2008, Year In Review

2008 was kind of a hard year for me emotionally. My baby learned how to feed himself, how to walk, how to talk and is becoming every increasingly more independent. He had a huge milestone birthday of turning ONE, which was exciting, but kind of sad at the same time. I know that I probably will never have another baby and I'm good with that, but knowing Taylor is doing all the firsts for the last time is a little bittersweet. I am proud that I'm raising him to be an independent little man, but I'm always glad when he still needs me to cuddle him. :)

My big girl turned FOUR! It doesn't even seem possible that four years have passed since I became a mom. It has gone in a whirlwind. And Taylor's got nothin' on Kami in the independence department! And stubborn! Yowza!! But she is also funny and brilliant and incredibly imaginative, so I wouldn't change a thing about her. She has learned how to draw people this year, to recognize a few letters of the alphabet and recognize numbers 1-9. And she has become an even better big sister than before. She is Taylor's mini-mama. :)

Tim and I celebrated 9 years together as a married couple and on 12-28 was the 10th anniversary of our engagement. Also, we both turned 30!

Kami and Taylor got to meet their great-grandmother and great-uncle and aunt in a trip to Oklahoma in April. That was a highlight in all our lives. Kami still talks about going to see them and getting to ride my uncle's horse, Daisy. :) My uncle also gave her one of his cowboy hats and that meant more than any other gift he could have given her. I hoping to take them back in the spring so we can visit with them again.

We welcomed some new friends to our group, Jack and Lyla were born into this crazy world in 2008 and I have very much enjoyed them! Jack is starting to really develop into his own person and it is so fun to watch! Both of my kids love him and we are all excited to get to play with him lots more in the spring semester. Lyla is a beautiful, smiley little thing and I hope she continues to blossom more each time I see her.

2008 was also a year of tragedy. Some very dear friends lost their baby in July. My heart still aches for them. In November, my cousin was killed in a drunk driving accident and her death still affects my daily life. I struggle to deal with the sadness of loss.

My friends and I began a new Bible study this year and it has been one of the highlights of the year for me. I have gotten into God's Word more deeply than I would have on my own and the study has given me new insights into passages I have read many times. The group has also given me the kind of close friends I need and have needed for a long time. We don't always agree on everything, but I know we can talk about anything and still be friends. It's also good to have a group of friends who I can call on if I need them and to know they will be there.

Speaking of friends, in August I got to go to Dallas to meet some of my internet friends! It was wonderful getting to hug their necks in real life!! We have "known" each other since before Kami was born and communicate almost daily, but there's something about seeing each other in person that solidifies a friendship.

And 2008 has also been the year of Facebook! Woot! I have been able to reconnect with so many people!! It is amazing, really. So many relatives, high school and college classmates and people from AIM are on FB! I love seeing pictures of people's lives and just getting to know them again.

So 2008 was a good year, but also very emotional and I look forward to 2009. More on that in the coming days. ;) Happy New Year everyone!!

A very merry Christmas, indeed!

Christmas was a very good day this year. No stress, just the right amount of gifts and being with family. We did our big meal at dinner time so I had all day to get ready and it was fabulous. No rushing, no running around.

Kami and Taylor woke up about 7 a.m. (their normal time) and Kami yelled, "I DID make it onto Santa's List!!" She was so excited. :D She waited very patiently while Taylor had his banana. He can't function properly without his banana...it's kinda like his caffeine, I guess. ;) So then Kami opened her presents from Santa and Taylor wanted all of her presents, especially the Dora figure, but wasn't interested in opening his gifts at all. He just doesn't care about presents. Maybe it's his age or maybe his personality, or maybe a mixture of both. Kami loves to open presents so she opened his, too, and then he played with the toys. :D Funny boy!

After opening Santa gifts, I made pancakes and the kids played with their toys and Tim fell asleep on the couch. :D After breakfast, we just kinda hung out and lazed around the house. Taylor went down for a nap and I went to take a very long, hot bath. It was great!! Then it was time for Kami's "rest time." (I don't know why I even call it a rest time anymore, she never rests. I think I'll change the name to quiet play time in your bed, which is way more realistic!) Soon after, Taylor woke up, got a snack and Mimi and Poppi (Tim's mom and dad) showed up!

I started making preparations for dinner and then we opened family presents. Mimi and Poppi got us some wonderful things that we are all looking forward to playing with and using!! After we opened presents I took my time in the kitchen getting all the food ready while the kids played with their grandparents. I made garlic cheddar biscuits, roasted asparagus with browned butter balsamic sauce, heated up some ham, and Tim made the mashed potatoes. It was all on the table at 5:30 p.m. and the kids ate it up and so did everyone else! We had Snickerdoodle cake for dessert. :)

The kids were both asleep by 8:30 p.m., which is great for as much activity they had during the day. We stayed up and talked to Tim's parents for a couple of hours and then when they went to bed we started watching Leatherheads. I fell asleep during it, so hopefully we'll finish it tonight.

