Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Dear family and friends,

We’re calling this our “Happy St. Patrick’s Day Letter” since that is the nearest holiday, and, like any good drinking Irish Catholics, this holiday is very meaningful to us. This has been a very eventful year for us, and I’ve been given the assignment from my superior to tell you about it.

The biggest event of 2014 was the death of Bonnie’s father Guy. He was diagnosed late 2013 with terminal brain cancer and we felt very fortunate to have so many good days with him before we had to say goodbye. Some of those good days were at a family reunion in St. George. A beautiful home was rented with a luxurious pool and hot tub. We laughed a lot. I went golfing with grandpa Guy and Haken (I didn’t know that would be my last round with him) and it was an overall pleasant week. As Guy declined, we took more opportunities to be in Centerville with him and Lori. We have found the promise in the Doctrine and Covenants to be fulfilled where the Lord said “Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die...And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them;” We miss Guy terribly, but we know he is engaged in the great work of the Lord on the other side of the veil, and we know he is one of those angels who “speak [to us] by the power of the Holy Ghost” and he is still an intimate part of our life.

The second biggest event of the year was the birth of our fourth child, and third son, Benny. His birth was a special day and we're glad he made it here safely. He's a good eater, and quiet cryer (I have no idea where he gets it because we're a loud bunch).

Aside from both these landmark events, here's a quick update from our daily lives. Haken turns 8 in June and is trying to finish the Book of Mormon before he gets baptized. As he's only in 2 Nephi, he may need to finish up with the children's reader version. He's become quite the little writer and is obsessed with geography. When I showed him Google earth, I think he literally died for a second.

Jack (and us) has had one year to get used to life with type 1 Diabetes. We just started to feel confident when he got the flu. It got scary really quick. But no worries, apparently we're just to expect one ER visit a year, that's the diabetic way. Anybody who knows Jack loves him, he walks around like a miniature Zack Morris (that's a "Saved by the Bell" reference) saying "what's up" to the adults and shortening all his friends name, "Hey Liv."

Grace hasn't grown in two years. I'm not kidding, she still wears some 9-12 month clothes. But she walks and talks like the almost three year old that she is. It's funny to watch people stare at her like she's this super genius one year old. I'm OK if she's behind physically, maybe she can make through high school looking like a ten year old. Her girliness is off the charts from her love of getting her hair done to her insistence on wearing only things that are pink or sparkling. She is adorable and I think we'll keep her.

Bonnie ran a half marathon while she was pregnant. (Thought I'd throw that in there because it's so hard core). She has added to her domestic goddess rap sheet a specialty in couponing, and can sell anything on the classifieds. It's really amazing. She's amazing. The highlight of our summer was getting to go to Boston, then New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio on a Church History tour. We got to spend 9 days together (thank you grandma Lori for taking the kiddos for that long) and we made some wonderful new friends.

I have been enjoying my assignments at work teaching freshmen the gospel and writing seminary curriculum. I feel like I get the best of both worlds and could keep this up as long they'll let me. I've recently tried my hand at photography and it's my current artistic expression (obsession?). And I got myself committed to running a half marathon this year. Somewhere in hell a snowball is making it.

We thank you all for your love and friendship. Please keep in touch with us. We're on Facebook and Instagram. We both blog (Bonnie: shadandbonnie.blogspot.com and Shad: shadmanderson.wordpress.com and you can check out my photography at shadanderson.photography) and you can even call us on one of those telephones things.

Much Love,

Shad, Bonnie, Haken, Jack, Gracie and Benny