Christmas Letter 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

This year has been an eventful one.  Here’s an attempt to get everyone up to speed on what has been happening in our lives.  A few days after Christmas last year, Keith was offered an Actuary position at Humana for the De Pere, Wisconsin location and started the beginning of February. He does projections for Small Business medical insurance.  We were very excited and ended up living with my parents for the month of January.  We really enjoyed spending that time with them and having them there to help us pack (my dad is a master packer, I don’t think anything moved).  The move was quite the experience, between Wyoming not clearing their roads and a lot of blowing snow it made the move very stressful.  We eventually made it to Wisconsin and settled into our cute little apartment.  Our apartment has a garage, dishwasher, and a washer and dryer.  We are in heaven compared to our former apartments.  Keith started work and has loved his job, he loves his boss and the people he works with.  

We live in De Pere, Wisconsin which is a suburb south of Green Bay—ever heard of it?  I expected the Packers to be big, but I did not anticipate this large of an obsession.  Really, the obsessions here are the Packers and alcohol—very different from Utah.  

We attend a LDS branch that is located on the Oneida Reservation.  Our branch is pretty small and our building is tiny.  Keith and I were called to be Primary teachers for the 4-8 year olds, but somehow our Primary is large for a Branch, and about 75% of the kids are in our class.  We have a lot of fun and our kids are very cute (our class is full of girls with two boys).  Being in a branch and not having many people to fill callings got us both second calling, Keith as Branch Clerk and I as Stake Young Women Secretary.  In June we had Elder Bednar visit for Stake Conference and it was a wonderful experience. 

I was able to find some ladies to play doubles with during the winter months at a local tennis club.  It was a lot of fun but it hasn’t been set up this year so I am in danger of not playing until it warms up again.  This past summer I taught some girls from the Branch tennis and it was so much fun.  Keith has a basketball league he plays in during the winter with his co-workers, they aren’t very good but he still has fun.

Even though Keith graduated in December we decided to make a trip back to Utah in April for him to walk.  It was a short trip but a lot of fun.  Keith’s graduation was really nice and he got to meet up with college friends and former professors.  We were excited to see family, Gus (the dog), and play with the new baby horses.  

Before my new job started I wanted to take advantage of my free time so I went and visited Linda’s cute family in Virginia, which was a lot of fun and her boys were adorable.  Keith and I also went and spent a couple of weekends with Mark’s family in the Wisconsin Dells (if you don’t know what it is, look it up), it is the Las Vegas of water parks.

I started my job in June as an Underwriting Specialist in Humana’s Specialty benefits; I help quote dental and vision insurance for companies.  I love my job and my department is so much fun!  I was able to be released from training in 5 months which is faster than normal and I’m able to work from home two days a week.  

In August we had the Richins’ Reunion and went on a week-long trip to Disney World.  We were able to go to several different parks and spend a lot of time with family.  I think our favorite was Animal Kingdom; Keith was our expert on getting fast passes and knowing which places had the shortest lines.     

We joined a BYU alumni chapter and are the Young alumni Representatives; we are working on planning some activities for that this upcoming year.  It has been a great way to meet more people and make friends.  

In October Keith’s best friend from high school (Levi) and his youngest brother (Adam) came and visited, we had a lot of fun showing them around.  Then for Thanksgiving Keith’s mom and Adam came and visited and we put on our first Thanksgiving dinner.  It was stressful but we did it and it was pretty yummy!

We do have an online blog for people to follow so they can stay updated on our lives if they like.  I am not very good at updating it; one of my New Year’s goals is to update it at least once a month.  It is www.ckstoddardfam.blogspot.com.

We hope you have had a wonderful and safe year!  We love you and hope you have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Love, Crystal & Keith

Here are some pictures from the past year, in no particular order.

Levi and Adam's visit

Wisc Dells trip

Packer Preseason Game

Keith's Graduation

Visiting Virginia

Kate feeding Keith on a Dells trip

New Car

Disney World Trip

Another Dells Trip

At the GB Botanical Gardens

Graduation, Virginia, and a New Job!!!

