Dave and Christie Lee: 2007

Happy New Year

That time of year, where egg nog flows, resolutions start and abruptly end, and all seems to be comfort and joy. Yes it is here and so comes the nearly yearly, end of the year, Dave and Christie Lee family newsletter! Among the trials and challenges, we were able to find great joy and happiness in our lives this year, and are more than pleased to be able to think of and thank those who are responsible for our happiness. Well, without further ado, and no more girdling the lilies, here is our report.

Dave and Christie: During the year, Dave was able to accomplish a good many things. First was starting and finishing his student teaching. Dave was assigned to West Hills Middle School in West Jordan. He student taught 7^th grade English and Spelling. He loved his assignment and was sad to leave the students. Fortunately, Dave was able to get a job finishing the school year, teaching a different 7^th grade class, at the same school, and was thankful to the administration for allowing him to hone his teaching skills at their school.

Dave graduated from UVSC (soon to be UVU, go Wolverines!) with a B.S. in English Education. It only took 6 years from his first semester of college to complete the degree, but hey, it got done. Dave luckily gets a year off, before his venture into graduate school begins.

Dave applied for, was interviewed for, and accepted a position at Canyon View Junior High School, in Orem, Utah. Dave is currently teaching 9^th grade English and Creative Writing at the school and loves it. Junior high and middle school seems to be the place that Dave’s talents are used to their best ability. Of course there are those tough days, but most days Dave is happy to come home feeling happy and successful.

Christie has been busy at home trying to keep things running smoothly and happily in our home. She has her hands full with the three kids, but is able to do an excellent job keeping things in line. Christie was the major component, allowing her to try and experience many different things over the year.

Christie had her first snowboarding experience this year. She was able to go to a free women’s clinic up at Brighton and had so much fun. Enough fun that we are already planning another trip. Christie also purchased her first “real” mountain bike this year. Although, her only experience on the bike this year has been around our city (but they were some long rides up to the Timpanogos Temple and back) in the following year, we’ll get her up the mountains. Mountains were a big theme for Christie this year. Christie quarterbacked our family outings this summer, where we tried to go hiking to a different place every week. Our family was able to see many cool sights and experience the great outdoors, thanks to Christie’s efforts.

Dave and Christie put their talk into action, finally. Both were able to watch what they were eating, and get more exercise with good results. Dave’s last year New Year’s resolution of losing 10 pounds was almost quadrupled as he lost 35 pounds. Christie, not to be outdone, not only lost her pregnancy weight from Logan but also an extra 15 pounds. It feels good for us and we are excited about finishing our ultimate weight loss goals for the next year.

Zoe: Zoe spent the first part of the year attending a preschool at the Lehi Legacy Center. She was supposed to be part of an accelerated group, but it didn’t seem like she was doing anything different and she was only learning things she already knew. She was more than happy to move on to the preschool at UVSC. This preschool is much more suited to what Zoe needs, but halfway through the year (where we are now) she has already mastered all of the objectives for the year. We are working to get Zoe into first grade next year and skip kindergarten. We are also trying to get her into a Spanish immersion program at her school. The other night, Zoe asked her dad if it was January yet. Dave told her no, it was still December. She then asked him when it was going to be January and Dave told her would be a couple of more weeks. Zoe then started to cry and told him that she wished it was January now and that it would take forever to get here. Dave was confused and wondered why she would be so excited for December to be over. She then told him, through drops of tears, that she wanted to go back to school and that she missed it. Dave, thinking that this would comfort her and make her excited, told her that she would be getting new teachers when she got back. UVSC uses this preschool as a student teaching experience for early childhood education students and those would be leaving in December, while new ones come in, in January. This only made Zoe cry more saying she was going to miss her teachers. Eventually she settled down and became excited at meeting new teachers when she got back.

