Merry Christmas 2016 from the Lefebre's

"I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep." ~ John 10: 14-15

As we ponder the year-in-review, and update our address database, we are thinking of you, and hope this card makes it to your place! We've had so many memorable moments and milestones this year – we are truly blessed!

January was nice and quiet. We worked, attended church, and stayed at home otherwise, which was perfect. The twins were gremlins in the Children's Missoula Theatre Rapunzel – it was amazing to see them acting at 8-years-old!

In February, we enjoyed the Super Bowl gathering at Mike's Dad's. Tiffany traded in her Jeep for a new black Chrysler 200. Her friend Shelby had a remarkable baby shower and a few weeks later welcomed her son Chance, who is so cute! Brandyn had a Valentine with whom he attended his Junior Prom in March – and they were also so cute!

The twins and Mike were busy with Heisey basketball – they were the Minions with yellow shirts. Kris continues to love her church calling in the Stake Relief Society, traveling around to the Branches and Wards in north central Montana. Jordan starred in the Missoula Children's Theatre, Pinocchio. She is an incredibly talented young actress and has now been doing this for about 5-years.

Brandyn entered the Power Lifting competition in March: benching 225, squatting 325, dead-lifting 375; his actual max dead lift is 455! Squat is 405, bench 305. On the 4-4-16 math day, Brandyn joined the US Air Force! He'll be a fire fighter. That event spurred him into last minute action to finish up a few badges for his Eagle Scout rank, while baseball season was in full-swing! He also entered the Cross-Town Rumble boxing show-down (his mother begged him not to do it and cried through the whole 5-minutes!) He won his bout, neither of them got injured, and he got a lot of attention in the news and media, so he wants to do it again! Ugh!

At the end of April the Lefebre's all worked very hard on a big estate auction sale, bringing back many memories of the good-ole-days of Auction Way Services and Carole's amazing talents of organizing - it was a successful sale and we all had a blast despite the rain!

In May, we enjoyed some great baseball games with the twins, the LugNuts coached by Mike. Brandyn started out playing Legion ball with the Chargers, but moved over to the Sr. Babe Ruth League playing for the Outlaws.

Shaunice turned 22-years old May 7th and decided on a job change, moving from the Beehive Homes to the Renaissance Homes, still doing assisted-living care for the elderly. We travelled to Big Timber for Colton Bice's graduation, and got to see the Natural Bridge State Park, which was awesome! Over Memorial Day Weekend, we got together for a nice family potluck-picnic at the Black Eagle Park with the Schrock's and Hills. And the big news: Tiff bought a house!

The summer whizzed by in a blur as usual. Shaunice and Tiffany got moved and settled in her new house with work to do everywhere! A great big Thank You to Gpa Ron and Gma Dixie for the tireless hours and small fortune in making Tiffany's house safe and sound. Tiffany took the summer off from school to settle into her new home and work full-time at Benefis. She played softball on two city teams.

In June we attended more graduations, including Mariah's, and volunteered again at the CMR All- Night-Party! That was followed by birthdays and travel to baseball games. Brandyn frantically finalized his Eagle Scout requirements.

Then Mike and Kris slipped away for their 25th Wedding Anniversary! We started out in Butte with Mike's brother Loren and Kimberly for the 3rd of July (yup – they start fireworks and celebrating in Butte earlier than most), saw the best parade, 2nd only to Disney, and enjoyed an amazing barbeque with friends and family. We toured the Museum of Mining, and hiked around the Lost Creek State Park, breath-taking! Finished a perfect day at Muzzy's for a Whop Chop!

Then we parted company traveling on to the Lewis & Clark Caverns, still so cool, and onto the weirdest place in the world – Yellowstone National Park! We enjoyed many long hikes, hitting record numbers of steps on our FitBits!

We met up with the kids at Canyon Ferry Lake for our annual Jay's Party Camp-out. Tiffany and Shaunice went on a white water raft trip for Tiffany's birthday. Mike, Kris and Brandyn returned to Great Falls to watch the Outlaws win the state Championship! Their team was off to Regionals in Washington. But before that, just two days before his 18th birthday, Bran went before the board of review and earned his Eagle Rank! At the end of July we had a wonderful time as a family, twins and Jordan too, at the Electric City Water Park.

Tiffany traveled to Las Vegas with the Vernon's in July, and to Florida in August. We celebrated Brandyn's Eagle Rank with a Court of Honor with many special guests of honor. We were blessed to spend the day at the State Fair with the LaPier's – the twins are so fun! We traveled to Billings for Jill's daughter Shelbi's wedding on Aug. 13th at their gorgeous camp ground. Shaunice spent some quality time with her birth family in Billings. If you're interested, Kris would love to share her story of Aug. 21st when she met Elder D Todd Christofferson! Tiff returned to college in the fall. Brandyn returned to school, his senior year. He played football again, varsity defense special teams and outside line backer, earning 2nd Team All Conference for special teams. Mike and Kris travelled up to Kalispell to watch their big win against the undefeated Wolf Pack, then drove the beautiful fall scenic route to Missoula for a U of M Griz game over their birthday weekend! The next weekend Ivy turned 40 and we had a nice family dinner at 3-D International to celebrate.

Mike coached the twins football team, and we had our annual Harry Potter Day in mid-October – with Gary Potter and Draco Michaelfoy! At the beginning of November, our college friends, the Hodziewich's came for a wonderful visit. Tiffany went to Colorado Springs for a friend's USAF Academy graduation, and some adventure! She also ranked up to Senior Airman (E-4). The twins had an awesome (yet a little hazardous for Kris's health) birthday party at the roller-skating rink. A few days later we celebrated Johnny's birthday bash at the Cowboys with a family potluck dinner and some karaoke! We also spent Thanksgiving with Mike's dad and family.

For Christmas, Tiffany is starting her deployment as a medic around Christmas, so we are planning a quiet little family Christmas with flexible plans as we are not sure exactly when she'll fly out. We are finishing off our year with our 3rd Annual New Year's Eve Gathering.

Please reserve June 3rd, 2017 for Brandyn's graduation.

Wishing you many blessings in the New Year and Merry Christmas, with love from The Lefebre's

2016 Christmas Note from the Brookings Family

Howdy Y'All – No we haven't made it south yet, but as we look outside at bare trees and all that bleak white stuff, it seems like a good idea. Ron's been talking about it for quite a while now. He says after Christmas, the winter gets real long and would like to spend 100 days where it's warmer. The worst part of that is not seeing the grandkids. Someone suggested they probably wouldn't mind coming down to visit a couple of times.

We didn't travel this year. But the calendar has a lot of local gardening events on it! We managed to take in some volleyball, soccer, baseball, football games and other grandkids activities. The fun things! Dixie brought home a border collie puppy (male). Ron named him Brady. He sure is a challenge to train. He's smart but just a stubborn learner. (Kind of like Ron). Dixie left him alone for a couple of min. a couple of weeks ago, he crossed the road and was hit by a car. Broke a hip but should be fine after healing from surgery.

Ron's wisdom: How is it that older people have less time to live, but seem to have more patience?

Ron & Dixie