THE SPECIAL EDITION 2008 WILLES CHRISTMAS LETTER

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hello everyone and thank you for logging on to find out more about our little family. This is your SPECIAL EDITION CHRISTMAS LETTER. It's one-of-a-kind and will only be available as an archive folder in 30 short days! Wow. Aren't you lucky?! So let's get started, shall we?!

As we said this year has been loads of fun. We'll divide it up by month so it's easier to keep track of. Oh, heck, we'll go week-by-week and tell you every little detail about our lives...just kidding. If I don't mention the month then re-read the month before. Same thing...different month.

January: We headed up to Flagstaff for a bit of snow tubing with the kids. We went to our regular spot near the fair grounds, but the kids are getting bigger and making the slopes seem smaller so it looks like we'll be finding a new spot next year. Katie, Emma, and Cousin Haylee joined Running Club and did very well in their races. Katie participated in a Choral Festival at the Chandler Center For the Arts. Emma continued Piano lessons.

Zach enjoys the snow.

March: Troy got to travel to California with work this month and spent some time with Grant and his family. During Spring Break, Mom took each of the girls out indivdually for a date. The girl picked the activity and resturant. Within one week Rachel ate at 3 different resturants and went to Border's Books, Ross Dress 4 Less, Micheal's, and Target. Whew. A great time was had by all.

April: All of Katie's hard work for the past 8 months finally came to fruition when Shumway Elementary School presented "The Sound of Music" to an excited audience. Katie, one of the few 4th graders to get a speaking part, played Marta VonTrapp. She had a blast but was so tired. She plans on signing up for the next Drama Club event. She's been bit!

May: Rachel and sister-in-law Tana worked on Memory Books for cousin Haylee's Kindergarten Class. Each one is an individual piece of art and done scrapbook style. It takes FOREVER, but Rachel tends to get too involved in making it "rock!" Rachel did Emma's Memory Books last year and agreed to help Tana this year. Next year she plans on doing Claire's Memory Books and two years after that, Zach's and Haydn's. We're submitting paperwork to Guiness World Records to see if we can get the "Most Kinder Memory Books Made" award or at least the "Most Stupid Thing To Keep Volunteering For" award. She's got a good shot at both. Katie also had a concert for her singing group, Chirping Crickets Chorus. She was, of course, fantastic. Totally heard her above the other 60 kids...

June: Summer vacation started and Troy again went off to California. This time he got to go to San Francisco over Rachel's birthday. We tried to figure out a way to get Rachel there to, but finding someone willing to babysit 4 kids for 3 days is understandably kinda tough. We did swim lessons for Claire and Emma with Mom, Katie and Zach just swimming and soaking up the rays while they waited.

Rachel took an overnight BFF trip with her girlfriends to Scottsdale. They went to dinner and the Showstoppers Live show at the Arizona Casino. It's a big show with impersonaters who perform as Elvis, Neil Diamond, Garth Brooks, etc. The night they went to that den of iniquity the casino was filming a television commercial. They had to sign waivers to agree to appear on tv if they stayed. Of course...they did. Still haven't seen us in the commercials they are showing, but it's the right show. We'll still look for our 15 seconds of fame. They went to a boutique hotel in Scottsdale decorated in early 60's Rat Pack. A good time was had by all.

The family also went on a camping trip in the mountains with the ward. The location was great and the weather beautiful, but the trip's luster was lost when Claire and another little girl got lost up on the hill. We found them within minutes but that was enough time for Rachel to picture all sorts of "Movie of The Week" moments.

July: We took the big Summer Vacation this month up to Boise, Idaho, to visit Troy's family and attend his mom's family reunion. We flew up there and stayed 2 weeks. We did many fun things: zoo, rafting, playing in park, eating out, swimming, going to Idaho City, etc. We also ended up camping at the reunion, where Claire got lost...again. Technically, she didn't get lost as she had gone with Poppa Willes on a hike, but noone knew about it and we started searching. THIS time she was "lost" for a longer amount of time and Rachel ruined her shoes sloshing down the small creek on the site as someone had said they spotted her going down there. Yeah. Rachel has now banned family camping until Claire is older or until we can buy a really long leash...or a shock collar. The whole trip was great, however, and the girls even missed the first 2 days of school. Katie was bummed...Emma & Claire...not so bummed. The girls also week to Kidz Kamp with Gilbert Parks and Rec for a couple weeks for games and crafts galore.

The Gang in Idaho City.

August: This month brought a quiet calm over the house for Rachel...at least between the hours of 8am and 11:00am as school started back up. Claire started Kindergarten and Rachel picked her up when the other kids went off to lunch. Katie began 5th grade and Emma started 2nd grade. All the girls have great teachers. Claire started piano lessons with Emma. Rachel got to spend two Saturdays at the Chandler High School Pool with the Stakes Swimming Merit Badge Day Camp. Nice work if you can get it, I say...

