2008 In Review!

I have tried for years to be a dedicated journal writer, hoping to leave something my children can pass on to their children to read about what kind of things they did as kids. But I've never stayed consistent and really felt like my efforts were all for not. I'm a very visual person and like pictures, but haven't had time to scrapbook with all the daycare I've had in and out of my house for the past 10 years, so I knew that really wasn't the route to go either. Although, I really do intend to catch up on that (hahahahaha)! At this point it seems VERY overwhelming - but that's totally beside the point! Anyway, in November of 07, my parents left for a mission to Boston, MA. Staying in touch wasn't really hard with email and all, but I was finding that I was writing these really loooooong letters with a billion pictures attached that probably bogged down their system like crazy, just to find out that they weren't getting most of what I was sending. Wanting them to stay updated, I decided to give the world of blogging a try. It was INSTANT success for me and very do-able! I really have fun blogging about my little family for all of my relatives who live far away to read. So, I thought it would be fun to do a quick recap of 2008 - especially since I didn't start blogging until the end of July!

The first part of the year was stressful. I found myself revisiting an unpleasant situation that I had the year before with Emily. As a lot of you know, in Jan/Feb of '07, Emily suddenly started having myoclonic seizures. We were back and forth from Primary Children's Hospital for about 6 weeks, testing and testing to find the cause. ALL of her tests came back 100% normal and the doctors were stumped. They couldn't tell me why it was happening. Then as suddenly as they started, they stopped!!!! We still have no idea what was happening. Anyway, last February, I noticed Dylan having staring spells where he was unresponsive. So, back to the neurologist we went. He went through the same series of tests that Emmy did, all with the very same results, 100% normal. Again, I had no answers. But his only lasted for about 2 weeks and then went away. Nonetheless....it was STRESSFUL and scary! And I know you're all going to roll your eyes, because heaven knows that I am, but this year it's MY TURN - for an MRI/MRA anyway. I go in this Friday, HOPING and PRAYING that we can figure out what is causing my headaches/dizziness. I'm very nervous about what they COULD find. Of course, you always think the worst first, but hopefully they don't find anything serious. Anyway, this post isn't about now, it's about 2008, but I will definitely keep everyone posted on my test results. What is it about this time of year and MRI's for us??? UGH...enough already!!

APRIL:

We FINALLY got new flooring for our house!! We had originally planned on doing it in September so we'd have time enough to save what we needed to in order to buy it and not finance it, which just isn't an option in our house. We knew EXACTLY what we wanted and how much we needed, so we'd been saving. Well, RC Willey was advertising a flooring sale, so on one of our date nights we decided to go check it out, really doubting that what we had chosen would be on sale. Much to our surprise, IT WAS...at 50%!!!! We were SO excited and we actually had that much money, so the project happened in April instead of September!! I LOOOOOVE IT! And just for the record, Chris installed it ALL BY HIMSELF!

During that big project, Chris traveled A LOT. He was gone from Sunday night until Friday night EVERY WEEK for about 8 weeks. It was so hard to have him gone, especially for Emmy. She is a daddy's girl and it was soooo hard on her to have him gone so much. But thanks to great neighbors, friends and family we made it through.

I walked into her room one night to check on her and this is what I found! She slept with the pictures of she and Chris from their Daddy Daughter Date for activity days every night from then on. SO SWEET.

This was one of his late arrivals home! She ran and jumped into his arms before he could even close his door.

JUNE:
This was a splurge that ended up being worth EVERY penny we spent on it! This thing provided HOURS of fun for the kids....and their friends!

JULY:

July is always a fun month! We go camping A LOT and LOVE it! Every year we go with my side of the family, we take a traditional cousin picture. They're seated from oldest to youngest! It's fun to look at the pictures year after year to see how much they've changed.

Our camp out with Chris' side of the family happened to be the weekend of Chris' birthday so I made sure to take decorations to decorate with! According to him, he couldn't have spent his birthday in a better place.

The highlight of the month was that we got to go see The Police in concert at the Usana Amphitheater! That was a once in a life time chance and we're both so glad we were able to go! That was a FUN date night.

AUGUST:

August was a particularly bittersweet month. We spent our 13th anniversary (the sweet) at Justin's funeral (the bitter). He and Chris have been friends ever since they were old enough to play together. They're mother's are still GREAT friends! It was a bittersweet time as we mourned his passing, but we're glad he's free from the sickness that ravaged his body. He has been greatly missed.

SEPTEMBER:

We finally decided that we deserved to go boating, despite the OUTRAGEOUS gas prices. I'm so glad we got to go. We LOVE to be on the lake. Our boat may not be pretty, but it's paid for and we have just as much fun on it as anyone else does on theirs!!

OCTOBER:

CC and Chelsea came for a visit from Florida. We took them on a road trip to Moab and had a GREAT time hiking all weekend! Chris' mom in da bomb....she hiked EVERY hike with us, never complaining once. We were also able to go through the temple with CC for the first time. That was such a neat experience!

Before the kids went home to warm, sunny Florida, they wanted to see some snow, so we took them to Silver Lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was so beautiful and really got us anticipating the holiday months.

I just thought I'd throw in a picture from HALLOWEEN, another one of our favorite holidays!

NOVEMBER:

CC came back to Utah and we took him to the MTC, a very happy, exciting time for our family.

DECEMBER:

We did lots of fun things together that I'm sure you've all read about. It was an AWESOME month.