Before we get too far into 2009 we want to send out an update on our family. To add a little variety to our lives, we decided to try raising chickens. Tom turned one of our sheds into a chicken coop and we are enjoying the eggs we get from our 4 chickens. We have gotten over 150 eggs in the first few months.  Even Camille, who has an aversion to most animals, likes having them. Maybe Logan really is rubbing off on us after all!

Ryan (5) started afternoon Kindergarten this year at Edith Bowen, a lab school affiliated with Utah State University. He is starting to read small words and seems to be an ace at math. He’s already adding, subtracting and doing a little multiplying. Another first for him was starting piano lessons. Ryan loves having one-on-one time with his mom in the morning.  This time is usually spent reading and playing games.  Some of his favorite games are Chess, Junior Scrabble, and Set. The one word that describes Ryan best is “hearty”. He puts his whole heart into everything he does. Every day, Camille looks forward to watching Ryan anxiously run into school as fast as his little legs will carry him. Ryan has a bright smile and brings sunshine everywhere he goes. He loves to color and makes the best cards and pictures for us.

Jordan (8) and Becca (10) transferred to Edith Bowen this year and they’ve both had some great opportunities. They sing in the honors choir, take Spanish dancing, and learn to speak Spanish as part of their curriculum. Becca got to go on a four-day science field trip to the Tetons where she had a great time taking pictures.

Jordan turned 8 this year, which means he got to be baptized and start cub scouts. It’s great to see him progressing. Jordan is very musical, and loves listening to film soundtracks. His favorites are Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, and Prince Caspian.  He has a knack for picking out small nuances in the music, and then plucking them out on the piano and violin. Jordan still wants to be a teacher and loves using the white board in his room to play school.

Becca’s new interests this year are photography, scrap booking, and sewing. She still loves building Mega Blocks with her brothers, and is quite a creative young architect. She put those skills to use when she helped her dad design and build part of the chicken coop. When she isn’t building things, Becca loves writing. This year she wrote a biography about her Grandma Caswell. She’s even started writing and illustrating a book. An exciting event was getting her ears pierced for her 10th birthday.

After years of neglecting her favorite hobby, Camille is enjoying the chance to sing with the American Festival Chorus, directed by Craig Jessop (former Mormon Tabernacle Choir Director). In the fall, they performed a Veterans’ Day concert and Mozart’s Requiem. She is looking forward to several concerts planned for 2009. After 11 years of working with music at church, she is now serving as the Activities Chairperson and feeling a little out of her comfort zone. But she is enjoying the variety.

Tom is keeping busy with work and school. He had the opportunity to go to Open Education conferences in Spain and China this year.  His PhD is progressing and we are anxious for Tom to finish his last semester of classes this spring. Then he can focus on completing his comprehensive exams and dissertation. He is now teaching the 9-year-old primary class (Jordan’s class) at church.

As a family, we enjoyed playing games together and trips to Bear Lake in the summer. And of course, we can’t forget our annual trip to California to soak in some sun.

So that’s life at our house: lots of music, light sabers, Harry Potter costumes, drawings, mega blocks, scrapbook pages, toy swords, and board games. Never a dull moment!

We hope this year is also full of wonderful moments that keep us on our toes. We are so grateful for friends and family that make life so meaningful. We wish you the best for the coming year.

Love,

Tom, Camille, Becca, Jordan, and Ryan Caswell

December 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

This year has been a lot of fun, beginning with a trip to Hawaii for our 10th wedding anniversary. What a great way to escape the winter weather! I think this is the 10th family update we have written, so in keeping with that tradition here is an update on what we have been up to this year:

We feel very blessed that Tom has such a great job. In November, he was promoted to Project Manager and has been splitting his time between work, church assignments (Tom is still Elder’s Quorum president in our ward), family, and more work. He took a one year break from his PhD program to design a fishing and hunting lodge referral business, www.hookedoutdoors.com. He’ll start work on one of his practicums in January.

Now, to change things up a bit, here’s a little quiz:
Choose the correct answer.
A) Tom went to Spain this year.
B) Tom went to Belgium this year.
C) Tom went to the Netherlands this year.
D) All of the above.

If you answered D you are correct. One notable experience was seeing the tulip fields in Keukenhof, Holland. Tom decided to bring back a small souvenir and now we have about 75 imported tulip bulbs in our garden waiting to bloom. We don’t have time to mention all the places Tom went this year so we’re just not going to mention that he also went to Texas, Indiana, and Anaheim.

