Christmas Letter and Picture

Whittle Family Christmas Letter – 2010

This year has been a great one for us, as usual. Busy, but great. We are all doing well and are really excited for this Christmas and New Year season. The kids are getting really into all the decorating and gift giving (and receiving) and are starting to understand the reason for the season. It’s very fun as parents to watch.



So the year started nice and cold. The longer we live in Utah, the longer the winters seem. Adrienne thinks we need warmer clothes. Adam thinks we should move much closer to the equator. We’ll see.



As the weather warmed up, we had some great plans for our backyard and started putting them into motion. We had to take out a few sections of fence to get dump trucks full of mulch, dirt, and landscape rocks. With a LOT of manual labor (mostly on Adam’s part) our yard is beautiful, pending a few more plantings in the spring. Adrienne actually took off to California for a leisurely trip, including Disneyland, while Adam and some friends built a rock wall about 100 feet long. It’s beautiful and we have great plans for putting lots of strawberry plants in the cracks this spring. To Adrienne’s credit, when she returned, she did most of the prep work and got the yard ready for 3,500 sq ft of grass seed. She faithfully watered it for weeks and it is now filled in and beautiful. Our first real grass!



In late September, Adam and Adrienne took a break from yard work, and everything else, and took a trip to the east coast while Adrienne’s mom came and watched the kids for a week. We flew into Washington D.C. and tried to see as many revolutionary war sites between D.C. and Boston as possible. We stayed with and saw many friends we don’t see much anymore and had so much fun together. It was the perfect vacation and we hope to do it again one day, maybe with kids, maybe not.



Life does continue to move on, despite our attempts to slow it down. Luke (4) is now in preschool 4 days a week and since we still have one vehicle, hopefully not much longer, Adrienne takes Adam to and from work in order to get Luke to and from school. Luke loves school, despite what he might say about it if you ask him. He is learning a lot and lately really loves to spell and sign all the letters he sees. He can write his name and all the letters. We’re proud of him.



Jacob (3) is quite a character and is fun to be with. He and Luke love to play together. It doesn’t really matter where or what they are doing. He is a very good brother to Jane and protects her in the nursery at church and helps her if she gets hurt.



Jane (2) is such a delightful little girl and we love her blond curly hair and smile. She is quite a talker and will answer almost any question you ask her with a “yes” or “no”. So, we like to ask her lots of questions because it’s fun to hear her opinion. She has lots of spunk and follows in her brothers’ footsteps. She can make shooting gun noises and loves race cars. However, she also loves to dance and always sleeps with her baby doll. Jane is not a big fan of eating lately unless it’s candy or possibly a cracker or two.



We are also expecting our fourth baby around July 12th and are so excited. Adrienne’s energy and appetite are picking up again and things seem to be going really well.



Know that we are thinking of you wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.



Love,

Adam, Adrienne, Luke, Jacob, and Jane Whittle