October: Troy traveled to Mexico for work this month, taking a couple extra days for sightseeing. Intel is cracking down on travel and this may be the last "big" trip Troy will get to take. The girls had a two-week break from school and although the first week was the WORST week ever (see post dated Sunday, 5 October) the second week was fun for all. Jackie, Rachel's college roommate and BFF, visited with her family. They stayed here for 3 days and two nights and all got along wonderfully. Jackie has three girls all the same ages as our three girls and they had a blast with the Super Duper Sleepover. Even Jackie's one boy who's 13 enjoyed hanging out with our one boy. Too fun. We did the Trick-or-Treating Blitzkreig again this year, hitting the ward Trunk Or Treat, Intel Cubicle Trick or Treat and regular neighborhood Trick or Treat in fast succession. Much candy was gathered. I think we're still trying to get rid of it.

Zach refused to wear the knight costume he picked out so he became a surfer dude complete with foamboard surfboard. Claire is Supergirl. Emma is a fairy princess and Katie is a Matadora. Troy's wearing his annual "Halloween" shirt...that's not part of his normal wardrobe.


November: This was a big month as Emma was baptized. Great Grammy Reva and Aunt Sarah flew in for the event and Ken and his family drove in from Kingman. Emma had a friend's party AND a family party. Troy auditioned and recieved the only tenor solo for our stake's production of The Messiah. Katie began practice for this year's Shumway Drama Club performance of The Wizard of Oz. She got the part of "Purple." Yeah...it's obviously a different version of the play. Basically, she and two others act as the Greek Chorus and narrate the action of the play. She's excited to have a speaking part but bummed out as the show isn't a musical. Oh well...life isn't always a musical now is it.

Claire started attending Kindergarten all day, as the rest of Arizona now does. Rachel picks her up for lunch and lets her come home and rest for a bit before taking her back. She loves it and is doing great.
As part of the Stake Temple Day, Rachel and Nate had created a Lego version of the Arizona Temple. Rachel wrote a Sharing Time to go with it and then bought a Lego kit of the temple for each ward. She was able to see a couple of the wards do the sharing time. It was a huge hit and Rachel and Nate have had many requests for additional kits. We may have a part-time business heading our way. For more details and photos check out http://rwilles.blogspot.com/ .
December: This month found us prepping for the awesome holiday season of Christmas. Rachel had to calendar every different event on the calendar so that nobody's events, parties or concerts would be overlooked. Katie performed again with the Chirpin' Crickets Chorus. Troy was amazing in The Messiah. He nailed his show opening solo. Many crafts came home from school to decorate our house and help that festive spirit abound. The family performed for the Ward Christmas party. They did a rousing rendition of "Feliz Navidad" with Rachel on guitar, Troy on trumpet, the girls belting it out and Zach on maraca. We wore serapes and sombreros, even! Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay and Ole! Katie also performed a solo, "Mary's Lullabye", and was Mary in the Christmas Pageant. Claire and Emma were angels. After many class parties and gift exchanges and secret santa's, we finally closed out the semester for the year.

Semester report cards were awesome. Everyone has straight A's with Katie reading on a 9th grade level and Emma officially clocking in on a 6th grade level. That's the highest level the 2nd grade test goes. Rachel is going to try to get her to take the 5th grade test and see where she places. Claire is reading all over the place and already has her sight words down pat. Katie flourishes in math and science and Emma is all over the reading and writing. Claire is great with both but prefers to be the center of attention.... heavy sigh. And although Zach didn't receive any report card he shows amazing intelligence as well. (Hey...you willingly came to visit and read our blog so....) He is increasing his vocabulary daily, sometimes with words we would rather he not use. In his defense, it wasn't his fault his version of "truck" came out sounding like it did...

Troy and Rachel are both busy but happy. Troy's gig at work keeps him entertained and he recently upped his status level when he was made manager. So far it's a lot like being Elder's Quorum president, make sure people are following through on things and attend a million meetings. He is starting to get the hang of it and is busy trying to interview people before Intel puts the hiring freeze into place. He took the time to redo our small bathroom upstairs with tile and new paint. It was more of a test to see if he wanted to take on the bigger tile job of the master bathroom. He decided he could wait a while.... He risked his life to climb up on a tall ladder propped in the back of a big truck to put up Christmas lights on the second story of the house. Rachel was grateful for the lights, the effort and the fact he didn't plummet to his death. (She was bracing the ladder, by the way, and would have had a front row seat for that plummet.)

Rachel still loves being the Stake Primary President and had a great time this year planning events. She even added keynote speaker to her resume this year as she spoke at the Stake Girls Activity Day event. She always gets to speak at training stuff, but not ever as a "Special Guest!" She still does part-time accounting for the law firm and babysits her neice and nephew a few times a month. She's been very popular at Shumway as she's gone over a couple time to tell stories to Claire and Emma's class. When she showed up to Emma's class the entire second grade was waiting for her. Unexpected, but still fun. She's scheduled to go back in next semester. She does enjoy having only one child at home during the day. It's been 11 long years in the making.

If you are up for even MORE detail, check out the archives of our blogspot. Troy does a great job of writing out a weekly update and sending it out to his family via email. I don't do as great a job of posting it to the blog, but I do get it there eventually. We thank you for caring enough about us to read this whole thing. We wish you the best of everything this Holiday Season. We express our deep gratitude for the Savior at this time of His birth. He has been extremely kind and loving to us and we are thankful.

ALL OUR LOVE,

The Willes Family: Troy, Rachel, Katie, Emma, Claire, Zach