Merry Christmas!

Knapp Family: 2013

            This year has been a monumental year for our family. We are grateful for our health and happiness as we’ve embraced so many changes in our lives. Here are a few highlights from the year:

§  Of course, first off, the biggest ‘event’ of the year was welcoming William Blair Knapp into the world in March. That little boy has stolen our hearts. He is such a bright and happy boy. He is an observer. He likes to see how things work, and watch things being done. Jumping is one of his loves, along with cuddling, watching cars drive by, being outside for any reason, waving and feeding himself. He is a Mama’s Boy, which his mama loves. Daddy enjoys involving his little man with work outside.

§  I (Tressia) enjoyed working as an aide to a Speech-Language Pathologist for a few months. Since having Will, I have enjoyed being a stay-at-home mom. I still work from home a little bit as a teaching assistant for online SLP classes at Utah State. I love taking care of Will and making our home a happy place to be.

§  Hiram successfully completed 2 more semesters of school, and will graduate in May! Yay for Hiram! Then it is on to grad school.

§  Hiram continues to work as an engineering assistant for the Space Dynamics Lab, a research facility at Utah State. He enjoys his work and the experience he is gaining there.

§  June took us to sunny California for a visit with grandparents in San Diego. Will did well on the flight and he loved all of the attention. Hiram’s mom came with us and we learned that traveling with a grandma is the best. We went on multiple dates and even slept in.

§  I (Tressia) ran in the Top of Utah Half Marathon in August. I’ve never been much of a runner before now, so this was new territory and I loved it. There will be more races in my future.

§  Hiram was called to be the Scoutmaster in our ward. This means lots of camping trips, which happens to be the perfect activity for a busy engineering student who spends a lot of his time studying. He loves spending time with the boys, and I love that camping gear is a really easy gift to give for all holidays.

§  For the majority of the year we had 3 siblings on missions! Celine just got back from Korea, Jill left for Norway and Royal is now in Ukraine. We have felt direct blessings of having full-time missionaries in our family.

We love being a family. We are so happy to be together. We know that “happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” One of our favorite times of each day is when we put Will to bed. One of us rocks him, and we sing to him. “Come Thou Fount”, “Silent Night”, and “Nearer, My God, to Thee” are some of our favorites, and they always bring a peaceful Spirit into our home. At this time of year especially, we are so grateful for peace, made possible by the Prince of Peace. We hope you all feel that same peace, and wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Love,

The Knapp Family: Hiram, Tressia and Will

Headed out to shovel snow.

And this is how Hiram does the dishes. Very efficient.

Opening our box of books from Mom and Dad! Will had a blast. And we got some great books!

Thanks for my new favorite toy Uncle Brandon and Aunt Brittany! 

My bright-eyed boy.

Here's Another Family Letter

December 8, 2013

            Merry Christmas! This is really the most wonderful time of the year. And today is especially special because Celine is coming home tonight! We will see her tomorrow. Yay! We’ve been telling Will all about his Aunt Celine and Aunt Jill and Uncle Royal. We’re excited for all of you to meet this little guy. Tomorrow will be a good day.

            Hiram has 4 finals this week and then he is DONE. It’s been a busy semester. This week Hiram was up until 3 almost every night working on homework. Then he would get up at 6:30 am and go to school. He just keeps going strong, though, despite the lack of sleep. He must be taking lessons from Cassie and Levi.

            Yesterday was an adventure for all of us. Hiram went with the youth in our ward to temple square. The YM president and his wife also went with their two oldest sons, and I babysat their 4 younger kids. 5 kids sounds like a lot, but it was a breeze. Their mom and dad both work a lot, so they’re used to taking care of things themselves, and on top of that, they’re just really good kids. I caught the 5 year old cleaning up the living room with no prompting from me. And the 11-year old took care of his little sister the whole time. Everyone had fun I think.

