Official Cardall Christmas Card Post

Dear Family & Friends,

I can hardly believe that another year has come to a close and that it is already time to write another one of these letters! Due to the late date and the cost of postage, we doing e-cards this year! 2007 was a very busy and adventurous year for our family!

First, we added a new member to our family! Ainsley Joy Cardall was born on April 25^th. She is a sweet little baby and captures your heart with her bright smile! She looks a lot like my dad, so we call her Little Doug. She is a fast little thing. She already has two teeth and is crawling all over, trying to keep up with her big sister! She loves to play Peek-a-Boo and she loves to look at Hannah and Daddy. Whenever she hears either one of them talk, she stops what she is doing until she finds them! She loves anything electronic! From computers to cell phones to remote controls, nothing is safe! We are so grateful for our little Ainsley!

Hannah is now three years old! She will proudly announce that to anyone and everyone! She loves being a big sister and is usually quite sweet to her baby sister. Hannah is a fun little girl. She loves to go places and do things. She is always asking to go eat out at restaurants and go to parks. She is quite the little performer. She has an amazing memory for songs and music, and will sing and dance for anyone she meets. She is learning to write her name and wants to learn to read soon. Hannah also loves to say prayers. She insists on saying almost every single prayer every day! Sometimes she makes us laugh with the things that she prays for! But she is a really sweet little girl and she loves her family very much! She is a beautiful talented little girl! Every day is a new adventure with Hannah, an adventure that we are grateful for!

In the spring, Thomas decided that he wanted to go back to school. We quickly realized that it wasn’t going to be possible for our family if we stayed in Florida. So, we decided to pack up our family and move to Utah. After a couple of months of job searching, Thomas was able to find a really great job working as a Capacity Manager for England Logistics, a subsidiary of CR England, a major trucking company based out of Salt Lake City. Thomas loves his job and is on the fast track to another promotion very very soon! He is planning to start school next year when his tuition reimbursement benefit kicks in! Thomas’s work schedule allows him to be home relatively early in the evenings. Hannah loves having Daddy home more! Both girls are definitely Daddy’s girls, and Mommy is very grateful for that! Thomas is also enjoying having more free time! He is playing his guitar again and even manages to squeeze in a little computer game time every now and then. I am very proud of Thomas and am grateful to him for all the hard work he does to take care of our little family. He is an amazing husband and father!

And that brings us to me! I am still a full-time stay-at-home mom. I love it. It is a totally different ballgame when there are two of them, though! They outnumber me now! In between diaper changes and mealtimes, I like to blog and do my digital scrapbooking. I have had a lot of fun getting to know friends and family members better through blogging! I have even made some new friends! I am trying to get organized and do some professional scrapbooking for other people. I am hoping to get that business up and running during the first quarter of 2008. The girls and I were able to spend some time with my family over the summer. Hannah loved riding the trains into downtown Chicago and going to the Heritage Festival in Downers Grove. We were also able to attend my grandparents’ 50^th wedding anniversary celebration. It was so nice to see family members that I hadn’t seen in years, and introduce my girls to them!

We are grateful to be back in Utah, living near so many of our family members! We have been able to go up to the Cardall family cabin almost every month that we have been back. That has been such a blessing in our lives. One weekend a month, we are able to escape from the pressures of life and renew our relationships with our family. We are really blessed to be able to have a place to do that. We just moved in our new rental home a couple of weeks ago. It is an old craftsman style bungalow that was converted into a duplex years ago! It has amazing architectural features and little unique characteristics that you just don’t find in many newer homes, especially rentals. It is in the heart of Salt Lake City. And except for the crazy people you run into in the grocery store, it’s a lot of fun to live downtown! We love it here and are doing very well. Life just doesn’t get much better than this! We are so grateful for our many blessings and for the wonderful friends and family who have been such a wonderful support to us! Thank you!

At this special time of year, may we all remember the reason that we celebrate Christmas. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that my Savior was born and lived and died for me, and for each and every one of us. So, as the Christmas shopping crowds increase and traffic gets worse, let's remember the real reason for this season. May Heavenly Father bless you all in the coming year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
With much love,
The Cardalls
Meredith, Thomas, Hannah & Ainsley

Our blog is the best way to keep in touch with us. If you want our new address, please feel free to send me an email and I will get it to you!
If you want a printed copy of our Christmas card, you can click on the card and save the file and print it. It should be a full-size 5x7 card. :)