Zoe loves to read, and is often found reading in her bedroom. She will pull out anything and read it, whether we want her to or not. One day we were at Cabela’s and Zoe asked what one of the animals was. Christie told her a generic name. Zoe told her mom that her answer was not right and then she read the name of the animal and told her what it was called. Zoe not only reads to herself, but she loves to read to Macy and Logan as well, and they are happy to listen. Zoe loves to be tickled, even when she doesn’t feel ticklish. She will often give you a courtesy smile and laugh, but lets you tickle her anyway. It is worth it to see her beautiful smile.

Zoe will be turning six this year and is getting so big. She likes to think it is because she eats her vegetables, and we make sure she remembers that. If you ask her what her favorite foods are, she’ll say any of the following: Salmon (usually the first thing she mentions), pulled pork, ribs, pizza and pasta. Basically she loves her daddy’s cooking. While at a restaurant with her family plus Grandma and Grandpa Bowers, we were trying to order her something from the kids menu, when the waitress had finished taking Grandpa Bowers’ order (he ordered Salmon), Zoe told the waitress that she wanted salmon. The waitress chuckled, and if the salmon wasn’t as expensive as it was, we would have given it to her, but she settled for a cheeseburger instead.

Zoe also loves the outdoors and our activities. She got a new bike this year and has had fun riding it with training wheels. She can’t wait until she can go on big rides with her mom and dad, even in the street! Zoe completed the longest hike of her life this year when she walked for 6 miles on our hike. She did an excellent job, although, when we got home, she would tell us how much her legs were tired. Zoe is a big helper and loves to be a big sister to Macy and Logan.

Macy: Macy is 3 and a half years old. She is as rambunctious as ever. Macy has so much energy that she is constantly running around and half of the time, causing mischief. We have come to the conclusion that God had to make Macy extra cute, so we could deal with all of the trouble she causes. Just the other night, while we were eating dinner, no one was saying much, but Macy thought of how to lighten the mood of the table when she said, “Daddy, why do I wear underwear?” We all started laughing and she knew that she was funny. She often says things like, “I am so funny, huh.” Macy loves playing with Logan and Zoe and has finally got over her fear of Santa Claus.

One night, at around midnight, a loud cry of pain screamed out from the girlies room. Macy had fallen off of her bed and in the ensuing madness; she needed many stitches to close the wound that happened when she hit her head on an open dresser drawer. Her stitches have healed nicely and you can barely tell that it happened.

Macy loves hiking as well, and although, she didn’t quite make it all the way on our 6 mile hike, she did make 4 miles before falling asleep on Daddy’s shoulders for the final leg. She would ask when we were going to be going hiking again, even after we had just finished one.

Macy started preschool this year. She goes to the UVSC one, just like Zoe. They are in different classes and she is having so much fun. She has started to recognize some words and can write her name. Macy has really started to develop her motor skills. She can hit baseballs with a bat (without even using the tee) and can run and throw very well. She is also the best puzzle puter-together in the family. She has an amazing knack for knowing where the pieces fit together. At first we thought it was because she had memorized her puzzles, but when we put a brand new one out in front of her, she can do it just as well.

Macy loves her Nursery class and is so excited to start Primary this next year. She can’t wait until she can see her big sister every Sunday during opening exercises in Primary.

Logan: Logan has obviously grown the most over the year. Last year at this time he was barely one month old. Now he is 1 year old, walking everywhere. His favorite thing to do is find Grandpa. He will pass up even Mom and Dad to go to Grandpa’s arms.

Logan has also started to talk. His favorite word to say is ball and this. He also says grapa (grandpa), ace (Macy), popcorn, cup, book, guh (girl), doggie, da-da, daddy, mom-ma,wherdtogo (where did it go?),thertis (there it is), and other things that we haven’t figured out yet. He loves to scream and make people laugh. His smiles are contagious and most of the time, you have to just look at him and smile because he is so darn cute.

We love our family and feel extremely blessed to have the kids we do. We try hard to keep our family happy and doing those things that are in line with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To see the love that Zoe and Macy have for church and their Savior is a great blessing and consolation knowing that we are teaching them right. We still can’t believe how beautiful, smart, and talented our kids are. We have many things to be grateful for and we know we can’t do these things for ourselves. We hope everyone has a great 2008.