2021 Family Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Here is a quick summary of our year in 2021. 

Brad has been working hard as a team leader at work for the last few years. We hosted a Christmas party with his team and it was fun getting to know them. Brad is an amazing person: he is great at doing dishes, helping Laya with school work, having stimulating family discussions, entertaining Evan and Lucas, helping us all with technology, watching his favorite shows, doing projects to improve the house, taking nature photos, getting outside for walks, jogs and hikes, getting us to church every Sunday, and driving Laya around to activities, stake dances and more.

Marilee has been working to balance the needs of the family while managing her own energy levels. She loves to get up early to prepare for the day, take the boys for walk/jogs around the neighborhood, work on speech therapy with Lucas and physical therapy with Evan, relax and play with the boys, drive Laya to seminary and school, have a date with Brad when she can, TRY to make dinners people will eat, journal daily about each child and write music and post songs online. 

Our 14 year old daughter (who wants me to stop talking about her by name online!) has started High School and is working hard to get good grades. She doesn’t have a lot of homework so far, but when it comes time for testing, she is all over the studying. She recently won most creative on her Allison in Wonderland themed ramp/car project for Honors Physics. She loves to recreate her bedroom every month or so, rearranging it and designing it in a new and creative way. She is a lot of fun to be around! She is quick witted, thoughtful, smart and funny and we are so grateful she is in our family!

Evan is in 4th grade and going to school, but for just a half day each afternoon. He loves to cuddle, listen to his crazy family, express his feelings and needs with his jumbled sounds, sit on our fake grass, play with his friends at school, ride the bus home, sit in the hot tub and go for walks. He has a harder time relaxing and is often moving around a lot, not always very happy, but he is almost always happy when he is on a walk or when we are cuddling him or supporting him on the floor. He is such a beautiful boy! 

Lucas is almost 2 years old. He is such a happy boy. He loves to walk around the house collecting items to put in his wagon, baby stroller or shopping cart. He has traveled to New Jersey with Mom three times this year and goes back again after Christmas. He loves to express himself by nodding & saying yes, shaking his head & saying no, signing baby sign language (his favorite signs are probably “eat” or “dad”), saying words that we don’t always understand and pointing. He has really discovered his screaming voice lately and thinks that is super fun! He loves to eat lots of healthy food (larabars are one of his favorites), push his brother around in his wheelchair and kiss his mama. He is the sweetest!

Love, The Leishmans