Looking Back...2008

What a year it has been!! This year has been so great and has gone soooo fast!! It was a year ago exactly that we were finishing our new house and trying to move in "slowly" during the holidays!! The kids and I slept at the new house for the first time on Christmas night. We slept at the old house for Christmas Eve and Santa brought our gifts to the new house. We had one tiny Christmas tree at the new house and one couch/large sectional that pulled out into a bed. When we woke up at the old house Christmas morning, we all walked over to the new house. It was so much fun!! It had snowed all night so there was tons of new snow. We walked in the house and the kids went to the stairs to wait for Trevor to do his usual check and see if Santa had came. Then the kids were off to see their gifts. It was sooo fun because there was nothing but the one tiny tree and the kids gifts!! That night the kids and I slept on the one couch up in the theatre room and pretty much "camped" out there during the holidays! That was one of my favorite Christmas' ever!! We slowly moved in all during the holidays when we had a chance. And we were officially moved in the first weekend in January!!

One week later, January 10th 2008, Trevor had his knee surgery. He had torn his ACL and meniscus playing indoor soccer the summer previous, but was so busy at work and in the middle of building the house, that he decided to wait until winter to have his surgery. Well, one week later, on January 19, (the day before Rylee's birthday), River went skiing with two friends at Snowbasin and broke his leg. It was about 2:00pm when I received a phone call from Ski Patrol at Snowbasin. I knew before I answered it what they were going to say. Trevor, still on crutches, and I jumped in the car and headed up to Snowbasin. I knew immediately when I saw River that he had broken it badly. He wasn't crying or even looked in pain, but he was white as white and looked like he was in shock. Trevor kept telling River it wasn't broke and wanted to just take him home, but I insisted that we go to after hours. We got in the Doctors office with the nurses and proceeded to get Rivers many layers of snow pants cut off. This was the one and only time of the whole day River shed a tear. He was obviously in excruciating pain. When we finally got down to his leg, it was very obvious that it was badly broke and that we would need to go to the emergency room and see a specialist. So River had to get back in the car and go to the emergency room. All the while Trevor couldn't help me get him in and out of the car because he was still on crutches and could hardly get around himself!! After what seemed like the longest day of my life, many xrays, setting the bone not once-but twice (the worst part for me), a cast up to the top of his leg, and River being the toughest kid I've ever seen, we were off with two members of our family now on crutches. The next couple months I honestly think I earned my CNA degree! (LOL!!)



Winter didn't have mercy on me, because it didn't stop snowing for months, and with the two oldest males in our family both on crutches, guess who was left shoveling off a very long driveway. I remember thinking that Spring would never, ever come. But, somehow the snow stopped and spring came.


On April 7, 2008, River got a walking boot on and could get rid of the crutches. And on April 9, 2008 we went on a very needed family vacation to Orlando, Florida. We met our friends from Georgia, who drove down, and stayed with them at some condos in Orlando. Our friends kids couldn't miss much school so they couldn't stay as long as we did, so the second half of our vacation we stayed at the Nickelodeon Hotel and had so much fun. I'll never forget the last night we were there and we were walking out of Universal Studios and Islands of Adventures, when Ryker turned to me and said, "Mom, I wish I was a scientist!", not knowing what in the world he was talking about I asked him why, and he said "So I could invent a time machine and go back in time so I could do this fun day all over again!!" Great memories!!!


In May, one week after River was totally free from casts and crutches, he was playing with Ryker when he tripped on a chair and fell. He cut his knee open right on the top of his knee. 9 stiches later, he was back to not being able to get around very well or doing much!! It was so disappointing to see him down again after so many months of being down.
The first part of June we celebrated Trevor's 40th birthday. We had a huge barbecue at our house and invited all of our friends and family. We had a great time. The bulk of June was consumed with girls camp. The camp director from our ward had just moved, so I was put into the position in May. It was so hard, but so much fun, and definitely a huge learning experience for me. The last week of June we went to Lake Powell with our wonderful neighbors. They had asked us to go with them many times, but we could never fit it in. WOW!! We had so much fun. Their houseboat was incredible, and they had every water toy made. We went boating, sea-dooing,swimming, hiking, saved a Golden Eagle, and just had fun jumping and sliding off the houseboat. Our kids talk about this vacation all of the time. It was one of the best vacations we've taken as a family.




