2011

What a year!

* We completed a home study for Wyoming Children's Society. That included 3 sets of interviews with a social worker, a home inspection, letters of reference, fingerprinting, background checks through the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigations, several tears, and a lot of money.

* Josh and I had our 7th anniversary. It's been a wonderful 7 years!

* We took Brecken to his first pro baseball game, the Colorado Rockies!

* We went to Disney World with my whole family and had a fantastic time.

*Brecken started his last year of preschool; something that is very bittersweet to me!

*Brecken turned 5 years old. That was hard. That means he really is a big boy instead of a little boy.

* We took Brecken to his first UW football game, where the Cowboys played Nebraska.

*Josh landed himself a new position in our school district, as the District Science Facilitator. He really enjoys it!

* Josh's football team went to the playoffs for the first time in 4 years!

* We celebrated Christmas at Thanksgiving with Josh's family, something I've never done, but worked out very nicely since everyone was home!

* We had two new nieces born - Brenna Allie and Cameron Cate.

* Josh finished his principal endorsement! He worked so hard and we're very proud of him.

* We flew to Minnesota for Christmas at my sister's. We've never been there for Christmas and it was fun!

leaving on a jet plane

That song goes through my head every time we travel!

We had a fantastic Christmas. The whole family went to Minnesota to my sister's house. I wondered if we were going to make it... Wed the 21st is when we got out of school so we headed to the airport that night. Right in the middle of a storm. It took a good 5 hours to get to Denver but we made it. We stayed the night at a hotel since our plane left at 7:00 the next morning.

The next morning, it was still snowing. Hard. However, we still were able to get out of town after an hour delay so we could get de-iced for 45 minutes! That's some serious de-icing! We made it to Minneapolis and we're glad we did... we heard the Denver Airport was canceling flights after we left!

That afternoon, my sister took B and I to get Josh's present from B. B had put a lot of thought into it and bought him a purple shirt (school color) and a t-shirt to wear to basketball practice. I thought that was a very thoughtful gift!

My nephew Ryan had school on the 22nd still, so Brecken and my mom and I surprised him at the bus stop after school. He was so surprised!

That night we got to hang out as a family... my sister, my BIL, my nieces and nephew (including the new 8 week old that we got to meet for the first time!), my mom, my dad, and my grandma. I love that.

The 23rd was a fantastic day! My sister had found a babysitter to stay with the kids and we adults (and the baby) went out to breakfast at the wonderful Machine Shed restaurant. YUM-O. Afterwards, we had a whole day of adult shopping at the Mall of America! NO KIDS to haul around and have hollering "Can I have that?!" :) It was a great day and we had a lot of fun. That night, Brecken had asked if he could cook dinner for everyone, so he (we) did! I thought that was awesome that he requested to cook one of his favorite meals for everyone.

Christmas Eve was busy with cooking and baking and playing. And Kristen and David dealing with plumbing problems. The drains were all backing up due to a clog somewhere. It turned from the shower drain throwing up to it spilling over any time the water ran anywhere in the house... so the plumber was called and my dad stayed home during church to let them in so we could use the water when we got back. :) We got dressed up for church that afternoon and I almost cried when my boy wore brown cords and a red sweater. He looked so incredibly handsome. Granted, he took it off IMMEDIATELY when we got home, but he made it through church! We came home and had a delicious dinner of pork ribs. The kids got to open one present that night - Christmas jammies - before filling up a cup of milk, some treats, and reindeer food before we all went to bed.

Christmas was amazing! Santa brought B a Buzz Lightyear bed tent, a REAL digital camera, a Cars placemat, Cars 2 movie, Cars Wii game, and a Veggietales movie. We all got spoiled with lots of fantastic presents and everyone had a great time!

The 26th, Josh had to come home so he could get ready for a tournament his team went to. We went to the Mall of America that afternoon again and Josh rode the shuttle from the mall to the airport while the rest of us went to dinner for my dad's birthday. There was a huge fight that broke out right where we had JUST walked through... people arrested, 200 teens involved, the mall on lock down for a bit... I'm very glad we didn't know it was happening since we had JUST gotten upstairs for dinner!

The 27th, the kids stayed home again and my mom, my sister, my grandma, the baby, and I went to Stillwater for some shopping. What fun stores they had there! We went to an olive oil store... that's all they sell is olive oil! I brought Josh some garlic EVOO from that store. We also found a fantastic kitchen store, and some really fun boutiques. Great day again!

The 28th B and I flew home. I always hate saying goodbye to my nieces and nephew... I don't know when we'll see them again and they'll change so much while we're gone! :( Brecken had an amazing time playing with them.

Thanks for having us, Kristen! It was a super fun Christmas, that's for sure!

the house

My B-man made a gingerbread house at school this week. It looked good enough to eat. Which he did. AFTER I got to take pictures. :)

the tree

We didn't get to go to the mountains for a tree last year. Josh had basketball on Saturdays and the one Sunday we could have gone, he had a class out of town. I was so sad. We had to buy a tree instead. It just wan't the same and I was so hoping we would get to get back to the mountain this year.

And we made it! We got our annual B-with-daddy and B-with-mommy pictures (since there has only been one year when there was someone else with us, to take a family picture!) and had a fantastic time. The last time we went, B was three, and he cried the whole time. This year, he took the idea and ran with it. He insisted HE pick out the tree. (Though, that didn't quite happen.) He insisted HE be the line leader through the snow that was hip high on him in spots. He insisted on playing hard in it, despite the fact his mittens were wet and cold. He had a total blast.

And when we got it all decorated (again, he insisted HE put on all the ornaments, or at least point to a branch that may have been to high for him), I asked if he loved it. He said, "Not exactly." One more ornament and it was much better, ready to be loved for the month.