Merry Christmas One and All! This blog post will serve as our Christmas card/newsletter. We hope those who read it feel of our love and appreciation for the part they have played in our lives.
Last month, we got a new kitty. Anya was entertained by the hour with this playful furbaby. Sadly, we had to find kitty a new home because of allergies in the family. Darn. Anya has grown up so much this past year. She is a sassy tween. with a serious attitude. Ha ha! We can't help but adore her, though. My favorite part of the day is seeing her bounce off the bus and up the sidewalk. She throws her arms out and yells MOM!! Every day without fail. She will be in our family for five years this March! It feels like she's been here forever, though. Don't know how we ever got along without her.
Bennett turned 10 this year, as well! He's in the 4th grade at Lincoln, finally loving school again, I take him to The Dyslexia Center of Utah for tutoring twice a week, which is only about a mile away. He actually loves it and especially loves feeling more confident and happy at school. He is a gifted athlete and it turns out he was the 2nd fastest 3rd grader in Springville last spring! This year, he discovered a passion for Lacrosse. He played on a team this summer and just joined a Lacrosse club this winter. He also played on a flag football team that was made up of his neighborhood friends. The "Dirtbags" won every game they played and had a blast together. They were all so sad when the season ended!
Max (13) is in the 8th grade at Lincoln and is so happy to back with all of his great friends that he grew up with. He has lots of friends, that now include girls! Yikes. Max loves football, basketball, creating amazing worlds on Minecraft and hanging out with friends. He's been lucky to have his dad come along for scout camp-outs this past year. Jeremy was a leader over his age group in Springville and here in AF as well. I love Max's drive. When he decides he wants to do something, he makes it happen! He is going to go places with that ambition. I wish I had more pictures of him! He does a great job at dodging the camera whenever I have it out! I guess that's typical at this age. :)
Sadie(nearly 17) was in her element with the simplicity of smaller-town Springville. She has had a challenging year full of migraine headaches that have kept her from going to school much. But through it all, she keeps a positive attitude and smiles lots. She's planning to make up all of her missed school this summer at Extended School Year in Lehi. She's not exactly looking forward to that...but definitely wants to graduate next year! In addition to her long-time friend Abbie, who lives in our neighborhood, she has made some other great friends since moving back and is grateful that her headaches only smother her in the mornings, so she can happily socialize at night. She went to homecoming at AF High, as well as Sadie Hawkins. She's enjoying the freedom of having a driver's license, although she's not feeling real confident with driving on the freeway or in busy traffic just yet. She just got a job at a hydroponic greenhouse in Pleasant Grove that she loves. She's truly in her element there. She loves healthy food and has developed an incredible ability to cook delicious, healthy dishes. As we've been trying to solve her headache puzzle with a healthy diet, it's forced her to get creative in order to eat well. I'm seeing her headaches as a blessing in disguise in this way. How many 16 year old girls know how to throw together an incredible meal without a recipe? This gift will bless her life! This past semester as she's spent so much time at home, she and I have had the chance to spend lots of time together. I'm so grateful for the help that she is to us and I treasure our friendship so much as mother and daughter...she'll be on her way before we know it. :(
And finally, we get to our oldest, Landon, who is 19 and serving as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Philippines, Angeles mission. He has been there a year now and is just giving it all he's got. He truly loves the people he serves. In the past two months, he's been serving in a small area called Bongabon. He has been through two typhoons in this period of time. He and his companions had the opportunity of teaching a family the gospel and baptizing them. During his time in this area, Landon has been companions to three young men, each for three weeks, who are awaiting their full-time missions. He trains them before they even get set apart as missionaries and go to the Missionary Training Center! This is something they do in this area when they are short on full-time missionaries. Elder Fillmore has had a lot on his plate as he has trained these young men in addition to serving as the district leader. He says it's stretched him tremendously, but we can see great growth that has come from it. We're just so happy that his mission has been such a great experience for him. We never dreamed that having a missionary out serving could bring so much joy to us as a family. We love, love, love reading his e-mails on Sunday nights. They make us so happy. Each one is a paycheck of the heart. We can't wait to Skype with him on Christmas! It will be the first time we get to talk to him since Mother's Day!
And I'm kind of enjoying this school year with all of my kids in school for the first time in 19 years! I thought it would be really quiet and boring...boy was I wrong. Like I mentioned, Sadie is home a lot, plus it seems like I'm still running like crazy just managing the household, keeping it clean, volunteering at school, etc. Being a mom is definitely a challenging, full-time job, even when the kids are in school! It's so great though. I love it!
