2011 Newsletter

Dear Family and Friends,

2011 has had its ups and downs. When it started we were still living in Lewisburg, WV. Sophie was 3 months old and couldn't do a whole lot besides sit there and look cute, which she still does very well by the way, she's just added a lot of other skills to her repertoire. Stewart was half way through his second year of medical school and serving as the Young Men President in our ward. Becky was enjoying the whole stay-at-home routine and serving as the secretary in the Relief Society at church. January through the first of April felt pretty routine. Stewart studied for tests, Becky kept things running smooth at the house, and Sophie grew and changed every day. In the early part of April things got very exciting very quickly. Stewart got very sick and spent four days in the hospital. He was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Crohn's disease is an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the digestive track as if it were an infection. There is currently no cure, medications can help manage the disease, but that's all.

In May Becky and Sophie took a two week trip to Idaho to visit our families. This was Sophie's first chance to meet most of her aunts, uncles, cousin, and grandparents. They had a wonderful time out there, but we missed not being together as a family. Stewart took advantage of the alone time and studied for the first part of his board exam. In June Stewart got sick again and went to the emergency room. This time they knew the cause and knew there was not much they could do, so they sent him home with something for the pain and nausea. Two days later he took his big test. Needless to say our family was praying a lot that day. After his test we spent a few days packing our belongings, loaded up the moving truck, and moved one hour West to Beckley, West Virginia. We are renting a house from one of Becky's previous co-workers. We love the house, love the yard, love the location, and love everything about it. This is our first time living in a house in our married life and we really enjoy the privacy. Our house sits on a double lot, so there's plenty of yard space. We even got permission to put in a garden. Stewart mows the lawn, which, although he hates to admit it, is relaxing for him. Becky spent much of the summer canning. She filled our pantry with salsa, grape juice, grape jelly, apple sauce, apple pie filling, blue berry syrup, and peaches.

In July Stewart started his 3rd year rotations. He really enjoys being out of the classroom and into the clinic. He likes working with people instead of text books. He still has to do plenty of studying, but at least he gets to pretend like he's a doctor during the day. So far he has completed rotations in family medicine, psychiatry, internal medicine, OB/GYN (delivering babies), and OMT (kind of like what a chiropractor does).

We like our new ward at church. It is smaller than our previous ward because there are no other medical students here. Stewart is serving now as the ward mission leader. That means he serves as kind of a go-between for the full-time missionaries and the local members. In October there was a big festival about an hour North of here called Bridge Day. People come from all over to jump off the New River Gorge Bridge (with parachutes of course). A large crowd gathers to watch them. Stewart helped run a booth at the event for our Church. It was a lot of work, but it was rewarding. Becky is now serving as the Young Women President. She plans activities and lessons for the teenage girls in the congregation. She was very nervous when she was first called, but she has lots of good ideas and is having a lot of fun. The young women love her and look up to her.

Sophie is no longer the three month old who just sits and watches us. She is now walking and running, playing, and even talking. For a long time she called Stewart, Becky, and herself "Dada." Then just before Christmas she started calling Becky "Mommy." Becky was happy to finally be known as Mommy. Stewart was disappointed to see that instead of adding Mommy to her vocabulary she just switched, so now he was also Mommy. Oh well. She will figure it out eventually. Sophie is very social. She smiles a lot and likes to say hi to people we meet. She is very expressive with her face and her voice. She loves people.

We were able to fly to Idaho and visit our families for Christmas. We had a wonderful time playing games, talking, socializing, and rekindling relationships. We are grateful for airplanes that allow us to travel such great distances in a matter of hours.

2011 has been a challenging year. We hope that 2012 is a little more gentle on us. We are grateful for our blessings. We hope that you and your families had a good year, and that the year ahead is even better!

Love the North family
Stewart, Becky & Sophie

Christmas in Idaho

We had a lovely Christmas this year, because my family had only seen Sophie once before when she was 7 months old they decided to fly us to Idaho as a Christmas present. So for the first time since moving to West Virginia we were able to spend Christmas in Idaho with our families! Yea for technology that makes that possible.

