Thanksgiving Newsletter 2007

Where there is great love, there are always miracles.

—Willa Cather

Happy Thanksgiving from our hearts to yours. A new job, another kid in school, and all of them growing and changing all the time. Here are some highlights from the past year.

• Biggest event: A windstorm that swept through our yard taking down our fence and uprooting a 50-foot shade tree—a birthday Ty will not forget!

• Happiest event: Kiersten turned eight, was baptized, and received the Holy Ghost
• Favorite recipe this year: Fresh corn salsa
• Missy's most recent and favorite discovery: Caesar salad with extra garlic
• Biggest fight: All four kids over a times table placemat; even Ashlyn calls "I get the times table placemat!" Erik loves math and is trying to complete 200 math questions in 5 minutes. Ty taught Kiersten a trick to the 11 times tables. Ask her 11 x 53 and she'll tell you the answer. Nate has also jumped on the times table bandwagon and even beat Erik in answering 9 x 2 one day.
• Game of the year: Stratego. Daily Stratego matches have taken over our home.
• Most quoted expressions: "You missed me!" and "Do the Ashie do." Ashlyn is quick to run and hug whomever happens to walk through the door, even if they only went to get the mail. She also asserts her 2-year-old independence by saying, "Ashie do," and the others mimick by saying, "Do the Ashie do."
• #1 pastime: READING! Kiersten again has probably outread all of us. She participated in the Book Battle (a Jeopardy-like contest on books they've read, complete with buzzers). Erik will read when it's required and is studying for his Book Battle, Nate can read simple books, Missy's favorite find is These Is My Words by Nancy Turner (I also thoroughly enjoyed Jane Eyre, a book I had never read), Ty's been captivated by a book titled A Short History of Nearly Everything, and Ash just likes to be read to.
• Award for most callings held in a year (thankfully not simultaneously): That would go to Missy who started out teaching in Relief Society, was called as the visiting teaching coordinator, and several months later moved back into a Primary presidency after a 2-year hiatus.
• Funniest joke: "Why did the chicken cross the road? Because it did." Ashlyn's the jokester who came up with that one.
• Newest words from Ash: Honeybird for hummingbird and chin grass for Dad's goatee (may have started as "chin scratch").
• Home improvement of the year: Walkways (thanks to Uncle Bob and his fantastic crew!).
  

• Favorite summer activity: Our garden. It's been three years since we planted a garden and we were all so excited to see things start to grow again. Many mornings I would find all of the kids out in the garden first thing searching for peas or raspberries or beans or whatever happened to be growing at the time.
• Some firsts for Nate: Learned to ride a bike, tie his shoes, and started kindergarten.
• Nate's #1 disappointment with kindergarten: No homework. He begs me every day to find some for him. Sometimes he'll open his little black spiral notebook and start copying words into it.
• Favorite aspect of Ty's job: No more traveling (or at least very little).
• Best seamstress: Kiersten. She sewed her own skirt and proudly wears it to church.

• Community involvement: Erik started a chess club that became a basketball club as the weather warmed up this past spring. Missy volunteers as webmaster and treasurer for the Stansbury Park Community Association and maintains a website for the Stansbury Soccer Club. Ty still does finance lectures at BYU.
• Funnest vacation: San Francisco sans kids. Ty and I went for 5 days in June to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Loved Alcatraz and Muir Woods.
• Cutest story about friendship: Nate's best friend, Noah, brought over an old wallet that had a dollar bill hidden in it. Noah really wanted to share with Nate, and after much thinking they decided to cut it in half. Each one came away with half with no real way to spend it.
• Ty's rediscovered hobby: Fishing, especially night fishing. We've had a few trout fries for breakfast recently.
• Supercalifragilistic expialidocious: A favorite song of Kiersten and Nate. Kiersten and Erik have both become very proficient at the piano (despite having their mom as the teacher) and even play simple duets together.

Check out our website at http://tyler.learyfam.com for pictures and the latest happenings.

Wish this coming year:

May your year be filled with many miracles as you experience the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ in your life.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

TY, MISSY, KIERSTEN, ERIK, NATE, and ASHLYN

Fresh Corn Salsa
2 c. fresh corn kernels (about 4 ears) OR frozen kernels, thawed
½ tomato, seeded and chopped
¼– c. purple onion, chopped
¼ c. red bell pepper, chopped
2 T. fresh cilantro, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
½ t. salt
t. pepper
½ t. crushed garlic
2 T. lime juice
sugar

Combine corn, tomato, onion, bell pepper, cilantro, and jalapeno pepper. Add salt and pepper. Add lime juice, garlic, and sugar until it fits your taste. Serve with tortilla chips.