Special Edition Nichols

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Merry Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Love, the Nichols

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, 圣诞节快乐!

Dear Friends,

 2015 has been a year of change.  After seven years and many memories, we said “Goodbye” to Provo, leaving behind friendships we hope to renew someday.  In order to shorten Brett’s commute to work from three hours to 30 minutes, we moved to Bountiful in June.  We have been welcomed with love and new friendships, and we are excited for this new era of our life.

 

Brett enjoys being back at Zions Bank, working as a commercial portfolio manager in the bank’s private services group.  He has had the opportunity to work on some exciting deals this year, including for a ski resort in Jackson Hole and an urgent care clinic on Kaua’i (sadly, though, we were not able to visit any of these places).  After years of spending Sunday afternoons and midweek evenings at the church as the ward secretary, Brett was happy for a change in church assignment brought about by the move.  He has been teaching a youth Sunday School class every other week, and now gets to be home on Sunday afternoons (much to our family’s delight).

 

Wendy continues working at the urgent care clinic in Salt Lake a couple times a month.  She also enjoys a much shorter commute, though she is glad she doesn’t have to commute to work that often—instead she enjoys working at home.  It has been a lot of work this year as she has carried the bulk of the load in preparing to sell a house (including tornado cleaning every time we had a showing) as well as getting our family put back together in our new home.  We still aren’t fully settled in as Wendy continues to work with contractors to get some repairs done on our new home—six months later and Rachel still doesn’t have her nursery put together.

Katie, 9

Katie (9) and Amanda (7) were both excited and anxious for our move, because it meant a new school with no friends (at least to start).  As it turns out, there was little reason for anxiety and lots of reasons for excitement.  Cousins who have lived in Las Vegas for 10 years also moved to Bountiful (independent of our move) and now live just four blocks east of us.  Katie and Amanda get to see them at school every day.  We also found friends who we knew from Provo (including one family who lived just a few houses from us in Provo).  New friendships and the continuation and renewal of old friendships have made moving to a new school much easier. 

Amanda, 7

 Katie and Amanda also get to continue to learn Mandarin Chinese since our new school is also part of Utah’s dual immersion language program—  圣诞节快乐  (Shèngdàn jié kuàilè)! 

Both girls opted to play soccer this year instead of gymnastics.  It has been fun watching both girls develop their soccer skills and grow into goal-scorers.  Katie has the added benefit of playing on the same team with her cousin, Andrea; Brett and his brother, Jeff, get to coach.

Ellie, 5

Ellie (almost 5) loved being a WizKid preschooler in Provo.  We were sad to leave it behind since she had one more year of preschool before kindergarten.  Bountiful has been good to us in this regard as well.  We found a preschool that prepares kids for Chinese dual immersion so Ellie is also now learning Mandarin.  Her favorite color to say in Chinese is  红色 (hóng sè, meaning red), but we are working on 蓝色(lán sè, meaning blue).  She loves being a Happy Panda.  She is also learning to read and loves having her turn to read during family scripture study. 

Rachel, 1

Rachel (1), it goes without saying, has changed the most.  Last Christmas she was just learning to sit up and roll over.  Now, she is running (or at least trying to), talking, and playing along with her sisters.  She loves to sing—just turn on Katy Perry’s “Roar” and she’ll start singing along the best she can.  We took our first family vacation with Rachel, going to San Diego and SeaWorld.  It was so much fun to watch her experience the beauty and magnificence of the ocean creatures.  Her favorite stuffed animal is her dolphin, Skimmer.  Her latest favorite games include removing ornaments from the Christmas tree and un-cleaning the house in varying degrees—she especially likes to pull out what we have just put away.

We wish you a Joyous Holiday Season, and all the best in the coming year!

Love,

The Nichols Family     

We've grown!

Merry Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas to you and your family! 2014 has been quite an eventful year for us. A year ago I couldn't have imagined we'd have had the year we have had!

Brett finally succumbed to his itch for banking and left the law firm to go back to Zions Bank. Yes, that's right, full circle. He now works in downtown Salt Lake, riding the FrontRunner train to and from work each day. It makes for a very long day, but he is enjoying the work. He misses his wonderful coworkers from the law firm, but overall considers this a positive change. Brett started his new job just a few weeks after our family welcomed our fourth daughter.

Boston Rachel was born on July 11, at 7# 13 oz. She is a sweetie and we adore having her! She started smiling at 5 weeks (which was such a welcome sight to her frazzled Mommy!) and is a happy, delightful baby. And so cute, if I do say so myself!!

I have been completely wrapped up in Rachel, trying to get accustomed to Brett's new schedule, and keeping up with the big sisters' various activities. Most days, I run full speed and barely keep up. But they are days full of good things, and I’m told that shortly we'll look back and miss these days, so I try to enjoy them! I do catch a “break” every once in a while when I cover a shift at the clinic.

Katie made the decision this summer to be baptized. We are so proud of her choice and her desires to choose the right. Katie continues with gymnastics; in the spring she was invited to be on a team and has really improved her skills with the extra practice. She is often found doing handstands, cartwheels, round-offs, etc. whether it is outside or inside the house. She is in 3^rd grade and her third year of Chinese Immersion. Her teachers rave that she's a great student and quiet in class. (What?!? We wonder if her teachers are really talking about our daughter.) She is learning multiplication this year, and is often heard chanting the times tables in both English and Chinese. It's been a delight to her parents to hear her coaching Amanda in Chinese! For Halloween, Katie dressed up as Pocahontas, even making her own moccasins to wear!

Amanda was also invited to participate on the same gymnastics team as Katie. They love competing and doing all things gymnastics together. Amanda's smaller frame lends her to enhanced gymnastics abilities. She has a bubbly personality and easily makes friends wherever she goes. Amanda started 1^st grade and also started the Chinese Immersion program. She comes home every day singing in Chinese.  She is a voracious reader, preferring reading to most other activities. She joined the Frozen throng this year and was Queen Elsa for Halloween (thanks, Grandma, for the dress!).

Ellie started gymnastics this year as part of the toddler class at the gym. She loves to wear her leotard and go with the big girls. She also started a preschool this fall that she LOVES! She is picking up lots of new songs and working on letters, numbers, and social skills. She loves to share what she learned at preschool with her dad when he gets home from work. It's hard to believe she'll have another full year of preschool before she starts kindergarten. Ellie loves all things Ariel, peanut butter sandwiches, and Daniel Tiger.

 

We pray the spirit of Christmas will distill upon your family as we celebrate the humble birth of our glorious Savior!

the News

Introducing. . .
Boston Rachel (we call her Rachel)
Born July 11 at 7:41 pm
7 pounds 13 ounces
21 inches long
My biggest baby yet!

The girls love her and beg for sessions of holding her. We are still trying to come out of the haze, but Brett has been my lifesaver for the past 2 weeks. How would anyone ever do this alone? Welcome Rachel!

 

 

Freeze

I've been completely horrible about updating or recording anything. Sometimes, I just wish I could freeze time--somehow hold on to it for a little longer. I could say that I'm going to do better about recording things, but I know that I won't at least for a little while. Here's to a couple of moments that I did recently freeze.

Some other things I want to remember: 

Having a weekend without kids for our TENTH anniversary, but then I got stomach flu and ruined the entire thing.

Ellie, who sings so loudly during Sacrament Meeting that the people in front of us giggle, refused to go up and sing to me on Mother's Day--but cuddled on my lap instead.

 More to come. . ..  .