von Niederhausern Family

This year I talked Catherine and Steve into doing the CVSST triathlon with me at the Logan Aquatic Center. It was such a blast to have company and to have Catherine as my swim coach in the months leading up to the event. And the best part is Steve’s training program…go on two runs, swim laps once, put on your gear in front of the mirror, and then pretend you are swimming laps in the shower. And of course he came in at 1 hr. 32 minutes, and my time was 1 hr. 34 minutes. Oh the irony! But I am proud to say I met my goal of not being the last one out of the swimming pool. I increased my swim time from 21 minutes to 14 minutes!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the vons! What a crazy and wonderful year it has been for us. Each year we think life will slow down, but we are realizing it probably never really does! We have loved keeping in touch and reconnecting with so many people this year. We love you all and feel so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing and generous people. Here is a brief summary of our happenings in 2008:

Steve graduated with his master’s degree a year ago and got a job with Shelf Reliance. We packed our bags and headed to Provo for a very brief stint (four months to be exact). We then moved back to Logan where Steve got a great job back at Utah State University with The Shingo Prize in the Huntsman School of Business. He directs their marketing and communication efforts and feels like he has found his dream job.

Rachel is expecting a baby boy in February and did her first sprint triathlon in July. Moving two times, keeping up with the girls, managing the rental and development properties, organizing a non-profit, and being pregnant have filled her year completely to the brim!

Ava is four and has loved taking dance, violin, swimming lessons, and learning how to read. She is growing up so fast and enjoys to draw, sing, and do art projects. Ava is our sweetheart and peacemaker.

Lauren is two going on 30. The other night Ava wanted her to pretend like she was a lamb in the nativity scene. Lauren said “I am not a lamb, I am a woman.” And that sums up Lauren. She loves to dance, play with barbies, babies, wear skirts, put on lip-gloss, read books, and do everything herself.

And how could we forget the annual von video tradition. To compliment last year’s duet jingle and the Christmas video jingle from ’06, the girls wanted to do something special. This year Ava worked on releasing her first Christmas single, while Lauren cut the rug with a Christmas jive.

We express our gratitude for the abundance of life that we are blessed with. Thank you for your friendship and support. May the year ahead be filled with happiness and peace for you and your family.

I am so glad Steve is spontaneous. Because he was starting his new job at Utah State and could arrange a few weeks of no work, he suggested a family vacation. After I returned home from Ohio on Monday evening, we repacked all our suitcases and left Tuesday morning for the “Happiest Place on Earth,” Disneyland. We owe a million thanks to our good friend who got us buddy passes on JetBlue. Anyone who has not flown JetBlue needs to check it out. The seats are so roomy, everyone has their own TV (which was a highlight for Ava and Lauren), and you get unlimited snacks.

After the flight we arrived at our hotel and took much needed naps. We then went swimming at the pool. Lauren had everyone laughing and commenting about how daring she was. She loved jumping off the side of the pool into Steve’s arms over and over and being submerged all the way underwater. She was happiest when water was covering her whole face. She kept saying, “I need to swim, I need to swim” and pushing my hands away in water that was 5 ft. deep. One guy described her perfectly, “supercharged.” On Wednesday we had our first day at Disneyland, and honestly, it was magical. The weather was perfect, Ava and Lauren have never been so happy, and the greeters and music playing at the park made us feel like we should skip in and be transformed into royalty. Thanks to RideMax (a must if you are going to Disneyland) we got in eight rides, saw Mickey Mouse and went to two princess story-times all before 1:00 p.m. This allowed us to go back to our hotel and rest up for the Parade of Dreams in the evening and the Finding Nemo ride afterwards. We had close-up seats for the parade where we literally could have touched the characters, thanks again to RideMax. Thursday we waited in line so the girls could get their pictures with Cinderella, Snow White, and Jasmine. Then we went to California Adventure to see Play House Disney – Live on Stage and Disney’s Aladdin – Musical Spectacular (a must see). That night we ate at Buca di Beppo and Ava said it was her most favorite restaurant in the world.

Friday we headed to San Diego and ate lunch at In-N-Out Burger. During lunch Lauren made friends with four different strangers who sat down next to us. She would always start out by saying “What’s your name?” and then carry on entire conversations with them. She is definitely our extrovert. That night we ate at my favorite restaurant in the world, Anthony’s Fish Grotto. Steve and I ate there on our honeymoon and it’s so divine.

On Saturday we went to Sea World and met up with my friend Kristi Jones and her little girl, Ella. We fed the dolphins, saw the Shamu Show, Pets Rule with dogs and cats, the Dolphin Discovery Show and the Clyde & Seamore sea lion show. Then we left and went to the beach. Lauren zonked out in the car, but Steve and Ava had a wonderful time playing in the sand and dipping their toes in the ocean at Mission Beach . To end the day we went to dinner with Kristi, Dan, and Ella at the Pier Cafe in Seaport Village. Sunday we found a sacrament meeting to attend and then flew back to reality.

