A Wonderful Christmas!

Heber & I had a wonderful Christmas this year. We really enjoyed time spent with family and friends. We played more games than we've ever played in our married life combined. We ate anything and everything. We played with Mariah and enjoyed our nieces and nephews! Thanks to all who contributed to the good times and for the wonderful gifts. Below, I am going to post our Christmas letter for anyone who didn't get to read it! Thanks and Loves:

Dearest Family, Kin, Friend and Larry,

2009 has been a year of blessings, trials, and triumphs for the Sheffield family. The biggest change and blessing in our lives has been the birth of our daughter, Mariah June. What a joy! Mariah was born on February 16th and immediately captured our hearts and restful nights. It is so wonderful to see her grow each day. She makes us laugh as we try to introduce her to mortality. Mariah is an unusually pleasant baby, which has ben a real blessing. Whether we're making faces with her, repeating words to her, or just cuddling as a family, Mariah has the spotlight. (Though I must admit that I was terrified of being a parent, I can now say that it is one of the biggest blessings I now enjoy). Mariah is very accomplished. She says, "Momma," "Dadda," and "Nana," and a variety of coos and ahs that are soo cute. She waves, crawls, stands and walks with support, claps, and has six teeth already! She is always in the 97th % or more for her weight and 90th+ for her height. We love having a chunky baby because we don't worry so much when she doesn't eat well.

Jenni has accomplished a lot this year. In addition to cooking, cleaning, mending, washing, vacuuming , giving birth to Mariah, changing diapers, dressing Mariah, feeding Mariah, bathing Mariah, and decorating Mariah and the house, Jenni has found time to have a monthly art job, and start teaching sewing and art lessons. Jenni also found time to exercise, eat healthy (spinach shakes, anyone?), and track her progress as she won "The Biggest Loser" competition which my family held. Jenni always has a project (or 5) going on. This Christmas, for example, Jenni decided to give a hand-made gift to all of the nieces and nephews on both sides of our family. She does a great job at giving time and love to those around her.

Heber is our Pro-vider in the family. He is a constant support to our family as he helps me with projects, changes Mariah, mows the lawn or builds computer programs till dawn. We have undergone many changes this year with employment. Heber started out the year working for Applied Signal Technology, but we both felt he needed to do something else. He has since been doing contract jobs. Heber is a self-motivated learner, and he has successfully taught himself his fourth big programming language, specializing in iPhone applications. After learning enough to build his own game single-handedly, Heber worked for a small company in Springville doing iPhone programming. Heber loves making games and the whole genre so much that he has started his own company with his buddy Lance Harris. They have two games for sale in the App Store. They are both golf games, "Invisible Links,"-which is the harder one, and "Doodle Golf,"-the easier version (which has some artwork in it by me)!

More important to Heber than all of his work is his love of being the worlds best Da-da, Dadd-eee and "Honey". Heber thoroughly enjoys being a husband and father, and he is very good at it. He is so good about getting down on Mariah's level and playing endless games of peek-a-boo or "wrestling." Heber loves to spend time with his family and his humor is like good wine--just getting better with time--so they say : )!

Our family theme this year was taken from a scripture in the Book of Mormon:

"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls."

We have tried to focus on this and remember that it is in doing the small things everyday that we build a foundation for a solid testimony. Mariah has been a great example and reminder of this. As we see her doing small things, we know that the Lord can work through us as He accomplishes His purposes. Some of the small and simple things we are working on include: praying, reading our scriptures, and regularly attending church meetings. We have noticed that when we do these things, we are kinder, more humble and teachable, have the Spirit of the Lord more stongly with us, and our faith is strengthened. We are better Christians when we don't neglect the small things!

We know that Christ lives, He loves us, and it is only through Him that we can return to live with God someday as a forever family. We are a covenant-keeping family!

We wish you a very Merry Christmas filled with the light of Christ.

Love, Heber, Jenni and Mariah Sheffield