Christmas Letter 2011

Happy Holidays 2011!

We have once again had a wonderfully busy and rewarding year with plenty of changes and things to report.  This holiday season is always a good time to reflect on the past year and to remember all of our blessings.  We have successfully moved from Virginia to a small town in Ohio, where we continue to make strides in making a place for ourselves amidst the hillbillies and toothless wonders of the country.  We have enjoyed the freedom of country living and have not missed the traffic at all.  In fact, we are now annoyed at a traffic light if there are more than 5 cars ahead of us (beware if we complain more when visiting any of you in the city from here on out!).  We marvel at the simple way these country folk address life and at how many of them stick around and have their entire families living on the same street.  They are also really good at living off of the land and most of them grow amazing gardens and can most of what they grow (something that we thought only church members knew how to do!).  We have gotten our hopes up too many times this year about having our own land and home, but it appears that God has something different in mind for the time being.  So we continue to save all that we can to be able to feel some ownership on something other than children and student loans!

Nathan has successfully transitioned from residency to full blown Dr. status.  He loves his job with Holzer Clinic and has been increasing the number of patients he sees at a rapid rate.  He is a wonderful doctor and has the majority of the staff working for him calling him the "Dominator" as he always tells them to "dominate or go home".  He continues to be a strength and comfort at home to an ever chaotic atmosphere that comes with 5 children.  We laugh that he was called to be the Scout Master in our ward, soon after we moved here.  He still claims that it was only to fill an empty calling, but others think there may have been a Divine hand in giving him the chance to improve upon his somewhat lacking camping skills.  He does a great job with the young men, which you'd recognize as a big deal if you were to meet them!

Nichole continues to thrive at being a stay-at-home mother and challenges herself regularly to try and keep control of the chaos.  She has become pretty good at pressure canning and has canned pumpkin, turkey, and stock so far in the past 2 months.  She loves to cook and has been very creative in the kitchen, making many veggie filled and whole grain meals that the kids love.  She was called as the ward Primary President on our 3rd Sunday in the ward and has been trying ever since to get the children to behave and feel the spirit.  There are only 15 children that come every Sunday, but among them there is a severely autistic child, 4 of our own children, one with cerebral palsy, and several who seem to think that respect for adults is a thing of the past.  She has managed to be in charge of both the ward Trunk or Treat party and the Ward Christmas party.  Nichole loves the country so far and feels like everything here is just right, except for our ward.

Kaylie is our ever mature and responsible 8 year old beauty.  She has had a big year too!  She turned 8 in September and was baptized by her father.  She was really excited to have her Grandmother Cook and her Aunt Leanne here for the big event, as well as to receive many cards and emails and gifts from thoughtful family members.  Kaylie loves and excels at playing soccer.  She played on the Rio Grande youth 8 team this past fall and was by far the best on her team, despite the fact that some of them had played before.  She continues to do really well in school and loves to read and her favorite subject is art.  She is very crafty and creative.

Carter is our sweet 6 year old boy waiting anxiously for his first teeth to fall out.  He is improving a lot in school and learning to read at a rapid rate.  He enjoys first grade and has a lot of friends.  He is an easy going and fun loving kid who keeps himself busy playing and coloring all the time.  He loves to write sweet notes to his parents and to color us pictures (almost every day).  He is a budding athlete that wants to follow in his daddies' footsteps by joining a baseball team this spring.  He plays soccer and basketball outside with Kaylie nearly every chance he gets and is really good at them too!

Lily is now 4 years old and absolutely LOVES going to preschool.  She is a very bright girl and knows so many things that most kids her age don't, but she has a hard time expressing them.  She has improved a great deal with her speech over the past 6 months since we have moved here, and we now have her preschool teachers offering some speech therapy to see if we can't get her ready for kindergarten next year.  She is a delight to have around the house and has a contagious and beautiful smile.  She is a good big sister  and a loving daughter.  She tells us that she "likes" us all the time!

Abigail is definitely 3 and behaves 3 all the time.  She loves loves loves to carry Grace around and has a sweet side that we occasionally get to see.  She is a darling girl and loves to cuddle, which we find enjoyable.  She also loves to read books with mommy and daddy.  Her favorite thing to do is help mommy in the kitchen and to eat.  She loves candy almost as much as Lily did at her age.  It seems to run in the family!  She has become fairly good at making her own bagels and cream cheese and tortillas with cheese.

Grace just turned 1 and continues to be a darling addition to our family.  We really enjoy her happy nature and sweet disposition.  She is a very easy baby and fills our days with smiles and fun.  We are just grateful she came to our family.

We are a happy family with lots of love to share.  We hope that this update from us with help you feel our love and know that we are thinking of you, our dear family member or friend.  You are among the most dear things to us in the world and we are grateful to have you in our lives.  We are especially grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ and recognize that without Him, there would be no Christmas.  May we all have another great year to come!

Love,

The Clarks