Past & Future

I have been putting together a scrapbook of our last year and after reading a bunch of people's Christmas cards of what happened this past year, I wanted to document our past year.

January: Josh started studying for the DAT again.  I was called into the Relief Society Presidency.

February: Josh went to California to ski with his Dad and my Mom came out to stay with me.  The kids took swimming lessons & Megan lost her 2nd tooth.

March: Connor got his first tooth, Bryson became a "big boy", Josh & I got glasses.  Josh took the DAT, Megan bore her testimony for the 1st time in Sacrament meeting, & the kids took swimming lessons again.

April: Megan & Bryson started soccer.  Josh was Bryson's coach.  I backed the van into a pole; Jacob, Julia & family came out to celebrate Easter with us. Went to Thunder Over Lousiville, and started putting together a swingset for the backyard.

May: Josh finished the swingset that the kids loved playing on.  We hosted our 2nd Derby Bingo party.  We planted our first garden.  I traveled out to Utah with Connor for my little sister's graduation, and we went on our first girls weekend retreat to Bear Lake.  The kids participated in a dog training event and loved it, and Connor mastered crawling.

June: Megan & Bryson finished soccer, Connor had both of his tear ducts probed, and we spent a lot of time at the zoo, water park & library to pass the time.  

July: We went boating, and celebrated the 4th of July with our ward.  Josh didn't get into dental school so we traveled out to California to visit family and friends, and had a lot of fun going to 6 flags, swimming, fishing & seeing everyone.  I was able to see Matt & Stacie on our way home from California which was nice too.  Connor turned 1!  We enjoyed our county parade & fair. 

August: We had Jacob & Julia and family come visit on the end of their long roadtrip.  Megan started 2nd grade,  Bryson started preschool & Connor started walking.  We got rained out camping & went to a baseball game. 

September: Megan turned 7 year old and tried to go water skiing for her first time.  The kids went fishing, and started another season of soccer.  Grandma & Grandpa Kelly came for a visit and we made many home improvements in the kitchen, and around the house.  We also went for a visit at Mammoth Cave.

October: We celebrated Halloween as the Toy Story gang and went to the Zoo's Halloween party a couple of times.  Jessie & Steve and family came for a visit & my Mom and Dad for my birthday!  We went to the farm and picked apples and took plenty of pictures.  With my parents we visited Abraham Lincoln's birth place & went on walks. 

November: Connor and I were able to spend a day with Bryson at school for his fall festival.  Megan & Bryson finished soccer and almost froze on the last day.  We celebrated Thanksgiving with Jacob, Julia & family at our house, & the Gremmerts.  We spent the night freezing in line at Toys R Us and did more shopping on black friday. 

December: Josh got in to dental school and turned 31!  Bryson turned 4 and had his first b-day party.  We made & ate lots of gingerbread houses.  We celebrated Christmas by ourselves and enjoyed a relaxing day.  We spent new years eve with some friends playing games & eating yummy food.

2011: We are looking forward to... TRAVEL.  We are going to be going to Cancun, with no kids.  We will be traveling out west to visit family and friends before Josh starts dental school.  We look forward to Josh starting dental school & excited that we don't have to move.  We are looking forward to Megan getting baptized & starting 3rd grade.  Bryson will be in preschool again.  We look forward to new adventures and fun memories.

Ringing in the New Year

New Years Eve has never been a big deal in our family.  We usually go to bed at normal times and the kids never know.  But this year we decided to hang out with some friends to ring in the new year.  We spent the night playing games...

Air hockey

Charades

(they're acting out big bird)

Doing fondue

Connor enjoyed eating everything he could, his favorites were apples and dots.

The kids watched Toy Story 3 while the adults played Yahtzee.

We made cupcakes and decorated them and when we rang in the new year (at 10:40pm) the kids all blew out their candles.

We had a great time.  I was surprised how long the kids lasted.  Connor lasted till 9:40pm and then the kids went to bed at 11pm.  Unfortunately that didn't mean that they were going to sleep in, Connor was up at 7am, Megan was up at 7:30am & Bryson was up at 8am.   

Christmas

Everything started on Christmas Eve when we made sugar cookies (tried a new recipe, which is really good, but it was a pain to make the cookies, the dough was SUPER sticky) and had a delicious ham, potatoes, pretzel jello salad, vegis & roll dinner with another couple in the ward that the kids (and we) love.  After dinner the kids got to open their first gift of pajamas and slippers.