            We also got a nice surprise when our sink got clogged, filled up with water and started leaking out one of the pipes under the sink. The leaking stopped after not too long, so it didn’t make too big of a mess. Hiram got most of the water out of the sink and then poured a ton of Drain-O in. Moral of the story: Drain-O cleans your sink better than anything else in the world. We now have the world’s cleanest sink.

            And now, for the weekly Will update. He loves to jump in his Johnny Jumper. I don’t know how long he would stay in it because I take him out of it before he gets bored, like after 30 minutes. He is kind of signing “more”, but he gets it confused with clapping and sometimes signs “more” after I give him something. Waving is not as cool as it used to be, but he waves when we leave somewhere and whenever Hiram gets on his coat and hat. He can all of a sudden pick up food and put it in his mouth himself. And he’s much more interested in solid foods this week vs. last week. We bought a backpack carrier last week, and Hiram has been using it to bring Will with him when he shovels snow. Everyone loves this. I get a break, and the boys have fun outside. Will loves that carrier. He just sits in it and smiles and looks. It is higher up than us, so I think he really likes that.

            Well that’s all from here. We love you all! Hope you have a great week.

Love,

Hiram, Tressia and Will

He fell asleep in his bouncer. He loves it sooooo much!

He had to watch and see what was happening. Will is his father's son.

A much needed update

It has been a while since I've put up some pictures, and I have quite a few to add! This should probably be several posts, but it's just going to be a really long one.

Will loves this backpack. We borrowed one from our friends, and then decided to buy one for Will for Christmas. He got to go on a ride on the four-wheeler with Dad in this. He loved it, of course!

 Who's happier, Hiram or Will?

 Making apple juice.

 Cute little Emma!

 The men were in charge of turning the crank to press the apples. They are really fast!

 Will and Great-Grandma Knapp

 Larisa, Karl, Emma and Lydia had fun playing in the leaves.

 We made apple juice the day of Hiram's 25th birthday. He requested potato casserole and two kinds of pie. He always prefers pie over cake, and as a result, I am becoming very good at making pies! Here is the BEST pie recipe in the world. It's lemon sour cream. A lady I visit teach gave the recipe to me and we have it at least once a month.

 It looks like Will is blowing out the candles in this picture. Cutie pie!

Playing games with Grandpa Knapp.

 We played games with the Cub River clan and Denny and Becky Giles.

These next pictures are from Diana's baby shower in Rexburg.

 Diana got some really cute blankets from her mother-in-law. Chad and Seth were quick to pick them up and both lay down and cover themselves. Bedtime!

Opening presents.

Kelly's sisters and niece.

 Other guests.

 Kelly already knows how to make little babies smile!

 Pretty food layout. We had soup, rolls, some fruit and veggies, cookies and lemon bars.

 We made cards to donate to hospitals and food shelters.

And now for just some pics of our normal lives here in Cache Valley.

 Will occasionally gets up on his hands and knees, mostly only when his Daddy helps him get up. Hiram likes to work on walking and crawling with Will.

 We set up our Christmas tree!

 Happy little boy. That is my belt that he is chewing on.

 Happiness is when you have more pies than people in your house.

 At the Longmore's on Thanksgviving. Lovin' Chad's cowboy boots with his PJ's.

 Will watching his Daddy install a new door in the house we live in.

This is the basket of toys that Will empties at least once a day. Then we fill it back up and he gets all the toys back out again.

Happenings

Well, I think I might just start taking on Cassie's blog structure and just post our family letters with some pictures every week...Here's the letter from last week and a couple of cute pics. Enjoy!

November 4, 2013

            Well there is snow on the ground here. Goodbye fall. How did it get to be November? It’s okay, though because now it is officially Thanksgiving and Christmas season in my book! My favorite time of year. There is so much to look forward to!