July we went with the Schencks on the annual camping trip to Island Park. It was so much fun as usual, but a little sad because Rylee missed most of it because she had Cheer camp during the week. Rylee had a great experience at her cheer camp this year though, because she received the over-all top All-American award from the entire camp. This was with high schools and junior high schools, so it was a huge honor for her!!



August we celebrated both Ryker and River's birthdays!! River turned twelve and received the priesthood, he was so excited and so nervous all in one. He absolutely loves passing the sacrament, and even wants to pass it when we are at a ward on vacation! I can't believe how old he is getting!



September meant school was back in session, Ridger and I celebrated our birthday's, Rylee sprained her foot tumbling, I started blogging, and Trevor's little brother left on his mission.

October was beautiful. We had a very warm Halloween, one of the warmest I remember in a long time. We spent most of the month driving Rylee to Utah Valley for Thriller practices and taking River and Ryker to flag football games and practices.
November was memorable because of the Presidential elections and the historic event that it was.

December came and went so quick I can't even believe it. Trevor and I went to New York and had such a wonderful time. This Christmas I tried so hard to simplify and just enjoy Christmas for what it is, the birth of our Savior. We did a lot of fun and memorable things as a family and really enjoyed the holiday.

It's amazing to think that it has been a year already since we moved!! I'm so grateful for all the trials and the wonderful things that made 2008 what it was. In some ways I really want time to slow down or just stop for a while so my kids don't get any older!! The time goes by faster and faster with each new year!! I have so much to be thankful for and I am excited for the new year to come!!! Bring on 2009!! Happy New Year!

Dancing with the Stars!!!

Last night some of my BFF's from high school and I had a holiday girls night out!! First we met at Ruby Tuesday's in West Valley and had dinner. After dinner we went to see Dancing with the Stars on tour at the e-center!! It was so much fun!! I have to admit I'm a lot bigger fan of So you think you can Dance, but all in all it was wonderful!! I sat next to my one friend who is a big Dancing with the Stars fan, so the few people I didn't know, she knew who they were!! Some of my highlights of the night were Toni Braxton, she sang a few songs and that was way neat. Lacey and Lance Bass were good, and so funny!! Also Lacey and Derek(I think Derek) did a hip hop duo that was way fun after seeing so much ballroom dancing all night!! What a great night with great friends!! (We might leave the couple older fudy's, who kept looking at their watches the entire last hour, home next year!! LOL!! JK!!) Thanks for a great evening, love you guys!!

Christmas Joy!!

We had such a great Christmas, but I can't believe how quick it came and went!! After the annual Schenck Christmas Eve party we came home and read the Christmas story out of the scriptures, had family prayer and off to bed they all went. No one woke up until about 8:00am. I heard Ridger and Ryker walking around upstairs, so then they woke Rylee and River up and they all waited on the stairs for Trevor to wake up. After opening all the presents and trying out everything, we went to see my Grandma at her assisted living home. We visited with my family and ate dinner and then back home.

Ridger felt Santa didn't give him exactly what he asked for, which is so funny because the child asked for everything(not sure where Santa went wrong). He is also already working on his list for next year, which is also funny because Santa isn't coming to our house next year!(LOL) But some of his favorite gifts were his remote control helicopter, his Leapster 2, and his Imaginext bat cave. Ridger was so cute this Christmas and loved wrapping and giving gifts to everyone in our family. He spent so much time wrapping up something that already belonged to us, or something of his that he no longer wanted!! It meant so much to him, and was soooo cute!!

Ryker really scored with Santa this year. He loved everything he got!! Some of his most favorite gifts were his Star Wars vehicle which came with lots of characters and he also got a cool nerf gun that him and River have been shooting little orange sponge bullets all over the house. He also loved the Wii fit game, which was actually Rylees gift and also his DS games and the family ping pong table.

River loved the family Guitar Hero on World Tour, his 007 game for Wii and his remote control car that climbs walls.

Rylee really enjoyed her Dance Dance Revolution game for Wii and her I-tunes gift card and new Cd's for her I-pod!!

Well another year has come and gone (even though my house still looks like it's Christmas morning) and I'm not sure if I'm happy it all went by so fast or not! Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Cookies for Santa!

