Merry Christmas

Well, another Christmas has passed and it was our best one yet. The kids were so much fun this year with the anticipation of Christmas and all the great things that go with it. We started it off early at 5:00 am the boys were up asking to get started, what ever happened to sleeping in? Every other year we had to wake them up, but it seems that if the get to bed super late, they get up super early.
Tate started the festivities at 4:00 crying for his blanket. This requires an explanatin. He had made a deal earlier with Santa's helper (aka Mom) that he would leave his old blanket, full of holes and barely held together, under the trees for the elves in return for a new one. I was so excited at the prospect of getting rid of that old rag that I shopped for days trying to find the right fabric (pirates) and stayed up til 2 am three times last week sewing and patching it all together to have it ready on time, not to mention my sewing machine broke in the mean time. Only to have him wake up at 4 am crying that he had changed his mind, well, Santa had already made his stop at our house so it was out of the question for us to make the change and miracuously Tate has loved his blanket and proclaimed it to smell the same as the old one! I think that is one successful trade! Now only to get Connor to do it with his bear, which he finally informed me at 10 pm Christmas Eve that he was ready to do, I told him next year......
Connor and Tate spent the day playing with Transformers, and thus Ryan and I spent the day putting Transformers together and finding missing parts. I think toys should come with parental warnings on the, ie. "warning will cause great aggitation between the 10th and 20th time putting this back together" or "will break quickly no matter what you spent on it". But, heh, it's Christmas.
Gage was just thrilled with opening presents, he didn't really care to play with anything except a rubber duck from his stocking and the empty boxes. Why is it that every year I swear to do less and only wrap boxes for anyone under two and I have yet to do it.
But all in all we had a wonderful Christmas this year spent with family and friends and trying to remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas, the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, to whom we all owe the greatest debt and should strive to emulate througout the year. Merry Christmas everyone, we wish you joy and happiness throughout the coming year.

Christmas 2007 Newsletter

Greetings Family and Friends,


I’m sure this comes as no surprise to any of you, but we didn’t get our act together early enough to send out a card or picture in the mail again this year. So, here we go again with the electronic Christmas card...I’m thinking this should just become the norm. ;)

This year has been a wild ride for the McCoy family. We’ve returned to Utah as I’ve grown my business with a merger and the hiring of several employees. I continue to work in the internet marketing industry with an eye on the international market. This year has been one of many business trips including Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Santa Barbara (CA) and Las Vegas. No matter how many times I’ve explained my business it still doesn’t make any sense to anybody outside of my industry. I’ll just say this; I am not the one responsible for the pop-up ads on your computer or all the SPAM clogging up your e-mail inbox.

Utah has been an adjustment for the boys that were accustomed to large tracts of land to play on and watch the wildlife. When we arrived at our new home to unpack the boxes and noticed the boys were uncharacteristically quiet we found them with their binoculars pressed to their bedroom window. We had to explain that “city” folk don’t like being looked at from behind a pair of binoculars quite as much as did the deer, bears, and moose of Northern British Columbia. The concept of a city lot was also a foreign concept as we had to constantly remind them this summer to stay in our yard.

Now for the quick run down on each member of the family:

Gage (now 23 months) is getting used to the rough and tumble life of being the youngest of three boys. He has learned to play rough with his older brothers and has learned to hold his own in wrestling, fighting for the tinker toys, and pushing Tate out of the way when dad comes home from work.

Tate is quite enjoying his new role as the big brother while Connor is away at school. He takes great care of his brother Gage and has really become a very pleasant boy. Tate enjoyed our family’s spring trip to Disneyland and is counting the days until he can go to the Jedi training academy like his big brother Connor. He is fascinated by all things Christmas this year and is found nearly every morning curled up under the tree with his blanket staring in awe at the Christmas lights.

Connor started kindergarten this year at Daybreak elementary and is thriving in his new environment. He is doing quite well learning every day and loves to tease his teacher, Mr. Plott about being a University of Utah fan. He gets along well with all his classmates and loves learning. At home he loves to tell his younger brother how much he knows. Kara and I have officially been replaced by his kindergarten teacher as the ultimate authority on any question he might have.

Kara has been really busy getting everything settled in the new house and has been a very good sport with all the traveling I’ve done this year. She misses her family and her store something fierce but has been very supportive of this move. She finds time to volunteer at Connor’s school on a weekly basis, do accounting and ordering for her store in Canada, and start a website selling vinyl lettering.

As a family we are really enjoying the many opportunities for entertainment, recreation, and proximity to so many friends and family that living in Utah provides. We have enjoyed hearing from so many of you this Christmas season and would love to get back in touch with so many others. Please call, send us an e-mail, or drop by for a visit.

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Best Wishes,

Ryan, Kara, Connor, Tate, and Gage McCoy


Other places you can find us:

Kara
Kara's Blog:

Kara’s New Project

Facebook

Ryan
Ryan’s Blog

Ryan’s Company
Facebook

Fall Pictures of the Kids

Fall at McCoy's

Well, I certainly have not been keeping up with this blog like I should. Just like so many other things in life, it was put on my to do list and I am finally getting around to it, before cleaning the basement, organizing the garage, setting up Christmas decorations, importing our car... the list goes on.
I have been working on getting our website up for vinyl lettering. You can check it out at www.pokiedots.com and make any orders you wish :) Thanks to my techno husband it is getting going. Because I have so much spare time to do more things!
The kids are doing great and had a great time trick or treating this last week. Connor was Harry Potter, Tate was Captain Jack Sparrow and Gage was a beaver, he hated dressing up, but he loved the candy and got the hang of running up to doors and holding out his candy bucket quite quickly. They were super fun and we enjoyed taking them. Connor was quite concerned that he did not receive any "healthy" snacks so he asked for some carrot sticks when he got home and was very worried that his teeth would rot out during the night. Maybe I scared him too much with all the talk about cavities? Tate didn't seem to mind and has been eating as much candy as he can. Gage has become a very proficient climber and can get into almost anything in the house now, not a good thing at all!
Ryan is super busy with his new business trying to get everything started and then trying to do my projects in the evenings, but he is enjoying the challenges of a start up. We are not quite used to the warm falls here, we are wondering where the snow is and the freezing temperatures. It doesn't feel like November here to us, but I imagine that will change soon. Anyway, that is about all for now. We are all well and happy and enjoying ourselves.

July Update

Well, I figured I had better get started on this whole blog thing so as to not to embarass my husband, the Internet guru (aka geek). We have recently moved back here to Utah and are enjoying it thus far, except the heat of course. Which has been complicated by our lack of air conditioning the past four days, hopefully that will be remedied by tomorrow.

The boys are settling into their new lifestyle quite nicely, they love the swim pool and riding their bikes on "real" roads instead of gravel, it makes the crashes nicer when you can steer onto the neighbors grass. Of course they have had a few problems with the differences here, the first being they can no longer use their binoculars to look out the back windows, the neighbors don't care for it much. The other being the use of the outdoor facilities, running into the bathroom is not always high on their list while playing outside and there are not so many trees here and a lot more neighbors, but they are getting it down.

Connor starts kindergarten in a few weeks, he is very excited, but I have mixed emotions, it depends on the day. Tate figures he will go along with him, of course his brother tries to set him straight but good luck arguing with Tate. Gage is just pleasant unless anyone crosses him or he wants something some one else has, which is all too often! Ryan is doing well with work, he loves the startup phase of all the new projects and that keeps him moving on. I am now finished unpacking and working on getting caught up with scrapbooking, that may never happen! But things are great for us and we hope for you all too. See you soon.

I have attached a picture of most of the LDS grads from Vanderhoof here, Darla Mecham, Annie Allred, Cherae Brophy, Jodi Heavenor, Shaylene Marks, Brynna Young, Kayla Gwilliam and Kasey Gulbranson.