Merry Christmas 2012

This has been a very exciting year for us. We started out the year by moving into an apartment in the Family Student Housing at the University of Utah. We had been living with family while we were in the process of finding a house. Since we had no idea how much longer it would take, after a few months we knew we needed our own place to live. Even though it was tiny and the walls were made of cinder block we fell in love with our new home, neighbors, and ward. After only a month we finally had one of our bids accepted, and we were in our new home by the end of March. We took a couple family trips to California (to Mendocino Folklore Camp & to a wedding in San Diego) over the summer. We added a new (used) mini-van to the family, and a new laptop for Daniel. Oh, and new baby too. We’ve been overly blessed in almost every aspect of our lives, and are grateful every day. We hope you can count your blessings as well, and we wish you a most merry Christmas and an excellent New Year!

Daniel – Finished his first year as a Doctoral Student in Vocal Performance at the University of Utah. He had two leading roles in their productions of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah. He also sang in the Moab Music Festival in September, and stays busy working at the library, teaching lessons, and singing all over town.

Brandy – Since she spent most of the year pregnant, Brandy really enjoyed taking water aerobics class a couple times a week. She won a online photo contest for a picture she took of Joshua (won tickets to the BYU/Utah game, free paint, and BestBuy giftcards). She went through three weeks of Braxton Hicks contractions before enduring a 56 hour labor while still managing to have a natural unmediated childbirth. She loves having her Three Musketeers (and generally taking care of her 4 little boys).

Johnny – He’s still a crazy little rascal. He finished his first year of pre-school (he’ll have a few more to go). We were able to trade voice lessons for speech therapy, so Johnny had speech therapy continue over the summer. He’s speaking more and more, and he’s found that he love singing (though you often have to listen closely to figure out what song he’s actually singing). His favorites right now are Nephi’s Courage, Two Little Speckled Frogs, and the Bob the Building & VeggieTales theme songs. He loves having a new little baby brother, and is a great big brother for his two little bros.

Joshua – He’s a little cutie that looks more and more like his mama. Josh doesn’t show any of the speech delay signs that John had at his age. He’s talking quite a bit, and is often as stubborn as an ox. He’s currently in a training program (the potty type), and we’re hoping he gets the hang of it soon. He’s still our little white boy who eats like a Polynesian: not ‘til he’s full, but ‘til he’s tired.

James – He was born on Nov 17th 2012, at 8:15pm. He took his sweet time coming out, and after waiting 56 hours, he finally decided to make his appearance once his Daddy was on stage during an Opera Scenes Performance. Brandy had her mother and sisters there to help her through it. Though smaller than either of his big brothers, James Daniel Brandyn Tuutau was 7lbs 7oz and 19inches long. Since then he does a lot of new-born activities: eat, poop, cry, poop, eat, be cute.

Merry Christmas!!! 

And a Happy New Year!!!