Merry Christmas, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope this letter finds you all happy and well and enjoying this wonderful Christmas Season. I have decided to cut back on the cost of printing letters and pictures and just do a Christmas blog. This way you can look back on previous years, or just browse this years letter and pics. I also like to be able to look back on all of our Christmas letters and pics in one place.

First off I have to apologize for not getting a Christmas letter out last year. Molly was born on January 17, 2007, and that is all I need for my excuse of not getting a letter out. So we will start way back there.

We had a wonderful 2006 holiday season with Greg's family and stayed home in Mexico. Alan was at the time, 2 years old. Molly was supposed to be born on Feb. 3, 2007, but she decided she was done cooking and came a few weeks early. It was a very fast birth and we had a midwife come to the house again. Molly was born at 11:22 p.m. and after I laid there for an hour and a half and the placenta still would not come out we called a doctor and made a trip in the ambulance to the hospital. (Can't I please just have a NORMAL birth!?) Molly was a tiny little thing, 2 lbs. smaller than Alan was at birth, 6.4 lbs, 19 inches long.


It never snows where we live, but literally days after we had Molly it snowed a TON!

Happy February!


Molly was blessed in March.

Father's Day 2007

Greg was busy all year with the greenhouses, but took some time in August to go with us to AZ.
I did a lot of bottling during the summer and fall. Applesauce, and yes, we go through that much applesauce in a year.

Alan was boots for Halloween and Molly was appropriately a devil.



We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas at my parent's house in Gilbert.

So, now onto 2008! Molly turned one on Jan. 17.

She is a very slow growing little girl, she has tons of hair, but still only weighs 20 pounds (and she will be two in a month!) She started walking a few weeks after her birthday. She is now jabbering away and lets you know exactly what she wants.
This was a few days after she started walking, she got two bumps and then Alan drew on her with a pen.

We went to AZ in March and enjoyed a trip to the zoo. Alan after looking at the flamingos for a while "Mommy, some of them have one leg and some of them have two legs!"


Alan is still enjoying Joy School that we do twice a week.
He turned 4 in September.

Alan was SUPER ALAN for Halloween and Molly was a Koala Bear.

I again bottled a lot of peaches, apples, applesauce, apple pie filling, pears, soup, tomatoes, jam, apple juice, and enchilada sauce. I have also become a tiny bit obsessed with organizing since Molly was born. Poor Greg is still trying to figure out where the tape is. I love to clean out the closets! I also repainted the kids room this summer. It was yellow and now it is brown, white, pink and blue.

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents house, and I shopped like a fool on Black Friday! Santa got a great deal on a Trampoline!

We will be in MX for Christmas and I am really looking forward to a nice Christmas! We are truly blessed for our health and safety each and every day. We love our little family so much it hurts and we are looking forward to tons more fun in 2009!

Love: Greg, Cambria, Alan and Molly Memmott

2006

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a year of two's and seconds! As you will recall we moved from Gilbert, AZ to Mexico in January We made TWO trips hauling all of our stuff but we finally made it. It then took us about TWO weeks to get situated in our SECOND house that we have lived in in our marriage. We were then very lucky and sold our house in Gilbert after it being for sale for about TWO weeks.

Greg has had about TWO different positions at the Elementary School this year. The first was the director (or principal) and then he switched and did P.E. What a demotion, you may say, but the directorship had a lot of overtime and a lot of stress, so the switch was actually very beneficial for our family. He now has TWO different cell phones so I can track him down wherever he is. He also bought a SECOND-hand lawnmower for our much larger yard. Alan loves to go for rides on it. He also celebrated his SECOND Father's Day this year and loves being a Dad. He put up a greenhouse in January and February and is working on the SECOND one. He is working on plant propagation in them, which is basically growing root stock for local farmers. He has also made TWO trips to visit family in Arizona with Alan and I.

I am now pregnant with our SECOND child (due Feb. 3, 2007). This caused me to spend TWO months lying on the couch with a severe case of morning sickness. This baby is a girl, and the pregnancy has been very different than Alan. I also spent TWO days in the hospital after contracting a parasite from the water. I was about twelve weeks pregnant and I dropped about 15 pounds in TWO weeks and then laid on the couch for another TWO weeks eating rice and chicken broth. It was NOT fun, but I am doing much better now! Only TWO more months to go and then she will be here. I am also planning on using my SECOND midwife to have my SECOND home birth. Hopefully it will actually be a home birth this time, and not the back of an SUV birth. I also got TWO teeth pulled at the beginning of hte year, so I could get braces for the SECOND time in my life. My front teeth were moving a lot and after much debate I decided to get them fixed again. Hopefully this time it is for good! I also did a lot of bottling this year and have made some quilts. I also go walking with TWO friends every morning for TWO miles.

