Our Christmas to Everyone!

Merry Christmas Family and Friends:

As always, at this point the year seems to have flown by. There were times during the year though, that it seemed to drag on forever. We made it through our second deployment this year. We are finally all back together and everyone is blessed with good health. We hope this letter finds all of you in good spirits and remembering the true meaning of Christmas. We are so blessed with our knowledge of the gospel and what our Savior has done for us. To celebrate His birth is always a very special time. There were two special highlights for the year—a trip to Samoa and Peter making it back from Deployment #2. More about those later. Our family is just getting older and better this year. We are always amazed at our boys. They keep us busy and bring so much joy to our lives.

Matthew, 17, is a wonderful young man. He has been getting mail from colleges almost every day. He’s only shown interest in a couple. Mom is in denial that we only have 1 ½ years before he steps out on his own. It is flying by too quickly. Matt is working on his Scouting, playing Bass in orchestra, bass guitar and piano just for fun, and of course, video games. He is taking two AP classes this year and planning on four next year. Oh and he came home from school one day and told us that he can play the cello as well. Yeah. We are so impressed with the young man Matthew is. When we were in Samoa, he got right in there with his dad and helped out. His dad got a kick out of seeing his boys wandering around the island, sightseeing.

Connor, 15, has his permit but actually doesn’t drive. He got to go kayaking a little in the bay by our hotel in Samoa this year. He went to scout camp and he and Matt got snowboards for an early Christmas—since they have the whole week before Christmas off. He’s working at the Commissary and pulling in more per hour in tips than mom is making! He’s very generous sharing with Matt, as Matt has been unable to work this year with his school work. He is amazing with his baby brother Cole. He has curly hair that mom loves and he hates. He’s always trying to flatten it. He is doing well in school and still hates the “social studies” classes. He is into the games like Matt. Wishing so badly that mom would let them get more “M” games to play. He’s also become quite the clothes-horse this year. Good thing he’s working to pay for his new “habit”.

Steel, 5, is determined to skip past 6,7,8,&9 and go right to 10! He talks pretty much non-stop. He is going to be a missionary, a soldier, a dad, and a rock star—the order of which depends on the day. He started Kindergarten this year and loves it. We’ve started the age old battle of teacher vs. parents. “Mrs. Nelson said…” has become very common place in our house. He took to Samoa like a duck to water. He is the only one, besides Pete, that didn’t need any adjustment time and by the time we left he had everyone wrapped around his finger. Steel is a little ladies man. We were dropping him off at school one day and he yells, “There’s Allison! Hey Allison, I had a dream about you last night!” Turns out it was a transformers dream and we were soooo glad Allison’s dad had already gotten back into the car before Steel started yelling! His current girlfriends are Amanda, Allison, Kierstan, Matt’s friend Karlie, and Sister Walker at church. ;)

Reilly, 3, has been a surprise this year. Our cute little angel boy has decided to be as stubborn as his parents ever thought of being. The kid gives the best cold shoulder of anyone I know. He has the memory of an elephant, a one track mind, and boy can he hold a grudge! He’s been going to pre-school and he likes it but we’re gonna take a break until next fall. Mom is just selfish and wants him home with her as long as possible. He loves to tell mom that he has blue eyes like her and Cole…so it naturally follows that blue is his favorite color. This is Reilly’s big year of learning to do things all by himself. I hope we all survive.

Cole, 20 months, is everyone’s baby. He’s my only baby who is in the 50th % for height and weight. Now this makes him totally normal but after having 4 boys in the 90-95th % he seems really tiny to us. Being our last, we can pretend he’s a “baby” for a little while longer. We’ve decided this child has NO pain reflex at all. He will head-butt his dad and it’s dad that cries, not Cole! Quite often he’ll be bleeding from a cut or scrape and none of us know what he did because he never cried. Mom didn’t get a true “1-year” picture because he was 18 months old before he went a full week without having a scrape or bruise on his face—and that is not exaggeration. He can certainly hold his own with 4 big brothers and dad. Thank goodness he loves being cuddly with mom. He is the heart of this family. Cole was also a big hit in Samoa—the “angel” baby. We got several serious offers from people wanting to know if they could keep him. Sorry, not happening!

Pete is back from deployment. He got home the end of August. We are so blessed that he got through round two with no problems. He had a good bunch of guys with him and that made a big difference. He has also changed jobs since he got home. He is no longer Infantry, but now works in Retention—helping soldiers with their reenlistments when it comes time. Like most things, it isn’t turning out quite like we expected. Yes it’s an “office job” but he seems to work longer hours lately than he did when he was Infantry-go figure. We don’t know exactly where we are going to be at the end of next year. Pete thought he had an extension in the bag so we could stay until Matt graduates, but now we’re not sure. We’ll hopefully know more about plans after the new year.

Kristi is keeping busy with the boys and working nights at Walmart. She gets to work in the Fabric and Crafts department. Pete isn’t sure that is such a good idea but she’s been really good so far about not spending her whole paycheck before she gets it. A lot of her friends just moved away from Fort Wainwright and she’s missing them. But very grateful that she has made so many good friends in her ward at church as well. She decided to do a homemade Christmas this year and has bought minimal presents for the boys. She’s made quite a few things and loves the feeling of “making” vs. “buying”. She hopes that the boys are at least a little appreciative and won’t be too bummed that they don’t get all the new gadgets their friends are getting.

Our Samoa trip was totally unexpected. Sadly, Peter’s uncle passed away in Feb. and it was something that he really needed to be at. It would use up all of his R&R leave. If we didn’t get the family down to see him, we wouldn’t have seen him for a whole year. So, we went. I won’t lie, it was not the fairy tale vacation we had wanted for the boys. With 3 days to plan, money tight, a family funeral, and going from -25 to 90 degrees with humidity, the first week was pretty brutal. Everyone but Pete and Steel got sick. Luckily, we got to meet so many of Peter’s family and we made some great new friends. And of course, the island is amazingly beautiful. I just wanted to sit and watch the ocean. It seemed a little bit different wherever we went on the island. We ended up in a wonderful little hotel our last week with the ocean right outside our door. We did have some fun times then. We still wish Matt and Connor could have done and seen more while we were there, but at least now they know where their father comes from. And our family doubled in size overnight now that we can put names with faces. Thanks so much to all of you who put us up and fed us and made us feel at home with you. We appreciate it so much!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! We love and miss you!
Peter, Kristi, Matt, Connor, Steel, Reilly, & Cole Fatuesi