HOLY CRAP!!!!!

John here. If you're looking for our Christmas letter, please scroll down.

For some news of monumental proportions, hang on to your knickers and read on.

So Shandy and I went to the doctor on Saturday to get our first ultrasound of our new arrival. We wanted to see what the sex of the baby would be. We had decided that this would be our last child and so I was really anxious to see if we were finally going to add a little girl to the family.

Now these ultrasounds are never 100% positive however all indications point to the fact that they are girls.

That's right, girls. Plural. As in more than one. As in twins.

The nurse starts ultrasounding (is that a verb?) and after less than a minute he says, "Well, the first thing that I see is that there are two." I keep waiting for him to say that he's joking. Shandy and I look at each other. My left eyebrow raises like The Rock. I look at the Nurse in disbelief.

"Dude, serious?"

"Yup"

I believe that my first words after that were, "Holy Crap..." followed shortly by, "I guess we'll need to trade your van in on a bigger one."

So the dude starts going through all of the areas of the exam on the ultrasound. There's quite the laundry list of things he's got to look at. We determine that each baby is in it's own amniotic sack which is indicative of fraternal twins. It's 40 minutes before we find out the gender on Baby A. I'm thinking, So what's it going to be in our family? Six boys? Five boys, one girl? Four boys, two girls?

We end up discovering that both babies are girls. Both are about identical in size and are completely healthy and at the right stage of development.

Needless to say, Shandy and I are completely ecstatic. What a wonderful blessing. We look forward to the girls joining us with both great anticipation and a small measure of fear. Twins on top of four boys will be a tough job but we are up to it. I think we are still in a little bit of shock as we try to digest everything that will have to happen in the next few months. One thing is for sure: I need to get neutered here pretty soon.

2007 Christmas Newsletter

Yes - you found the right place if you were just dying to find out more about what our family has been up to this year. First of all - I *really* wanted to send out card with a pic of our whole family together but that just didn't happen... so... we took 4 shots after church today and here's what we came up with....

John/Gus: This year has had some wonderful highs and some terrible lows. 2007 has been the year of death for me. We have lost a lot of good people this year. All in all, I have been to eight funerals and had some connection to another three deaths on top of that. To say I am numb is an understatement. Our Battalion lost six Soldiers in Iraq from January to May with three in one day. I had known Ross Clevenger since he was 17. I was his platoon leader when he first came to Alpha Company. He was a good man, brother, son, fiance. Please keep the families of our fallen heros in your prayers. CPL Stephen Shannon age 21, SGT Ross Clevenger age 21, SGT Jim Holtom age 21, PFC Ray Werner age 21, SSG Coby Schwab age 26, and CPL Kelly Groethe age 21. In January, we lost my Grandma Vogt's husband, Orville Burt. Orville was a great husband to Grandma these last 10 years. He was 95 and a Naval WWII vet. In April, we lost my Grandpa, Mark Merrell. Grandpa was also 95 and just the coolest guy around. I can't help but smile every time I think of him. He was also a WWII vet who served in the Philippines with the Army. In September we lost a great guy from our church, Mark Simmons after a courageous battle with ALS. Dad lost a lifelong friend and Shandy had a friend who lost her infant son. Through all of this death I have gained a greater appreciation for the sacrifice our Savior made so that we might have life eternal. I am grateful for his atonement and resurection and the knowledge that death will not have victory and that we can live again with our loved ones.

This year also brought some great times... Dad and I started the year out right by attending the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona on New Years day to cheer on our Boise State Broncos. The Broncos beat the Oklahoma Sooners 43-42 in overtime in what has been hailed as one of the greatest football games of all time. My buddies and I are big idiots who paint up for every game. My paint job looked like a mix between Tammy Faye Baker and some orange drag queen. The old man even got in on the action and joined us in our lunacy. Topping last season is a tough thing to do but we've had a great 2007 season finishing 10-2 with a berth in the Hawaii Bowl on December 23. Sadly, we won't be attending that one. I just can't see Shandy saying, "Hey, honey, drop $3000 and go to Hawaii without me, with your buddies. Really, it's fine. I'll take care of getting Christmas all ready for the kids. You just be back in time." Anyone else have any luck with that?

I spent January through November on active duty for my Army Reserve Battalion as the Rear Detachment Officer in Charge of about 300 Soldiers. Shortly after I got back from Iraq, the rest of my Battalion was deployed so I had the opportunity to go back on orders starting in July of 2006. They got back in September 2007 and I had acumulated close to 60 days of leave. It was great to take all of October and November off before returning to the Battalion to start my new job as a civilian for the unit. I got a taste of what retirement will be like. Let me tell, ya, it wasn't too bad. I spent a lot of time travelling with work this year with trips to Spokane, Chicago, Fort Knox, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Atlanta (it just dawned on me that our good friends the Kings live in GA and I didn't look them up-I'm an idiot) and multiple trips to Seattle. I'm still trying to get over the hemmorhoids that all that travelling caused. In September I also took command of my previous unit, Alpha Company, 321st Engineer Battalion (Corps)(Combat)(Mechanized). Company Command has been a longtime coming and I'm grateful I've been able to get such an awesome company.

In November we took a vacation to the #1 family fun destination, beautiful Las Vegas. I know what you're thinking, Vegas and Family don't really go together (Don't look at that billboard, son!). There was actually a ton of great family activities and we all had a blast. Nathan stayed home with Mom and Dad and so Shandy, the older boys, and I were able to get out, do a lot of activities, and see a lot of sights. the boys loved swimming in the pool even though it was November, hitting the amusement park at Circus Circus, and of course, all of the buffets. Shandy and I loved seeing all of the sites, especially the fountains at the Bellagio. I'm considering developing a lounge act and wearing a velvet jump-suit just so we can take advantage of the great climate year round. The boys will probably join me by warmig up the crowd with armpit noises and belches.

