Because I Had Children

I love Christmas letters! I feel old fashioned but I love writing them and I love reading them. I love recapping the year and remembering the highlights. I've thought a lot about how to do this but for me, I like doing it by each child so here it goes: Vance and Katelynn live in American Fork and work at Vivint in Provo. Vance had a busy year of outdoor running. Katelynn spent the better part of the year growing a baby. She worked three days a week so she could spend two days a week at home with Olivia. Not only did Olivia turn three in November, but she became a big sister to Parker Lynn who was born on the 23rd. We love this sweet addition and can't wait to meet her in person.  Marly and Hayden spent the year finishing up Hayden's optometry schooling and rotations in Oregon and then Lake Havasu and are currently in Utah before heading to Idaho. It was fun having them close for a while and spending time with them and their cute boys. James turned four in July and Alex turn...

Will it ever end? I've stopped wondering actually. I'm trying to live life as if they are here to stay so my new goal is to #suckitup like I always tell my kids.  My most recent hypothesis was spurred on by a class I was taking as part of the Professional Development that my company offered. We were given the opportunity to take a class through Arizona Trauma Institute . It was a class called Trauma and Resilience Life Coaching and it was AMAZING. There was a lot of sciience and stuff to learn about in the beginning but if I had to explain my takeaway in one sentence, it would be this: Trauma and Toxic Stress can look the same and when a person experiences one of them, their body sometimes reacts with physiological responses that affect behavior and THIS IS NORMAL.    The critical part of that is that it is a normal reaction . While it is and will be incredibly helpful to my job as a teacher of students in an online high school , it also became very personal.  F...