Chirstmas this year was very low key.  The kids didn't wake up until 8am, that is after Megan woke up at 4am checking out all the presents and saying she couldn't go back to bed... luckily she did.  So up at 8 as the fun began.  After attempts of getting pictures of the kids in front of the Christmas tree, with Bryson who didn't want to participate, we started opening presents.

Before

Unwrapping

Connor did pretty good unwrapping this year.  He only opened a couple of gifts that weren't his, but he was more interested in getting the wrapping off then the gift he was opening.  None of his made noise like Bryson's.

The Gifts

Playing in the wrapping paper. 

Connor loved it, Bryson didn't want anything to do with it.

Megan's gifts

Her favorites: pillow pet, My generation doll & roller blades.

Bryson's gifts

His favorites: firetruck, tractor, bike & r/c car

Connor's gifts

His favorite: The panda (which he went straight to when you came out to the presents) or any of Bryson's toys.  Bryson played with Connor's toys more than he did.

After all the presents were opened we made a yummy breakfast of Chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, bacon and cinnamon rolls.  The rest of the day was spent in our pajamas, playing with new toys, talking to family on the phone and web cam, watching movies and just relaxing.

Getting ready for Christmas

On Sunday we had our Christmas program so we let the kids dress in their Christmas outfits.  So we attempted to get pictures of the kids.  This is what we got.

At our ward Christmas party we had a visit from Santa.  All the kids went up to see him.  Bryson forgot to ask for anything.  I was glad that Connor didn't cry, he was actually very anxious to go up and see Santa, he just looked at him and sucked his thumb and Megan asked him for a My Generation doll.  They each received a candy cane afterwards.  They were all very excited. 

He's 4!

Bryson turned 4 years old today! 

We spent the day celebrating!

We went to story time at the library with some friends and made Christmas trees, then we headed to McDonald's with our friends to play and eat lunch.

Later that day Bryson had his first b-day party with a small group of friends.

We started by building with blocks and playing red light, green light.

We then headed upstairs and played some BINGO!

Next we sang Happy Birthday and had cake and ice cream.

Then it was time for presents!

And we finished by building gum drop houses.

We had a great day!

We love Bryson so much and are so glad to have him as party of our family.

What we love about Bryson:
He is always willing to help in the kitchen,
His laugh is contagious
He gives the best hugs and kisses
He is very protective over his little brother, sometime too protective.
He is very full of energy
He's doing amazing at school and we love seeing him mature and grow.



Gingerbread Houses

 We have been busy making lots of gingerbread houses.  Last weekend our friends hosted a gingerbread house making party.  It was a lot of fun getting together and seeing what everyone created. 

Here are the kids making their houses...

 Here are the adults...

Megan's Gingerbread House

Josh's gingerbread temple...

Bryson's gingerbread house, piled with all the candy he want to eat.

It was a fun time for everyone!

Then on Monday, after we had some practice, the Library hosted a gingerbread house making party.  So we took the kids to test out their skills again.  I think that they actually improved.  Connor just enjoyed eating everything.

We are now excellent gingerbread house decoraters and eaters. 

ICE

Around here, when rain turns to ice everything seems to shut down.  It looks very beautiful, but not fun to go out in.

 School was canceled, Josh stayed home from work and we got to hang out all day long.  Luckily we had plenty to do and friends to play with to pass the time.

 Doesn't it look like a big ice skating rink? 

We are grateful that we didn't lose any power like last year.

Birthday Weekend

This past weekend we celebrated all weekend for Josh's 31st B-day.  The best present that Josh received was of course the acceptance letter from the University of Louisville that we have waited a long time to receive.  On Friday we took the family to our town's lighting of the town.  Then we went out to dinner with some friends to celebrate.

The highlight of the night for the kids was seeing Santa.  Check out those smiles!

 Saturday, Josh and I celebrated by going to a U of L game in the new Yum center arena, with tickets that his boss gave him.  It was nice to have time with just the 2 of us and to watch a basketball game which we haven't done in a long time. (in person) 


Today on Josh's actual birthday, Josh had to work, but once he got home and after dinner we decorated the Christmas tree.  Well actually we decorated only the top half of the tree.  I'm sure that we will be moving more ornaments up the tree since we have a little rascal that wants to touch all of the ornaments.

