| December 2002 |
Dear Family & Friends,
Another exciting year has come and gone for us. We attempted to send our traditional family Christmas Card with our family picture however the time slipped by and the pictures didn't turn out the way we anticipated. Therefore, we decided to send out our first E-Christmas Card.
First let me start by saying WHEW! What a year! We started the year by celebrating and participating in a few opening events for the SLC Winter Olympics. Then, we finally made our way to San Diego to visit Mike's home town. We were able to see the HUGE home Mike grew up in and a lot of his high school buddies. We visited the San Diego Temple, San Diego Zoo, Sea World, hung out on the beach a few days and had a bon-fire one night at the beach with a few of Mike's buddies. During our trip, Mike was offered a full time employment opportunity back East with the University of Phoenix. So we made the big move back East within weeks of returning from San Diego.
We now live about 15 miles outside of Washington D.C. in Fairfax, Virginia. We have taken advantage of our time here so far by doing as much site seeing as possible. One advantage of being so close to DC is we can see one monument at a time, rather than all in one day (it's easier on Jace and Mike). During the summer, when it was warmer, we were on the road almost every weekend seeing the sights. A few of them have been ....
It's been awesome! Outside our weekend road trips, we've also kept pretty busy with our other responsibilities. As mentioned above, Mike has taken a job with the University of Phoenix in Northern Virginia. Its a great opportunity for Mike's career and for our continual education. Mike is ONE class away from completing his bachelors degree in Business Management. He plans to enroll into his MBA shortly after his undergraduate degree is completed. Mike and his boss Travis Allen, have recently experienced the back East hunting a few times this year. The deer season extends a few more months than Utah so they have been playing Rambo on the weekends.
I have continued working for Western Governors University full time however I now work from my home office in Virginia. It has been a refreshing change yet has its challenges. I also enrolled into an MBA program back in October. With both of us working full time and going to school full time, we keep a tight schedule and spend as much time as possible with little Jace at night and on the weekends. Mike and I have revised our schedules 100 times to make the education fit into our already busy schedules but so far it's been worth it. And last but not least, we are expecting again in June 2003. We have an Ultrasound scheduled for January 3rd to see what the sex of the baby is. The baby is due on June 12th, which will put Jace and the baby almost exactly 2 years apart.
Jace continues to change everyday. He's on the verge of turning eighteen months however at times we've see signs of the "terrible-two's" coming on. He's back in daycare full time and loves his little daycare buddies. He's become quite the fast little runner and likes to play hide-and-go-seek (against our will) with mom and dad while in the stores. Our favorite is when he runs around the apartment, swinging one arm and holding the other arm in close to his side. His vocabulary still requires an interpreter however sentences are starting to form and we're amazed at the things he understands at his age. (We're such the new parents)
We hope that all is well with you and your family and appreciate the friendships we have. We wish you and yours a happy holidays, and may the lord bless you throughout this next year!
Love,