Today we went to Wal-Mart at 7:45 a.m. or so and it wasn't busy at all. We got a cart full of stuff for 50% off and now my gift stash is replenished, for girl presents anyway and I'm set for wrapping paper and other assorted things. Since we received quite a few gift cards for Christmas, this trip didn't cost us anything! How cool is that?

After we came back, I made a fairly large brunch of hashbrown casserole, eggs (Tim made the sunny-side up variety for his dad and him), bacon and fruit. Then it was time for Mimi and Poppi to head back home. The kids were very sad for them to go, but as soon as they left, Tim took Kami on a Daddy Date, so that took some of the sting out of it for her. They went to see Madegascar 2. Taylor had to take a nap, but he soooo needed one!

For dinner tonight I made hamburgers and french fries. Standing over the fries made me think back to my mom making me french fries when I was a little girl and it made me smile. My kids gobbled up the fries so I think they were a big hit! Those will definitely go into the regular rotation around here, now.

And now that I've written a novel, it's time to get my kids in bed. I hope everyone had as wonderful a Christmas Day as I did! Hugs and love!

And it begins

I have started planning for our Jan '10 Disney World trip! Yes, I know it is still 13 months away, but I just couldn't help myself! I started an Excel sheet to compare hotels and I will probably start a sheet on restaurants soon. Yes, I know I'm a big dork. :P But to in all seriousness, I feel like if we are going to spend $1,000's on a trip, it deserves some major planning. We went in 2007 and Kami loved it even though she was really sick, so I hope it will be even better this time around. She still remembers stuff about the trip and she was just a little over 2 years old! It made an impact! :D And I should have a better time this trip since I won't be 7 months pregnant. LOL! I'm off to sign up for Tour Guide Mike!!

He's such a boy! :)

My son just put on my sandals I keep by the garage door and told me he was leaving. "Bye!" he said, and made kissy noises. Then he says, "Going to Best Buy!"

BWAHAHAHAHA!!

Our first, but probably not the last, trip to the ER for Taylor

Taylor decided to go pew diving, as I like to call it, last night at worship services. He was attempting to get down, I guess, but sort of jumped from his knees and it happened so fast neither Tim nor I could put our arms out fast enough to catch him. He busted both of his lips and their is a small spot right above his eyebrow that didn't show up until today. We took him to the ER b/c we needed to make sure there was no serious damage to that brain of his and fortunately he was perfect, according to the CT. All the doctors and nurses and the rest of the staff were great with him. We were really blessed that all that happened was a couple of fat lips! It could have been so much worse! And we are so lucky to have access to medical care unlike so many people in the world.

Taylor was up running and playing last night and today like nothing has happened. Typical, right? :D

Having trouble getting into the whole Christmas thing

Christmas is a weird time of year for me. On one hand, it's great to think of others and spend time with family, but on the other hand, I just have trouble with the concept of Christmas. The whole history of Christmas really bothers me....a lot. No where in the Bible does it say Jesus was born in December, let alone December 25th. (Please correct me if I'm wrong on that). I used to think that a day that made everyone think about Jesus couldn't be wrong, but I have changed my stance on that. It's a fine line to walk when we start adding things to the Bible. No where is it said that the New Testament Christians celebrated Jesus' birth. However, we are commanded to celebrate his death and resurrection every week. It's hard being in the minority that doesn't celebrate Jesus' birth on Christmas.

And then there is the whole commercialism aspect. When I was growing up we had very little money so when I got presents at Christmas I was very, very grateful. It's hard to teach that to my kids when they are given everything they want and more, especially since I have the means to do so. We don't necessarily to overboard on buying them presents, but we aren't the only ones giving them presents, so it's hard to say, "Oh don't get them anything" or "Don't spend over this much money" or "Homemade gifts are always appreciated." I will never forget the first Christmas I spent at Tim's house. It was horrifying to me how many gifts we all got. I wanted to be sick at the money that was being wasted. In my family we did one or two gifts per person. In Tim's family it was a contest to see who would get the biggest pile. And it only got worse when we had Kami. It seems that last year was a little better, though. Everyone got nice things, but there was the excess that seemed to dominate in years past. Or maybe I've become used to it and that is a very scary thought!

All that being said. We did decorate our Christmas tree tonight. It's fun for the kids and I do like pulling all the ornaments out one by one and remembering the story behind each one. I'll do a post soon all about our tree. It should really be a scrapbook page, but I don't know when I'll get around to doing that. So I'll at least post the journaling and probably the pictures here soon.