2019 Christmas Letter

2019 Annual Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  

Do you know how much we love you?  We think of our family and friends often and wish that we could give you all a hug and a special holiday greeting.  This electronic version will have to suffice.  

It is a very special time of year and we are so grateful for the sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ and the opportunity that we have to remember Him in a very special way.  We wish all of our Heavenly Father's choicest blessings to you and your family.

What We've Been up to:

Temple 

We have a very special, very busy job at the Logan Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The title is "Shift Coordinator" and unless you work in the temple, it's hard to describe to anyone what we do.  The best description I can provide is we are in charge of about 140 workers each Saturday from 3:50 a.m. until about noon.  The work we do goes on all week, but culminates each Friday with six or seven hours of preparation time.  It is more difficult than any other church calling we've had (including Bryce's two terms as a Bishop) and we absolutely love it. We come home on Saturday completely exhausted.  Our kids are very patient with us and have not complained about the time we spend doing temple stuff all week.  We've just passed the one year mark and are expected to continue until at least September 2020.  Along with that, we try to get to the temple as patrons as often as possible.  

Jobs

Yes, we still have jobs.  Some people think Bryce is retired, but that is just a rumor, although he'd like to be.  Bryce moved his office this summer and is now working on some projects along with teaching at USU.  He especially enjoys the teaching.  

Laurie is still working for VIPKID teaching children in China at very early hours in the morning online.  She recently earned the coveted orange sweatshirt that is only available to teachers who have reached the three year mark.  

The bad stuff

It has been a tough year for us, beginning in February with one planned and one very unexpected health challenge.  On February 11, Laurie went in for a partial knee replacement.  Eight days later, as she was still healing from her surgery, Bryce had a sudden and very serious heart attack and spent four days in Intensive Care in the Logan Regional Hospital.  Thanks to amazing doctors and facilities that are so close, he cheated death by about fifteen minutes.  We are so grateful for this wonderful blessing.  We've spent the year healing and enjoying our family.

Amelia is snuggling Grandpa after he came home from the hospital.  There's nothing like a cozy curly headed granddaughter to make a Grandpa feel better.

Baptisms

 

 

We were so blessed with three grandchildren getting baptized this year, two in March and one in April.  Thanks to their sacrifice in driving and scheduling well, we were able to attend two baptisms for all three.  We're so proud of our wonderful family and their dedication to the Lord.  

Visits

By April, Bryce was feeling well enough to make a visit to see the tulips and the grandchildren in Lehi. 

One of Bryce's favorite things to do is watch the progress of new temples.  We took a drive to see the construction of the Pocatello, Idaho Temple, which is his birth place. 

 

On a quick trip to visit Matthew and Kristin, we got to visit the Fort Collins and Denver Colorado Temples.  We're now at 69 temples visited. 

Garden

 

Spring came late and was very rainy.  It made for beautiful green mountains, and the early cool vegetable crops did very well.  We worked a bit more on our new lot, building the grow boxes taller, moving soil and making a fire pit for roasting marshmallows.

We enjoyed our garden, and the cool weather crops did well, but warm season crops, especially tomatoes, did not do well this year.  Those that actually ripened were enjoyed by four footed antlered neighbors.  Every single tomato we picked had a bite out of it.  Some were eaten from below, so we think that some of the uninvited guests may have been antler-less. 

Fourth of July 

 

Probably one of the most fun things about the year was our Fourth of July get together.  The kids brought their tents, built a small city on the new lot, and we watched the fireworks, ate good food, roasted marshmallows, laughed, and had a great time.  Grandpa's tradition is to open the window in the early morning and "moo" to those sleeping outside.  We always have a red white and blue breakfast of waffles, blueberries, raspberries and whipped cream.

Singing

In the summer, we got to sing the Oratorio from the Book of Mormon with the American Festival Chorus.  Bryce has had a class to teach this fall, and has had some trouble with breathing, so he is not singing with the choir this year, but Laurie and daughter Lisa are enjoying singing and Bryce is enjoying listening.  Lisa and Laurie traveled to Sun Valley to perform Mahler's 6th Symphony with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony.

