I wanted to share my Christmas letter with everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Hello Family and Friends,
I am not sure where to start my letter. Last December (right after most people go our Christmas card saying all is well) a week before Christmas Rob was diagnosed with Melanoma Cancer. By the time we found the cancer it was metastasized through his entire body. After 11 short weeks of fighting, Rob passed away on March 6, peacefully surrounded by his entire family. We cannot thank everyone enough who came and helped our family during Rob’s sickness and who is still continuing to help our family now. Our family has been blessed with seeing charity, the pure love of Christ, through the service of others. We miss Rob tremendously, but know we are an eternal family and will be together forever. We celebrate Christmas a little different than Christmas pasts. Now, when we heard songs of the birth of Christ we are comforted with Christ’s spirit. For without the birth of Christ, there would be no resurrection. We cannot wait till the day when we are all reunited together as a family.
We felt it hard but necessary to leave the northwest and move back to Utah. Being closure to family has been extremely helpful. We are back in American Fork, where Rob spent his high school years and all his siblings have grown up. We have always thought of ourselves as “Cavemen” (AF mascot), so how fitting that we actually are living here now. We have been welcomed and love into our new ward. We feel our family is exactly where the Lord wants us.
Robbie turned 12 this year! I can’t believe I have a Young Man now in my home. His biggest accomplishment this year was growing his hair out. We call him Sunshine from the movie Remember the Titans. He played flag football this year and loved it! He has many great friends that live close by to play with. Robbie and Jake are often off having “air soft gun” wars with the neighbor boys. Robbie is such a great help with the twins. He’ll tell me that he believes he loves the twins more than I do!
Jake is Jake, my tender heart boy. He also played flag football this fall. Whereas Robbie was more competitive, Jake actually smiles while he runs! He loved playing and never cared who won or loss. I can always count on Jake to help out around the house. I think Ellie and Robbie are on to that fact, and let Jake do most of the work. Jake misses all his friends in Washington, but is enjoying hanging out with Robbie and the “older boys”.
Ellie is turning eight this year and is going to be baptized right before Christmas. She can hardly wait, and has been counting down since September. Ellie enjoys being the only girl in the family. She loves having his cousins close to play with, but only last about 36 hours and then she needs her alone time. She loves to clean, on her time schedule, but does a great job. For Robbie’s birthday she cleaned his bedroom for him and even cleaned the closest out! Ellie misses having a friend right next door but really has no problem making new friends.
Johnjohn and Luke, or as I like to call them the monkeys are at such a fun age! They are now 2 years old and repeating EVERYTHING we say. Johnjohn’s favorite word is “stop it”. He is always yelling it at one of us. The kids love to tease him and have him yell stop it. I do not find this as fun! You can also hear him calling out for Whuke at times. Luke is just as happy and go lucky as ever. Nothing really bothers him. He doesn’t talk as much as Johnjohn, but Luke is much more physical. He loves jumping on the trampoline, his bed or anywhere. We were in church giving the monkeys Starburst to keep them quiet. Johnjohn likes to unwrap all of his candy first, then hold the candy in his hand and slowly eat them one by one. Luke on the other hand, unwraps and sticks them in his month as fast as he can unwrap. Luke had eaten all his candy, looks over at Johnjohn, and sees the candy in his hand. Luke quickly grabs the candy and shoves it in his mouth. Johnjohn starts screaming and Luke is smiling. This is just one example of life with twins and how enjoyable sacrament meeting is for our family.
My life has probably changed the most. Opportunities have come up for me to speak on overcoming trials and relying on the Lord. The highlight of this year was speaking at Mother’s Weekend at BYU-I. I love sharing my testimony with others and hope other’s can grow from our experience. I am speaking at a Best of EFY in February and also to various wards in the area. I am slowly working on a book, with most of it coming from my journal entries in Caringbridge. I am also learning how to “blog” and trying to keep everyone updated on our family blog: nwepps.blogspot.com.
Even with a difficult year, we’ve experience too many blessings not to find joy. We find peace in the Lord, Jesus Christ and know everyone can experience that same peace through Him. We love and thank everyone for their support and hope everyone can feel the Savior’s love at this time of year and always!