True or False:
Camille likes to remind Tom of this whenever she feels like having some time off.
(You figure it out)

True or False:
The best place to celebrate a wedding anniversary is:
A) Park City
B) Hawaii
C) Disneyland
D) All of the above.

If you answered B you are correct. One of the most memorable experiences this year was celebrating our 10th anniversary in Hawaii. Yes, just Tom and Camille alone for 5 days. Can you say paradise? We owe a big thanks to Tom’s sister, Michelle, who agreed to watch our kids. Our anniversary isn’t until June but we celebrated in March to get a good package deal. We hiked to Diamond Head crater, visited the Polynesian Cultural Center, and paid our respects at Pearl Harbor (that was very touching). By far the most exciting thing we did was go snorkeling. The area we snorkeled was a breading ground for hammer head sharks. To Camille’s relief, the sharks were due to appear in about a month. Fortunately, the most dangerous thing we encountered was an eel which came within about 3 inches of Tom. For those who need a little rejuvenation, there’s nothing quite like driving around Hawaii in a convertible. We highly recommend it!

True or False:
For our family vacation we went to California.
That would be False. In June we went to Legoland and Disneyland for our family TRIP. We’ll let you in on our definition: vacations are without kids, trips are with kids.

At Disneyland, Jordan and Ryan were in a small group of kids chosen to be in the Jedi training camp. After being instructed in proper handling of the light saber, Darth Vader and Darth Maul emerged from below ground and fought each child individually.

In August, we stayed three nights at a Park City lodge for the Caswell family reunion. We enjoyed jamming out on guitar, shopping outlets, taking lots of pictures and eating yummy food. Camille did a great job of planning all the meals.

Camille hung up her teaching hat and Jordan (7) went back to public school this year. He is really enjoying second grade and has an excellent teacher, Mrs. Abbott. Jordan still wants to be a school teacher when he grows up and has a white board in his room that he uses to teach his friends. At any given time, Jordan can be found carrying around a dry erase marker or a wand. Light sabers are still a favorite especially after defeating Darth Vader at Disneyland. Jordan is very musical and loves to listen to music. His favorite composer is John Williams who composed the music for Star Wars and so and so who composed Harry Potter. Whenever Jordan earns a dollar an iTunes song seems to magically appear. I wonder if Harry Potter has a spell for that? We are hoping his love for classical music will continue into his teenage years and tailor his music choices a bit.

Ryan (4) graduated from his tricycle to a bike this summer. According to him, his favorite things to do are ride his bike, play school with Jordan, and play his gameboy. Camille would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Nintendo for providing a venue for quick shopping trips. Ryan is often seen in his Jedi cape swinging his light saber at Jordan or carrying a wand around saying,“expecto patronom.” Ryan has learned how to spell his name and very interested in letters. He is enjoying preschool this year.

Becca (9) started violin this year and is learning quickly. She played in her first Christmas concert this December after only 3 months of lessons. She is also very talented in piano and drawing. Mom appreciates how clean she keeps her room and how she helps watch her brother’s during quick errands. Becca likes to refer to her brothers as the “kids”. Becca likes to play board games. Especially Settler’s of Catan, which Tom introduced recently. Becca loves to jump rope.

Camille loves to play duets on the piano with Becca and Jordan. It has also been fun to start doing some piano, violin duets with Becca. Camille enjoyed singing the Messiah in a community choir this spring and joined the same choir again this December to do a Christmas benefit concert for the food pantry. She is still the choir director in our ward.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! From our family to yours, we wish you all the best.

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…well, not really, but it looks like we’re going to get one. Greetings from Utah!  This year we decided to exchange our warm California weather for a PhD in Logan. (What were we thinking?)

We have been here in Logan for a few months now (since mid-August), and we are finally getting settled.  We found a nice house close to Utah State University. Tom started school soon after our move; he is studying Instructional Technology.  It has been an interesting adjustment going from working full-time to being a full-time student, but Tom is doing very well.

It’s been nice to be close to family again after living in California for six years. We have noticed some cultural differences now that we are back in Utah.  The biggest surprise we encountered was that computer jobs paying $50/ hr. in California only pay $6/ hr. in Utah. So here’s our plan: get in, get degree, get out.  And one little pet peeve: a lot more people seem to write checks here – and it takes a long time.  (We must have gotten used to a faster paced lifestyle in California.) All joking aside, we do like it here despite a bit of culture shock and cold weather.