Grandchildren

We have fifteen wonderful grandchildren now, and are so grateful that they are learning and growing and have wonderful parents to care for them.  Eight of them live right here in our valley. Three of them live in Colorado, and four are a few hours drive away, but are soon going to join the other Colorado kids.  We are delighted that they will have cousin time together, but hope we can make plenty of visits.  (See the very bottom of this blog for a quick update on our kids/grands.)

More on the new lot - Sprinklers

We didn't expect to get sprinklers installed this year, and this job came after Labor Day.  With our daughter Sara's expertise, and the hiring of a tractor to dig ditches, we were able to install some sprinklers and plant some grass. 

 

Canning and cooking together

Our family loves to cook and can together.  We did a lot of bottled peaches and an even bigger amount of applesauce - 190 quarts! It's always a family affair and even the kids get to help. 

 

The annual Thanksgiving Eve Pie night was another rousing success, with kids and dads getting in on the crust pinching and filling mixing.  Our total this year - 29, including one made by grandkids for grandkids (graham cracker crust, pudding and whipped cream.)

 

A big snowstorm on Thanksgiving morning was perfect for a really big snowman.  

Our Kids and Grands:

Kathy and Doug, Benjamin, Bryan, August and Amelia 

The Espenschied family has worked through a big job change process this year. Doug recently completed his work as General Counsel at The BlenderBottle Company and joined the legal team at Medtronic (the world’s largest medical device company). Their family will leave Lehi, UT and relocate to the Boulder, CO area next summer. Kathy drives from home to school three times a day as the family bus, manages the household and cleans up mess after mess . Benjamin is working very hard in his advanced fifth grade class. He’s also playing with the Elementary hand chime choir. Bryan loves sports, folding origami and everything about his buddies in third grade. August has taken kindergarten by storm and though in his own words “isn’t learning anything new because I already knew that,” he seems to love it. Amelia is a dancing, singing bouncing ball of sunshine. Except when she’s not . She loves preschool and coloring and being a kitty.


Matthew and Kristin, Axton, Jayli and Brevin

Matthew and Kristin are living in Colorado where Matthew works as a test engineer for Honeybee Robotics, a young aerospace company that produces solar array positioning devices for satellites. Matthew ran his first marathon this year! Kristin is a hard working mom and also does several hours a week catering and serving at various events. Kristin is in the Primary Presidency while Matthew is an advisor to the Deacons Quorum. Axton started playing the trumpet and loves technology, reading, and is looking forward to becoming a deacon next month. Jayli turned 8 and was baptized this year. She is an animal lover, sings in a school group called Husky Howlers, and has enjoyed taking horse riding lessons. Brevin loves playing the piano, runs at 100 mile club, does very well in school, and pretends to be a kitty.

Lisa and Cody, Lee, Annalisa, Katie, Elsie

 

From the Sheffers: Lisa has gone back to USU this year to complete her bachelor's degree, now that all four of her children are in school. She's doing very well, maintaining her 4.0 gpa and caring for her family as well. Cody is excelling as a software engineer and is a great dad. Lee is an official teenager and doing great in middle school. Annalisa plays the violin and is enjoying 5th grade. Katie is a sweetheart and is the apple of her 3rd grade teacher's eye. Elsie wants to be a doctor and invent flu shots you only have to get once in your life that won't hurt--and she's precocious enough to achieve it. She's doing very well in Kindergarten. The Sheffers love their home in Smithfield and send their love and greetings this holiday season.

Sara and Eric, Lucy, Simon, Milo and Clara

 

Sara and Eric are busy with church callings and caring for their 4 sweet kids. They had a very eventful year, including a handful of surgeries between the two of them. Eric enjoys his work at EarthSoft Inc, and Sara recently purchased a small Vanilla Bean supply company - IndriVanilla. She also enjoys teaching Elementary Orchestra. Lucy started playing the violin this year and is excelling in dual language second grade.  Simon loves preschool and using his imagination in play. Milo loves anything with wheels-and would play solo for hours given the chance. Clara is incredibly close to walking, and loves to watch her siblings. Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We wish you all the best for a most wonderful holiday!  Merry Christmas from Bryce and Laurie.