Merry Christmas love the Wrights - 2019

The Wrights have been busy this year!  2019 was a great year for our family.  A few highlights from each month of our year.

January – Talmage had a birthday and turned 13!  Our second teenager and boy is he growing. He finally is taller than me and he just beat name in his first sprint race!  Madeline and Jackson were in The Little Mermaid play. Maddie was an eel, and Jack was a chef, a sailor and a seagull. They rocked their parts and had a blast doing it together! 

February was a  cold month, but we had fun. We did the family bike race together and had a great time.  The older kids participated in track and had fun doing that.  We went to the Dixie College Alumni basketball game.  It was our first basketball game we have ever taken our kids to…haha I know sad, right!?!  We will for sure go to more basketball games in the future.  The kids loved it! Jack finished his Cub Scout Program and receive his Arrow of Light!

March was full of Birthdays.  Jack turned 11, Easton turned 6 and I turned 37!  Nate and I also celebrated 17 years of marriage!  CRAZY! It has gone by way too fast! March was also full of soccer games and more track. I also ran my first 10K . I think I will try another one in the new year! 

In April my sister and her family moved to St. George and that was pretty much the best part of our year!  Seriously having family close is the best!  Maddie went to Front Sight Gun safety training with her dad, grandpa, uncle and cousin. She loved it and wants to go again. We also started a big flooring project, ripping up our old carpet and vinyl, and putting in some LVP. Nate did an amazing job and we were so glad when it was done! We had a wonderful Easter  up in Orem with family! The kids finished their commonwealth classes (homeschool high school).  I taught an amazing history class and had a lot of fun learning  and teaching. 

May started off with us seeing how good of an actor Talmage is. He played Lysander in Midsummer Nights Dream.  He rocked it and had so much fun doing it with all his friends from Commonwealth.  Maddie helped direct it and it turned out amazing. In the middle of the month, but before school got out we finally took the kiddos to Disneyland.  It was a great trip (minus a few incidents involving our RV) The kids loved it, Nate was a trooper and  I LOVE California adventure! It is an exhausting, but a fun vacation.  Bennett turned the Big 8 this month and was so excited to also go to fathers and sons. 

June started with Bennett’s baptism. He was so excited and very ready. This boy has so much knowledge and loves the gospel.  June was also the beginning of a great summer. We went to the lake a lot, played with friends and the boys played LEGOs pretty much every day!  We also went hiking with the Guidrys and were so happy to have cousins that lived close by.  We did something that I have always wanted to do and that was ride our bikes through Zion. This kids were so grumpy about going, but we ended up having a great time! Nate turned 39 in June and can’t believe he is almost 40.  Maddie had a huge month. She went on a 10 day Choir tour to Illinois, Ohio and Missouri with the Heritage Youth Choir. She sang at the commemoration of Joseph Smiths martyrdom, and at a bunch of youth firesides.  She had an amazing time and can’t wait to go next year on their New England tour.  At the end of June Nate, Jack and Talmage all went to scout camp so that left just mom and the two littles home. We missed every one so much and were so glad when everyone got home. 

July is our favorite month to be up in Orem with family . We celebrated the 4^th with them and loved being around cousins. We also took a little trip in our RV to Duck Creek for an overnighter.  It was a blast and so peaceful to be up in the cooler temps.   All summer Maddie got up really early to run with her XC team, and Talmage and Nate woke up really early 3 times a week to ride with the Mountain biking team. 

August was another great month.  Maddie turned 16!  I still am in denial about it, but she is loving every second of being 16. Dating and driving being her favorite!  Before school started I was in charge of my families family reunion.  We got a cabin in Duck Creek. We had so much fun even though it was short we packed in a lot of stuff.

September was full of Cross Country races and Mountain biking.   Talmage loved having his dad be one of the ride leaders and did amazing this season. He got in the top 10 in all of his races.  We started our 11^th year of homeschooling.   Bennet joined cub scouts and was excited to be able to participate for a couple of months.  Jack participated in a Ninja Warrior competition and we have come to realize this is his jam. He LOVES it! This month I also stared teaching the best class ever called Wealthy & Rad to the older teenagers in our Commonwealth.  It has been an awesome learning experience! Maddie went to her first date dance and had a great time.  In September my step dad Marvin got really sick and had also fallen and broken his back. He had a big surgery and we actually all said our goodbyes thinking he wouldn’t survive, but he did and is still around to which we are so grateful!