Alan turned TWO this year! He is a bundle of energy and loves to be outside. He had TWO stitches in his ear after falling against a bed post. They had to wrap him up in a blanket like a little burrito to get the stitches in, poor guy. It was not the funnest thing to watch. He has had TWO different huge bruises on his forehead after face planting into the tile and TWO different teeth were bloodied after taking a spill down some cement steps. Not all has been bumps and bruises for the little guy this year. He started nursery this year and loves it. He learned how to pedal his bike and went TWO blocks the other day on his trike. He has TWO favorite words: "Daddy" and "Movie" which comes out "Moonie." He is also very polite and says TWO words when he wants something: "Excuse me" or "Me me" and "Please" or "Peas". We will also start the SECOND attempt at potty training this month! Obviously the first time didn't go so well. So far the TWO's haven't been too terrible, and we love having Alan in our family!

We have had lots of adventures living in Mexico, some more memorable than others and we are excited for this Christmas season and the year to come! Merry Christmas! Love: Greg, Cambria and Baby-Girl-to-be Memmott

Tis the Season...2005

Tis the Season... For CHANGE in the Memmott House!

The biggest change in our family this year will be our address. We have decided to change addresses and move to Greg's hometown in Chi. Mexico. We are excited (and scared) for this change in our lives! We are not exactly sure when the move will take place, but it will be before January. Our new address is P.O. Box #130, Columbus, NM 88029.

Cambria has changed her status and officially became a graduate of ASU as of Dec. 16, 2005. It has only taken me 5 1/2 years to do it, but 6 different houses, marriage, a baby, 3 summer sessions, and a lot of money later I am finally done. I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Speech Therapy and maybe in a few years I can muster up some energy to apply for the Master's Program. I have also spent a lot of change at yard sales this year buying baby clothes and trinkets for a quarter.

Greg has changed jobs this year. He went from keychain maker to plumber, and will not try his hand at being a farmer. (FYU- or for your understanding as he like to say- Greg's family has peach orchards in Mexico so that is what he will be doing). Greg's biggest change this year is that he has gone from a whopping 129 to 130 pounds! We share this amazing change so that you'll be able to recognize him the next time you see him. Also, please no comments as he is very self conscious of this significant change.

Alan (now 15 months) has had the most changes in our family. We lost count at 1,326, but here are a few that we managed to keep track of: #1- He changed from rollin gover to crawling and then at 9 1/2 months decided to change to walking. #2 - he got 6 new teeth. #3- He has already had two haircuts. The other 1,323 changes that are now sitting in the landfill his parents would rather not have changed.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Season of Change!

2004

M is for the month of the September when baby Alan came to live with us.
E is for the Explorer, the back seat is where he mad ehis big appearance!
M is for the money we not longer have to pay to ASU! Greg graduated with an Agrobusiness degree this December!
M is for Mexico and the many key chains Greg continues to manufacture there.
O is for the oral muscles that Cambria is still learning about at ASU. Only one year left and I'll have a degree in Speech Therapy.
T is for the toothless baby that we love and adore.
T is for how truly blessed we have been this year!

Hope you have a Happy New Year!

Love- Greg, Cambria and Alan Memmott

2003

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry this letter is a little late. Our New Year's Resolution was to not procrastinate, so obviously we are doing really well on that one. Here is our year in a nutshell.

January- We moved into a house in Mesa, two weeks later it sold and we had to pack everything up and put it in storage. School started , Greg was at ASU Main and I was at Chandler Gilbert Community College.

February- We then moved into my parents house until we could find a house to buy. I got a job at Automart Superstore where I get paid to do my homework and study. It is a very good job to have while going to school.

March- We celebrated our second anniversary! We are officially not "Honeymooners" anymore. (Or maybe that title is lost when you have a kid?) I also turned 21 and can legally buy dry ice.

April- We continued the house hunting in vain and quickly discovered that we are very picky about what we want. School is still school. Greg was still working with his key chains. We also went to Country Thunder, and big concert out in the boonies.

