The Year 2011

Dear Friends and Family,

This year has been another one filled with change. We all lived in San Antonio, Texas during the summer. Though we don't ever plan on moving there permanently, we enjoyed going to SeaWorld every week, visiting the Alamo, museums, parks, and daily swims in our pool.
Jeff worked one last summer for Vivint/APX and traveled from Oregon to Texas from April until the end of August. We were apart for 3 months, but took advantage of technology through video chatting, phone calls and texts. He recently started a new job at England Logistics as a capacity manager. A renewed love of music has brought him back to the piano and the family enjoys the nights he plays for us.

To keep in shape chasing the kids, Robin ran her 6th, 7th, and 8th marathons. She started tutoring an ESL college student from Argentina in the spring. She gets to help in Elijah's kindergarten class each week and substitutes as a crossing guard at the school. She recently began watching a friend's two year old 3 days a week, but finds a little time each week to write, her new-found love. Robin's youngest brother, Shae, came to live with us for nine months this year and was a big help when Jeff was gone. Still a child at heart, though he turned 20 while here, the kids had fun playing with their uncle.

Henry turned eight this year and was baptized in September. He started 3rd grade and likes to read chapter books. He is learning to play basketball and do multiplication and division. Games are his passion. He will play anything from Monopoly and Battleship to games on his DS, iPhone, or computer. He is a caretaker of his sister and is becoming very independent.
The clown of the family is our little Elijah. He is an imaginative five year old with questions and comments that always surprise us. He has learned all his letters in school and is reading beginner books. He is definitely not a quitter. After a bad bike accident in the spring, he was back on his bike in only a few days. His obsession with watching toy reviews and collecting Power Rangers makes us all laugh.

Trevor is our 3 year old puzzle-solver. He loves putting together anything from Transformers to Legos. While in Texas, we had to put him back together as he took a dive off a bed and broke his arm clean through. As long as he has some chocolate milk and something to build or color (or Mommy's iPhone), he will play quietly for hours. He loves learning in his preschool class and is a big helper at home.

She started the year off not even crawling, but now Charly can walk, run, and dance. Her first word was “thank you” and she has recently discovered many more words, most involving food (which she loves to feed to herself). Even though only 17 months old, she is obsessed with shoes and clothes already. We definitely have a girl on our hands!

Without amazing family and friends, we wouldn't have made it through this crazy year. Thank you for your love and support – we hope to find a way to help all of you in return. Merry Christmas!

Love,
Jeffrey, Robin, Henry (8), Elijah (5), Trevor (3), Charly (1)

Photo Recap 2010

Birth of Charlotte Faith on July 1.

Drum Roll Please . . .

Yes, it is now official! All of you who were wondering why Robin was "letting herself go" lately should be ashamed of yourselves. I mean, really!!! Yep, this family of 3 boys is adding another one to the mix. And since we really wanted to mix things up, why not add a GIRL to this house of testosterone? You guessed it, the King's will be welcoming a new little girl the first week of July this year. We are all excited (especially Jeff who has been wanting me to be wrong every time I told him our last 3 would be boys). Well, I am more than happy to be wrong about this one (although secretly I had already bought a few girl things...)

So here are the first "portraits" of baby girl King (see if you can find the one where she is resting her cute little hand on her face - modeling for the shot!):

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010!

So I promised this year that I would journal more so I have decided to do some of that journaling here so that I can keep my family and friends caught up as well. We had a great Christmas in East Wenatchee, WA this year and were spoiled by the LuBean's and the King's when we got back. Santa was very kind this year! Henry loves his easy-bake oven (hey, it looks very man-like in blue and silver), tech decks (little skateboards), transformers, paperoni, and he inherited Jeff's DS (with over 30 new games, thanks to Shae and David's ingenuity!). Elijah was spoiled with Thomas the train tracks, trains, books, bedding, and clothes. He also loves his cars (thanks to Wendy's family and Grandma and Grandpa). Trevor recieved a bunch of cute cars he still carries with him everywhere he goes. He loves his vacuum, MP3 Player, blocks, puzzles, and books. Jeff's Aunt Lucy and Uncle Mike found great soft blankets for the kids. Along with the ones Grandma and Grandpa LuBean bought them, the kids should be sleeping very well soon (if we could only keep Elijah and Henry in their beds at night!). Jeff and I got spoiled as well. Jeff recieved a PS3 which he is excited about games and Bluerays already. He also got clothes, books, and movies. I got some great books, the Bullet blender, pans, lotions, games, and some boots!

Family Portrait in December 2009

Robin at Temple Square with the Young Women

Our plans this year are to have more family time and one-on-one time (husband/wife time and mommy/son & father/son dates). I am super excited to get one-on-one time with everyone in the family. We are excited about our LuBean Family Reunion in June this year in Idaho. We miss the seeing Wendy & James and Whitney & Adri's families. I can't wait!

This year has lots in store for us and I hope to be able to keep you all in loop!

The King Clan on Halloween

Two power rangers, 2 cowboys, and a pink lady - oh, the joys of Halloween!

I am really trying to keep up!

Ok, so I haven't written much lately. But, in my defense, I have been posting on facebook a lot and many of our newer pictures are in albums there too. So to give an update on our random lives, here's the goods on what's up with the King's:

~Jeff started a new job on Tuesday. He is doing the same thing as before (security system sales), but with a company that has more potential and compensates the employees for their hard work. He also recently helped me finish building our garden boxes and we are so excited to have a full blown garden this year for the first time!

~Henry finishes his Kindergarten year tomorrow. He has grown so much the past few months. He is energetic, feisty, and a little too smart for his own good. He is reading fairly well now and knows how to operate our iPhones, computers, and theatre room. His summer plans include spending a lot of time with his "block buddies" (there are so many fun kids that live on our block). We also will be at Seven Peaks Water Park at least twice a week since we got a season pass there. Oh, and he just lost his first front tooth this week!

~Elijah is now a 3 year old. He loves being the boss of everyone. After almost 9 months of being potty trained, he now will go to the potty by himself (without someone helping him with pulling his pants up and down). Hooray! He still puts himself down for naps when he's tired (I know, I'm lucky). But he is a super picky eater and prefers all his meals in bags or packages . . .

~Trevor is still the smiley baby he has always been, but he will be 16 months tomorrow. So I guess I should say he isn't much a baby anymore. He can talk a little more than most his age - his repertoire includes: Amen, thank you, down, eat, food, Momma, Dadda, juice, uh oh, ow, shoe, and hi (I am sure I am forgetting some). When he's not trying to find a way into the bathroom to play in the toilet, he is finding my iPhone to play with . . .

~And then there's me . . . the only new stuff is that I did the American Fork Women of Steel Triathlon on May 16th. It was really fun, though, I wished I had trained a little harder and practiced transitioning from swimming to biking a little more quickly. I still would love to do one more this summer, but can't decide which one to do. I also joined this nutrition and fitness group (started by a friend from my last ward). It is called "Live the Life" Kristi Approved. It is a nutrition plan that teaches you to eat to maximize your metabolism's power. The fitness side of things includes weight lifting everyday, which I never have done consistentely before, so I am excited about results. But I will not post my "before" picture, unless my after picture is spectactular. I have 9.5 weeks to go and so far I have lost 6 pounds, 3 3/4 inches off my waist, and 1 inch off my hips. More importantly, I am learning to eat super healthy foods and expanding my horizons with organic and raw foods (I ground my own wheat and oatmeal this week to make oatmeal flour and cream of wheat. I am going to try whole wheat pita bread tomorrow - fun!)

Saving money.

So I was really excited about the deals I got this morning at Albertson's, that I had to post it here too. I went after my run in the morning because I was worried everything would be gone. I ended up spending $29.08. And are you ready for my savings . . . $183.79!! Whoo hooo!