I love my family so dearly. We had such a great time together laughing, playing and seeing the sights. This family vacation will always be a bright spot in our memories.

After finishing graduate school in December Steve took a position with Shelf Reliance and we packed our bags in Cache Valley to move to Happy Valley. This was a wonderful move for us and we have loved living in Provo. Well,  after two months of being being in Happy Valley we are packing our bags once again to move back to Cache Valley. Steve was offered a job he couldn’t turn down at Utah State University. He will be the marketing coordinator for the Shingo Prize within the Huntsman School of Business. The Shingo Prize is all about educating companies on becoming more efficient and effective through the lean process and is considered the “Nobel Prize of manufacturing.” I am excited for Steve to work in this field because I have a love for business and lean principles. It’s an exciting time for us since we will get to settle down by our families and many good friends in Cache Valley. And the boating, biking, skiing, hiking, etc. can’t be beat! So, who knows where we’ll be in another two months!

Our very fist blog post happens to be on Steve’s 30th birthday! So Happy birthday to the best father and husband around, and happy Earth Day to everyone else (as Steve would say). We celebrated today by going on a family birthday date to Chadders. The best thing was the purple warthog Ava drew on Steve’s birthday card. She said she wanted to draw an animal for him and then she had me spell warthog underneath it so he would know what is was. On Saturday we threw a suprise party for Steve at a gymnastics place near our house. It was so satisfying for me to see the shock on his face when we walked in and he saw Matt Croshaw jumping toward him yelling “Suprise!” I chose this venue because Steve is a big kid at heart and loves nothing more than to jump, twist, and flip. I know he will still love doing that in another 30 years. Happy Birthday Steve! We love you!

We can’t believe Ava already turned four! This has been an emotional milestone for Ava. Having the flu along with the stress of a big day created many ups and downs, so there were many tears mingled with the smiles today. While I was combing her hair to get her ready for her big family party she was crying away and I asked her what was wrong. She cried, “I just want to be three again.” After a waffle breakfast, Ava and Steve went skiing. Then we had a big party with the whole gang. One of the highlights of the party was Tim playing his guitar while Ava, Lauren, and Ellie danced around the room. After everyone went home, Steve built a huge blanket tent in the family room and we watched a movie and slept in it. Both Ava and Lauren fell asleep in the blanket tent with new bracelets on because Ava is such a kind and considerate sister. She is also our artist with Steve’s creative genes. We love her and can’t wait to see what this next year has in store.

Merry Christmas once again from the vons! We are in shock over how fast time flies. A year goes by in the blink of an eye; actually it seems shorter than the blink of an eye, if that’s possible. We are grateful to receive your updates and letters so we can know about what is going on in your lives. Here is what is going on in our neck of the woods:

Just last week Steve finished his graduate degree coursework in Instructional Technology and continues to work at Utah State. You might not have any clue what Instructional Technology is. To sum it up, it gives Steve motivation and skills to program our Christmas card rather than send it by mail. He will now begin looking for work, and we are excited to see where the next season of our lives will lead.

Rachel has been busy keeping the emotions of four women in check (Ava, Lauren, herself, and Grandma Morris). If our next child is not a boy (this is NOT an announcement), Steve would like to get a dog… someone who won’t get emotional while wrestling with him. In her spare time Rachel enjoys coordinating the rental and development properties we are working on. She has also thoroughly enjoyed teaching her niece and nephew piano lessons for the past four months.

Ava is going to be four in February. She began preschool this summer at Utah State University and loves seeing Steve on campus. She also recently fell in love with High School Musical and frequently invites Gabriella to have dinner with us. Some other things Ava loves: cooking, drawing, writing, painting, singing, reading, and being Lauren’s second mommy.

Lauren is our thrill seeker and we call her our sugar and spice girl. She continues to be so friendly and cuddly yet stubborn and opinionated all rolled into one. She keeps us laughing with all of her charm. Things Lauren loves: singing, reading, swimming, being tossed or thrown high in the air, taking care of her baby dolls, and pretty much anything Ava loves.

Due to popular demand from last year’s Christmas video jingle, we decided to make it an annual tradition. This year’s duet jingle will give you a few good laughs as you get a taste of the girl’s personalities.

We feel truly blessed beyond what words can express. Thank you for enriching our lives with your friendship and support. We are so grateful for Jesus Christ our Savior. May you have a wonderful upcoming year filled with the Spirit of Christ each day.