Christmas Update (Year in Review)!

Merry Christmas! For your holiday enjoyment, we present a year in the life of the Simons' family.

Chad has been spoiled this year with all his Major League Baseball games he's been able to attend. The list includes NY Mets, Washington Nationals, LA Dodgers and NY Yankees. He also got a NY Giants game in there for good measure. Seriously, isn't his wife so good to him to let him go? Doesn't she deserve a vacation to Hawaii? Sadly, Chad won't be able to go to the Sugar Bowl to watch the Utes in January because airfare to New Orleans is ridiculously over priced.

Chad's excited to be back working in the fire station starting December 16th. His new fire "home" will be Station 117 in Taylorsville. He's also still serving as Scoutmaster, which means he gets to do lots of fun stuff like white water rafting, white water canoeing, and high adventure camps.

By now you've probably figured out this is not a Chad update. Surprise! It's Rebecca writing. I'm wishing it was already March. Why, you ask? Because then I won't be pregnant anymore! The little parasite (or bundle of joy, whichever you prefer) is expected to make his/her appearance sometime around March 9th. We all prefer sooner rather then later.

I'm sure you're all curious as to whether I met my 52 books in 52 weeks goal. Sadly, I haven't...yet. But I still have the rest of the month so I better get reading. I'm about 10 books shy of my goal. Poor Chad is not going to get a home cooked meal or a clean house til January.

Another sad development in my life is that I was released from the Primary Presidency. I have been in the primary for nearly 6 years so it was a rough day for me. Now I have to act my age and go to Sunday School with all the grown ups. The good thing is my new calling is YW Personal Progress leader so I get to go to young women's.

Tierra is enjoying preschool, primary and any other social activity she can participate in. She is a very social 5-year-old and loves being on the go. Her current hobby is drawing, which is evidenced by the stacks and stacks of drawings lying around the house. She goes through dozens of sheets of paper every day. She is single handedly destroying the world's tree population. To her credit she is really quite good.

Tierra is very excited to have a new baby in the house. She adores babies and I know she will be a wonderful big sister to the new baby. She's a great helper around the house. Recently she has been doing "secret" service for everyone in the family. My personal favorite was when she made our bed. How great is that?

Eli is a little rug rat. Most days I can't decide if I want to beat him or smother him with hugs and kisses. I'm a sucker for his little boy cuteness so I usually choose the latter. He definitely knows how to get what he wants, the little momma's boy.

Unlike Tierra, Eli is a home body. His idea of a good time is sitting in his room singing to his radio. His current play list includes Disneyland songs, Chipmunks Christmas, Frank Sinatra and As Sisters in Zion (the last two came with the radio). He also likes to annoy Tierra as much as possible. That's what little brothers are for, right?

Did I mention Eli is 3-years-old? This means he will be going to primary in January, which he's excited about. He loves anything that has to do with Pirates, firefighters or Mickey Mouse. His bedroom is a mix of all three.

2008 has been great. The Disneyland trip tally for the year is 2, so you can see we're not COMPLETELY obsessed. We hope more great things await us in 2009. Our little family of 4 will soon be a little family of 5. Wow. That's not so little anymore!

Thank you family and friends for all your love and friendship. Our lives wouldn't be nearly as great without all of you. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!