Kory and Shay Dopp: Christmas Card 2012

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Christmas Card 2012

December 25^th, 2012

Dearest Friends and Family,

Kory

Kory continues to be successful at American Biotech Labs. Despite the national recession, his company continues to be successful as they grew more than 20% in last year alone. Kory was also able to go on his fun hunting trips. He caught his first “big game”, bringing home our first antelope! His company also took everyone pheasant hunting and brought home 98 pheasants. Come to find out, pheasant makes pretty good jerky.

Shaylin

Shay’s accomplishments this year are surviving 9 months of pregnancy and successfully giving birth to our second baby girl without any medication. Her goal was to have a natural childbearing experience without an epidural and she felt the Savior’s love in helping her accomplish it. The baby was born completely healthy and Shay has enjoyed a smoother recovery.

As a couple, we splurged in our annual getaway this year where we spent it at The Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake City. We stayed in the “Swiss Family Robinson” room and got to experience sleeping in a tree house (with a flat screen TV). We also go to explore the skies of Park City, UT when Kory spoiled Shay with a Hot Air Balloon ride and then breakfast at The Eating Establishment. We also broke down and finally bought a second car, since our callings and life in general kept pushing us different directions at the same time. We are now the proud owners of a 2009 Honda Pilot and would recommend a Pilot to anyone.

We also got to enjoy California twice this year: once for our niece’s baptism and again for our traditional Thanksgiving trip. Both times we got to see Kory’s beloved family whom we don't get to enjoy as often as we would like. We are blessed again to spend Christmas with them this year!

Sydney

Sydney T has been quite the active one. She turned 2 this September and has continued to learn new things almost daily. She is a very bright 2-year old and talks extremely well for her age. She loves being an older sister. She has so much love for her baby sister that she can’t contain it all. Therefore, when she expresses her love it is usually the “rough and tough” kind of love. She will learn to be soft hopefully next year. She absolutely going to Nursery at church where she can play with friends. We love her and love every stage she goes through.

Ainsley

This year we have been very blessed with a new addition to our family, Ainsley Shay! Sometimes she is called “Baby A” because for the longest time we had a list of “A” names but no definite name, until after she was born. She just happened to settle on A names with this baby. Ainsley has been such a joy to us. She will smile at anyone that walks in the door. She has been an easier baby than Sydney and will even fall asleep on her own. She is such a blessing to us in many ways. We love having two little girls close together.

We always look back at the end of each year and realize how deeply blessed we are. We have felt extra close to the Lord especially after the birth of our baby; there is a heaven-sent happiness that is hard to find on earth sometimes. Our Heavenly Father has been merciful to us in giving us so much that we don’t even deserve. We love our Savior and look forward to celebrating his birth every Christmas. We know Jesus Christ is our Savior and was born and died for this purpose.

We hope and pray you have a wonderful Christmas season and a Happy New Year! May the Lord bless your life with peace, forgiveness, and lots of joy!

"This Christmas, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love and then speak it again."

-Howard W. Hunter

We love you,

Kory, Shay, Sydney, & Ainsley Dopp

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An old man once said - There comes a time in life when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh, forget the bad, and focus on the good. So love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is a part of life, getting back up is living.

"No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. ... All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable. ... It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire." -Orson F. Whitney

"It is the office of a true teacher to show us that God is, not was, that He speaketh, not spake... The need was never greater of new revelation than now." -Ralph Waldo Emerson (15 July 1838)

"God grant me SERENITY to accept the things i can change, COURAGE to change the things i can and WISDOM to know the difference." -unknown

"Come what may, and love it." - Joseph B. Wirthlin

"Bloom Where You're Planted"

Proverbs 3:4-5

"Life is not about how hard you can hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward." -Rocky Balboa

"Government officials are elected to office to represent me, not represent the government to me."

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." - Dr. Seuss

"FOR WITH GOD, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE" - LUKE 1:37

"The pain of parting is nothing compared to the joy of meeting again." ~Charles Dickens

"I had a firm philosophy that you cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves." -Ezra Taft Benson

Throughout the world and among the membership of the Church, there is great joy and great pain. Both are part of the plan....Never let an earthly circumstance disable you spiritually." - Donald L. Hallstrom

"He who takes offense when offense was not intended is a fool, yet he who takes offense when offense is intended is an even greater fool for he has succumbed to the will of his adversary." — Brigham Young

"How strange it is, our little procession of life! The child says, 'When I am a big boy,' But what is that? The big boy says, 'When I grow up.' And then, grown up, he says, 'When I get married." But to be married, what is that after all? The thought changes to 'When I'm able to retire.' And then, when retirement comes, he looks back over the landscape traversed; a cold wind seems to sweep over it; somehow he has missed it all, and it is gone. Life, we learn too late is in the living, in the tissue of every day and hour." -Stephan Leacock

Our Story...

Kory and Shay found each other at Brigham Young University at a Ward Choir practice, and they have been inseparable ever since. All except for the year and a half that she decided to follow Kory's lead and serve the Lord as a full time missionary, where she did so in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 2007-2008. Kory valiantly served in the New York, New York South Mission during 2003-2005. Now that they have been majestically reunited, they finished their college degrees while initially living in Provo, Utah. Now, they reside in Alpine, Utah. Two turned to three when their gorgeous daughter, Sydney, entered their lives September 2010. They currently live a challenging, yet happy life, and await for the next turn life's path brings them.