Becca, Jordan and Ryan are enjoying the snow. But Jordan still thinks we’re in California. Even when it’s 3 below, he trots outside without a coat. Camille has decided there are some definite advantages to raising children in a warm climate.

However, Camille is enjoying our close proximity to the elementary school.  Living four houses from the school relieves her from her duties as chauffer.  Becca (7) started 2nd grade this year and Jordan (5) is attending afternoon kindergarten.

Jordan loves learning. Many times you can find him, pointer stick in hand, pretending to be a teacher.  He is catching on quickly in school and thinks it’s great when his teacher asks him to help his peers who are struggling.  When he’s not carrying a pointer stick, he’s dressed up in his Obi-Wan costume, swinging a lightsaber.

Becca’s newest pastime is writing letters.  She has created a family mailbox where we can deliver letters to each other.  She also enjoys anything that has to do with money (i.e. playing Monopoly, giving massages for a quarter, selling her old toys to Jordan, etc.) Becca also enjoys drawing and is a very good artist.  Camille has invented an activity she calls “art gallery”.  Becca and Jordan draw pictures and then Camille buys the ones she likes the best. This has been a fun way to develop talents while keeping the kids busy and mom sane.

Ryan (2), AKA “Pip-squeak”, “Squeaker,” “Porkchop,” “Pumpkin,” (and whatever else we might feel like calling him) is getting big really fast.  However, when mom calls him a “good boy” he likes to reply “I not a boy, I a baby.”  For being a “baby” he sure knows a lot of words!  He likes to surprise us by saying things like, “come back here you black-hearted scoundrel” (For those of you who don’t watch Peter Pan every day, that’s a direct quote!)  Ryan is a very hearty boy and everything he says is nice and loud. You can imagine what it’s like trying to talk over two older siblings!  Other favorite Ryan-isms are “na, na, na, na, na – you can’t get me,” and his most creative, “I a scary popcorn.” Ryan definitely came packed with personality.

Camille and Tom got church callings fairly quickly, as you might expect. Tom is the assistant membership clerk and teaches Sunday school to the 12-year-olds, and Camille is the ward choir director. So much for spare time!

We wish all our friends a wonderful Christmas season.  We appreciate all of you so much and hope to see you soon.  Merry Christmas!

Love,

The Caswells

December 2004

Dear Family and Friends,

This year was really boring and slow at the Caswell house. Nothing much happened. We just all sat around and stared at each other… OK, not really. The truth is this year was quite busy. Here’s what we’ve been up to this year:

Tom is in his 5th year of teaching Computer Science at Redlands High School. This summer he was invited to help grade the AP Computer Science exam at Clemson University in South Carolina. Tom took a liking to southern cooking, and even gained a little weight. About the same time, the Redlands Stake was split and Tom was asked to be the Stake Employment Specialist. He has enjoyed the new challenge of helping people at church with their employment needs. Aside from his regular school job, Tom managed to juggle a Master’s degree, a textbook editing job, and a small computer consulting business. (He was getting a lot of requests, so he started charging to help people with their computers.) The extra income has been helpful. Tom has also been working on his Master’s degree in Instructional Technology for the past three years. He set a goal to finish by the end of this year, and we all breathed a big sigh of relief on Dec. 11 when he graduated from Cal State University. We are all very happy that he is done.

Camille is especially happy to have Tom’s help again after feeling like a single mom for much of the year. Her days were spent shuttling children back and forth from school to lessons and trying to keep clutter, dishes and laundry at bay (sound familiar?). She is thankful she decided not to teach voice lessons this year. Instead, she gets her music fix each Sunday in Primary as the Primary pianist. She’s decided that the rumors she heard before are true – once you have three children you ARE outnumbered!

Becca (6yrs.) and Jordan (4 yrs.) have kept busy this year with swimming, piano, and French lessons. Becca recently played in her second piano recital and did very well. Jordan also played in the recital and surprised us all by adding some extra notes. He was very proud of himself! The kids have enjoyed learning French from Tom. He started teaching our piano teacher’s children last year (we swap lessons) and Becca and Jordan have benefited as well. They can count to 30 and sing Old McDonald and Happy Birthday in French.

Becca is in first grade and has really made strides in reading. She loves to write notes (especially to her mom) and does a great job of sounding out words. She also enjoys drawing pictures. Becca lost her first tooth while we were in Legoland for our summer vacation. We had so much fun that we’re planning to go to Legoland again over Christmas break.

