Happy
Holidays from the Pedersens! It has been a great year for our family. We hope
it has been for yours as well. We’re
excited to share some of the highlights with you…
Dan (the Man): Dan enjoying his second year of working at
Liberty Press selling advertising for hunting and fishing publications. He is serving as the High Priest Group Leader
in our ward at church and enjoys his calling.
He has gained a great love for the widows of our ward and goes out
visiting them almost every week. Dan had
a successful year with his favorite hobby (obsession): hunting. He and his friend, Gordon made their annual
trek to South Dakota (thank you Lyons family for being their home away from
home!) in November for white tail deer and pheasant. He got the biggest white tail he’s ever
gotten (a 5 x 5, scored approx.150) and they maxed out on their pheasants in
two hours. He also got an antelope in Wyoming and is looking forward to some
elk hunting with his boys this Christmas. He loves to take the family up the
canyon near our home for shooting practice. It has become a fun family
activity. He is a proud daddy and grandpa and will talk to anyone who will
listen about his kids and grandkids, hunting, and/or sports. If you take into
account how much he’s on the telephone with friends and how often he cries (even
in commercials), you might join the rest of us in thinking this big, burly guy
is really a big teddy bear.
Karen (that’s me!):
I continue to love my scrapbooking (Close To My Heart) business and am
coming up on 20 years with the company in January. How did that happen? I must
have started when I was 10! I was given the “Spirit of Close To My Heart” award
at our national convention in Dallas this past July. It was a huge shock and honor. The company
even flew Dan, Kori and Daci in to surprise me on stage. As if having my name
announced for the award weren’t enough, having some of my family members walk
out on stage just about put me over the edge and I definitely went into the
ugly cry. I seriously thought I was having a heart attack. I am so grateful for this great company and
the people who make it what it is! In addition to Close To My Heart I have had
a new opportunity come my way. A brand
new direct sales quilting company (My Lazy Daisy…they do beautiful quilting
kits) contacted me to do a little bit of work for them training their
consultants in September. After that work was completed they offered me the
position of Director of Sales and Marketing. This company is going places! It
is owned by two sisters (Dana and Diane) who are both amazing people and
wonderful to work with. I work from home
(most of the time) and am able to work around my scrapbooking business. I work
on My Lazy Daisy’s advertising materials, catalog, website, social marketing,
etc. I still work with their training department as well. I really like both of my jobs and am so
grateful for them. I also enjoyed a
getaway (courtesy of Close To My Heart) for a week-long cruise to Hawaii in
March with Dawson. We had a blast. I am
serving as the Young Women’s President at church.
Kori, Rick, Daci, Livvi and Street: As you can tell by the additional names on
the list this year, the Roberts family is growing. They nearly doubled
themselves this past year with the birth of twins in January: Livvi Maren and
Street Frederick. Dan and I are such
proud grandparents. We do have the three
most beautiful grandkids in the history of all mankind…and we are not the least
bit biased. My mom (the kids' great-grandma) and I got to go to Chicago for the
birth of the babies and stay for 3 weeks to help. Rick continues to
stay on top of the IT consulting world working with Paraveda in Chicago and is
in the Sunday School presidency at church. He is a wonderful hubby and daddy
too. Kori is a stay-at-home mommy and teaches Relief Society at church. She has also joined a group of moms who do a
pre-school and they take turns teaching. They are doing a great job. We are so
impressed with the wonderful things they are teaching these little ones. Kori continues to amaze us with all that she
has on her plate as well as dealing with lupus. Daci is so excited to be in
pre-school this year. She is full of life and fun, and more than a little
mischief. Daci’s big “accomplishment” this year was finding a pair of
children’s plastic scissors and proceeding to give herself a new haircut. If
you are wondering what it looked like, well…if any of you have seen “Joe Dirt.”
Enough said. It is finally growing back
out. Yay! We are so excited that the Roberts will be in Utah for Christmas this
year.
