"Christmas letter"

Victoria has had a busy year finishing up her service mission at the end of April, just in time for her to fly out to Atlanta and be Aunt Mary Poppins to Jordan and Johnny after Shavonne broke her leg in an accident. She was able to try out for Disney before she came home (they needed dancers not Belle lookalikes that round, shucks) and soon after she arrived back in the good old 360 she had some fun gigs filming for TV series shot in the area, and appearing at birthday parties as Princess Leia, Rey from Star Wars, Elsa, and Belle. She started enjoying her time in Clark Ward more and participated in lots of fun activities. She worked as a nanny for an adorable 3 year old boy named Harrison after Harrison Ford! One day, she went to a dance all the way in Forest Grove Oregon, where she met a nice young man who had just returned from his 2 year mission in Tampa Florida a few months before. They soon became inseparable and have planned a wedding for June 6th 2020! The parents are all very happy they met someone locally (this will be our first child-in-law not from far away, far far away, or another continent).

Spencer and Kiana: After graduating from BYU in Spanish/Chemistry last December, Kiana amazed all of us by popping out little Lewis 2 ½ weeks early! She is an amazing mom and wife, Spencer is super spoiled with her cooking and frugal shopping talents, she volunteers constantly & is a huge asset to the ward. She also ran a half marathon and placed in her age group! Lewis takes after his overachieving parents and walked at just barely 8 months. He has lots of teeth and is starting to talk, his favorite word is “AGAIN” as in “read the book again!” Spence just finished his second-to-last semester at BYU and is looking forward to graduating in April. Really looking forward to it a lot (Neuroscience, CS and Gerentology minors, Spanish certificate, CV upon request!). He loves his work at Cvent in Software QA and when school isn’t crazy he also does some programming for a startup on the side. He loves being a dad and is so proud of his wife and son.

Sherry and Johannes: Little Mr. Felix the bilingual energizer bunny is keeping these parents on their toes! There is never a dull moment and it has been a joy to hear about his adventures with Johannes this past year as Sherry finished up her contract with FamilySearch and they prepared for their move to Brisbane Australia for Johannes to attend Ochsner Medical School (he graduated from BYU this past Spring, then ran a marathon to "celebrate"). They are enjoying some time visiting family in Germany for Christmas.

Mike and Shavonne: Well you know now that Shavonne broke her leg, so yeah there were a few kind of lost months this past year where these two were very challenged by the trials of life. Hoping that 2020 brings a little more peace and that everyone stays healthy! They recently joined the local YMCA and the boys love going to the daycare there to play while Mom and Dad work out. Shavonne is working with the young women in her ward and Mike is the choir director. We loved visiting them in May and were amazed at Shavonne’s resilience and quick smile even through tremendous pain and suffering. They enjoy their new home in Lawrenceville Georgia and have visited a lot of local sites since they relocated there last year, including attending President Carter’s Sunday school class! Mike just has 2 more exams out of 10 to finish for his ASA designation. The end is near!

Damon: We haven’t seen as much of Dad since he decided to go back to programming at the software company he works for. His stress level has been high as he took over for one of the lead developers when a bunch of paper mills were purchased and are being converted over to Panther software. The past couple months have been smoother as he feels like he has a better handle on the software and hardware he has to integrate. He didn’t feel like he got much of a summer though so hopefully we’ll have time for some projects next year. He also was released from the Bishopric (due to work travel) and is enjoying being our Ward Mission Leader.

Lisa: I also changed jobs this year, and companies. I sat by a lady at Relief Society last winter, and within a couple months she had helped me take over her job when she got a promotion. Lots of changes! My stress level has been lowered and we are making progress on our financial goals. I am looking forward to planning Tori’s wedding this spring, hopefully visiting Sherry in Brisbane, continuing serving in Young Women’s with the darling girls, seeing grandchildren as often as possible, and volunteering with my local Democratic party. 

Cousins playing in the water at the zoo!

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