Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas Family and Friends,

This year has been an exciting, eventful, and at sometimes a very difficult one. Ryan finished up his last semester at Utah State University in the spring. In May he was awarded a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering and a Masters degree in Structural Engineering. Finally he’s done with school! In May he also started his first job as a structural engineer at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton Washington. So, we moved up to Bremerton right after graduation and started to make it home.

On August 13th Ryan’s father Kevin Whittier passed away after a 1 ½ year fight with cancer. We spent some time in Idaho visiting with him before his passing and then attending his viewing and funeral. Ryan and his sister gave a beautiful tribute to their father at his funeral. We miss Dad very much, but know he is looking out for us and will be with us this Christmas.

We rented for a few months and then bought a home in October. The home was built in 1939, a 4 bedroom, 1 bath, on ½ acre. The old house has been well maintained, has a lot of personality, and has a few kinks that we’re trying to work out. Ryan has asked me a couple times to “call the landlord”! We love having a place to call our own.

Ryan is enjoying his job and not being in school anymore. His is currently serving as the Ward Mission Leader over the Spanish program in our ward. The goal is to create a Spanish branch in our area. Ryan spends time fixing things around the house, playing with Cassia, keeping up on college football, and has even found someone to play racquetball with him a few times a week.

Crystal quit her job as a web developer to be a full-time stay at home Mom when we moved to Bremerton. She is enjoying spending time with Cassia and exploring new and old hobbies. She spends time running, playing basketball, reading, blogging, and learning new things. She’s found a new love for cooking and is trying to keep up on the technical world by building her own recipe website. She is currently a primary teacher over the sunbeam class (3-4 year old) in our ward.

Cassia has grown like crazy. She went from an 8 month old who was crawling all over the place to a 20-month old who is walking, talking, dancing, potty-training, and just enjoying life. She loves to read books, sing songs, give hugs and kisses, draw, try on anyone and everyone’s shoes, and get into all kinds of trouble. She is such a joy!

Our newest addition is expected to arrive the first part of April 2010. We are excited to have a little boy in our home and can’t wait for him to come.

We hope this Christmas season finds you well and happy. We hope you know how much we care about you and that you are in our thoughts often.

Love,
The Whittiers