Jordan started preschool in September. He was so excited to start after watching all the fun things Becca did there two years ago. Camille enjoys volunteering twice a month and seeing him interact with his peers. It is exciting to see the growth in him. He has learned his letters very quickly and is constantly asking Becca how to spell different words. He knows how to spell all of our names now.

Ryan (16 months) is quickly learning to be just as active (and just as loud) as his siblings. He is a cute, tough little guy. His first spoken word was “ball,” which pretty much sums up what is important to him at this point. Ryan loves sorting and organizing things. He also enjoys trying to tackle his older brother and sister, and we sometimes have to come to their rescue. Whenever Ryan is around, you know there is a sponge following close behind to clean up.

We are so grateful that we have survived this busy year and know we couldn’t have done it without the Lord’s help. He has lifted our burdens and our prayer is that he will sustain you in your time of need also. In the coming year, may we all remember the glorious birth that changed all of our lives for the better. We are so anxious to hear from our family and our friends, and we hope you are all doing well.

Love,

The Caswell Family

December 2003

Dear Family and Friends,

Hooray! It’s Christmas again! We especially enjoy hearing from our relatives and friends, and we’d like to give you an update on the things we have been doing. 2003 was a year of changes, projects and home improvements. Early this year with the help of our kind neighbor, Dan, we built a fort/swing set in our back yard. It is quite sturdy and took several days to complete. This year we are asking Santa to bring all gifts preassembled. The swing set was just the beginning. Dan also taught Tom to lay tile and replace rotted sub-flooring in the main bathroom. We caught the home improvement bug, and by the time we were through we had repainted and re-carpeted the entire house. Everyone helped, and even Becca and Jordan learned to “cut in” the corners with a paintbrush.

Another project that was fun to watch was the construction of the Redlands Temple. It still seems hard to believe that we are just minutes away from our very own temple. (That definitely beats the nearly 2 hour drive to the LA Temple we used to do.) One of the best experiences we had was taking our friends to the Temple Open House in August. Becca and Jordan got to see what a temple looks like on the inside, and they especially liked lying on the beautiful altars (oops). The Redlands community reacted very positively to the open house, and we feel very blessed to have been part of such a singular experience.

Tom taught summer school and attended Cal State San Bernardino to continue his Masters in Instructional Technology. He was nearly finished with Summer Quarter at Cal State when baby Ryan decided to arrive. He surprised us all by coming 12 days early (much to his mom’s delight). Ryan David Caswell was born on August 12 at 11:57 PM and weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces. Since then, he has stolen all of our hearts with his cute dimples and contagious smiles. What’s more, he started sleeping through the night after just 3 weeks. Ryan is now 4 months old and is getting nice and plump! We’ve nicknamed him “Pounder” (for obvious reasons) and “Little Bear” because of the cute growling noises he likes to make. We are so grateful for the way his happy disposition adds to our family.

With the new school year came a lot of firsts for us. Becca (5) started afternoon kindergarten and Jordan (3) started attending preschool twice a week.  Camille thought she would have more free time, but instead she’s learning what it’s like to be the chauffeur of the family.  Becca also began Suzuki piano lessons during the year and is catching on very quickly. She’s already mastered three songs and will soon be playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” by memory. We are so proud of her! Jordan still loves Peter Pan and anything that resembles a sword. We can’t believe how quickly he’s grown. Unfortunately, he thinks he is ready to graduate from childhood and do anything he wants! Every once in a while, we see a glimpse of our sweet, helpful Jordan and we’re hoping that side of him will re-emerge soon.  Overall though, we think he’s done well adjusting to being the middle child. He loves Ryan, and is really excited to have a little brother to play with.

Camille taught weekly voice lessons again this year. With the three kids keeping her hopping she has decided to take a break. She will stop teaching at the end of the year. Camille was also recently released from her church chorister calling after leading the music for the past 3 years. Tom is starting his fourth year as Ward Mission Leader and still enjoys working with the missionaries. He especially enjoyed working with Church members and the missionaries to prepare for the Redlands Temple Open House by passing out tracts and invitations in the community.

It was so nice to get to visit Utah over Thanksgiving. (I think we also realized that we have been spoiled by the warm Southern California weather.) We sometimes wish we lived closer to friends and family, but we are grateful for the times we have together. We hope this Christmas season will be a warm and special time for you and your family.

Love,

Tom, Camille and Family