One year ago today, we began writing a monthly family newsletter!

And every month since then our family and friends have received it via e-mail.

Neither Dave nor I are very good at keeping a regular journal, but we thought that if we started a newsletter that we would not only be making some progress in that regard, but we would be keeping in better touch with family and friends. So we decided to make it a new years resolution. In January 2007 we prepared our hosting server with DadaMail (mailing list software), gathered e-mail addresses, and created the basic framework for what would be our newsletters. We set a date of February 1st 2007 to begin, and we were off. So far things are moving along smashingly.

In honor of the one year anniversary of the Ernstrom Family Newsletter, we take you on a brief tour of newsletter’s past.

February 2007:
The first newsletter: http://www.ernstrom.net/tina/newsletter/2007.02_Volume01.html
. . .In effort to keep in better touch with all of you, we are starting a monthly family newsletter. This is the first volume. . .

March 2007:
. . . Prime Rib at IHOP sounded questionable and we should have trusted our common sense. Enough alluding, the meal was rotten. It was, in fact, the most disappointing experience at a restaurant that I have ever had. Not only was the food horrible, but the service was equally as bad. We left a six-cent tip. . .

April 2007:
. . . on a somewhat sunny day in the middle of an average afternoon in March, a silly little lady rang the doorbell on the average sort of house of this strange little family, and introduced herself as the owner of the already-way-too-close apartments and the new even closer apartments being built behind the average sort of house. She, the owner of the already-way-too-close apartments and the new even closer apartments, asked if the strange little family would please cut down their above average sort of trees in the backyard. The strange little family grimaced. . .

. . .Little Bridget is learning so much, so quickly. She will now try to repeat back most words we say to her. She has gotten quite good at the words “temple,” “apple,” and “wow” – though they sound a bit more like “demple,” “abble,” and “oue”. . .

May 2007:
. . . The next thing I know Dave is teaching Bridget to say “I Do” when he puts the ring on her finger. Its really quite adorable to witness, but I can’t help but wonder how this event will affect the “When I grow up I’m going to marry you, Daddy” complex that most children have in the early years of their lives. . .

June 2007:
. . .I am also going to be debuting in a kind of major motion picture that my buddy Jared Garlick is putting together. His family has a contest every year where each branch of the family has to put together their own video using the same script. . .

July 2007:
. . .After many weeks of having to go in and save her ankles and wrists from the grasps of the rails on her crib when she yelled “duck” (stuck) – and then a few days of her crying wolf just so we’d come in – we decided it was time. . .

August 2007:
. . .I have always bragged about my four-minute commute via car, but never realized that by bike it was only six minutes. . .

. . . she’ll repeat “mow” over and over pointing at the offending noise. Tina decided to help out Bridget’s interest in mowing the lawn by purchasing some equipment (toys) that aided in her fascination. . .

September 2007:
. . .One of the big projects around here lately has been the Ward Directory Creator. Dave has been working very hard on it this month. . .

New Header Image!!

October 2007:
. . .After dropping mommy off at the city civic center, we picked up dinner at the local hamburger joint. I gather this was Bridget’s first experience at eating a corn dog right off the stick. . .

. . . Together, they have the joy of raising one beautiful daughter, Bridget, who will be 2 in November (gasp!). David and Tina met sometime in the early High School years — both graduates of Clearfield High, although they didn’t begin dating until a couple of years after David’s return from his Canada, Vancouver mission. . .

November 2007:
. . . In previous years I’ve enjoyed climbing up on there and helping Dave. Last year we tackled the project while Bridget was napping. This year. . .

. . . Lucy has recently taken on a new role of playmate. For an animal that began her relationship with Bridget by defecating near the crib and acting up any chance she got, Lucy has come a long way. I guess she’s realized that Bridget is here to stay. . .

December 2007:
. . .She has gotten pretty good about her alphabet. She even tries to spell her name. In fact, she thinks that every written word spells Bridget. . .

. . .We built a 5′ star from some PVC pipe, rope, and a handful of nuts and bolts – wrapped it with lights, elevated it 10′ in the air, and hoisted up to our roof!. . .

New (Larger) Header Image:

January 2008:
. . .When she saw it, Bridget exclaimed, “It came out of the store!” . . .

. . .Several batches of fudge and pictures later, we were sitting in front of her village, exhausted, enjoying the gratifying sense of accomplishment. . .

And there you have it! An entire year of Newsletters, all summed up in one little blog posting. If that doesn’t make you want to go back and read every single one, I don’t know what will!

Postscript: If you need to subscribe or unsubscribe to the aforementioned newsletter and don’t already know how to accomplish it, let us know. We can be mighty helpful at times.