In October we got to go up to Orem to see him and visit with family!  He was in a care facility all month long, but is now home.  The rest of the month was just regular life.  Nate started Christmas light season the last week of October and we had a fun Halloween. It was weird to just walk around with the younger 3 kids while the older 2 were off at a party. My kiddos are growing up way too fast. 

November consisted of Talmage finishing up all of his merit badges. School projects, Orchestra Concerts, a Johnson Files improv show and Christmas lights, Christmas Lights Christmas lights! The kids all work for Nate and earn money and are excited to have money to buy Christmas presents with! We were able to break away from Christmas lights for two days and spend time with family for Thanksgiving! It is always a much needed break for Nate!

December has been full of fun. Shopping for Christmas presents, going to parties and trying to not get stressed out. I think this has been my best Christmas yet. I was done buying presents by the 6^th!  Last week we took a really random vacation to Texas.  We have a goal to go to all 50 states so when we saw tickets for $30 round trip we jumped on it and surprised the kids with a fun 4 day vacation to San Antonio.  We ate yummy food, went to some Caverns, shopped, ate more good food and went to downtown to see the Alamo and the famous river walk.  It was a perfect trip and the kids loved it.  We got home for our trip and went right into helping Talmage finish his Eagle project, which he finished today!! Yay to be done with that!  We are headed to Orem to be with our families this Christmas. It will be weird not to be home for Christmas, but we are excited to spend it with those we love. 

A quick rundown of each kid…

Madeline has been working super hard this year in Cross Country. She loves it and has some great goals for next year.  She plays the violin beautifully and is excited to be looking for a violin teacher, she wishes she had time to be in more plays. She Loves driving.  She also received her YW’s award this year. She has grown so much this year in her maturity and is doing great things with the spare time she finds here and there.

Talmage has hit his growth spurt this year! He has grown taller than everyone, accept Nate, and his very proud of that. He has been doing The Grip ninja warrior, Cross Country, Piano, and Mountain biking and he has done very well in all 4. He placed 4^rd in his division with mountain biking and loves every minute he can get riding the trails.

Jackson has also been doing Cross country & The Grip and competed in his first Ninja warrior competition finishing 5^th overall. He is giving Talmage a hard race every time they run and is excited for the next season. He is excited to be a deacon this next year. He has also been doing great with piano and was asked out on his first date while visiting in Texas, he had to let her down easily.

Bennett has developed a real love or reading, if ever you can’t find him he is curled around his stuffy (Bomb) and reading a book. He goes to The Grip often and loves jumping into the foam pit. He loves to play with Dixie and be with his brothers.

Easton is always moving! He is learning to read and working hard on trying to one up his brothers in everything they do. He too loves to play in the foam pit and run the warped wall at The Grip. his heroes are his brothers and Dad and his go to gals for all his needs is his Mommy and Maddie. He loves going outside and playing with his dog.

Kendra has been doing hard things! She has really focused on helping others this year and helping them to succeed. She learned a love of painting and also taught Key of Liberty, Wealthy and Rad and had a great time with those classes. She was the relief Society activity champion and totally rocked at it. During the end of the year she really disciplined herself and lost a few pounds, Super hard!

Nate works his tail off in all areas of his live. He runs PDR, a paint and dent restoration company.  He works for car dealerships and is just getting into serving the community.  He has served for the last 2 years as YM's president.  He is happy to step down and work with the Deacons as an advisor.  He worked his tail off doing Christmas lights this year and we had a great season!  He loves reading to the boys every night.  It is the best thing ever except now they "can't fall asleep without dad reading". He reminds me we need a date night every week and I love him for it. It is so good for our marriage!  He loves playing in the Ultimate Frisbee league and Mountain biking with Talmage.  He loves taking the kids to The Grip and pretending he is an American Ninja Warrior.

This year we are so grateful for all we have been blessed with. Even though I have only shared with you the highlights of this year, doesn’t mean we haven’t had some rough spots.  Thanks to our faith in God and prayer we can overcome hard and be grateful for all we go through.  We have learned a ton this year and we are excited to see what the coming year brings for us.