2009 Recap

Another year has gone by, more fun, more babies and more memories. As I put together pictures for this slide show it made me realize just how blessed I am. I may not have a fancy new house and a fancy new car, but I have lots of what matters most, a wonderful loving family and lots of good times to go with them. I love all of you and thank you for being the most amazing family ever and I look forward to making more memories with you in the upcoming year!

Merry Christmas!

Gavin and I were invited to my mom's Christmas Party this year I'm sure mostly because Gavin is there looking at the planes enough that practically everyone knows him on a first name basis. They had this airplane outside the office and even though is was freezing outside Gavin wanted to stay out and watch the propeller go around and around. He even told Grandma to "stop plane so Gavin can ride." He thought if the propeller stopped then he could get on and then he could go!

As always Christmas Eve is with Cody's family. I get a picture of all the grandkids every year so we can compare them from year to year. Kessler was asleep so he's not in this one.
Left to right: Treysen (red), Savannah, Drake, Aidyn, Gavin, Alyssa, Taiya, Alexandria, Isaiah, Madilyn, & Lukas. Next year there will be at least one more that we know of! Treysen, Drake, and Kessler are getting a new baby!

Aidyn got some 3-D glasses with one of his toys and they made the rounds. Everyone was putting them on, even Grandpa.

Gavin got a puppy from one of his great grandma's and he was so excited. I couldn't get him to put it down so you could see his smiling face, so this is what you get!

The three stooges watching a movie downstairs...

...and watching a movie upstairs.
The three of them are so cute together!
Gavin, Lukas & Isaiah

Mommy reading Gavin his new Christmas Book

Opening his first present
(that he hasn't touched since he opened it I might add!)

My super excited husband!
He has been wanting a Wii for years so I spent one of my bonus checks on one. He had no idea and I was so excited I couldn't even sleep on Christmas Eve. I started waking up @ 3:30am and forcing myself to go back to sleep. I finally got up at 6am brushed my teeth and then woke both of them up, needless to say they were both pretty grumpy, but it didn't last long!

I swear toy companies are competing with each other to see how difficult they can make it to get the toys out of the box. One of Gavin's toys had 17 twisty ties holding it in the box and I'm not even lying!

Santa brought Gavin a train set and he was so excited! He played with it until we left for my mom's(and has been playing with it since). He was even more excited when he found out there was a "rollercopter" (helicopter) with helicopter noises.

Our annual super huge and super yummy breakfast at my mom's. This year Cody and I set aside some of the Huckleberry's we picked this year so that we could have Huckleberry Pancakes Christmas morning, they were delicious!

Waiting anxiously to open presents!

Gavin opened this plane first thing and that was the end of presents. He left the room to go fly his airplane. I had to practically force him to open the rest of them.

It's become tradition to bury the newest member of the family in wrapping paper. Lucky Madisen got to be it this year.

Paul & Erin

The Grandkids: Taylor, Gavin & Faith.
(Madisen was sleeping)

Gavin loves G&G's cat, but she can get feisty after having so many people around so grandpa was holding her so Gavin could pet her. How sweet!

Merry Christmas everyone and thank you for everything. It was a fun and memerable Christmas! We love you all!

Ho! Ho! Ho! No! No! No!

I took Gavin to see Santa today and he was all excited until it was his turn and then he wanted nothing to do with him, but I had already paid for the picture hence the reason I'm in the picture using all my strength to keep him on my lap cuz Grandma's don't want pictures of their grown daughter's with Santa

My Family 2009

These were taken by Adlina Memmott. She did a wonderful job. If any of you who live around here are interested let me know and I will give you her contact information.

My Pinning Ceremony

My wonderful family who put up with me being gone to school, 12 hour clinical shifts and hours with my nose in a book or stuck at the computer. Thank you so much for supporting me and putting up with me. You are wonderful and I love you so much and I couldn't have done it without you!

Gavin came to visit me during the ceremony, but I didn't mind a bit!

Getting "pinned"

Nursing school buddies for life!
Christy and I

My instructor, Sheryl Gombert

My clinical instructor Tera Bybee
(We went to elementary school together!)

My family

My super cute niece with the perfect shirt!

RN Class of 2009

My Class

My Buddy Christy. We have been together from the beginning!
We went through our CNA class together, the LPN program and now the RN program.
How about Nurse Practitioner School Christy?

The Three Amigo's
Christina, Teri & Christy

I was so excited to be done I couldn't control myself!

Moo!

Gavin Loves to go to Great G&G's farm and hanging out with them.

Today his activity of choice was feeding the cows. He would pick up extra hay off the ground and feed it to them.

He was trying to get another cow to come over and eat it out of his hands

Look at that tongue!

These are cows for you city folks who have never seen one!

Safety First

"For Pretend Play Use Only"
That's what it said on the side of Gavin's orange goggles, but it was either them or nothing and after working at an eye center for 6+ years I decided they were better than nothing!

We finally got the new carpet in our basement and since I have deemed the basement Cody's "Man Cave" I let him pick out the carpet and everything else. He decided he wanted to go for the rustic look so we did an entire wall with cedar tongue and groove. I have to admit I was very worried, but it actually looks really nice. My job was to hold the extra long boards steady as he "ripped" them on the table saw. It was so cold, but we got it done!

Charlie Brown vs. Conformist Shrub

First of all on your left is our tree from last year and the tree above is our tree this year.
Here's the scoop. For the past 3 years we have went up into the woods and cut down our own Christmas tree and while it was very fun we always ended up with what I refer to as a "Charlie Brown Christmas tree." This year I requested a fluffy Christmas tree and have not heard the end of it since. We went to a store and bought a "conformist trimmed shrub". While I missed the whole experience of bundling up and hiking into the woods with Gavin in tow on a sled behind us, I knew that we wouldn't be able to find one like I wanted, so we skipped it for just this year and it will probably be that last because I can't even enjoy it due to the massive amount of crap he has been giving me for it including saying that God's own trees aren't good enough for me. (for those of you who don't know my husband sense of humor well enough, he's really not being a jerk even though it sounds like it, he is just teasing me A LOT!)
Here's were you come in. I want you all to vote which tree you like best...and be honest. It you prefer the Charlie Brown Tree to the Conformist Trimmed Shrub that's fine, but please vote! My sanity depends on it!