We had to take a later flight out of Charleston WV, then we wanted so that put us arriving in Boise after midnight. Needless to say we were tired by the time we got there since it was past 2am back in WV. So the first day we were in Idaho was recuperating from our flight, and a nice brisk walk around the farm to show Sophie the baby calves and for us to stretch our legs and exercises.
After our day of recuperating we took off the next day to drive to the Rexburg/ Pocatello area so we could visit with Stewart’s family. It was good to see them and for Sophie to play with Blaz and Sam her only cousins. It was fun to watch Blaz and Sophie play together and laugh, it really is too bad we don’t live closer together so they could play with each other more often. While we were in Rexburg Stewart and I took the opportunity to go to the Rexburg Temple and do a session. We left Sophie with her Grandpa/ma North and Aunt Tasia, when we got back she was taking a nap and from what I could tell she had a fun time. It was so nice to go the temple again as a couple, it has been since before Sophie was born that Stewart and I have been to the temple together. I loved being there so much I had a hard time leaving. For those of you who live close to the temple don’t take it for granted it, because one day you could live 4.5 hours from five different temples and not be able to go as much as you would like.

We enjoyed seeing as many of Stewarts family as we could while we were in the area, it was a quick trip but we were glad to took the time to come say hi, and capture some pictures for Sophie.

Sophie, Sammy, and Blaz

All the grandkids with thier Grandpa & Grandma North

Sophie with Stewart's Aunt Barbara and Grandma North

Sophie with Great Grandma North

Sophie with Great Grandpa/ma Hudson

When we got back to Bruneau after our trip to Rexburg my sisters were all home, yippy! For the first time in a long time all of us were together including Stewart so my mom arranged for us to take some family pictures, I got to see them before we left to come back to WV and I think they turned out nice. Anyway, we spent the reminder of our vacation with my family playing games and celebrating Christmas. I really liked having Christmas fall on a Sunday this year; it helped me keep a good perspective of the true meaning of Christmas. I suggested that as a family this year we wait until after Church to open gifts, so we woke up and went to church and enjoyed remembering our Savior and all he did for us by coming into this world.

When we got around to opening gifts Sophie was taking a nap so we did not get a whole lot of pictures of her opening gifts and the ones we did get ended up being blurry. Sophie received lots of books and a few clothes from her grandparents along with the stuff I made her. It was a real simple Christmas for us since money was/is tight. It was just fun to be with family and to enjoy our time together.

One of the perks of being around so much family who only have one niece is that they all adored her (and who wouldn’t) so they all wanted to take her here or there and play with her, so I truly was on vacation. I think Sophie enjoyed all the attention as well.

Sophie on the Tractor steps

Sophie in the Tractor Tire

Sophie with Aunts Emily and Margie

Sophie by the baby calves

Sophie and I jumping on the trapoline

Saying goodbye to Grandpa Hegerhorst at the airport

Saying goodbye to Grandma Hegerhorst at the airport

Our time in Idaho seemed to go fast, and it was sad to say goodbye but we were glad we got to be with family over the Christmas holiday. Thanks for the fun time in Idaho everyone we loved seeing those we could and had a great time re-kindling our relationships. We hope you loved seeing us too *SMILE*.

A Homemade Christmas

For Christmas this year, since money is tight I decided to make Sophie her Christmas presents. I think they turned our near perfect. I made a small quilt with fabric I got on sale, I gleaned some ideas off the interned from THIS websight. I found a quilt pattern and color scheme that I really liked so I followed the tutorial and this is what the finished project looks like.

I decided I wanted to make Sophie a pair of mittens so I found some fleece in the dollar bin at Hobby Lobby and again searched the Internet for a PATTERN or tutorial and this it what the finished project look like. I added the ribbon hoops and snap cord so that Sophie won’t be able to lose her mittens; I think they turned our lovely.

The last project I made was quiet book; when I hear the words “quiet book” I think of a book I can take to church to keep Sophie quiet, well I wanted something that I could use outside of church so this is what I came up with. I got a few patterns/ideas from THIS web sight, and then some of the ideas came strait from me (believe it or not). I love how most of the pages turned out. I still need to make a cover for the book itself but hey at least the pages are finished… right?