Our last activity to do as a family for our "counting down" bags this year was to make cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. So before we went to the Schenck Christmas party, we all made and decorated cookies for Santa! They turned out so cute, I'm sure Santa really appreciated them!! The kids put three on a plate for him, but one accidentally fell on the ground. Ryker picked it up and wiped it off and put it back on the plate with the others for Santa to enjoy during his late night visit. When we woke up Santa had eaten two, but the one that fell on the floor Santa happened to leave behind!! Ryker was so impressed that somehow Santa must have known not to eat the one that fell on the ground!! Santa knows everything!!

GOT SNOW?!?!

I can honestly say that about two weeks ago I thought there was know way in heck we were going to have a white Christmas! I am so happy to say that I was wrong!! The snow started about a week ago and has been accumulating each day.
Our family was going to go skiing on Saturday, but when we woke up that day it was snowing, so we decided to go on Monday. But when we woke up on Monday it was snowing again, so we decided to go Tuesday, well guess what? When we woke up it was snowing again!!!! Well, we decided to go anyway!!! We had the best time and I'm so glad we waited because the powder was amazing!! It was very cold, especially riding the lift up the hill. The snow was blowing the opposite direction and was freezing!! But luckily that meant going down the hill the wind was going the same direction and so it wasn't nearly as cold!! Rylee and Ridger were the first to get cold and "be done". Ryker is quite the little skier and kept up with Trevor and River, something I even gave up on!! Trevor and Ryker could have kept going all night!! What a great time we had skiing and hopefully the snow will keep coming so we can continue going all winter!!

NEW YORK, NEW YORK!!!

Last week Trevor and I went to New York with our friends, John and Debbie. We had the best time ever!! I absolutely loved New York!! Neither Trevor or I had ever been before, both John and Debbie had been there already. We stayed right in Manhatten, a couple blocks from Rockefellar Center.

The first day we got there we walked to Rockefellar Center and then to Times Square. In Times Square we did some shopping and just walked around and took it all in. Then we ate dinner at Bubba Gumps, and it was so delicious!!! After dinner we saw the broadway musical Young Frankenstein, it was soooo funny! After the show we went back to Bubba Gumps for desert which was just as delicious as the dinner!!

The next day we woke up and went to the Today show!! We saw Al Roker doing the weather!! Later that day we rode the subway to Battery Park where we got on a ferry to Liberty Island and saw the Statue of Liberty. This was one of my very favorite things we did!! The island was so beautiful with a great veiw of New Jersey and the Manhatten skyline, and the Statue of Liberty was so cool!! After Liberty Island we took the ferry to Ellis Island and toured it and watched a movie about all the immigrants that came through that island! It was sooo interesting!! After the ferry dropped us back off at Battery Park, we walked up to the site where the Twin Towers used to be. It is under construction right now so there wasn't much to see other than a construction site, but it was still very cool. From there we walked through the financial district, which I really really liked, and into China Town. In China Town we did some bargaining for things and had the best time. After our very hilariously scary experience in China Town we rode the subway back to our hotel. That night we saw the broadway musical "WICKED"!! And it was sooooooo amazing! I absolutely loved it!! After the show we ate dinner at a barbecue restaurant, and it was soo good!

Saturday morning Trevor and John woke up early and took a run through Central Park while Debbie and I slept in and got cleaned up. We walked down 5th avenue and shopped (more like window shopped) at all the neat stores!! We also went through the St. Patricks Cathedral which was so beautiful. After shopping we took a carriage ride through Central Park and then walked through Central Park. We were hoping to go ice skating, but it was to packed and the line was sooo long. After Central Park we walked to Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. That night we went and saw The Lion King musical. It was great. Then we got some dinner at a little delicatesan.

Our last day we split up for a few hours. John and Debbie really wanted to go to a museum and Trevor and I wanted to do some more bargain shopping. So Trevor and I took the subway back down to China Town and shopped. Then we all met up at Central Park and walked to the LDS Temple. It was so cool to see the temple just right in the heart of Manhatten!! We also walked by the Lincoln Center and Juliard. They were all so neat to see. Then we got some lunch and went back to our hotel to head out to the airport!

What a great weekend we had and we saw and did way more than I had ever expected!! My favorite things were definetly Wicked, the Statue of Liberty and just walking around watching all the people!! I loved all of it!! Trevors favorite parts were Ellis Island, walking around and seeing NYC in the rain(the first night we were there it rained really hard), and watching Debbie and me be deviant in China Town!! GREAT TIMES!!!! (: (: (: