Merrry Christmas 2009!!!

We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Rapid City, South Dakota.

This year has been full of newness, adventure, surprises, challenges, excitement, fun, growth and love.
It has all come with a steep learning curve, but as we have felt the hole in our pocket grow bigger (gotta love student loans), we have also felt our souls stretching and our character growing.

We started off the year with an awful car accident that totaled our car on New Year's morning.
Then we moved to Rapid City, South Dakota on January 7th (Sam's birthday).
We survived the long and cold winter of the Black Hillsand actually even enjoyed being snowed in 3 times.
We've made 3 wonderful trips to Utah since we moved here(we're getting to know Wyoming well!) to visit family, ski, waterski, ride horses, enjoy the Utah mountains that we miss so much,
and we even made a little detour to San Diego on one of those trips.
We hosted an Eyre family reunion over the July 4th weekend here in the Black Hills.
We have now seen Mt. Rushmore enough times to satisfy us...
We survived the swine flu...haha!
We enjoyed a visit from Sam's parents and sister Hannah and almost enjoyed our first Halloween with kids to take trick-or-treating (but LucyMae had the swine flu that day....bummer)
We enjoyed our first Thanksgiving on our own (but with friends)
And we have just welcomed the 4th member of our family to this earth: Our little family of four is 2 for 2 on red-headed kids and hoping for more in the future!

Sam:
Landed a 4.0 his first semester of graduate school!
Just finished his first year of graduate school - half way there.
Balances school-work, thesis-work, home-life, and his church-calling like a true champion.
Really enjoying his field of study (Biomedical Engineering) and the school he is attending.
Playing cello with the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra.
Supplementing our meager income by life-guarding at the local pool at 5:00am several mornings a week.
Excited to enter his first triathlon this next year!

Chels:
Currently teaching a studio of 10 students and loving it.
Tackling the challenge of figuring out how to be a mom with 2 kids (all you moms out there are amazing!)
Working with the local Suzuki teachers in the area doing group lessons and other events.
Plays with the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra.
Enjoying calling as Laurel adviser in the Young Women program at church.
Anxious to lose the baby weight and belly - I might go for the triathlon as well!

LucyMae:
Growing like a weed!
Such a cute, loving, sweet big sister.
Almost speaking full, comprehendable sentences.
Running, jumping, twirling, dancing, etc. any chance she gets.
Quite fascinated with the violin and cello....
Loving the tree-ornament violin we let her have.
Keeping mom and dad on their toes.

Samantha:
Survived 2+ weeks in this world so far.
Red hair looks like it is here to stay!
Eating, pooping, and sleeping with the best of them.
Spending a lot more time awake and starting to interact and smile!
We are thoroughly enjoying her and loving that she is such a good baby!

We are deeply grateful at this time of year for our Savior, Jesus Christ.
We are grateful that we have this holiday season each year to help us to focus on what is most important in life.
We are so incredibly grateful for each one of you - family or friend.
What would we be without the people that influence us every day?
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a truly Happy New Year!

With love,
the Evans Family
Sam, Chelsia, LucyMae, and Samantha