Thanks for checking in with the Fillmore's! We feel so blessed to have lives that are so full of friends and family and that we can feel safe where we live. We are mindful of those who don't have these things and pray for them often. Mostly, we're grateful that a tiny babe was born in Bethlehem many years ago, for that tiny babe grew to be the One who would save us daily from sin and sorrow. We love Him with all our hearts and hope that He is in your hearts as well... this Christmas and always.
With Love,
The Fillmore Family
This year has been an eventful one for us.
For spring break in April, we drove to Southern California and rented a condo by the beach in Oceanside. Two of my sisters, Michelle and Jen and their families did the same. We enjoyed a fabulous Easter/conference weekend smelling the salty ocean air. It wasn't quite warm enough for swimming, but the kids braved the cold and did it anyway! Our family spent the last day there at Disneyland.
We were having some challenges with a few of our kids in school in Springville and things just weren't getting any better. Toward the end of the school year, I told Jeremy, I just feel like the kids need to be back at Lincoln. They thrived when they were there. I was to the point that I was willing to spend an hour a day in the car to make it happen. But about the same time, some friends in our old neighborhood in AF placed their house on the market. We rode up to see it and the spirit said, "it's time to move back." So we placed an offer on the house that week and went for it! One of the few blog posts that I wrote this year was all about the big decision and the move back. Now, it's been 5 months and strangely, it just feels like we never left, or like our time in Springville was a mission, or a dream, or something like that. :) We lived there for 20 months. We made wonderful friends there who touched our lives so much. We adored our charming house with the huge Mulberry trees. But it was time to come back "home."
For spring break in April, we drove to Southern California and rented a condo by the beach in Oceanside. Two of my sisters, Michelle and Jen and their families did the same. We enjoyed a fabulous Easter/conference weekend smelling the salty ocean air. It wasn't quite warm enough for swimming, but the kids braved the cold and did it anyway! Our family spent the last day there at Disneyland.
We were having some challenges with a few of our kids in school in Springville and things just weren't getting any better. Toward the end of the school year, I told Jeremy, I just feel like the kids need to be back at Lincoln. They thrived when they were there. I was to the point that I was willing to spend an hour a day in the car to make it happen. But about the same time, some friends in our old neighborhood in AF placed their house on the market. We rode up to see it and the spirit said, "it's time to move back." So we placed an offer on the house that week and went for it! One of the few blog posts that I wrote this year was all about the big decision and the move back. Now, it's been 5 months and strangely, it just feels like we never left, or like our time in Springville was a mission, or a dream, or something like that. :) We lived there for 20 months. We made wonderful friends there who touched our lives so much. We adored our charming house with the huge Mulberry trees. But it was time to come back "home."
Eli is six years old and is in the 1st grade at Lincoln Academy. He loves school and loves to read! Eli has the largest imagination of any kid I've ever known. He LOVES to make believe. In the last couple of years, I have purchased (after weeks of endless begging on his part) a police costume, cowboy boots and clothes, a Mario costume, and now, for Christmas, all he wants is an elf costume! Most of his days, he is pretending. He comes home from school and a few minutes later he says, "Mom, I'm going to work." Then he comes and gives me a kiss like he's leaving and he swiftly walks to his place of work, which is, for example, a little spot under the trees in the back yard (his "Home Depot") or the pantry, where he pulls a 5 gallon bucket up to the bottom shelf and pretends he's a chef. He also LOVES playing with friends...or at least the ones who are willing to make believe with him.
Hazel is seven now! This has been a year of milestones for her. Potty training, better communication and lots of bonding. This week marks three years in our family. We'll never forget our Christmas miracle that brought here here, just before Russia closed it's doors to American families in the process of adopting from their orphanages. She was meant to be out of that institution, sharing her light with the world, and we're so honored that we get to be a part of it all! Sweet Hazel struggles with speech because she has Apraxia, which is a neuro-motor speech disorder. We use signs a lot, and we also have her practice her words whenever she wants something. It's sooo frustrating for everyone involved, but I'll tell you what, she's so much smarter than her speech leads people to believe. We're going to get there with lots of hard work and patience. And if not..we'll love her just the same. She is truly a delight to have in our family and very best friends with her big sister Anya (10). These two are inseparable. I think the reason the Lord lead us to Hazel at the time He did is because Anya needed her so much. We're so happy they have each other.
Another reason we we know we led to move back was because of the incredible Life Skills teacher that teaches at a nearby elementary school that we somehow didn't know about when we lived here before! They have both come so far already this school year. We are soooooo incredibly grateful for Mrs. Beck. You can never underestimate the power of a teacher who loves her students, understands their potential and inspires them to reach it!
