Friday, January 2, 2009

Year End Family Letter

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year


We pray that all of you had a great Christmas celebration and have accepted God’s gift of His Son and have a great year discovering God’s daily blessings.
Like all of you, our 2008 whizzed by us and we’re excited to see what is in store for us in 2009.


Now to the traditional part of our letter……the updates

In February we sold our duplex in Tigard & moved to Hillsboro, OR to be closer to Travis’ office while we wait for an opportunity to move back to Eugene, OR.

Travis has been a wonderful provider for his family & the kids and I are so thankful that he makes his family a priority every day. He continues to work as a sales trainer at Combined Insurance just a few minutes from home and comes home almost daily for lunch with us. He has been able to play racquetball a few times a week until about a month ago when he tore his calf muscle….twice. He is patiently waiting for his leg to heal, but is eager to play again. When we go to Eugene he plays a lot with Duane (Dad) and his buddies, he missed out playing with them over Christmas & was really bummed.

Charlie has been such a wonderful wife & mother, but what else is new? Ha, just kidding I think whoever writes the letter should be able to say whatever they want about themselves.  I have been doing a lot this year with kids, etc. We are homeschooling Alexis this year in Kindergarten and have been learning what her learning style is and that is exciting. I am still in my Mother’s Bible study, homeschool group at our church, let’s see I know there’s more but they escape my mind right now. Oh, I started our family blog this summer but haven’t been able to spend very much time on it since school started. www.daggetthouse.blogspot.com

Alexis turned six in November and is doing a great job in Kindergarten, much better than I had anticipated (thankfully). Her interests are: telling people what to do, being a helper, arts/crafts, making pictures for people, computer games, showing how smart she is. After all, she said she has the smartest Daggett brain. It’s exciting to see at an early age what her gifts are and we know that God is going to use her to speak to many about Jesus. She has such a great passion & concern for people to know who Jesus is and accept him as their Savior. She is gifted in her praying also. I love listening to her prayers because they are so big and she’s not just repeating what she hears people say, but takes bits & pieces and puts them together very deliberately. Her love languages are still quality time and gifts.

Preston will turn four next month and is still the same sweet little boy he’s always been. He enjoys school time too; he sits at the table and does his puzzles or colors. He’ll chime in once in a while, but for the most part he’s quietly doing his own thing. His favorite part of school is getting a fruit snack afterwards for good behavior. He enjoys telling us that he “was obedient all through” whenever he’s been instructed to behave at church or elsewhere when we’re not around him. His interests are: following sister around, bugging sister, wrestling with anyone, puzzles, cars, tinker toys and coloring. We haven’t figured out how God is going to use Preston, but we do know that he has such an obedient spirit. His love language is physical touch.

Carter will turn two later this month and is just starting to talk. Well, he’s said MOM!, Dad, Ba (for blanket), NO!, and all sorts of animal noises for a while now. But I just figured out (after two other kids) that if you spend some quality time teaching words he’ll get it. I’m sure it has to do with his age too, but now I’m getting him say to them back now. He knows most of his body parts & some sign language. He would know more sign if we taught him more, but he’s very good at telling us what he wants/needs with the same sound (for everything), pointing & directing us to what he wants. He naps while his siblings have school so I can maintain my sanity; I’ve taught school a few times in the morning when he’s up…it’s not worth it! His interests are playing with “bo-bo” (brother) & “sssssss” (sister), reading books, following mom around, hitting/pulling hair (siblings’), sometimes giving the gifts of hugs & kisses, and loves animals-especially lions & horses. His love language is physical touch and quality time. It will be interesting to see if those change as he gets older.

We have taken a few trips this year. In February Charlie & the kids went with Becky (Charlie’s Mom) to Minnesota to visit her Grandma Dee for a few days. It was a very fast trip and the kids loved playing in the super cold snow.
In late May, Duane (Travis’ dad) married Hollye in a private family ceremony in Eugene. In June we (including kids) went to Mexico to celebrate with them & lots of the new family. We were there for five days or so, now I don’t remember. We had a great time exploring everything on our own during the days & meeting up with the family for dinners. The best day, I think, was the day we just played on the beach. I grabbed some plastic cups & flatware and the kids could’ve played all day if we didn’t have to eat. Preston loved just throwing pebbles/rocks into the water. We have some great memories from that trip.

We are in the process of moving to Eugene, longtime in the making. There is now an offer of income (same company) down there that will enable us to make the move. We spent some time over Christmas looking at a lot of houses, it’s a little overwhelming since there are so many on the market right now. Better to have too many than too little, though. There are a lot of variables to the move so there is still no set time-frame in moving. Travis could transfer anytime, but the new position wouldn’t start until March/April so we have a couple months to get everything set up, the sooner the better of course. We have put our condominium on the market again, prayerfully that will sell quickly. We like it up in the Portland area, but it would be wonderful to be close to the grandparents again.

I hope it didn’t take you a whole day to read this, but the more people there are to report on the longer it takes.


tddaggett@comcast.net
charliemd@comcast.net


Blessings to you,
Travis, Charlie (Sharlene), Alexis, Preston & Carter

1 comment:

Sara Roach said...

Hi Charlie!

I so enjoyed reading your letter and getting caught up on your family. I'm so glad you guys have the opportunity to move back to Eugene. We can certainly relate to your desire to be closer to family. I hope to join Motherwise again. I hope to see you soon.

Happy New Year! Sara