The year of 2021 has come to a close, and the Fyvie family have found many blessings through a year that found many people struggling with the continuing spread of COVID-19 and its new variants.
Stephanie continues her work at Metropolitan Heart and Vascular for her 5th year as a registered nurse in the anticoagulation unit at Mercy and Unity clinics. COVID has not impacted her working situation and she continues to travel to the clinic each day. She is happy to have such a fun team of coworkers surrounding her with whom she has been able to have numerous fun outings and get-togethers.
Fred continues his 8th year of work at Synopsys as a senior research and development engineer. 2021 continued to see the work-from-home workflow in place for him. Synopsys recently opened up the newly-renovated office to vaccinated employees wishing to return at their own whim. He’s hoping to work in a more hybrid form as COVID subsides further.
Bailey, who turned 4 back in June, moved into Pre-K at her daycare center where she is very excited to learn new things preparing her for kindergarten. Many days with Bailey start with her asking if she is getting on the bus today to head to kindergarten. Unfortunately for her the answer continues to be “not today”. It’s obvious she can’t wait to start kindergarten! She took her kindergarten screening recently and scored with skills of a 7-year old! She’s one smart cookie, and a cute one to boot!
Ollie just turned 2 on Thanksgiving day! Unfortunately, he continues to grow too slowly for his age and consistently falls under the 3rd percentile for height and 
weight. His doctor has now referred him to an endocrinologist to take a closer look at what is going on. The suspicion is that it may be either a hormone or thyroid issue, though no one knows for sure until he can get in for his appointment which had to be scheduled months out! He was also hospitalized this summer after contracting RSV and stopped eating, drinking, and had a very hard time breathing. After a few days in the hospital with excellent care, he bounced back to his wild self. The whole family is so glad he’s healthy again! He is stealing the hearts of all the daycare teachers and aides; every day they dote over him! He certainly gets special care from all his teachers throughout his toddler curriculum. You can see him pictured here with his favorite bike at daycare! He loves it so much that mommy and daddy got him one for his birthday to play on at home!
The two fur babies, Annie and Tip, continue to warm everyone’s hearts with love, both of which have had recent health scares, but both of whom are doing well now. Mom, dad, Bailey, and Oliver crave their daily snuggles and loving looks from those precious eyes!
This year heaven gained a couple of very important angels. Sadly, Fred had the passing of one of his close (and recently retired) coworkers, Ted. Ted had been battling cancer for many years, but a heart attack ultimately took his life. Fred shared a common hobby in photography with Ted and was even trying to plan a photography trip with Ted for the near future. It was heartwarming to be able to take home a few of Ted’s beautiful photos from his memorial service which Ted captured on his numerous photography travel trips. Fred framed those photos to display at home and at the office to remind him a little of Ted every day and recount the amazing man he was. And just in recent weeks, Steph regretfully saw the passing of her uncle, Marlow, who passed away after suffering complications from a fall. Both will be, and already are, deeply missed by Fred and Steph.
Fortunately, despite the continuing spread of Covid, the whole family was able to enjoy a couple of great trips together. In April, the family all ventured to the 
Wisconsin Dells to spend an extended weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge. Bailey and Oliver were both very excited for the huge indoor waterpark. While it was expected that Bailey would be fearless in the waterpark and Ollie would be hesitant, the opposite was actually true! Nonetheless, Bailey found a couple of waterslides that were just her size, and Ollie enjoyed splashing away in the pools and playing around in the toddler splash pad! The family was able to enjoy some time out to celebrate Stephanie’s 31st birthday during this time, playing games, eating some delicious food, and enjoying each other’s company.
In August, everyone traveled up to Duluth for an exciting train weekend! Thomas the train along with his friend Percy made their annual stop in Duluth 
to give the kids a thrilling train ride and teach them all about trains. Bailey and Oliver also were able to enjoy a magic show, some live music, and a sandbox which was a BIG hit with Oliver. The trip also included time at Enger Tower, Hawk Ridge, 7-Bridges Road, and Canal Park. See the video for Bailey and Oliver’s reactions to the very loud Aerial Lift Bridge horn and accompanying boat horn. It was quite hilarious! The kids also got to see where daddy went to college at UMD!
In September, a trip was made to the apple orchard to pick out a bunch of yummy apples and wander the grounds. Everyone got TONS of apples, and Bailey and Oliver helped mommy and daddy make a bunch of yummy apple treats 
including apple dumplings, applesauce, and caramel apples! It was a very fun trip, and even more fun making and eating everything!
This year, Grandpa Greg visited all the way from California! The kids found it VERY exciting to pick him up from the airport, because not only did they get to meet their grandpa for the FIRST time, but they also got to see the big, huge planes up close! Grandpa Greg stayed for many days during the duration of his multi-week trip, and the kids were able 
to show grandpa how much they were learning at daycare and pre-K. They played games, read books, played with toys, and so much more! Bailey and Grandpa got into many riveting games of Candyland in which Bailey knew all the rules while grandpa got quite confused. He would often move his piece the wrong number of places or even 
backwards! Bailey laughed very hard at this, exclaiming “Silly Grandpa!” They even went with grandpa, mom, and dad to the Minnesota zoo where they were able to see a bunch of cute animals! They sure loved having Grandpa Greg stay and visit, and were very sad when he had to fly back home to California. Bailey keeps asking when she can go visit grandpa at his home. Not only would she then get to see grandpa again, but she’d also get to see how far away he really lives by flying on one of those big, huge airplanes! Grandpa Greg’s visit marked the first time the whole Fyvie clan was all together in 6 years! The last time all the Fyvie’s were together there we NO grandchildren! Now there’s three!
Halloween was very fun this year! Daycare held a Halloween parade where all the kids dressed up and paraded around the building for all the parents. Both kiddos 
were old enough this year to dress up and go door-to-door trick-or-treating! Bailey went as Princess Poppy from the movie Trolls, while Oliver dressed as Lightning McQueen from his favorite movie Cars! It was a chilly night, but it didn’t matter one bit to the kids as they collected quite the haul of candy! They came home and the excitement continued as around 50 kids came and rang the doorbell. With each one, the kids screamed with joy that another visitor was at the door! Of course daddy went all out again this year with decorations including his usual graveyard with fog, his animated window projection show of talking pumpkins, skeletons, and a witch, and even expanded this year to add another animated hologram show out in the yard which was full of ghosts, ghouls, and funny frights! Funnily, a group of kids sat at the end of the driveway to watch for 10 whole minutes! No one told them it was a 25 minute show! Fun was had by all!
This year has brought so many blessings, and continues to strengthen the love the Fyvie’s have for one another. The children continue to grow (too quickly), and mom and dad just want to soak up all the treasured moments they can!
Love and hugs from the Fyvie’s, hoping this message finds you and your family well! The whole family wishes you a wonderful Christmas season and a very blessed 2022 to come!
Love,
Fred, Steph, Bailey and Oliver
