2011 Christmas letter

Dear Family and Friends,

Another year has passed and we are feeling very blessed and happily busy with our growing family. We hope that this letter finds all of you healthy and happy and that you are enjoying this wonderful holiday season. Once again, we want to touch base with all of our favorite people and let you in on the comings and goings of the past year at the Barfus household.

Hazel (in our totally unbiased opinion) is just about the cutest little 2 year old ever. She finally started walking (at 20 months) and is now a very happy and sweet full blown walking, talking toddler. She even has cute little nicknames for each member of our family. In fact, we have all sort adopted her nickname for Brigham and taken to calling him “Boo”. (Brigham, however, gets a little annoyed if anyone except Hazel calls him that.) She absolutely LOVES her uncle Matt whom she gets to see every morning before he leaves for work with daddy.

Brigham, 4, is a big pre-schooler this year and has been enjoying making new friends and learning new things at school. When he is not at school he loves to do puzzles, color truck pictures, and play with Hazel and his neighborhood friends. His favorite friend to play with is his sister, Rachel, so he is always happy when the girls come home from school. He loves Uncle David and Aunt Ruth’s dogs and he often asks us when he is going to get a brother.

Rachel just turned 7 a few days ago on December 8 and we celebrated with a bug party in honor of her love of all things little, creepy and crawly. While at parent-teacher conference a couple of months ago, I was a little speechless as Rachel’s teacher described what a mature and bright student Rachel is since she has always been a little rambunctious at home. I was aware of the fact, however, that she is an amazingly good reader for a 1^st grader (tested at a 4^th grade level!) and was happy to realize that she is maturing into quite a helpful and sweet young lady (with a whole lotta spunk). She loves to play with friends of all ages and (if I catch her at the right moment) is quite eager to help me with jobs around the house.

Eliza turned the big 8 this year and had a very special baptism with two of her best friends from the Spanish branch. We had a wonderful Easter weekend with Eliza’s baptism and both sets of grandparents there to share it with us. Eliza is very much a perfectionist and this is reflected in the fact that she is an excellent student and a very dedicated pianist. She also inherited Ben’s tendency to worry over everything so I’ve started to say that if she didn’t have something to worry about she wouldn’t know what to do with herself ;) She enjoyed playing soccer again this year along with her sister Emma and several friends from school and the branch on her team. She is also singing a solo in her school’s upcoming Christmas program.

Emma graduated into the double digits this year, turning 10 on August 10^th which also happened to be the first day of school and the first time she’s ever had to go to school on her birthday. She got her ears pierced and continues to grown up way too fast. She is an avid reader and read the entire Harry Potter series in about two months earlier this year and then the entire Fablehaven series right after that. She continues to be a wonderful student and was on the honor roll last quarter. She is also becoming quite a good little pianist and since learning “Fur Elise” a couple of months ago plays it constantly. She is also playing the violin this year in the school orchestra. She can be very quiet away from home, but despite her shyness she (along with her sisters most of time) stands and bears her testimony nearly every Fast Sunday.

I (Mistie) am happy to announce that that we are expecting a new baby in May and so I have been busy growing a baby which completely wiped me out for most of September and all of October! Earlier this year I ran my first Ragnar relay with Ben which was something I had wanted to do for a long time and was finally able to squeeze in between babies and pregnancies. I am very grateful to be serving as the YW president in the branch and I LOVED going to Girls Camp with my young women in June. Just last weekend I had another wonderful opportunity to sing with the local college in singing Handel’s Messiah and even had a small solo. I am the most grateful to have the best job in the world which is, of course, being a mom to my five amazing children.

Ben spent most of the year trying to keep up with our increasingly busy family and helping me whenever possible so that I didn’t go crazy. He enjoys practicing his Spanish in the Spanish branch and has been blessed to be able to associate with our amazing Stake Presidency as the High Councilor over the branch. He somehow has managed to keep running and, in addition to running two Ragnars this year, finished his first half marathon in October right here in Safford! He is a devoted father and husband and loves getting hugs and kisses from all of his “daddy’s girls”. Unlike Brigham, Ben would not be at all disappointed if this next one was another girl!

We love you all and hope you have a wonderful and merry Christmas!

The Barfus’