Despite the heartbreaking times, life has been good to us and we are grateful for all of our blessings.

Shandy: Let's see.... Well, last year I got introduced to the whole digital realm of scrapbooking and have since started designing my own digital products. In April, I opened up my own store - Shandy Vogt Designs and then in June, was invited to join a well established digital store as one of their designers. I have a team of about 10 talented women who work for me and do the advertising using my products.
In June, I was one of the leaders for our church's Girl's Camp (for the teen girls in our church to go camping for a week). John survived at home with the boys with the help from both sets of Grandparents. It was during this week that the offer came in about the Governmet Civilian job. We decided fairly quickly that it was something we definitely wanted to act on - so the rest of June was spent house hunting. We found a home in Boise and closed on it July 25 (yes, the whole "finding a house" and moving happened quite FAST! - if you're interested in seeing some of the interior pics of our home, you can click here). John was out of town with the army practically the entire month of July (and I had to close on the house and sign by proxy for him) so that left me with literally packing up the entire house. He was gone again most of August and all of September (so yes.. that meant me unpacking everything that I had just packed up!) But we're getting more settled and making our new house a "home."

The fist week of September also brought some exciting news - we found out we were going to be adding another little one to the family! We are due on May 10 and will be having another Home Birth with our awesome doctor! Everyone keeps asking if we are trying for girl - if truth be told - I'm actually fine if this one appears as another little boy - little boys are so fun and cute! John and the boys, on the other hand, are all hoping it'll be a girl. We're debating on finding out early what it is or just waiting and be surprised (we'll keep this blog updated if you are curious to find out what we end up having). So far the pregnancy has been uneventful and I have felt great :)

August will turn 11 in about 3 weeks (Dec. 31) and is in the 5th grade. He was sad to leave all of his friends back in Nampa but has quickly made new ones at school and around the neighborhood. August has been begging us for a puppy for over 2 years - he has read countless hours on puppy books that he has checked out from the library and would even have Seth and Ben pretend to be dogs so that he could "train" them (he met with varied results, Seth was generally obedient but we couldn't get Ben paper trained). With that being said, Grandpa Vogt thought he would give August his dream and in early July bought a 6 week old Springer Spaniel puppy for him. Needless to say he was in heaven! It was solely "August's dog" and so he did everything for her (he named her Ashley) - he even had to sleep down in the living room so he could let her out at night. For the first few weeks he was so responsible and did everything for her... then the novelty wore off. We decided to make her a "family dog" and all the boys now share the responsibility for taking care of her and it is working out much better. He's still very much "into" video games and anything Pokemon. August has also inherited John's artistic talent and spends a lot of time drawing and creating on the computer. August tried out snowboarding and didn't care for it but has found that he really likes skiing instead.

Seth is 9.5 and in the 4th grade... like August, he too is very much into video games and Pokemon. Earlier this year, both he and August sold their Gameboy Advaces and XBox to each get a new Nintendo DS so they could play some "new and better" Pokemon games. I was proud of them raising the $$ themselves and figuring out how to do it. Seth played another season of Football this fall with this being his first year of tackle. He really loved going to practices and the games and generally being a monster on the O-Line. He was blessed with a good coach and that has made all the difference. He is the Center for their team and talks about how he wants to play for BSU when he "grows up". John is excited about the prospects of getting his season tickets for free in this event. He is our tender hearted boy and is definitely the one who brings some calmness and peace to our family of 4 rowdy boys! Seth, the opposite of August, tried out skiing and found that he really didn't care for it so has stuck with snowboarding. He, August, and John have made several trips to our local ski resort, Bogus Basin and he is looking forward to opening day this year to get out and hit the slopes.

Ben is 5 and in Kindergarten.... we've had a rough start to the school year (he was only incarcerated shortly before Shandy posted the bail) but I'm happy to report that at this writing he is doing wonderful and learning all the wonders that kindergartners learn! He had to miss a few weeks in October for surgery. As many of you know - he was born with the top part of his left ear missing. He had plastic surgery and they constructed a new tip and he is healing wonderfully! John and I were absolutley thrilled with the results! I was really dreading the surgery thinking he would just be in so much pain and just lie on the couch crying for days - boy was I wrong! The evening of his surgery, he was already having lightsaber fights with this brothers! He never once complained of the pain and was such a trooper throughout the whole ordeal.

Nathan turned 1 in September and shortly after started

walking. John was actually home during this time and was able to be a part of this milestone in his life. It's so fun to see him interact with the older boys - he'll jump right in the middle of a lightsaber or sword fight with whatever he can get his hands on and start whailing on whomever is in his proximity! He loves being held and would gladly spend the day in Mommy or Daddy's arms. We found out at Halloween that he absolutely LOVES those little Dum Dum suckers and somehow finds unused ones from Halloween in crevises throughout the house - he must have radar for themand there must be a secret stash somewhere! We regularly say, "Where the heck did he get that?!?!" He's just been the sweetest and most fun little guy. He adjusted to the move with no problems and is quite easy going. He and the next little one will be about 19 months apart and I'm sure he'll be the best big brother :)

Well, I suppose that's it for now. We're glad you stopped by to read more about us and be sure to drop us a line sometime - it's much more fun to hear from friends and family throughout the year and not just at Christmas time. We'll leave you with a few snapshots of 2007....ps: if you'd like to drop us a line - feel free to leave us a comment here or you can email John at:

gusvogt@hotmail.com and Shandy at shandyvogt@hotmail.com (we know.. real original) :)

Merry Christmas everyone!