~Hunter's 7th Birthday- Take 2~

I guess there are some perks to having a birthday so close to Christmas. You get to have several birthday parties. :) At least that is the way it goes in our house. I was so worried about celebrating his birthday to close to Christmas, that I decided to wait a week or two to let things calm down, but I wanted him to have a good day on his actual birthday, so we are ending up having several parties. He had a small family one on his actual birthday, we just had a party with grandma and grandpas, then he will have a friend party later. LOL, the way things are going we will be celebrating his birthday until the end of January.

Hunter really had a good time at this party. He LOVED his GI Joe cake, had fun playing Super Mario Brothers against his uncles on the DS, loved playing with his new toys (I was so proud of him because he was so good sharing his new toys with his cousins), and he really liked having Marley (our dog) in for the party too.

Dave spent the day training Marley to handle being inside without jumping on people and jumping on the counter to get food. Dave did a really good job because Marley went through the entire party without jumping on one of the kids or eating anyones food.

Mckell had fun playing dress up with her cousins.

So, Happy Birthday Hunter! Two parties down one to go :)

The last party we had for Hunter was the party with his friends. We ended up going to the Clearfield Aquatic Center which was a lot of fun. The boys had a blast playing in the water and going down the slides. Only Hunter and one other boy were tall enough to go down the slides by themselves, so Dave had to take the rest down with him. After several times of going down the slide and then straight back up to take another kid down, Dave told me to come help him :) It was a lot of fun watching the boys play together. Happy Birthday Hunter.

~2009~

So now that 2009 is over, I looked back and thought of all that happened with our little family this past year. It really didn't seem like a lot had happened. But when I think back we really had some fun and scary events happen this past year. My kids all took their first plane ride, went on their first trip to Disneyland (which was really something to remember), and we went on many day trips. We have started many new traditions this year. Like going to see a movie on Thanksgiving; spending Christmas Eve at home with our little family sledding, watching Christmas shows, etc; going to Salt Lake to ride the train and then go play at Gateway; and others.

We added a new member to our family this year, our dog Marley. He is soo big now. Lexi could stand upright under his belly :)

Dave and I were released as Sunday school teachers, and Dave was put in the Stake High Council. (ya, we can't believe it either). So needless to say, I am a single mom at church again :). Although, his calling as a high councilman is a sinch compared to being in the bishopric. Well, a sinch for me. He really only has meetings on Sundays and every once in a while on a Thurday night. When he was in the bishopric, he was gone Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, every once in a while on Thursdays, and some Saturdays. So I am not minding the high councilman calling at all :) And I was called to be a Relief Society Instructor, which is not so bad :) I teach once a month. This is the perfect calling for me right now, since (1) I am a single mom at church and (2) Lexi is not nursery age yet, but at the age where she doesn't like staying in a meeting for very long, so I spend a lot of church in the halls :)

Hunter went from Kindergarten to First Grade and has loved going to school all day. He is learning to read, a great speller, is so good in math, and has made a lot of new friends. Dave and I have had to get used to not spelling things out anymore to each other, because Hunter now can figure out what we are saying :) Mckell loves her preschool class and has learned to write her name. Lexi has learned to crawl, walk, talk, feed herself, blow kisses, give kisses, give hugs, fold her arms, climb the stairs, look at books, etc over the year. It is amazing how much they grow and learn each year.

TopTenReviews, the company Dave works for, bought a company out of New York this year, Space.com. So Dave and I took our first trip to New York. It was probably the first real trip we have taken, just the two of us, since our honeymoon. We had a lot of fun! Since then Dave has gone back several times, and will be going several more. One of these times I will get back there with him :)

One of the biggest things that I think has happened this year was the scare we had with my health. An IUD went missing, which led to finding a tumor on my kidney. They weren't sure if it was cancerous or not, so went in and removed half of my kidney. Everything turned out to be OK, and I'm all back to normal :) It was a scary time for us, but I 'm glad we made it through it. The whole experience made me realize how much I love my family, what GREAT neighbors and friends I have, and I know the Lord has a hand in our lives. He blesses us, even if at first we don't see it as a blessing. The IUD that went missing was scary and I thought (at the time) a terrible thing. But it ended up being a blessing that it had gone up into my fallopian tube, because if it hadn't we never would have found the tumor on my kidney.

Overall, 2009 was a great year. I love my family more and more each day, and am so grateful that we are going into this new year together. I am excited to see what the new year will bring.

~HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!~

The last couple of years we have celebrated in the new year with some good friends, the Fullmers. This year was a lot of fun. We ate pizza and other yummy treats, played the candybar game, played a quarter game, and then went outside to go sledding behind the fourwheelers. The Fullmers just moved into a new home in a new subdivision and their house is the only one down at their end of the street. So they put a fire pit in the street and we warmed up by the fire as we were waiting for turns to go sled. We were going to roast marshmellows for smores but everyone was soooo stuffed, we decided to bag it. The road was perfect for sledding. Since they are on a dead end street, the plows don't get down there as much as they do the main streets, so their road was packed with snow, which made for perfect sledding conditions :) We really had a blast doing this. For me it brought back a lot of memories from when I was a little girl. After a big snowstorm, we'd go up to Huntsville, where my Grandma and Grandpa Wangsgard lived, and my dad would take us tubing around the town behind the tractor. They didn't snowplow the roads up there right away, so the roads would get snow packed (which was perfect for sledding). We'd go all over the town of Huntsville, on enertubes, behind the tractor. It was a blast. This made me think of that :)

The Candy Bar Game!

Mckell was on a role tonight. She and Ashton won the most candybars in the candybar game, and then she won everyone in the quarter game. I think she walked away with $10 in quarters :) You go girl! We had put Lexi down to bed before we started playing the games, so after Mckell had done so good in both games, Kaden asked if next year we could see if Mckell wanted to go to sleep with Lexi before we played any of the games :) We all laughed.

Tayleur and Mckell

Happy New Year! We look forward to 2010.