Merry Christmas (aka: 2010 Christmas card/newsletter)!

Dear family and friends,                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

                2010 has been the best year yet! We have had some wonderful blessings and many life altering events happen this year!

Our biggest blessing and most exciting event this year was the birth of our adorable baby boy William Knight (aka: Liam) on February 8th who weighed 9 lbs 9 oz and measured 21 ½ inches long! He is now 10 ½ months old and the best, happiest, most loving and handsome baby. Ever since he was born he has been so wonderful and so easy. He has slept through the night since he was 2 months old, never had his days and nights mixed up, never had colic/unnecessary crying, goes to sleep really easy, eats great, loves people and perfect in everyway. He is now a very active little boy who loves exploring new things and places. He crawls everywhere (really fast), pulls himself up on anything, walks along things as long as he is holding onto it with one hand or propping himself up somehow. He has taken a few steps by himself so we know that walking is JUST around the corner. He also just cut his 4^th tooth and will have his two front teeth by Christmas! He brings SO much joy and happiness into our lives and we know that he is a very special little boy. I have been very blessed to be able to be a stay-at-home mom to Liam and love to spend all day playing with, teaching and serving him. I have the best job ever J

Also, in April we found out that Richard was one of very few (about 6 out of 500) to be put into the hiring pool for Seminary teaching! However, because of the hiring freeze they put on the Seminary teaching program as a result of the bad economy, they did not have enough spots open to offer him a job. He was the only one to be kept in the hiring pool but after much prayer, we felt that it was not the right thing for Richard anymore. Instead, we were guided and directed to a career that we feel EVEN better about than any other option we have ever considered and we are so excited for our future. Richard is now finishing up the pre-requisites for dental school and should be done in about 1 ½ years. He is doing AMAZING and loves his classes! He gets some of the highest grades in his classes, regularly teaches the tutors and has a 4.0 GPA in his pre-dental classes and almost a 3.9 cumulative GPA.

Another wonderful thing that happened this year was both Richard and I finished our bachelors degrees! Richard finished his Psychology degree (which will be 100% completed when he finishes his pre-dental minor) in the top 5% of his class. I graduated with a degree in Psychology, Sociology and Marriage and Family studies and was 1 of the top 6 people in my class. I waited to walk for graduation with Richard even though I finished my classes for my degree in April 2009. It was very fun to be able to  walk for graduation together and celebrate such a big life accomplishment!

 In preparation for applying to dental school, he had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Honduras with a group of LDS dentists, oral surgeons, endodontists, fellow pre-dental students etc. to do dental work on 500+ young men and woman who are preparing for their missions. He worked as a dental assistant and the dentists were very impressed with how quick he picked it up! He said that he originally went to Honduras to get into dental school (because it looks so good on your application), but now he wants to be a dentist so he can go on other trips like that and help people in greater ways both out of the country and in the areas we live. He was able to see in new ways how dental work blesses peoples lives and makes them more confident and happy.  He plans to go several more times before he applies as well because he enjoyed it so much! (blog readers: MORE PICTURES AND DETAILS COMING SOON!!! Just need to get my hubby to write everything down haha)

Also during breaks from school, we were able to visit a lot of family; go to my mom’s side family reunion at the ski resort in Brighton, Utah; go to Sequim where Richard was able to job shadow dentists and oral surgeons for his dental school application and have Liam meet a lot of our family. In fact in the 16 weeks in between July and November we were traveling/visiting family for 10 weeks of that! Liam was such a good boy and loved being around new people.

In November we also celebrated our 5 year anniversary and we had so much fun commemorating this special anniversary! It is hard to believe that it has already been 5 years and we are so blessed to be so much more in love now than we were on our wedding day (when we didn’t think our love could increase anymore). Being married to your best friend and the most wonderful person (in everyway) is such a blessing.

This year we have loved serving in our ward (or church congregation) in our separate auxiliaries as I served as 1^st and 2^nd counselor of our Relief Society presidency and Richards most recent calling as Elders Quorum president. We also loved our calling as joint Sunday school teacher before Richard was called as Elders Quorum president. The opportunity to serve has brought us closer to our Savior and been a great blessing.

2010 has been a wonderful year in every way possible and we are excited for the wonderful memories and blessings that will come with 2011!

With love,

Richard, McKenna and William Wadsworth 

P.S. I will definitely write a post with way too many pictures and videos about Christmas SOON! I will just say it was the best Christmas I have ever had. I also have to update on Liam being 10(1/2) months, Thanksgiving, Richards trip to Honduras....jeeze I am a horrible blogger. Coming soon!