I know, I know it has been a LONG time since I've posted anything on our blog.  In an attempt to reach all our friends and family I am posting our Christmas picture and letter here.  Have a very Merry Christmas!!  We love you all!

 

 

It’s official, 2012 was the fastest year ever … that is, until next year I suppose.  But it certainly has deepened our appreciation for the gifts of family, work, and faith.

Jana and I both turned 30 this year, and for some reason this seemed to officially close the chapter on our youth.  So I guess we are grown-ups now.

Jana continues to do an amazing job as our homemaker, and has fine-tuned her skills and knowledge in working with our food storage and emergency preparedness items.  Perhaps her favorite discovery this year was her sun oven.  She has used it to make all kinds of dinners, breads, desserts, and even our Thanksgiving Day turkey (which was superb by the way). 

I entered my eighth year of working at Namify, running their Marketing Department, and feel blessed to be a part of an expanding team.  Between that, my church responsibilities, and family time … I’m managing to stay out of trouble. J

Our oldest, Daylen (6), graduated from Kindergarten in the Spring and then anxiously plunged into the full-time schedule of 1^st grade.  He is reading so well – even tackling

many of the tricky old-fashioned words found in the scriptures – and he continues to surprise us daily with how “grown-up” he is.

Kate (4) started pre-school this Fall.  She likes her teacher and is making lots of new friends.  Like her siblings, she has really taken to art and drawing.  She is also well on her way as a caregiver … she loves to mother her dolls, change their diapers, put them down for naps, etc.

Brooks (2) has exploded with personality this year … one minute, he makes us laugh hysterically and the next he tests the limits of our patience.  His smile is infectious, he keeps us on our toes, and we wouldn’t trade him for the world.

Our newest addition to the family, Tucker, was born on September 16^th.  We marvel at the miracle of birth and absolutely felt the tender mercies of the Lord surrounding his arrival into our family.  The adjustment from 3 children to 4 was quite noticeable, but luckily Tucker has been a very happy baby, and has already taken to a good routine.

With the way our world is changing so rapidly, it brings us great peace to once again celebrate the birth of our Savior – the one constant exemplar, our sure rock.  Our witness is that He lives, He loves us, and He desperately wants us to trust His commandments in order to return safely home.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

The Gasaways
Brad, Jana, Daylen, Kate, Brooks and Tucker

Birthday Boys!

My baby turned 1! I cannot believe it's been a year already. I wish I was a little better at celebrating my kids' birthdays. I'm going to have to be better because birthdays are now BIG deal for Daylen. He gets excited to celebrate anyone's birthday. I figure, with the first few, are they really going to remember it anyway? Why go to all the hard work and set such a high standard for myself. I know, I'm lazy. So when we got our tickets to see "Wicked" in Boise for May 5, yeah, it was AMAZING by the way, I figured we could celebrate with Benson! Benson's birthday was May 3 and Brooks' was May 8, 5 days apart these cute boys are. We made a cake and opened a couple presents and called it a party!

A little hesitant at first...

...then he just went for it!


Our miniature Nathan right here.

and he's still going for it.

Lily and Kate

Daylen and Nathan

"Thank you, Thank you."

Finishing what fell from his tray, gotta get every last piece!

Yes, his birthday present was a toothbrush. He doesn't know the difference, right? :)

Ooohhh, now that's cool. So maybe he did like Benson's present better.

We love our sweet Brooks. I am having a harder time letting him grow up, I know how fast it goes and I want to keep him little! I think it will still be awhile before he is walking, which will help me think of him as a baby still. He has been my "mama's boy" and is a little more attached than my other kids have been. He is even starting to say "mama" his first word! He loves to watch his older brother and sister play, especially when they play with him. He has a great smile and some day he will have hair. :)

Tangled

Daylen and Kate love "Tangled," I don't blame them, I love it too. They love it so much they act out the movie when they aren't watching it. Can you guess what scene this is?