There has been quite a lot that has happened since I last wrote.  In April we went back to Utah for Keith to walk in his graduation.  It was a short trip, we arrived late Wednesday and left Sunday.  It was a good trip and we were able to visit with family and friends.  Keith really enjoyed getting to see some of his classmates and professors one more time and get to share his experiences he's had at work.  After Keith's graduation I went with my parents to City Creek and it is one of the most beautiful shopping areas you'll ever see, we only walked around and it was amazing.  We also were able to go walk around Temple Square and see all of the beautiful spring flowers.  I really enjoyed seeing Gus and the baby horses.  One of the baby horses, Annie, was only a few weeks old when we visited and the night after she was born her mom died from internal bleeding that was caused from the delivery.  It was really sad, but it was so fun to feed her and play with her-- we became pretty good pals.  We also were able to see my Grandma and Grandpa Richins and they are doing well, my Grandpa R played his accordion which is always a treat.  And we were able to see my Grandpa Gary which was really fun, we played some games with him and enjoyed the visit.  It was really nice to be back at home and be able to relax and have some home-cooked food, my Mom is a pretty good cook!  Overall the trip was a success and we really enjoyed spending time with family and friends, we even got to see Linda for a little bit because she happened to be in town the same time we were.

Keith's Graduation

This is Annie

Grandpa Gary and me playing the golf game

This is Nilla (the other baby) and her mom

Nilla

Our poor bball hoop broke recently so we decided to have some fun

Our BFFs, Emily and Nathan Summers

Grandpa Richins and the accordion

About a month ago I received a job offer to work for Humana, the same company Keith works for.  I won't be working at the same building as him because I am working in the Specialty Insurance and he works with Health.  I will be an Underwriting Specialist and will be giving insurance quotes to businesses regarding dental/vision/disability insurance plans.  It will be challenging but I am excited that it is a real job and can be a career for me.  I start next week, I am a little nervous but anxious at the same time.

Since I realized that my time of not working was coming to an end I decided I needed to take advantage of this time and decided to go visit Linda and Davis and their family in VA.  I was there a Tues-Sun and had so much fun!  They moved into a new home in Carrollton, VA and it is a beautiful home.  I had never met her youngest boy, Hayden and hadn't seen Gavin since we got married.  It was really fun to spend time with them.  We were able to go strawberry picking, go to their community pool, feed ducks/fish, and go to a children's museum.  They were really cute little boys and it was fun to spend time with Linda.

Fun at the pool

Gavin and Hayden

This coming weekend we are going to the Wisconsin Dells with Mark and Janeen and their family.  I wish I have taken more advantage of living close to them while I could have because in September they are moving to Boise.  It'll be a fun weekend that we're looking forward to.

This past weekend we were lucky enough to have Elder Bednar come to our Stake Conference.  I was able to go to the Youth Session Saturday morning and he did a Q and A with the youth.  It was really cool and I learned a lot.  The youth asked a lot of good questions and I was able to learn a lot.  Some of the themes that I got from the three sessions I attended were how important it is to let the Spirit be the teacher rather then the actual speaker (he discouraged us to take notes about his talk because then we aren't able to be taught by the spirit, he encouraged us to write after about what feelings and impressions we got during the talks).  He also talked about how important it is that in our agency that we are agents rather then objects being acted upon.  He described many stories that were incredible and I really enjoyed hearing what he had to say.  The other speaker that was with him was from the seventy and I really enjoyed his talks and what he had to say.  He said that he felt like a Dixie cup and Elder Bednar's teachings were like a 500-gallon drum that was getting poured into it.

This apron is what I got for Mother's Day!

 Looking at most of these pics I realized I am wearing t-shirts in most of them, I promise I have cute clothes, I'll try and make sure I'm wearing them when I am getting my picture taken in the future :)