Merry Christmas!!

Dear… Everyone!

This year as got me feeling so far behind with everything, Brandon and I thought that this would be better than nothing!

This year has been wonderful. Aren’t they all? I mean, even when we have a terrible year, we’re still alive and kicking. Plus, if we’re trusting in the Lord, then we’re being blessed, and that makes it good.

It started out with a pregnancy (those are always tough), and ended (almost) with a ten year anniversary. In between, we got a beautiful baby, didn’t get to spend enough time with everyone, and watched our crazies grow. Our house, that seemed so big when we moved in, is starting to feel pretty small. We’re trying figure out how and where we can bump it out a little.

Brandon is working for the same State Agency he started with when we moved back. It has been a great job, and we are grateful for it. Just this month he applied for and got a new position in the department that will help him be more upwardly mobile.

He’s also still the Elder’s Quorum President. That keeps us very busy. Him because he’s gone doing service or at meetings, and me because that means extra time trying to keep the house from falling down around me (sometimes with success)!! Boys are nuts!

I’m enjoying my time at home. Earlier this year I was fantasizing about getting out of the house to work, but I was reminded that this is such an important time for me to be with the kids and teach them correct principles. Although it requires lots of prayers for patience, I know it’s where I need to be.

I also just got called to the Relief Society Presidency at church. I’m so sad to not be working with the little ones any more. Isn’t it funny how that works? You get an assignment and feel overwhelmed by it and then you cry when you get a new assignment? I don’t feel like I belong in RS anymore! I just want to sing Primary songs all day!

Sterling started public school this year and is loving it. He has a friend that was recently baptized in his class and I really feel like they are going to be great friends and help each other make the right choices. He is still taking piano lessons, and we beam every time he plays. His Christmas recital was at the beginning of the month and he played “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” with a big group. It was fabulous. He had some knee issues this summer, which was diagnosed as a meniscal tear, but with rest and physical therapy (all the way up in Seattle), he’s avoided surgery. Yay!

Hyrum is busy. All the time, busy! He is in Brandon’s mom’s preschool and really loves it. He is artistic and rambunctious. He’s already sounding out and writing words. He’ll be another avid reader. He’s also totally in love with James. If James fusses the tiniest bit, Hyrum is right there to kiss and hug him. Lately Hyrum has had a cold and has had a hard time being told that he can’t be around the baby! He and Jonah are at the “trying to assert dominance” phase, so sometimes they are best friends and others worst enemies, but they really love playing together.

Jonah has taken the spot of family clown. It must be a two-year-old thing. He is a crack-up and is always in the middle of the playing trying to keep up with the big boys.

And James is just a little slice of heaven!! I know in just a short time he’ll join in all the mayhem, so I just snuggle him a lot. Brandon calls him “Jimmer” because of the star basketball player Jimmer Fredette, and it drives me nuts! But he does it in a loving way, so…

With all the wrestling, running, jumping, and yelling, we are amazed at our blessings. I decided that at some point we need to install a locker-room shower, but that will be a few years away…. In the meantime, our bed is the wrestling mat and we have runways in the house. It is a wonderful life, and even though we might want to trade them to the highest bidder some days, we love our boys and all the fun that comes with them.

I never could have imagined we could be where we are today. I always dreamed it, but to have it be a reality is really unfathomable. Our home is full of love and laughter, and we spend every minute we can together.

We wish you the same and more.

Love, Sarah Chapman [and Brandon, Sterling, Hyrum, Jonah, Jimmer and Jadyn (dog)]

10 years

seven moves
nine jobs
four vehicles
3 1/2 years of school
twenty-nine callings
five wards
nine Christmases
four rambunctious, crazy boys
thirty-one birthdays
five hospital stays
one miscarriage
one death
vomit
sweat
blood
tears
lots and lots of laughter
a love we could never have understood

Here's to ten amazing, heartbreaking, fulfilling, trying, successful, beautiful years.

James blessing (six weeks later)

What is it about the more children you have, the longer it takes to get things done???

Somehow I forgot about taking pictures on his actual blessing day, and I've been thinking that I needed to do it for six weeks. Nice. Well, this afternoon I just decided to do it. I was going to try to get all the kids dressed for it, but there was an after-school meltdown and I just figured if someone wanted to participate, they would. Hyrum was the only willing participant.

So, anyway, some photos of a baby in his almost-too-small blessing outfit.

Hyrum loves, loves, loves his baby brother. He is constantly hugging and kissing him. If James makes the smallest little fuss, Hyrum is right there to pat James' belly and tell him it's ok.

The last one I had to take with the flash because it was getting too dark, but what a cute smile!! I'm gonna see if I can sneak in a few minutes tomorrow for a couple more smiley ones.

There's a funny story about his blessing that I need to write down so I'll remember.

I had asked Brandon sort-of jokingly if there were going to be 20 guys in the circle again and he said no. He was going to keep it to family this time. Well, I thought about the size of that circle, and it was a pretty sad number. My step-dad, his dad, his sister's husband, my uncle, and my cousin's husband. Maybe that's not such a bad size, after all, but in my head, it just looked small.

So I said I liked how big the circle was last time, so Brandon began making some calls. When the men were invited up, it was a figure-eight shaped circle because there were so many. I think it was one shy of 20 men.

Brandon was a little embarrassed, but I thought it was incredible. It drew a few chuckles, but it also touched a lot of people, including me. Seeing all those wonderful priesthood holders who love our family and were honored to share in that ordinance was amazing.

The primary president at the time, who I was a counselor to, and one of my good friends sent me this email because she didn't feel like she was completely eloquent when she bore her testimony that day.

My thoughts on seeing so many priesthood holders going to support and participate in the blessing for James, and thereby the Chapman family, were heartwarming. James will never remember but I kept thinking that this group represented ALL the priesthood holders who would bless his life and support him. Yes, names may change, but the Priesthood will not change. What a good start to his life. The majority of the blessing I was thinking about that. (then it turned to all the priesthood holder's who bless my life & then throw in my gratitude to your family for letting my brother use his Priesthood to help with the blessing & I could have left church for the day feeling spiritually gratified).

Another of my friends, the bishop's wife, who I can't recall seeing bare her testimony in the three years we've been here, got up that day, too.

And Brandon was very overcome. He had sit for a few minutes to gain his composure when it was done.

Our James is very, very special and we know it. We feel very blessed to have him in our home and a part of our family.