The Frogs Tongue snaps to the flies

The Alligators teeth zip and un-zip

This Caterpillar Velcros on and off

This fish has a magnet in him so that he can be magneted to the fish bowl

The Monkey Swing from tree to tree. I forgot to take a picture of it but if you pull back the grass on the left there is a tiger hidden back there.

All the Farm animals Velcro on and off, the barn door opens, and the whole barn itself is a pocket for all the animals to be tucked away in.

I guess now I should start on Stewart’s gifts, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Sophie in the Snow

We had a freak snow storm last Wednesday, December 7th, which made it impossible for us to have our regular Wednesday night meetings at the church. I being the YW president had planned to have our YW in Excellence program that night, and was excited to get it done and out of the way, but since it snowed we had to postpone it. So after cursing the snow for a while, Stewart, Sophie and I headed outside to play in it. This was Sophie’s first real experience with snow, since last year she was only 2 months old in December. She had a lot of fun playing in it and experiencing the cold. We had a lot of fun making snow angels, and having a snowball fight. I am grateful for impromptu family moments, they make the best memories.

I was shoveling the driveway when I looked over to see how Stewart and Sophie were coming along with their snow man what I saw was Stewart focused on his snowman and Sophie stuck in a snow drift. She lost her footing and face-planted herself in the snow. If you look closely you can she the outline of her nose, eyes, and lips.



A short video of Sophie in the snow

Christmas Traditions

We have a tradition in our home to put up our Christmas tree the fist Monday after Thanksgiving. This year was lot of fun because Sophie was old enough to help, or hinder which ever way you look at it. We had fun watching Sophie, her eyes lit up when she saw the lights on the tree and then she got even more excited when we started putting ornaments on the tree. She kept saying over and over, pretty pretty. We decided since we did not have any non-breakable bulbs we would leave the glass bulbs off the tree this year and decorate it with all of my childhood ornaments I collected each year for Christmas growing up as well as some Stewart and I have added to the collection since being married. One of our traditions is to get a new tree ornament each year that represents that year. We have added an ornament with Stewarts Medical school initials on it, WVSOM, one with the first town we lived in when we moved to West Virginia, Lewisburg, one we found in the parking lot at the Holt Arena walking home from school after we got married, one with the picture of the Boise Temple on it, since that is where we got married, one with Sophie’s little newborn hand print on it, and many more. This year Stewarts new ornament was little Bateman ornaments, since he keeps telling me he is Bateman, his answering machine on his cell phone even makes reference to the fact he is Bateman. Sophie is into Big Bird so she got a Big Bird ornament that she finds every morning and pulls it off the tree to carry around with her throughout the day. I did not get an ornament this year, I can’t seem to find one that fits me, maybe I will find one during the after Christmas sales, or I will make one since I have been big into crafting this year, guess we’ll see. Below are some pictures of Stewart and Sophie decorating the tree, I was there but someone had to take the pictures.

Another one of our Traditions is to make Graham Cracker houses, with friends each year. This year we invited the Stacy family and Larry Petrie over for dinner and festivities. We had a lot of fun, even thought trying to build a house with a toddler demanding your attention was tricky. Stewart and I built three town houses, the Stacy family built an LDS temple, and Larry built a church with a nativity on the backside. This was Larry’s first time ever participating in GC house building; I think he enjoyed it along with everyone else. I think this is one of our favorite traditions, we always make sure to build the house as a couple so that we can learn how to communicate better with one another. Good times… below are some pictures of us with our finished projects. Enjoy!

Larry Petire, Stewart North, and Brian Stacy

Larry's wife lives in Idaho so she is missing, Becky North, and Laura Stacy

Must Try Recipe

Tomato-Basil Parmesan Soup

I made this soup the other day for dinner and it was soooooo good, I had to share.

Click HERE to find the recipe

PS: the picture is not mine I borrowed it from the above blog