Dyer Family January Update

I am so excited about our new family journal, and know this will be a great way to stay up on everyone's lives.  Boy we miss you all alot!!!  January has been a great month!  I always love the beginning of a new year and the chance to make new resolutions. Doing better at staying in touch is one of mine, and I think this will be a great way to do that. 

Our move to Florida has been quite an adventure!!  Starting with a 3 1/2 day drive across the country, which was great until we hit a dear only an hour away from our destination.  Luckily, everything was okay.  We are loving Naples, and feel like we've adjusted pretty well.  It is sooo beautiful here and we feel so blessed to be in such a great place.  We feel like Naples is a little bubble here in Florida.  There is a lot of money here and so it is really well taken care of.  It is very clean and new and nice and we feel totally safe here.  We've been to a few other cities and it is just not the same so we feel so lucky.



Our house

This is our house.  We live in a little community called Milano although, everyone calls it little Provo.  There are 13 LDS families in our neighborhood, 11 of which are in CRNA school.  It has been so nice to have a little network of people that are all going through the same thing.  The kids can hardly wait to get their homework done so they can go play outside with their friends.  They just play in the driveway's out front and they are happy as could be.  We also have a really nice pool, tennis courts, and basketball court that we spend a lot of time at too.  Brett is so busy with school, so it helps to have things to keep us busy.

Brett finished his first semester of school this month.  This program has been pretty intense.  He has class all day 2 days a week and the rest of the week is spent with his head in the books all day long.  They have a lot of pressure to do well, which is good, but very busy.  He worked so hard, and ended up with a 3.6.  Yay!! We are so proud of him, and grateful for his hard work and sacrifice.  He was called to be a ward missionary in our ward and that has kept him pretty busy.  There are 3 sets of missionaries in our ward and they need quite a bit of help from giving investigators rides to church, help with discussions and going to baptisms.

Our ward is a pretty good size.  There is only one ward in Naples which is made up of about a 30 mile radius.  There are about 600 people in the ward, but 75% of the ward is students that are only here for 2-3 years.  There is the CRNA school, a law school and a pediatric dental school here.  There are also a lot of snow birds that come for the winter, so the ward is changing all the time.  I got called to be a primary teacher of the CTR 6 class.  They are crazy, but fun!  The closest temple is in Orlando, 3 hours away, but they are currently building one in Ft. Lauderdale which is 1 1/2 away.  That will be much better, but we definitly took it for granted having so many so close.

Taytum is doing great! Enjoying school, friends and basketball!!  She is playing on a basketball league at the YMCA and loving it.  It's really fun to watch her run down the court with a HUGE smile on her face the whole time.  She just finished a Heritage project for school, thanks to some help from mom and Cass, and it turned out great!  She is really growing up!!



Taytum and her Teacher Mrs. Jardin





This is on a boat at the Zoo.  She's enjoying her new camera from Christmas!





Elle's teacher Mrs. Torkleson

Elle is doing great as well.  She gets rave reviews from her teacher in school and has made some great friends.  She spends a lot of time skateboarding, jump roping, swimming, dancing and having a good time.  She keeps us laughing all the time.

Enjoying time with her friends!

Weston had a birthday this month.  I can't believe he is 6!  He is such a sweet boy and we love him so much.  While mom was here, we had been leaving a chocolate and picture for her on her pillow at night.  One night he kept saying he wanted to give us a present in the middle of the night.  He got a chocolate out and coloring book and crayons all ready.  We were putting him to bed and he asked me if he should do it then our in the middle of the night.  I told him in the middle of the night, because I didn't think there was any way he would wake up.  Sure enough, about 4 am, I see the bathroom light turn on, then I hear him come in our room and slide a chocolate under my pillow, then Brett's.  Then he spent about 30 min. in the hallway coloring us a picture.  He finally came in and said. "Mom, I didn't quite finish the picture, can I finish in the morning?"  It was seriously the cutest thing ever.  The funniest was the Brett's chocolate got smashed and melted all over his pillow and sheets.  He has such a big heart!!  He had a great birthday, thanks for all the birthday wishes from you.  He got a new watch, and is our time keeper now, and a remote control helicopter.  He is amazing at flying it, I can't believe it.  He is so into sports right now.  He's playing B-ball at the Y as well and is so cute out there.  He always has a ball with him and would practice his dribbling all day in the house if I let him.  He's really growing up!!

So funny!



Fun Birthday celebration at the pool.  (Yes that is a store bought cake)



Logan keeps us in stiches all the time.  I am loving my alone time with her!!  She is my little buddy that goes everywhere with me.  She LOVES her sister's and brother so much and can't wait for them to get home from school.  She is all girl!!  She loves princesses and sleeping beauty is her favorite.  She loves anything pink and purple, and is quite the little dancer.  My favorite thing she said last week when I told her how pretty she is, she said, "I'm not pretty cause I'm fancy!"  Love this girl!

 



Worn right out!!



Pink Dr. dress up, Perfect!!



Walk home from the pool



I've carried on too long, but here are some of the highlights of the month!

Watching the fireworks on New Year's





We celebrated New Year's at the beach this year.  It was a lot of fun, they lit the fireworks off the pier and it was beautiful.  They do it twice a year, for new year's and 4th of July.  It was quite a site and the kids had a blast!!  There were several people lighting lanterns and sending them off from the beach as well.  Definitely different from anything else we've done.

Our favorite thing this month was our visit from mom!!  It was soooo AMAZING to have her here!!  It just went by to fast.  We had lots of fun with her though.  We went to the beach, pool, to see the gators, played tennis, children's museum, and just enjoyed spending time with her.  Thanks for coming mom, we LOVE you!!!



Trying to spy Nana!





Yabba Island Grill



This is a pretty cool video of a gator going after a fish.  Sorry it's sideways!

We love and miss you all!!  We hope you have a great month and look forward to your updates next month!!

Love Always,

The Dyer's