May- School is done for the semester. YEAH! We were very blessed to find a house that is perfect for us and we decide to move the week of finals. Do we plan things to be this difficult? Greg sold his big gas guzzling truck and got a little economical one.

June- I decided to be a psycho for a month and take a Physics course in summer school, and an online Spanish course. That turned out to be a really bad month and made for a very grumpy Cambria. Greg was very patient and retreated to Mexico to get some stuff done down there. We also spent a weekend with Cambria's family in Show Low, AZ. Greg is still trying to figure out a way to move there.

July- We both breathed a sigh of relief that summer school is over and gear up for the upcoming semester. I painted our kitchen bright red (with the helpof Lowe's and my Mom) and Greg decides that "It looks too much like a catalog."

August- I started at ASU Main in the Speech Therapy program and Greg is at ASU East in the Agrobusiness program. I was wishing I could go back to EAC, or CGCC, ASU is way too big!

September- Wake up, go to school, come home, eat, go to work, come home, eat, go to bed. Obviously this was a very exciting month.

October- I had a surprise birthday party for Greg. It was very fun, but don't ever plan a surprise birthday party for someone you live with. I had to be way too sneaky! The only thing that Greg said kind of gave it away was that the house was too clean! We had a good time and it was fun to see all the friends and family who came.

November- We painted our bedroom ( this time with the help of Lowe's and Greg) and turned it into our "cowboy" room, it now has a bit of a western theme to it. Greg was slammed with work for the upcoming season. Lots of keychains were made in November. We spent Thanksgiving in Mexico with the Memmott clan.

December- We were both very relieved that the semester was over. My semester was very hard and I am not quite sure what I have gotten myself into. Greg is also relieved when the keychain orders slow a bit and he can get some sleep at night. We spent a few weeks in Mexico for Christmas and the Nuevo Ano.

This was a very big year of change for us and we are grateful for all the support and help we were given. We are grateful for all the wonderful friends and family that we are continually blessed with! Hope you all have a wonderful year!

Love - Greg and Cambria Memmott

Feliz Navidad! 2002

This is our first Christmas letter for our first year or Marriage! We are excited for the holiday season and fun times with family and friends! We were married on the 9th of March and then spent a week in Kino Bay, Mexico for our honeymoon. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the beach and the sun. We then returned to Thatcher to finish spring semester at Eastern Arizona College. We also got a calling at chirch and have been working in Primary with the CTR fives. They are so cute and so fun and we really enjoy teaching them. During the summer we spent a lot of time in Mexico so Greg could get some stuff done with his business. It was fun to be with his family and accomplish a lot of work! We also went on a road trip to Logan, Bountiful, Weston, Idaho and also to my Grandparents cabin up in the mountains. It was so much fun and Greg and Grandpa chopped down a whole bunch of Aspen tress which Greg later made into a very cool (and very big) bed frame for us! It was a fun trip and all went well until we drove home on the hottest day of the year and the air conditioning went out in hte truck a half hour into the trip. Needless to say we did not smell good by the time we got home and we had eaten a lot of ice that day. (Did I mention that we managed to take the longest possible route home?!)

Fall semester has been good. We both worked at the school and I made cinnamon rolls three times a week and sold them at the college to all of the secretaries (Greg did help once in a while). I was quickly dubbed the Cinnamon Roll Girl and they would see me coming with my basket filled with rolls. Greg kept busy with his key chains and made a few trips to Mexico every once in a while. I took an upholstery class where I covered a $5.00 yard sale couch with denim and it is now a lot cuter than when I bought it. I also took sewing, computers, Sociology of Marriage and Family (with Greg- we are now supposed to now know hot to "effectively communicate") and Spanish where I am learning how to ask "Donde esta el bano?" y "Cuanto questan los burritos?" Greg took Public Speaking, Chemistry, Marriage and Family and Psychology, he now knows what is wrong with him.

We have loved being here in Thatcher and are grateful for all the experiences (and cheap rent) we have had here. This Spring we will start classes at ASU, and be living in Mesa. We will be living at 3909 E. Baywood, which is on Val Vista and Broadway, if you ever want to stop by. We are excited to be getting on with our education and have some new experiences.

Thank you to all of our family and friends that have helped us so much this year and for everyone that helped so much with the wedding. We have had a wonderful first few months and are looking forward to the coming ones! We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and an even better coming year!

Feliz Navidad!

Greg and Cambria Memmott