Easton and Daysha: We call these two our “power couple.” They just never slow down. Daysha spent the
first part of the year teaching dance at a local studio. In March she auditioned again for Tuachan (a
marvelous outdoor theater in St. George, UT) and was selected for roles in both
“Hairspray” and Disney’s “Aladdin”. She was wonderful in both. When those plays
came to an end she was chosen for a featured part in Odyssey Dance Company’s
“Thriller” which was performed during October.
She was also cast as one of the four female leads for a movie re-make of
the LDS musical, “My Turn On Earth.” She
will be playing Gloria. That is scheduled to begin shooting the first part of
2013, so watch for it! Daysha teaches
Relief Society at church. Easton is in
school at Southern Utah University majoring in Hospitality and Resort Management. He also just finished his sophomore year on
the SUU football team at receiver. He had an amazing year. I think the
highlight of his season was getting to score the team’s last touchdown of the
year as they beat Northern Arizona University in three overtimes. He even dove
into the end zone, just for style points! Easton worked for the forest service
this Summer where he supervised his own crew. He teaches Gospel Doctrine at
church. Easton and Daysha have a darling
apartment in Cedar City, UT and we love going to visit. They will celebrate
their 2nd wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks.
Tannon had quite the year!
He finished his 2-year mission for our church in Malaga, Spain the end
of August and returned home. We are
still trying to get him to speak English. He loved his mission and was a great
missionary. Coming “home” wasn’t what it
was for most missionaries, as we had moved from Highland to Springville, UT
during his mission. He was such a good sport about it. He did get to return to give his homecoming
talk at our old ward in Highland and it was so great for all of us to see the
people we had lived by and loved during our time in Highland for the past 17
years. Tannon returned with the same energy
and gusto that he has always had. He jumped right into working out and
preparing to start school and his football scholarship in January at Southern
Utah University. He moved to Cedar City
in October and promptly found a job at a vintage movie theater in town. They still thread the films through the old
projectors, which is Tannon’s job. Pretty cool.
He is so exited for Spring football to start so that he can be out
throwing balls with the team. He said
being a quarterback was the thing he missed most on his mission. “What?” I
thought, “What about us?” Probably safer not to ask him. I’m hoping he’s
excited for his collegiate education to begin as well. {Wink}. I wonder if
there is a QB major?
Dawson is in his Senior year at Springville High School. Go
Red Devils! Dan and I are so sad to see this last ‘baby’ of ours nearing his flight
from the nest. We are savoring every
moment before it happens. He is such a delight to have around, full of fun and
laughter, and oh-so-sweet to his mommy!
Dawson had a great football season and was the leading receiver on the
team. He was so sad when the season
ended, as were we. It’s hard to realize we have watched our boys play their
last high school football game. Luckily,
Dawson also plays basketball. Yay! We
started our season off this week with a win and hope that trend continues for
the rest of the season. Dawson got a job
this Fall and Winter refereeing the bantam basketball games (3-8th
grade) in our county. He loves it. He is
excited to begin working on his application papers for his mission soon and
plans to leave this Summer. We are all
anticipating where he may be sent. When
he was 4 years old he told us he knew where he was going on his mission when he
grew up. We all said, “Really? Where?”
His reply, “Jurassic Park!”
Hmmmm. Dawson enjoyed a very fun week with his mother on a week-long
cruise to Hawaii in March. Sometimes it pays to be the baby of the family! His
favorite part of the trip was swamping their kayak on a trip through a jungle
river on Kauaii. He swears it wasn’t his
fault. His mother swears otherwise.
If
you are still with me after all of that, please accept our warmest holiday wishes. We are so grateful for the best family and
friends anyone could ever ask for. We are also grateful every day, and
especially this time of year for our Savior, Jesus Christ and his life and
sacrifice for each of us. May we all do
our best to live up to it every day!
Warmly,
The Pedersens
3 comments:
Wonderful family photo! Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Merry Christmas to you! Loved reading your year-in-review. :)
Beautiful I love the catch up/run down
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