2011 Holiday Letter

Happy Holidays!

We enjoyed 2010 with the leaps of life changes and daily living. In April, we both graduated from Brigham Young University. Wesley earned his B.S. in chemical engineering and Cassie completed her M.F.A. in creative writing. Levi wore out the sidewalk in his stroller going to and from campus. We attempted a family vacation to Denver, Colorado (in conjunction with a writing conference); we learned a lot—such as, copy your child’s birth certificate, double-check all of your hotel, car, and conference arrangements, and avoid staying in hotels with young children (namely, Levi). We laugh about the many ways 2010 has taught us to embrace sleep deprivation.

After graduation, we moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho. Wesley interned at Idaho National Laboratory working on a project with their biomass energy group. This included a two week trip to the mid-west to study (play with) corn stover bales. He loved INL and continues to do work for them at a distance. Cassie and Levi played, read, and relaxed through the summer. As we expect a new baby, Levi discovered early on the hilarity of watching his mom lose even the idea of food in the toilet. He patted her back and laughed then flushed the toilet for her. It’s hard to feel miserable with that kind of support. Our summer disappeared quickly as we reveled in family time, visited Cassie’s grandparents’ cabin in Wyoming, and prepared to move again.

In August, we moved across the country (at least half-way and south) to Manor, Texas, just outside of Austin. We’re still in shock that we live in a house that doesn’t share walls with other people. It’s weird to not hear your neighbors vacuum or listen to the radio—but we’re adjusting well! Wesley is an official Ph.D.-candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. He is excited about the work he’ll do in conjunction with the Pecan Street Project (see pecanstreetproject.org). Basically, his focus is on energy efficiency in the residential sphere—and that can go in a lot of directions in the three and a half years we have left! Cassie teaches creative writing (nonfiction) for BYU independent study and is grateful to keep a few toes in the writing world.

Our baby is due in three weeks (give him four, although at this point Cassie wouldn’t mind two). As a result, we celebrated the holidays away from family for the first time; to make up for that we invited people over, ate too much, and learned a few new games. We never thought we’d eat Thanksgiving dinner with the air conditioner blasting, but now we have!

Levi dances, runs, and dives everywhere. He loves cars, airplanes, books, lights, and jabbering constantly about them although we cannot understand most of what he says. Every day he directs one of us to a song book, holds it carefully in front of him, then leads us with his hand while singing, “Lalalalala!” He is enthralled by choirs and instruments of all kinds. Wesley already encourages the violin and dreams of having free concert tickets from his son in the future. Other than music, Levi’s favorite hobby is cleaning. He knows which cleaners do what and often corrects Cassie’s toilet scrubbing technique (even though he’s under close surveillance with anything that resembles a potential danger). If we let him, he’d mop the floor six times a day; maybe in the future we will allow that! Levi also loves babies—particularly pictures of himself—so we’re hopeful that the baby will be as darling as he is and therefore warmly welcomed by his big brother.

We’re grateful for our wonderful year of miracles and challenges. Thank you for sharing our lives.
Wesley, Cassie, Levi, and New Baby Cole


Favorite Books of the Year:

Yearning for the Living God by F. Enzio Busche, edited by Tracie Lamb
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer
The Meadow by James Galvin
Poetry in Person edited by Alexander Neubauer