Merry Christmas from the Norths

Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas from the Stewart North clan! Stewart and I have been talking about this past year’s events and have come to the conclusion this was one of those “one-day-at-a-time, nothing super mind-blowing happened” kind of years for us. So if you want to stop reading right now, no worries we won’t be mad. For those of you who are suffering from insomnia keep on reading you will be asleep in no time… that was a joke. Stewart, Sophie and I had a great year full of fun adventures.  Here are the highlights:

·          Stewart passed his second set of board exams and officially started his last year of medical school this past July. YIPPY!

·          At the end of July we packed up the car and drove to Idaho for my sister Emily’s wedding. Sophie is an excellent traveler and for the most part endured the trip well. She, like the rest of us, was happy when we did not have to spend all day in the car.

·          Stewart and I separated for two months (NOT WHAT YOU THINK), so he could do two one-month interview rotations at different residency programs he is interested in. He did one in Greeley, Colorado and one in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He will officially apply for residency programs sometime early next year; we should know where Stewart will do his residency by late march. 

·          Sophie turned two on October 1^st. She had a fun birthday complete with a small play date party with her friends and a Cookie Monster cake made by her mom. She loves telling people she is one and then as a second thought changing her answer to two.

·          Stewart is serving as the ward mission leader in our current ward in Beckley. He enjoys working with the missionaries. This past year the mission president split our ward boundaries into two working missionary areas. We are excited to have four amazing elders working in this part of the Lord’s vineyard.

·          I am serving as the Young Women President at current. I am enjoying this opportunity to work with the YW and have learned so much from them so far. I hope they are learning just as much from me. (Stewart’s note: the YW also love Becky. I can tell that they look up to her as an example)

·          Sophie loves nursery. She is one of 4 kids in nursery, and one of the more outgoing kids as well. She loves singing songs and playing with her favorite toys: a plastic gorilla figure and a toy police car (she seeks both of these toys out every Sunday without fail).

There you have it folks, our past year in a nutshell. We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and of course a Happy New year. May this next year be full of many blessings to you and yours.

Hugs!

Stewart, Becky, & Sophie

A few Sophie-isms (just for fun):

·          While changing her diaper she told us “Stop it, stop it, you need to Repent!”

·          During the night Sophie woke up upset, saying “mom took my sandwich… and threw it!” She was dreaming.

·          Stewart’s stomach made a loud angry-sounding noise to which Sophie said “oh thunder” Stewart told her it was just is tummy, and she replied by saying “no thunder” a few minutes later Stewart’s stomach gurgled again, with wide eyes Sophie looked up and said “oh scary, thunder!” 

Oh Christmas Tree

It is tradition in our home to put up our Christmas tree the first Monday in December for Family Home Evening. This year it was so much fun to put up our tree with the help of Sophie. She was so excited when she woke up from her nap to find a tree in the living room. I hope you enjoy the fun video I took of her and Stewart while we decorated our Christmas tree. Sophie is indeed at a fun age. And for all of you wondering if our tree still as decorations on it the answer is… yes. So far Sophie is not that interested in taking her decorations off her tree.

Thanksgiving

We ended up spending Thanksgiving alone this year. It sure was quiet and it would not be true if we said we did not miss being with all our extended families and joining in all the fun they were having together. We did however make the most of our family time together. We played with Sophie’s large box house, and while I made a yummy Thanksgiving feast Stewart and Sophie played with technology.

During the month of November, as a family we decided to start a new tradition. I made a large tree using craft paper and hung it on the wall. I then cut out some leaves using scrapbooking paper, and as a family we wrote things we were thankful on them each day. We added them to the wall to look like they were falling off the tree. I thought it turned out pretty awesome, plus it was fun to read all of the things we were thankful for when we took them off the wall at the end of the month. 

Thankful Tree

For the love of Technology

Leaves Leaves Leaves

Stewart and Sophie sure did enjoy the fall foliage from our large Oak tree in the back yard. It was fun to watch them play in the leaves from a distance since I am allergic. I am glad Sophie has a good father who wants to spend time with her as much as possible and always makes time for her.

Family Pictures and Sophie's Two year Pictures

Back in October I arranged to have our family picture updated and some two year pictures of Sophie to be taken. The Dentist I worked for has a brother in-law that takes pictures professionally so I got his contact info and asked him to take our pictures. We traveled to Lewisburg, WV the morning of Saturdays session of General Conference took pictures and then drove home in time to catch the first session of conference (you can do that when you live the eastern time zone because conference does not start until 12:00 noon).  I LOVE LOVE LOVE how they turned out, he did such a great job plus he was fun to work with. Here are a few of our favorites; I love how he captured our little Sophie’s personality in them. Enjoy!

If you are in the area of WV here is our Photographers info if you want to look into him taking your pictures: http://www.joshnibertphotography.com/

Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween, Stewart and I came up with a fun idea to dress up as…

WASHER AND DRYER and Sophie went as the SOCK MONSTER! We had a lot of fun designing our costumes and being remorseful. 

We also got a fun Halloween treat… SNOW! Because of Hurricane Sandy, we got about a foot or more of snow dumped on us. It knocked out a lot of people’s power again for up to two weeks. We were one of the lucky ones whose power was not even affected. Sophie wanted to go out and play in the snow, but once she got out there she decided that she enjoyed looking at the snow more then she enjoyed playing in it. It was fun to be snowed in for a while, but Stewart had a big task digging us out, which was not so much fun.

Trick or Treating was postponed this year until the following Saturday because of the snow. We decided not to take Sophie out in the cold for two reasons: one- we did not need/want the candy in our house and two- Sophie was sick and we did not want to get her more sick (even though we let her go play in the snow a few days earlier). We did however enjoy handing out what candy we could round up in our house to those who came trick or treating to us.  It was a fun Halloween for us, we hope it was the same for you.