Our Christmas Card

Counting Our Miracles of
2007

1.)By far our best and very first miracle this year was the birth of Angeli Noel after 18 long hours of labor. She was born on January 26 weighing in at 5 lbs. 10 oz. She came almost a month early and brought a lot more joy, work, laughter, and richness to our little family. Emily is a mixture of being totally amazing and a bit crazy to have two babies only a year apart, but she loves it and wouldn't ask for it to be any other way!

2.) That Stewart graduated from BYU! Stewart put graduation off a year so that Emily could finish. His sacrifice not only ensured that Emily could graduate but also made it so we could have two babies while still in school; again making us a mixture of amazing and crazy!Finishing at BYU brought a variety of feelings for us. BYU held all our favorite memories: meeting each other, getting married, our newly wed time, Bridger’s birth, Angeli’s birth, and of course the learning part was good too but we were happy to finally be done and move on. :0) We walked as a family in April and it really was the perfect finish to our time at BYU.

3.) That Emily survived her “summer of surgeries”. After Angeli’s birth it was apparent that Emily would need a series of surgeries to deal with her blood clots (a foot long clot going up the side of her leg) and also her very painful varicose veins. Five surgeries/procedures later Emily can still walk :0) and we hope our next pregnancy will bring less pain. Stewart was the sweetest care giver during my recovery and some of our sweetest memories of the year were during that time.

4.) That we bought a house. This was a major leap of faith for our little family. But we felt like that was what the Lord wanted us to do so we put all our energy into it. Just days after one of Emily’s surgeries she boarded a plane and headed out to Reno for only one day to try and find a house. After many offers and many many ups and downs we were able to buy Emily’s favorite house(in our price range of course). Hurray!

5.) That we survived our move to Reno. We were excited, nervous, and sad to leave Utah and start over again in Reno. But it didn’t take long for us to realize we were in the perfect place and make new friends. We have a great ward and both enjoy our callings. People in our neighborhood are so nice. Our neighborhood is made of 400 little houses out all by themselves and thus there is a small town, close knit feeling. Emily feels like she has a full on cheer leading squad every time she goes running with the kids and even the trash men make it a habit to say "Hi" to Bridger. Bridger loves it. :0)

6.) That Stewart is excelling in med school! This semester he had 9 classes and got “A”s in all but one of them. We are so proud of him. Right now he is leaning towards pediatric surgery which, lucky for us, is one of the hardest programs to get into. J But if he wants it badly enough we are sure he can make it.

7.) That Emily started her business. Emily’s business has been a refiner’s fire for our little family. We have had to go forward with her business totally on faith. So seeing it struggle and then take off has strengthened our faith in so many ways. At BYU Stewart would go every night to UPS to work in essentially a cold garage to make sure we were provided for and so I could finish school. Now it is my turn; I bundle up every night and work in our garage so he can finish Med school. We must like each other or something! :0) You can check out my website out at www.timelesstreasuresbyemily.com to see exactly what it is that I do.

8.) That Bridger is finally learning how to talk! We have been a little impatience with him and wanted to dub a “my son can climb better then your talking son” bumper sticker but he is learning now. Yay! He has always been so affectionate, happy, active, and tender hearted. We adore him and love him more each day! Although his art work on the walls is a bit annoying. :0)

9.) That Angeli is ours. She is a carbon copy of her father. With Bridger being a copy of his mom we really needed a calming, patient, little sweetheart to balance us out. :0) She does that and so much more; she is quick to smile, hug, and laugh. She demands very little and gives tons. We love her so much.

10.) For the knowledge we have of the restoration of the Gospel of Christ. We have so much comfort, guidance, strength and purpose in our lives because we are blessed to know that Christ truly came to earth to redeem us all and make it so that someday we can live Him and our Heavenly Father again.

11.) That we have all of you! Not a single one of our miracles could have been possible without your support. Things like Mom Ras coming up after one of Emily's surgeries, Dad Smith helping us buy our house, Grandma Larsen letting us live in the duplexes at such a discount, Grandma Angeli helping me get my business off the ground, and all of your calls, prayers and emails have blessed us endlessly. We are so grateful to have you by our side. We owe so much of our happiness to you. Have a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year! We love you all! Love, The Stewart Rasmussen Gang

Our Cute Christmas Kids