The girls ride the bus to school together and even though they are in the same classroom, they are doing different things for most of the day. Hazel is in 1st grade and Anya is in 3rd, They get lots of small-group help with their academics and they also spend time in the regular ed classrooms doing non-academic things.
Last month, we got a new kitty. Anya was entertained by the hour with this playful furbaby. Sadly, we had to find kitty a new home because of allergies in the family. Darn. Anya has grown up so much this past year. She is a sassy tween. with a serious attitude. Ha ha! We can't help but adore her, though. My favorite part of the day is seeing her bounce off the bus and up the sidewalk. She throws her arms out and yells MOM!! Every day without fail. She will be in our family for five years this March! It feels like she's been here forever, though. Don't know how we ever got along without her. 
Max (13) is in the 8th grade at Lincoln and is so happy to back with all of his great friends that he grew up with. He has lots of friends, that now include girls! Yikes. Max loves football, basketball, creating amazing worlds on Minecraft and hanging out with friends. He's been lucky to have his dad come along for scout camp-outs this past year. Jeremy was a leader over his age group in Springville and here in AF as well. I love Max's drive. When he decides he wants to do something, he makes it happen! He is going to go places with that ambition. I wish I had more pictures of him! He does a great job at dodging the camera whenever I have it out! I guess that's typical at this age. :)
Sadie(nearly 17) was in her element with the simplicity of smaller-town Springville. She has had a challenging year full of migraine headaches that have kept her from going to school much. But through it all, she keeps a positive attitude and smiles lots. She's planning to make up all of her missed school this summer at Extended School Year in Lehi. She's not exactly looking forward to that...but definitely wants to graduate next year! In addition to her long-time friend Abbie, who lives in our neighborhood, she has made some other great friends since moving back and is grateful that her headaches only smother her in the mornings, so she can happily socialize at night. She went to homecoming at AF High, as well as Sadie Hawkins. She's enjoying the freedom of having a driver's license, although she's not feeling real confident with driving on the freeway or in busy traffic just yet. She just got a job at a hydroponic greenhouse in Pleasant Grove that she loves. She's truly in her element there. She loves healthy food and has developed an incredible ability to cook delicious, healthy dishes. As we've been trying to solve her headache puzzle with a healthy diet, it's forced her to get creative in order to eat well. I'm seeing her headaches as a blessing in disguise in this way. How many 16 year old girls know how to throw together an incredible meal without a recipe? This gift will bless her life! This past semester as she's spent so much time at home, she and I have had the chance to spend lots of time together. I'm so grateful for the help that she is to us and I treasure our friendship so much as mother and daughter...she'll be on her way before we know it. :(
Jeremy and I have been super busy with our crew, many days just trying to keep from completely falling apart at the seams! But we love our big family and wouldn't have it any other way. Between
ball games
driving for field trips and helping in classrooms
keeping the kids off of electronics on lazy days
Hosting Japanese students
(we did this 2 weeks after moving. cra-zy.)
serving in our church callings
(2nd Counselor in the Bishopric and Relief Society teacher)
and nagging kids to do homework...
Jeremy and I still seem to find time for just the two of us. We make weekly dates a priority and try to get away for little trips every few months. This connection time means the world to us both and keeps our marriage happy and fulfilling.
In September, we got to spend 4 days on a houseboat at Lake Powell with our college friends.
Best trip EVER...we needed it so badly and are grateful that Sadie could hold down the fort while we were away.
Jeremy's Landscape Design firm is still going strong, for which we're very grateful. He has some talented guys and a great office manager working for him that he hopes to keep forever!
And I'm kind of enjoying this school year with all of my kids in school for the first time in 19 years! I thought it would be really quiet and boring...boy was I wrong. Like I mentioned, Sadie is home a lot, plus it seems like I'm still running like crazy just managing the household, keeping it clean, volunteering at school, etc. Being a mom is definitely a challenging, full-time job, even when the kids are in school! It's so great though. I love it!
Thanks for checking in with the Fillmore's! We feel so blessed to have lives that are so full of friends and family and that we can feel safe where we live. We are mindful of those who don't have these things and pray for them often. Mostly, we're grateful that a tiny babe was born in Bethlehem many years ago, for that tiny babe grew to be the One who would save us daily from sin and sorrow. We love Him with all our hearts and hope that He is in your hearts as well... this Christmas and always.
With Love,
The Fillmore Family
1 comment:
Loved reading your 2015 adventures in living. We love each of you and can't wait to celebrate christmas Eve with you.
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