Kate is trying on her invisible crown here...


And just some recent pictures...

Pretty Toes!

While I was putting Brooks to bed tonight, Daylen cracked open the door to tell me Kate wanted her toes painted. I told him she will have to wait a minute cause I'm feeding Brooks and putting him to bed. Once Brooks was down, I went to see what Daylen and Kate were doing in my bathroom. I was a little nervous because of my previous post, and Kate has busted a bottle of finger nail polish in the past. (So not fun to clean up!)

Well, thankfully no fingernail polish was on the floor, I found this instead...

I can just see it now, "Kate, mom can't paint your toes cause she's putting Brooks in bed. But don't worry, I can do it!"

Kate's Conference Contributions

After Daylen's inspiring Conference post, I figure I better add one for Kate. During the afternoon session of Conference today I suddenly realized it was very quiet and Kate was no where in sight. Nice for us watching Conference, but a scary thought for whatever part of the house Kate is in. I asked Daylen to go tell Kate to come upstairs with us. When she came up I asked her where she had been and what she was doing. She answered, "playing with flour in your bathroom." What? I was not excited to find out what that meant. After Conference was over I headed downstairs to find out what my little mischevious child had gotten in to this time. I found this...

It was not flour, it was salt and my makeup brush. All over the floor and into the carpet. Really? Really Kate? Seriously what makes kids come up with some of the things they do? As Brad said last week after Daylen wrote with a permanent marker on our van window, "What are you thinking? Why would you do that?" When it comes to kids there really is no answer I guess. You just gotta chalk it up for one more thing to laugh about later. And really, with hair like this, what else can you expect?

Daylen's "notes"

So it's General Conference Weekend again. Love it. Can't believe it's been 6 months already since the last one. As we sat in our family room this morning to watch it on TV (love it) Daylen had a notebook and pen, he and Kate love drawing and writing in notebooks. Brad told Daylen he needed to go get his notebook, too, and Day asked him what he was going to draw in it. So Brad told him he was going to take notes. Partway through the session Brad asked Daylen what his drawing was, Daylen informed him it was his "notes."

I was so impressed when I saw this!

He recognized the song "I know My Redeemer Lives" when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang it cause they learned it in Primary last year, he informed Brad his notes were of this song.

Musical prodigy?

Maybe?

Yeah?

Ok. But still.

March Madness

March Madness took on a new meaning at our house this month. It was full of fun, family craziness! My parents and Kara came to visit for a long weekend and we got to watch Lori compete in Dancesport and do AWESOME! She took 7th place in the country polka and 5th in the triple swing, woohoo! It was fun to have them make the long drive to see us, thanks mom and dad!

The next weekend we had all of Brad's family come stay with us for a week. That means we had 32 people consisting of 12 adults and 20 kids all living under our roof for a week. Sounds absolutely insane, I know, but it was really fun! Everything went very smoothly, I assigned meal days to each family which I thought worked out awesomely, and everyone was a big help. This was the first time EVER Brad's entire family has been altogether, which means cousins were meeting each other for the first time and meeting Aunts and Uncles for the first time. I loved watching the cousins play together and get to know each other and become more comfortable. All the adults were able to go do a Temple session together, which was way cool,(big thanks to Lori for coming and watching the kids for us!) So here are a few pictures I had of our adventures...

I really should have taken another picture because pretty soon there was no room for the bowl, it was just all cups. I also need to get a picture my sis-in-law took of our front room with all the shoes lined up by the door, pretty crazy!

Playing games

Flying kites and a Sunday walk

Crafting it up with Aunt Mandy

Dusty's monster

Brooks would not open his eyes for a picture. He kept closing them anticipating the flash.

All the grandkids sang a song for Gma and Gpa's 40th Anniversary, so cute!

Swimming at the Springville pool for family night.

The Hogle Zoo

We had such a fun time, the house seems so quiet now! Thanks everyone for coming!