Merry Christmas!

 2011 has been great for the Haws family! I started the year with my first dental hygiene job. I'd been subbing for the summer and fall since I had graduated, but I took a job at a periodontal office just a few minutes from our little apartment, and I absolutely love it. It has been a huge learning experience to work strictly on perio patients and has honed my skills as a hygienist! Sterling started the year by taking the first half of organic chemistry, studied like crazy and did a fabulous job! In February we celebrated our first anniversary by buying a chest freezer, which I love. We were on the married's committee at the Weber State institute for that semester and had a lot of fun planning activities, dances, and dinners. In May we took a trip to Arches National Park, and a little stop at Canyonlands. I was seven months pregnant, so we carried a LOT of water and took it pretty slow, but managed about six-eight miles a day, which meant we saw just about every accessible arch and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves (minus the outhouse at our campsite!). We did a lot of hiking throughout the rest of the summer, although it got somewhat more limited towards our baby's due date.  Also in May, Sterling's little sister Bridget got home from her mission in the Philippines. Since I had only met her briefly before her mission, we had a fun weekend up at a friend's cabin spending time with the family and getting to know her better. The end of July was the Rasmussen Reunion, and I'm not sure I ever want to go tent-camping while nine months pregnant again, but it was a lot of fun! Sterling and I were AMAZING and won this years karaoke contest which can be watched here. Soon after our awesome performance, we welcomed our beautiful baby Ruth Renae Haws into the world! We scheduled a c-section because she was breech, but luckily she flipped for us and everything went wonderfully. I had a seven week maternity leave, three of which Sterling was at home with me before he started school, and that was wonderful (although he did work), and then he started the second half of organic chemistry and I started back to work just two days a week. Life since then has FLOWN by! Ruth is an angel and has slept through the night for a long time now. She just got two bottom teeth that are really sharp, and she likes to squawk really loud, especially at church. Sterling worked really, really hard this semester but did a fabulous job in all of his classes and got in the top 1 percent of the nation in the standardized organic chemistry test. With this semester over he is feeling like medical school is a surety instead of just a dream, and  is spending Christmas break floating in the clouds. We are so thankful for our wonderful families, our beautiful, healthy baby girl, our jobs that we both enjoy so much, and for all of the wonderful opportunities we have had this year! We are looking forward to another wonderful year!