Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our friends and family!

The past year has been an eventful one. Last winter we started it off with a bang by rolling our Tahoe down the side of the mountain at 55 MPH on a trip over to Central Oregon. We estimate we rolled once end over end and 2 more times sideways. As you can see we ended up between a whole forest of large trees (MUCH bigger ones are on either side off camera) without hitting the trunk of even one. All we did is break off a good deal of branches. The Tahoe was totaled but neither one of us came out with even a scratch. Wendy did have very sore shoulders from trying to hold up the ceiling all the way down. To quote her "I thought I was going to die, but it wasn't as scary as riding the roller coaster." I guess Sam shouldn't try so hard to get her on those rides.

We were released from a 3 year mission as Church Service Missionaries in September working with Deseret Industries. Actually 2 months before our release Sam was called as a counselor in the Bishopric and soon thereafter, Wendy as a compassionate service leader in the Relief Society. Things went from busy to busier.


Almost exactly a year ago we got to go to Sam's niece's wedding in Phoenix and had the opportunity to meet a close friend and Ward member of his brother's, Stephanie Meyer. If you don't know who she is you really need to get out more at night. She's the author of the recent best selling series of Vampire books starting with Twilight.

This wonderful time of year we find ourselves reminiscing over the past months and thinking of family and friends.

We now have 10 grandchildren, 2 of which were added this year… both boys. We were fortunate to be able to have all of them and their parents at home for Thanksgiving. That makes 22 of us total; for us quite a crowd! We are so blessed with a wonderful family who we love spending time with, having every one over it is cause for great fun and laughter.

Here's a picture of Josephine, Kylee, Ashton, Ethan & Gillian on a hike earlier this year in Eagle Crest.

In January Tatem and Brendan were blessed with a little boy Cruz Evan Marchant and as you can see by his picture he is cute and such a sweetie. They live in Olympia WA.












Casey and Angela have 2 boys Ashton, a first grader and Caden 20 months. Caden just keeps growing. They are in Carlton, OR about 45 minutes from us.


















Steven and Tavany also have a first grader Kylee. They live in Salem but are looking to move to the Portland area due to a job change so that will be great for us.

Steven sold his Pillar To Post home inspection franchise early this year making him the only one not involved in the business. He’s now a purchasing agent for Daimler-Benz Trucking. At the time all his brothers & sister thought he was nuts to sell but with the state of the housing industry now the rest of us are doing our best to count our blessings vs. our receipts.







Jefferson and Susan added to their family of girls with a son, Emmett Jefferson Torbjorn (a favorite Norwegian name meaning “Thunder Bear”) in October. Grace now 10 and Josie 3 love him to pieces. They are still in Birch Bay WA.

Chris and Janet’s family is growing up; they also now have a first grader Gillian. Ethan 4 is in preschool and Jack 17 months keeps them on their toes. It is nice they are so close we get to see them a lot. They still live in Tigard. If you would like to see some more on Chris, you might want to check out the following link where Chris was selected as the Dad of the month: http://www.dadsworld.com/dad-of-the-month/December2008-dotm.html

















We hope this finds you all well and enjoying the peace that can be felt through the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.