I am not sure where to start my letter. Last December (right after most people go our Christmas card saying all is well) a week before Christmas Rob was diagnosed with Melanoma Cancer. By the time we found the cancer it was metastasized through his entire body. After 11 short weeks of fighting, Rob passed away on March 6, peacefully surrounded by his entire family. We cannot thank everyone enough who came and helped our family during Rob’s sickness and who is still continuing to help our family now. Our family has been blessed with seeing charity, the pure love of Christ, through the service of others. We miss Rob tremendously, but know we are an eternal family and will be together forever. We celebrate Christmas a little different than Christmas pasts. Now, when we heard songs of the birth of Christ we are comforted with Christ’s spirit. For without the birth of Christ, there would be no resurrection. We cannot wait till the day when we are all reunited together as a family.
We felt it hard but necessary to leave the northwest and move back to Utah. Being closure to family has been extremely helpful. We are back in American Fork, where Rob spent his high school years and all his siblings have grown up. We have always thought of ourselves as “Cavemen” (AF mascot), so how fitting that we actually are living here now. We have been welcomed and love into our new ward. We feel our family is exactly where the Lord wants us.
Robbie turned 12 this year! I can’t believe I have a Young Man now in my home. His biggest accomplishment this year was growing his hair out. We call him Sunshine from the movie Remember the Titans. He played flag football this year and loved it! He has many great friends that live close by to play with. Robbie and Jake are often off having “air soft gun” wars with the neighbor boys. Robbie is such a great help with the twins. He’ll tell me that he believes he loves the twins more than I do!
Jake is Jake, my tender heart boy. He also played flag football this fall. Whereas Robbie was more competitive, Jake actually smiles while he runs! He loved playing and never cared who won or loss. I can always count on Jake to help out around the house. I think Ellie and Robbie are on to that fact, and let Jake do most of the work. Jake misses all his friends in Washington, but is enjoying hanging out with Robbie and the “older boys”.
Ellie is turning eight this year and is going to be baptized right before Christmas. She can hardly wait, and has been counting down since September. Ellie enjoys being the only girl in the family. She loves having his cousins close to play with, but only last about 36 hours and then she needs her alone time. She loves to clean, on her time schedule, but does a great job. For Robbie’s birthday she cleaned his bedroom for him and even cleaned the closest out! Ellie misses having a friend right next door but really has no problem making new friends.
Johnjohn and Luke, or as I like to call them the monkeys are at such a fun age! They are now 2 years old and repeating EVERYTHING we say. Johnjohn’s favorite word is “stop it”. He is always yelling it at one of us. The kids love to tease him and have him yell stop it. I do not find this as fun! You can also hear him calling out for Whuke at times. Luke is just as happy and go lucky as ever. Nothing really bothers him. He doesn’t talk as much as Johnjohn, but Luke is much more physical. He loves jumping on the trampoline, his bed or anywhere. We were in church giving the monkeys Starburst to keep them quiet. Johnjohn likes to unwrap all of his candy first, then hold the candy in his hand and slowly eat them one by one. Luke on the other hand, unwraps and sticks them in his month as fast as he can unwrap. Luke had eaten all his candy, looks over at Johnjohn, and sees the candy in his hand. Luke quickly grabs the candy and shoves it in his mouth. Johnjohn starts screaming and Luke is smiling. This is just one example of life with twins and how enjoyable sacrament meeting is for our family.
My life has probably changed the most. Opportunities have come up for me to speak on overcoming trials and relying on the Lord. The highlight of this year was speaking at Mother’s Weekend at BYU-I. I love sharing my testimony with others and hope other’s can grow from our experience. I am speaking at a Best of EFY in February and also to various wards in the area. I am slowly working on a book, with most of it coming from my journal entries in Caringbridge. I am also learning how to “blog” and trying to keep everyone updated on our family blog: nwepps.blogspot.com.
Even with a difficult year, we’ve experience too many blessings not to find joy. We find peace in the Lord, Jesus Christ and know everyone can experience that same peace through Him. We love and thank everyone for their support and hope everyone can feel the Savior’s love at this time of year and always!
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