December 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

As we reflect on the year, we have grown not only as a family, but individually as well. Jeremy and I enjoy being parents, for the most part, to four wonderful children. They each bring their own strengths and challenges, but, then again, so do Jeremy and I! I asked the kids to think of what their favorite thing was that they accomplished this year to put in our letter. Here goes…

Scotty turned three in September and learned, very quickly, how to ride a strider balance bike (a bike without pedals or training wheels). Sounds weird, I know, but he is very confident on it and loves to stride along as we ride our bikes. He is very good at balancing on it. He also loves to sing and dance. Anytime there is music, he is moving and shaking all over the place! He can’t wait to start preschool next year and is looking forward to leaving nursery and starting primary next week. He is a very sweet boy and his mommy loves having some alone time with just him at home. One sweet experience we’ve had this year is to take my grandmother who is 94 to get her hair done every other Tuesday. He loves to go with me and loves his Bedstemor. Of course she spoils him with lots of hugs and treats!

Wyatt is six and started kindergarten. He loves it! He is excelling in English and Spanish and we are so glad we waited a year to put him in. He loves to dance and tries “free styling” all the time. He just started a hip-hop class and we’ll see what that brings. He also lives on his dirt bike during our trips out to the desert. He has no problems riding and keeping up. He has tried climbing hills, but will promptly tell you that his bike won’t make it up since it doesn’t have enough torque. He is such a joy to have in our family and has one of the biggest hearts!

Atalie is nine this year and really loves fourth grade. She is a wonderful student and her proudest accomplishment wasn’t doing the splits in dance, but making the Super Quiz team at school! She is very excited to be studying her book and making sure she’s ready for the challenge. She gets to take a field trip to Sacramento this spring. She loves her lyrical dance class that she gets to take with Cozette and is great at it! We love having Atalie in our family and are thankful for her spirit and help.

Cozette is eleven and in sixth grade and boy does she have a lot of homework! She is a great student and wants to get all A’s this year and is very close. She and Wyatt both played soccer this year and she loved playing goalie. She did a great job and learned a lot. Her team even got second place overall! One of the coaches nick named her “Tinkerbell.” We are so thankful for good coaches and teachers who love our children. She loves to play the piano and trumpet and we believe she wishes she had more time to practice. We will find her and Atalie up late some nights, both buried in books with their lights off and headlights on, books in hand.

We could go on and on about our children. It’s nice to have time to reflect on the good things and hopefully forget the rough patches! Jeremy is still working at Verizon and enjoys it for the most part. He is always exploring other options, trying to figure out where his talents can be best utilized. He is a hard worker, wonderful husband, who puts up with me, and a great dad! He enjoys dancing with the kids, riding his dirt bike, of course, and working with the eleven year old scouts at church. This last year we were able to be team teachers for Cozette’s Sunday school class. It was very enjoyable and we learned a lot from these great kids! I learned that most of those lessons I taught weren’t for the kids at all, but for me!

I am still running and hoping to get my half marathon time in less than two hours. I was very close with the last one I did in September. I also got to go to Girl’s Camp as the camp leader for our ward. I was very spoiled to be in the same cabin as my older sister Kirsten and with our Aunt Gayle. It was a great experience.

I love this time of year to remember our Savior even more and try to be like him even more. I truly am thankful to have Him in our lives and Jeremy and I are trying to instill His principles into our children’s lives as well. They are the future! May we continue to look for the good in others and remember our Savior and all that he blesses us with.

We love you all and hope you have a wonderful new year!

Love,

The Wagers

Jeremy, Ditte, Cozette, Atalie, Wyatt and Scotty

Fast Sunday

Today is fast Sunday, meaning I chose to go without food for two meals and donate that money to help the poor. I also usually fast with a purpose: today was for me to have more benevolence, which turns out to be charity. After studying the Bible and Book of Mormon about this topic, I found a few scriptures. In 1 Corinthians is the famous scripture of charity in chapter 13:4-8. It says "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth..." I know I've read this scripture a million times, but this time as I was thinking about being benevolent and looking for the good in people, this has really struck me. I want to be like this. I don't want to think ill of people or be mean just because I feel bad about myself. I can be confident in myself when I act more charitable towards others.

Another scripture that has stuck out to me is in Doctrine and Covenants 64:33-34, "Wherefore, be not weary in well doing, for you are laying the foundation for a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great. Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind..." The small things that I do are being prepared for something bigger! I am helping people when I am kind in a small way or when I don't keep track of how I was hurt by them. I love the scriptures! I love praying and knowing that Heavenly Father does hear my prayers and wants to help me overcome these natural tendencies! This post is more for my own journal, but I thought I might put it out there in case there was someone who needed this, too.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was pretty fun this year! During the day, Scotty and I just piddled around the house, carving his pumpkin and waiting for the evening festivities to begin. Jeremy had gone riding with a friend, Kevin, and when they came back, we carved Wyatt's, Cozette's and Atalie's pumpkins. It was fun watching the kids carve them and not wanting to get their hands dirty. I had to reach in to several pumpkins and get the "guts" out of them. Jeremy and Kevin were good sports helping the kids with that job as well. Around dinner time, we went to my parents house for Sloppy Joes and trick or treating. The older kids all ran ahead of us because Scotty and the other kids couldn't walk as fast. Cozette even put on roller blades to make her time more efficient! Scotty and Charlotte were trick or treating buddies and kept saying the cutest things. Charlotte would say, "I trick or treat you!" and after each house Scotty would run down the driveway and say "I got trick or treats!" That little boy is talking up a storm! Sometimes you can not get him to be quiet or whisper! He has so much to say. He also loves to sing! It's fun being at home with him and enjoying this time with him!