            And Happy Halloween! We went to our ward trunk-or-treat, which was a blast, although it was pretty cold. Those little kids don’t seem to mind the cold, though! Not when there is candy to be had…And it’s always fun to see everyone’s costumes. A family in our ward with 6 kids did a Toy Story theme. The parents were Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. The kids were Jesse, Etch-a-sketch, a GI Joe, Buzz, and an alien. One couple our age dressed up their baby girl as an old woman (complete with a wig, glasses and a walker) and they were dressed as CNAs. It was so cute. Will was a farmer (picture attached) and Hiram and I were his cattle. We also went to a Halloween party on Friday night with some friends. The food was excellent, and so was the company! I made “Mummy Teeth” aka soft pretzels cut into squares. I made them myself and they turned out really yummy.

            Hiram has been talking to a lot of people about grad school and employment. The more we learn, the more it seems like this is really going to be real. Hiram is going to start applying for jobs since he can get his master’s slowly and work at the same time. We talked to RaeLynn a lot yesterday and she told us about where her son-in-law is working as a mechanical engineer, and the job opportunities he looked into last year. There are lots of options. Who knows where we’ll end up next year…

            Saturday was SOUPer Saturday, a giant Relief Society activity: 4 hours long, lots of projects to work on, lunch served. I love my calling, and I think Saturday was a big success, but I am happy that it is over. I felt like last week all I did was get ready for Super Saturday. Will was my little sidekick through it all and went shopping with me several times, and watched me make posters, dip pretzels and make many, many phone calls. Then Saturday he had a fun time in the nursery with Daddy during the activity. That kid was having too much fun all day and didn’t nap from 7:30am-3:30pm. It was a long day for him. But he sure was happy!

And then we messed up his routine again by going to Pocatello on Saturday night so we could be there for Evalyn’s baby blessing. We left right after the adult session of our Stake Conference and stayed with Rosey and Lance. It was nice to get there and spend a little time with just the two of them. It’s rare that we get to be with just them, and it was nice. They were so nice to stay up and visit with us! Oh, and Evalyn is the cutest, chunky baby! She is spoiled by all of us, and I think she always will be. Her blessing was beautiful and she looked darling in that beautiful dress! After church we all went back to Rosey and Lance’s and had a yummy lunch that Rosey had prepared. Rosey is super woman. Even with 4 kids to take care of she has the whole fam damily over at her house with a delicious lunch prepared for everyone. It was perfect. It was a special treat to see Grandma and Grandpa Cole! The cakes you brought were super yummy and it was so nice to visit with you there, too. And all the sistas sure had a fun time going through the old Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations that Mom brought. We really had the giggles, didn’t we?

And that’s the report! We are home now and Will is taking a nice long nap right now in his own home. When we put him in his crib last night, he just snuggled down like he was so relieved to have life go back to normal. It’s great to have a happy normal life to go back to, isn’t it?

Love you all!

Hiram, Tressia and Will

P.S. As of today, Will has 6 teeth! He cut two more.

Will was a farmer for Halloween.

Life is just so exciting!

This is the best time of year to take pictures

So we met up with some friends and they took pictures of us and then we took pictures of them. They turned out pretty good, and it was fun! Of course, Will stole the show. He is so darn cute. Please note the John Deere boots the little man has on.

Loving the Fall

Is anyone else LOVING the fall? I love Harvest Time. I have a cute harvest wreath hanging on our front door and right now pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are baking in my oven. Come over and have some! They are delicious. Here are some pictures of our life.

This is from last weekend when we were in Pocatello with the family. It was great to watch conference with everyone.

                                                                             

Here are some older photos.

Will likes solid foods alright if he can feed himself or if we put food into his mouth with our fingers, not the spoon. He particularly likes to take giant bites out of fruit. Then he spits most of it out. 

Me and my Will.

Sometimes this is the only way naps happen. Will likes to be cuddles to sleep. When he's tired, he buries his face in my arm or my chest. It is the cutest thing. I kind of love putting him to sleep like this.

Not that great of a pic, but Will is super happy and content sitting on Grandpa's lap while we all watch a movie. I think Grandpa is enjoying it, too!