robert and Shaliece were able to attend sacrament with us as well.  Let me tell you, there was some fun going on in our pews on Sunday!!

Those that stood in the circle for the blessing were Jacob's father, my Father, Robert, Dave, Bishop Whetmen, and Jacob.  (Posterity effort :)    Jacob gave a beautiful blessing and Jocelyn slept the whole time.  She looked adorable and the spirit was very strong.

                           

And important part of her blessing was that "she would be able to hear the words of the prophets and follow them."  This is so important because we have been very concerned about Jocelyn's hearing.  She failed both of her hearing screens at the hospital and the subsequent one 3 weeks later.  So we had to follow up with the audiologist.  We met with them 3 weeks ago and the test had to be scheduled because of equipment malfunction.    We have been very nervous over the last few weeks as we still see very little response on her part to noises. But we just continued to pray in faith that all would work out.

Yesterday was her second hearing test.  And I am so happy and relieved to report that while the news isn't perfect, it is extremely good.  The test showed that she is hearing but the responses time of the hearing is delayed.  The doctor said this could be for one of two reasons most likely.  1 - She still has fluid in her ears.  If this is the case, they will continue to dry and all will be just fine.  2 - She has partial hearing loss.  If this is the case, we would be looking at hearing aids and eventually all will be just fine as well.

So we will be redoing the test in 3 months and hoping for outcome 1 but being just fine it if is outcome 2 as well.  When you were concerned about deafness and the life that would mean, hearing aids don't sound bad at all.  I can't being to express how grateful we are for this little miracle in our life and I am so happy that the results were so positive.  We are truly mindful of the Lord's hand in our life and grateful for all of the prayers that were given in Jocelyn's behalf.

It had to happen sometime!!

A few weeks ago we had another one of those "I can't believe she did that" incidents.  And of course, it involved this little stinker.

Kami is the first to do many things in our house that none of the other children ever tried.  She was the first to color all over my couch, she was the first to eat markers, she was the first to hide in my bathroom and attempt to put mascara on her eyes and end up like this . . .  (and she has done this like 5 times now :)

And now . . .  She is the first to stuff something up her nose and not be able to get it out.  She came to me the other day just howling and shoving her finger up her nose (only lodging the item even further ) and when I looked all I saw was bright green.  I called Jacob, who was at work, and he said to try with some tweezers and if I couldn't get it out, call Dad, and if he wasn't home to bring her in.

Well the tweezers did not work at all.  Not only could I not get a hold of the item, I didn't have enough hands to hold onto the tweezers and keep Kami's hands from swinging at me.  And then I attempted to call Dad who was up the mountain, so I was down to the last option of taking her in.  So I called Mom, who thankfully left Wal-Mart to come sit with the other kids, (Could you imagine how awful it would have been to take them all in) and took Kami into so Daddy could come to the rescue.

And he did.  We were in and out of the clinic in about 2 minutes.  (I am so fortunate that my insta-care is  truly instant!!!)  Kami was fabulous, she laid still and let her Daddy dislodge one necklace bead from her nose.   Good Times!!!

Halloween 2011

Halloween!!  What can I say??  This always seems to be a holiday that my children love and I tolerate. Oh well, what ya gonna do??

Every year we do pretty basic pumpkins.  You know, the face that takes about 3 minuites :)  Well this year the kids asked for something a little more detailed.  And, since I was trying to find a way to like Halloween more, I decided to give it a shot.  So we got online and found some pretty cool patterns and we set off to cut out some fancy pumpkins.

The "we" part quickly turned into the "I" part when the kids decided it was to hard for them and they would rather just play with the leftover pieces of pumpkin.  I on the other hand, was concentrating pretty hard for something as simple as pumpkin carving. (hence the tongue out :)

This was the end result (but the picture was taken two days later so some of the pieces are beginning to shrivel :)  They aren't perfect, but the kids were happy.  Using just a kitchen knfe was hard on some of the curves.  ( I already went and got a decent set of carving utinsels for next year, got to love the half off day after Wal-Mart sale :)

This is everyone right before we loaded up to go to the ward Trunk-or-Treat.  They had a lot of fun!!  Except for when a glow wand exploded in Kristian's face leaving him with some major stinging eye's, but daddy took him home and washed it out and then he was back to collecting candy :)    I have to say I am not a huge fan of Trunk-or-Treats, but that  is just me.  (I won't get into as it only contributes to the "Why I just tolerate Halloween" issue :)

Afterwards we all got together and sorted the candy. (and sadly, the candy in the picture does not represent all the candy)  Probably the part of Halloween that I really enjoy!!  I just think it is so fun to put things into like piles ;)  And the candy bar pile and smarties pile have switched in size since I was a kid :)  

So that was our Halloween!!