Dear Friends and Family, Dec.
7, 2013
It finally happened! It’s what I’ve been dreading for
over 20 years: Our children are starting to leave the nest! And I thought that
only happened to OLD people! We started out this year with all 8 children
living at home. Now, as we close the year with only 5 children, I wonder how
and when we got “old?” It doesn’t seem possible. But it hasn’t been nearly as awful
as I imagined it to be. On the contrary, we have actually had a wonderful and
memorable year.
We started off the year with Ben’s mission call. He
was called to serve in the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission. In March, we drove him
down to Utah. We spent a week visiting with family and then dropped him off at
the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah. It was hard to say
goodbye, but we are so proud of him and the amazing work that he is doing. It’s
so fun to get his uplifting and insightful letters each week.
Besides sending off our missionary, the rest of the spring
was consumed by our busy high-schoolers, especially our two graduating seniors.
Michaela and Kiana finished their high school careers with a bang. We’re so
grateful that they so thoroughly enjoyed their teenage years and that they will
have so many wonderful memories to look back on.
We had a fun summer. My brother, Krey, and his family
visited from Australia. We hadn’t seen them for 4 years. It was fun to see how
much his kids have grown up. Our three older girls had lots of fun at the
church girls’ camp together. Dallin did a 50-mile backpacking trip in the
Olympic National Forest with the scouts. Nina took all the 16-18 year old girls
at church on a high adventure which included hiking, boating and a ropes
course. And summer wouldn’t be complete without 4-H and the county fair. Dallin
showed his steer and Kandra showed a lamb. I’m still a leader in the 4-H club
and enjoy being with all the kids.
When summer came to a close, we put our sweet
Michaela on a plane and sent her off to BYU in Provo, Utah. It was hard to say
goodbye. Then 3 weeks later, I drove Kiana out to Rexburg, Idaho to start
BYU-I. After tucking in Kiana, I drove down to Utah to check up on Michaela and
make sure she was settled. It was fun being able to spend some one-on-one time
with my girls.
Jonathan started Kindergarten this year. He loves
school and his English is improving very quickly. He graduated out of the ESL
program within 2 months. At home, the three youngest still speak exclusively German
to us and to each other.
One of the highlights of the year was our surprise
Thanksgiving trip. Our college girls had been a little homesick, so we secretly
packed up the family and drove first to BYU-I to surprise Kiana and took her
with us to BYU Provo to surprise Michaela. It was such a fun week and we loved
being together. We had lots of bonding with siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles,
nieces, nephews and grandparents.
Karl recently took a new job at Intel. He is now in
the server division doing strategic product planning. At church he is in the
high priest group leadership. I am still Young Women’s President over almost 50
amazing girls. I really love working with the youth.
The most difficult and heart-wrenching experience I
had this year was watching my sister and her family deal with the loss of their
sweet little 5 month old baby, Jacob. I was so grateful for my capable kids and
husbandwho took care of everything at home so that I could be with Kamber and
her family. It was a sacred and beautiful experience to be in their home and
feel the Savior’s intense love for little Jacob and his sweet family during
that incomprehensibly difficult time. I came away from that experience with a
full heart, a deep appreciation for eternal families and a stronger resolve to
put the Lord first in my life.
I love that we get to end each year by celebrating
the birth of our Lord. Our hearts are filled with peace, love and joy when we
center our lives on His teachings. May each of us share in the true Christmas
Spirit that originates from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Love,
Karl
& Nina
Ben,
Michaela, Kiana, Dallin, Kandra,
Jonathan,
Clarissa and Simon
The Shurts
Kids:
Ben
(Elder Shurts)(21) is serving a 2 year mission in
the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission. He started in March and will be home in
March 2015. His first area was in Marquette, Michigan and now he is near Oneida,
Wisconsin. He is really enjoying the people and the area. He LOVES to get
letters. Feel free to send him an email at benjamin.shurts@myldsmail.net.
He would love to get some snail mail: 7111 W. Edgerton Ave STE #100,
Greenfield, WI 53220. You can follow his progress on his blog: http://whileinwisconsin.blogspot.com/.
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Michaela
(19) is attending BYU in Provo, Utah and loving it. She thoroughly enjoyed
her senior year. She was involved in leadership and track (5th in
state in polevault), was girls camp president, threw many parties, was laurel
president, and just basically kept so extremely busy that she made the rest
of us very tired. In the summer she got a job at Del Taco. And in August, she
headed off to college. She is majoring in recreation management. Whenever I
tell people that she would like to be a corporate event planner, they nod
their heads and say: “Yep, that sounds like something Michaela would love.”
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Kiana
(19) is attending BYU-Idaho in Rexburg. She also finished her high school
career in high gear. Along with ballroom and track (400m, 4x400, 4x100, 800m
and pole vault), she was also very involved in leadership and was in the
girls camp presidency. She and Michaela both competed at nationals in
Ballroom and placed in all their routines. She worked as a nanny all summer. She
started college in September and is studying her tail off, hoping to get into
the very competitive nursing program. She is enjoying BYU-I (except for the
cold temperatures). Negative 14 degrees is a little too cold for her comfort.
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Dallin
(17) is in 11th grade. He has had a fun year. His passions are
sports and music. And he excels at both. He finished a successful season of
basketball and ended up on the varsity team even though it was his first year
playing high school ball. At 6’6”, he’s the tallest kid in his school. In
track he placed 3rd in state in discus even though he didn’t have
the use of his foot (due to a compound break in his toe) for most of the
season. He completed his Eagle in scouting! He enjoyed showing his steer at
the county fair. He also loves to write music on the computer. You can hear
his creations at https://soundcloud.com/dallin-shurts.
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Kandra
(14) is in 9th grade and now attends early morning seminary with
Dallin. She is blossoming into a beautiful young lady. She did track last
spring and in the fall she played soccer. Her summer was spent bonding with
her older sisters and she misses them now that they’re gone. However, she is
really enjoying having her bedroom to herself. She has done a great job of
stepping into the role of “fun, older sister” for her little siblings. It’s
so fun to see all the fun activities she plans with them, from building
cushion forts to hay forts to hosting “sibling slumber parties” in her room.
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Jonathan
(6) has started Kindergarten and loves it. He loves to figure out how things
work and loves anything mechanical. We think he has a future in engineering. His
favorite toys are marble runs. He is also a budding little artist. He is a
sweet, pleasant, thoughtful and sensitive little boy. He misses his big
brother, Ben. But Dallin is doing a good job of filling Ben’s shoes. They love
to play Legos together in Dallin’s room. Jonathan likes to point out that
soon he will be as big as Dallin.
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Clarissa
(5) loves life. She is a happy, sparkly little girl, who loves people and
animals. She is extremely outgoing and loves to entertain. She’s a princess
at heart, but happily plays with her two brothers. She does a great job of
keeping them in line and she demands that they treat her with the royal
treatment she deserves. Clarissa and Kandra have shared a very special “girl”
bond this fall. They are both happy to have a sister in the house even though
they 9 years apart.
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Simon
(5) is all boy: Extremely active and intensely sweet. He’s either running,
climbing, building and jumping or cuddling and hugging. Even his “affection”
can be physical. Watch out if he’s going to give you a hug! Because it often
comes in the form of a body slam followed by a suffocating squeeze. You won’t
easily forget a “Simon hug”. He loves
cars and sports. Simon adores his siblings. I love it when he walks into the
room and says: “Ich brauche meine Leute.” (I need my people)
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