 Next it was time for cake and ice cream & presents. 

We love Josh/Dad, and are so grateful for him in our lives.  We are so proud of him for all his hard work and patience to get into school and that it has finally payed off.  We had only planned on living here till Josh was 31, but ironically, we are just starting our journey.  I know that Josh is going to do excellent at dental school.  He is such an amazing man and I am so lucky to have him as my husband.  I love you, Happy Birthday!! 

November Update

Now that it is December I guess I will finally catch up with what we did in November.  We didn't seem to do that much, but life just seemed so busy.  At the beginning of November Megan and Bryson finished up their soccer season.  The last day of soccer was FREEZING, but they were excited to get their trophies and team pictures.  This year they both looked at the camera!
 
Here is Bryson playing his last game, and Josh handing out the trophies to all his players and saying nice things about each of them.  He was a great coach.

Here is Megan with her 2 coaches and her last game.  She didn't want to play the last game since she had been sick and whenever she ran it made her cough, but she at least stuck the game out in the cold weather and played goalie, her favorite position.

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Megan participated in a music club and at the end of the course they had a performance that went along with the school's family reading night.  They served us dinner (chicken nuggets, corn, carrots & cookies) read a story and then we got to watch Megan perform. 

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

After the performance we went to the book fair where Megan won a free book!  It was a great night.  Here is Megan with her music teacher, Mr. A

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Thanksgiving was a lot of fun this year.  We had Josh's brother, Jacob and his family come out to visit with us.  We also invited our good friends, the Gremmerts over to eat dinner with us.  We had a delicious dinner with plenty of food.  We played some Catch Phrase to let the food settle and then we finished it off with the must have pie.

Later that night Julia, Tiffany and I decided to go to Toys R Us when they opened at 10pm and get some of their deals.  We got there 10 minutes until they opened.  It was raining pretty good but we decided that once we got in line it would be 10pm and then we could get inside.  So we grabbed our umbrellas and headed to the line that went to the end of the building, around the corner and then all the way to the back of the building.  We got in line and it didn't seem to move, just a little at a time.  As we got closer to the front of the line we spoke to an employee who informed us that they are only letting in 25-50 people at a time.  So an hour later and we finally got in to the store.  To make a long story short.  After finding the stuff we wanted or not finding it since they were all sold out...already, we waited in another line to check out for 2 HOURS!  Yeah, we're crazy.  We thought that we would have time to run to Wal-Mart at midnight when they opened and we thought that we would be trying to kill time waiting for midnight... no we got in line to check out at midnight.  We didn't get out of the store until 2am.  We all agreed that we will never do that again.  And to prove how cold it was when we were standing out in the line, the rain turned to snow while we were inside.

I called Josh to run to Wal-Mart and he got home a little later then I did.  Then he headed back out to Target and then back to Wal-Mart to pick up the TV that he wanted to get.  He got home at 6am.  So Friday was spent sleeping most of the day and then Saturday we went out shopping.  The kids were able to write letters to Santa Claus to ask him for the things that they want. 

This is what Megan wants...  I was able to talk her out of the American Girl doll and into an Our Generation doll since they are much cheaper. 

And this is what Bryson wants for Christmas.

We found some great buys and finished most of our Christmas shopping.
We had a great time with Jacob & Julia and their family and we feel so grateful to have family close enough to spend the holidays with. 
The rest of the month was spent waiting with anticipation to find out if Josh got into dental school at U of L.  Which you already know the outcome to that. :-)

Short Update

I am way behind on an update and working on getting one done for what we did for the month of November.  I just had to share this really quick. 
7 years of applications, 5 years interviewing at U of L, 4 1/2 years living FAR away from family & 3 times taking the DAT, we finally decided that this was our last year trying to get into dental school.  So Josh applied to 16 schools for his last hurrah, has only interviewed at U of L, but this year, that is all that it took.  At 12:01am our life was mapped out for us for the next 4 years!!  We are so excited & relieved and look forward to spending 4 more years here.  It feels nice that we don't have to hit the rewind button anymore and do it again.  THANK YOU for all your prayers and words of encouragement during this process.