Merry Christmas from Colorado 2012

Merry Christmas, dear family and friends! I hope the year 2012 brought happy moments of love and peace. Life sure has been busy for our little family in Colorado! One of the best trips that we had as a family was to go to Ohio to visit family and friends for 17 days! It was amazing to get to see everyone. It made us realize how much we miss Ohio due to our family members and friends who are still there. As many people knew that Chad and I moved in with his parents to come to the mountains, the end of the year saw 12 people and 17 animals living in the house. Who would have guessed that? Chad's sister's family and animals, and brother's family and animals joined to form the Cripple Creek Corder Circus! While there have been trials, tests and sadness, there have been many blessings from this year.

Chad is still a miner for the local gold mine. He drives his haul truck for his 12 hour shifts faithfully. He also has recently started voluntering with the boy scouts at church, which he really seems to enjoy (besides earning vacation time from work). He is teaching snowboarding part time (14 days) at Breckenridge again. This year he was able to get a new snow board and snow jacket which made him so happy! One of his happiest moments of being a dad includes catching his baby girl when she was born. He has a new church calling, which he loves and keeps him busy at times, which is opening us as a family to wonderful blessing from the Lord.

Diana is now a mother of two wonderful and busy children! Besides keeping care of them and chasing one around the house, she is not up to too much. Mostly hanging around the house to save gas money. This summer she was called to work with the young women at church as the girl's camp director. She LOVES working with the young women as it brought back many happy memories. She had lots of help from great sisters from church: camp wouldn't have been as big as a success without them. Hopefully next year, she will be able to go to camp with the young women as this year's camp was a little too close to a due date with baby two.

Cameron is now two years old and acting just like one! He loves to climb over anything and everything. He can now twist bottle tops off, use any smart phone or tablet, help daddy and grandpa corder with getting firewood spilt and stacked, loves to read books and play with his toys. Needless to say, he is one busy little boy! Still not saying too much, but boy does he understand everything you say!

Abbygayle is the newest addition to the family with being born in August. She wasn't daddy's birthday present until two days later! She was small but she has put on the weight! At four months, she now LOVES to sit up straight to see everything and everybody! And does she love to talk to get her two cents in and make sure you are paying attention. Girls are definetly different than boys. But she is a joy to everyone in the family. Plus she has acquired so many nicknames, here is hoping she won't be confused when she is bigger ;) What a joy to have Abby here with us!

The cats (Sam, Gladiator, and Jean Grey) are all doing well. Sam had a hematoma on one of his ears two weeks before Abby's birth. He now has scar tissue on that ear which makes him look like a mean old alley cat; but we all know better. Sadly, we lost one of our precious ferrets. Burton is now in heaven with Terje playing around and stealing whatever she can. Needless to say that we greatly miss our precious white ferret who brought so many happy moments to us. She is always thought about. Lago is doing well without her sister and cagemate. I am really glad that she has three other cagemates to keep her company. So our animal numbers are down to four and will probably stay that way for a while.

There have been many lessons that our family have experienced and learned this year with different opportunities the Lord has given us. But there have been many blessings that have come to us as well. The joy of our little family growing, the love and joy of animals that bring to us even when they are not with us anymore, the love of family and great friends who we miss a lot and the joy of making new friendships, and how much we love our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has done so much for us. We are so grateful for the blessings and trials that bring us closer to him and Heaven Father. We know we are never alone, that the Lord will never give us more than we can handle as individuals and as a family. Going to the House of the Lord, the temple, has been a gerat blessing to us this year as we made it a goal to go once a month. How joyful it is to know that we are an eternal family and will be together once more. We pray that each of you know how important you are to us, and if you do not, here is a reminder! We love you all and wish you a very merry christmas from cripple creek!