December 2009
Merry Christmas from the Nortons!
It's been a wonderfully busy year in our house, and I am sure it has been in yours too. Everyone seems to be so busy. Here is a little of what is going on in our little corner of the world.
Bret is probably the busiest in the house. He works full time for our church teaching high school and college aged students religious classes. Also known as Seminary and Institute. His Institute classes are taught almost an hour away across from the local Jr college twice a week. Seminary is taught for three periods every day locally. Bret is also serving as the Bishop in our local church, which keeps his Sundays and Wednesday nights busy. But along with that is a lot of unseen service many people never know about. We are thankful for the good example he sets for our family. He's a great also a great husband and dad and son to his mom who lives a few miles away. Spare time is spent as mechanic, builder, and general fix-it man. I'm sure we'd be in the poor house without his handyman skills.
Andrew just passed his one year mark in November as a missionary in the Ogden, Utah mission. He has served the last few months in Bountiful, just north of Salt Lake City. He loves learning, studying, and teaching and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is very happy with what he is doing and his most recent letter told us he did not want to come home in 11 months. He wants to stay 2 more years. Yeah, sure. Not happening! But we are grateful for the great spirit he brings into our home with his weekly letters. You can follow his adventures here: www.missionsite.net/elderdrewnorton
Chris began the year playing basketball for Eastern Arizona College and continuing as a student. He loved the experience and hopes to return to it after his mission. In May, he moved to Northern California and spent the Summer installing security systems in homes there. He enjoyed the experience and loved meeting new people and making some new friends. It was a great learning experience for him and he was able to save some money. In September, Dawn took Chris up to Utah for training at the Missionary Training Center. He was able to spend a day and a half with Andrew as a missionary before entering. They had a WONDERFUL experience together and they were so happy to be able to spend that time, so that it would not be three years, but only two before they saw each other again. Chris is in the Kentucky, Louisville mission. He has been serving on the U of L campus teaching singles. He has a lot of exposure to athletes and is really enjoying it so far. He is also extremely happy and regularly tells us how grateful he is to be having this experience. You can check his adventures out at : www.missionsite.net/elderchrisnorton
Joseph (17) has had a rough year. But, he continues to bounce back and be happy anyway. In February, he tore the ACL in his knee, just before the state basketball playoffs. He had to sit out the tennis season. On April 1st, he had it repaired with surgery and began a six month recovery. He had lots of physical therapy and was able to start running in July and began getting ready for basketball again. Unfortunately on the third day of practice he twisted it. It took a few weeks to get an answer that he just needed to keep strengthening the muscles in his leg to support it. Another attempt at returning to play ended the same, so he is taking a whole month off this time to see if he can get it strong enough. Joseph is a senior this year. Besides his knee, he was Mr. Wildkat again for Homecoming week, Homecoming Royalty, and we have been pleasantly surprised that he has a beautiful singing voice and is enjoying choir very much. Joseph is a true comedian and keeps us rolling along life's merry highway. We are hoping he will finish his Eagle Scout project this year and earn his award before he graduates.
Jefferson (15) entered high school this year. He is still playing the piano very well. He is making strides in Freshman and JV basketball. He does well in school, has a very happy attitude, and is a big help to me when I ask for just about anything. If I am not home, I usually call him to make dinner because he does such a great job at it. Jefferson has braces this year and is not enjoying that experience, but his smile has already improved greatly. He started an FFA dairy goat project. He is also in choir and having a great time with his older brother before he graduates. We are hoping Jefferson will earn his Eagle in the next few months, to avoid the last minute rush his older three brothers have all done.
Emily (12), graduated from Primary at church and is now a part of Young Women's. She has grown into a lovely girl and we hope she will continue to be as beautiful on the inside as on the outside. That's way more important anyway. Emily is involved in lots of activities. She plays piano well. She takes dance and helps teach a younger class. She is in 6th grade but the Jr High girls basketball team did not have enough players, and so she is playing ball with the 7th graders. She's tall, so she may have a future ahead. Emily has lots of friends and is very social. She has a happy spirit about her except when being pestered by older brothers. She is considerate and inclusive of her younger sister and is a big help to me.
Noah (9) is growing like a proverbial weed. He is very smart and enjoys plant club and recently basketball. Jefferson is teaching him piano and he is a fast learner. He really likes computers and hand held games. We keep our younger kids activities to a limit so we will have more time as a family. Noah is a really funny boy like Joseph and keeps us laughing.
Olivia (6) is the resident sweetheart. I am including in our letter, a copy of a picture she recently drew. She really is our budding artist. And she goes through a lot of paper every month. She is constantly drawing pictures for family and friends. She recently told me she wanted to have an art show "like when you put the pictures up and everyone comes." We are looking for ways for her to develop her talent. Other than that, she is in first grade, is reading well, and loves all of her little friends. She is also in dance and seems to be a natural leader in dance and other areas. She really brightens our lives and charms everyone who knows her.
Dawn has hoped all year it would slow down. I started off the year sitting at a subdivision three days a week. That ended in August when I just felt the time constraints were too much for our family. After over two years with Long Realty, I switched to a smaller company (Maclay Real Estate), and am enjoying more control over my hours. It has not seemed to hurt my business one bit, and it's been a good year for me in real estate. But, that is really not my true love, and so I have begun moving in a new direction. I will continue real estate until I get going in the direction I want. I am getting certified in EFT (www.dailyabundance.net) and will pursue training as a Whole Health Educator. I love learning and teaching about how to be healthy. I hope to be doing that more as the year goes on. I have begun teaching EFT classes locally and hope to be able to do some longer seminars soon. I have learned this year that I can be grateful and happy in all things. It's my choice. I love serving now in the Yong Women's at church and get to be in Emily's class each week.
This year as a family, we vacationed in San Francisco so that Chris could be a part of our vacation. We spent three days with him in the city seeing all kinds of fun and new and interesting things. We were surprised to find out how cold it is there in July. As native Arizonans it was funny to discover that we should have brought coats. We could not imagine the temps being that low when ours are so high. We laughed at ourselves as we waited in line to ride the trolley and drank hot cocoa to keep from freezing. On our way home, we were able to stop and visit my uncle and he shared some lovely memories and item from my Granny who passed away a few years ago. We enjoyed our time with him.
We feel blessed beyond measure. To have faith, a family, a home, and a job, when so many suffer from lack, is truly humbling. The Christmas season is our favorite time of the year. We hope that the spirit of hope that it brings will be with you this season and throughout the next year.
Love, The Nortons, Bret, Dawn, Drew, Chris, Joseph, Emily, Noah, and Olivia