Since Halloween is my birthday, we had pumpkin pie and some brownies that Bronwyn made. I got some cool gifts as well. Jeremy got me a Garmin 610 GPS watch that I can use while running. I've used it twice already and have already seen myself get faster! It's so awesome!

Thanks to all those who remembered me on my birthday and those I got to spend time with. That's my favorite: being with people I love!

Zombie workout girl! My shirt says Workout or Die...

The girl's screaming with "Justin Bieber" around!
Gramma and Evelyn the Tootsie roll!

Wyatt had his last soccer game yesterday. He has really loved soccer this year and it's been fun to watch him enjoy it so much. He scored the one and only goal, but he was right there with that ball for most of the game. It was great having Isaac be on the same team as well and getting to know other really great families around here.

Here are some pictures from our events lately!

Last night, I was able to take the girls on a date to a choir concert. It was the Master Chorale and they sounded so good! A friend of mine got me some tickets. Poor Cozette had a stomach ache, so we had to leave before the end, but we really enjoyed dressing up and listening to live music. There is nothing like it!

I got that cute hat and scarf for my birthday from my mom! Thanks mom and dad!

Disneyland!!!

We love Disneyland!! We went this last Monday and enjoyed beautiful weather, hardly any people and fun times with our kids! It was a great day!

Scotty LOVES Mary Poppins and that's who he was waving to during the parade.
Waiting by the bathroom....
Wyatt loving the Haunted Mansion thanks to Jack Skelington!

Daisy the Chicken

Our favorite little chicken Daisy passed away this morning. She was our favorite due to her big personality. She would follow us around and was a very social little chicken. She didn't mind at all when the kids would pick her up and hold her. Last month, I built them a little penned in area so that I could take my garden back over. They were eating all the little plants in my garden. I could tell she wasn't doing that well, not getting the food she needed to get due to her crooked beak. Even in a month, she declined rapidly and her right eye was kind of getting a little smooshed by her crooked face. Poor thing. She was still so sweet to the end. She hadn't been as responsive and just seemed to be getting weaker by the day. We tried special containers so that she could scoop out the food, but she still wasn't getting enough. Yesterday I even tried to out some right in her mouth for her, but it kept falling out. This morning when I looked out the window, as I do every morning to check on them, she was just lying there on the bottom of the cage. I went out to see if she was gone, but she was still alive. I brought her in and just held her to me while we had scripture time. The girls and I were a wreck, tears coming down as we tried to read about death and the resurrection in Mosiah. Wyatt and Scotty kept stroking her soft white feathers and talking to her. After scriptures, I gave her to Atalie and Cozette to hold until they needed to get things ready for school. We laid her down on a towel and covered her with another towel in our living room and got ready. Right before we all left for school, we could see that her eyes were open and we all said goodbye to her and that we loved her. She gave a last little shutter and was gone. We'll bury her later today when all the kids get home from school. I'm sure this all sounds really silly since she was just a chicken, but having her since birth and watching her grow and her sweet little personality, you couldn't help but love her. Every time Cozette would open the cage to feed them, Daisy would launch straight for Cozette's head and just sit there. She'd do that to me as well. She just loved us! We will miss you sweet Daisy!

Daisy is the one in the front, just about 2 days old.
Daisy after flying up onto Cozette's head, now on her arm.
Daisy is on the left, about 3 months old, wandering around the garden. You can see her beak is pretty crooked, but it got worse the older she got.
Daisy is the one in the front, looking out under her food dish.

Cozette took this picture last month to take to school and show off her chickens. Her beak got even worse this last month.

Cozette's birthday and First day of School!!!

More photos of Cozette's birthday which was on Sunday and then the kids started school today. I can't believe Wyatt is in kindergarten, Atalie in 4th grade and Cozette in 6th at the middle school! Crazy!!

Wyatt "reading" in his Spanish class before they do the traditional "Kissing Hand" book.
Wyatt and his classroom door with his name on that airplane on the bottom.
Buddies!!!

Wyatt wanted to show off his backpack.
Leaving for school!

They do love each other sometimes!! These two are my kids that get along the worst.

Turning 11! I can't believe it!
Her new bike!




Everyone over for pot stickers (that's what Cozette wanted) and cake!
The girls playing Michael Jackson, Just Dance. I think they are doing Thriller, hence the zombie like looks on their faces!

Bass Lake

Here are some photos from Bass Lake. We love Bass Lake and loved just relaxing and enjoying family. I drove up alone on Monday, July 25 and spent the first few days with me and Jerm's family until he got up there on Thursday morning.

A butterfly kept letting Atalie pick it up while we were in Willow Cove.
Pappy with is iPad and Scotty with an iTouch down at the beach...
Scotty loved running and jumping into Uncle Gary's arms. It was so cute!
Me trying to get Wyatt to dive out of my arms. That time it worked. Atalie was taking the pictures.
A beautiful sunset.
Wyatt and Pappy's air soft gun. He loved that thing and would dig through the trash to get cans and bottles to shoot at.
Atalie modeling on the warm tube.
Scotty loving the freedom of his pink life jacket and the noodle. What can I say, we are too cheap to buy a new life jacket so he has to wear the pink one! Sorry Scotty! Wyatt had to go through the same thing.
Jeremy would play Frisbee for hours if he could. It was fun to get some action shots!
On the top of the Way of the Mono trail. It was a nice overlook of the lake. I think the hike was about 1 mile total. Scotty hiked the whole way! Maybe now I can try a little bit further hikes.
At the bottom of the trail.

Cozette showing us she can carry Scotty on her back in the carrier!