Christmas Letter 2008

We are a little late at sending this and taking the easy way out this year by just emailing, but it was Mikko’s idea not to do a photo card this year. 2008 has been good to us and there has been some ups and downs, but we have survived and are very blessed. May/June- We finally finished our downstairs, there was lots of work done by myself and Mikko, and family and friends. Natalie loves having her own official facial room for her business, and Mikko loves, loves, loves his home theater/family room. It is a great room and now we prefer staying at home to watch a movie. At least Natalie does. If you have not seen it you should stop on by, Mikko would love to put on a Movie for you or at least give you a little sample.

August- Our ward split again and now Mikko serves as the Sunday School President and Natalie was called as a special needs helper in the primary. She works with an autistic girl. This is more of a challenge for her since she has little patience, but maybe that is why she got the calling. September- Natalie officially had her first open house for her business and started carrying a skin care line. It was a success and she is working on getting new clients. Check out her business if you are interested. http://www.pellebynatalie.blogspot.com/. Natalie still works at Skin Science as an instructor 12 hours a week but plans to cut down to just one night a week in Jan. We found out we are adding to the Puikkonen family with a new addition coming May 30th. (This is the real reason we are sending this letter out late. Natalie wanted to wait until Christmas to tell her family the good news. We don’t know what we are having yet but will find out in Jan.) October- We got to go to Hawaii for a vacation. Back in May Mikko got an extra dividend from work and we planned the tropical vacation that Mikko had never had yet. It was fun and Mikko always asks when we can go back. While we were gone Kaleb got to spend five days at Mummi and Pappa’s and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Shortly after getting back the day before Halloween to be exact, Mikko came home early from work. His work laid him off and we were in total shock. Mikko didn’t waste any time. He got his resume updated and out and started interviewing. Turned out the layoff was a blessing, Mikko got a job in less than 30 days. He now works for PRI Inc. It is the investment property arm of the LDS church. He had to lose his goatee and has to wear a suit everyday, but it is totally worth it. It’s better pay, benefits and time off and of course better environment.

November- Mikko started the new job and he loves it. We enjoyed Thanksgiving with the Puikkonen’s. Mikko’s youngest brother got engaged and will be getting married in May and is moving to Australia. December- We were busy getting ready for Christmas and attending parties. Kaleb turned 2 on the 20th. We celebrated at Mikko’s parents this year and Kaleb had a blast. He is a great boy and we enjoy every day with him. He is talking so much and it is fun to see the new words that are added to his vocabulary almost daily. Kaleb is still in the 95% for his age which is no surprise to us. Most people are shocked that he is only 2. But his dad is 6’9” so pretty sure that explains it. He really is a good little boy and we hope he will be an even better big brother. We hosted two parties at our home this year for Natalie’s friends and the northern part of the Brown clan. We had 30 people here for the latter and we all fit and had a great time. We got to spend Christmas in Kanab and Natalie was so excited since she had not been in Kanab for Christmas since 2004. Thanks Mom and Dad for the great time.

We want all of our family and friends to know that their relationships mean the most to us. We have been so blessed this year and we owe all that we have to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ which is the reason for this season.

We hope and pray that God’s blessing will be with you.

Hoping you had a great 2008 and wishing you a sublime 2009!

With love, Natalie, Mikko and Kaleb