2008 Year In Review

2008
Year In Review

January
- Happy New Year 2008!
- Jacob turns 4, Dr’s visit- brave with shots
- Dads & Donuts at preschool
- Matthew 3 months old
- Pajama primary activity, Jacob’s first
- Ward Temple trip with Kimber & Mike

February
- Jeff’s busy call month
- ChuckECheese for Jacob’s birthday
- Kristie & Tom’s wedding, trip to Boise!
- Fun with family, racquetball, swimming, driving, receptions, games & fun, sad to say goodbye
- Matthew 4 months old, 1st baby food
- Valentine’s Day, Stake Valentine Dinner & Dance @ Jarrettown
- Lots of errands during preschool

March
- Stake Conference, visiting with friends
- Dr’s visits, Jacob’s shots
- Chad Williams stays with us while interviewing
- Playdates with friends, datenight swaps with Cox’s
- Happy Easter! Easter Egg Hunts @ preschool and Houston Park
- First day of Spring! Rita’s
- Preschool Natural History Museum fieldtrip
- Baby showers and Girls Nights
- Matthew 5 months old

April
- Lots of time at YMCA
- Start training for half marathon, lots of running
- General Conference, Tennis at the park
- Happy Birthday Jeff!
- Matthew 6 months old
- Playgroups- Gorgas Park, Houston Park
- Moms & Muffins at preschool
- Babysitting, dates
- Playing outside in our “yard” with friends

May
- NY Brooklyn Half Marathon
- Caleb fully potty trained
- Father/Son Campout, Girl’s Night @ Kristens, Boys stay home
- Mother’s Day BBQ w/Newells & Sanders
- Goodbye BBQ with friends at Miles Park, Girls “hotrod” ride home
- Playgroups- Houston, Smith Playhouse, Valley Green, swimming
- Washington DC trip, temple & zoo with Kimber & Mike
- Matthew 7 months old
- Memorial Day BBQ @ Jiminez’s
- Primary secretary
- Lots of selling on Ebay, tennis items

June
- More BBQ’s with friends
- Family vacation in Williamsburg, Virginia. Time with Kimber & Mike,
- Busch Gardens, rides, Water Country USA, swimming, slides, fun, Colonial Williamsburg, fun time together as a family
- Matthew 8 months old
- Cut my hair
- Lots of miscellaneous errands, playing with friends, swimming
- Family pictures
- Saying goodbye to too many friends!

July
- Mom diagnosed with cancer
- Happy 4th of July, BBQ and games at the park
- Trips to the Beach with friends
- Mark Benson passes away
- Lots of swimming, Summit Park & Henry on the Park
- Trip to upstate New York for Hill Cumorah Pageant, Sacred Grove, Palmyra
- Playgroups at parks, movies, playing with friends
- Matthew 9 months old
- Family Visit! Mom, Dad, Lacey & Cole. New York, subways, Atlantic City, swimming, Les Miserables, downtown Philly, Valley Forge, games, movies, laughing, fun! Sad to say goodbye

August
- Our 6 Year Anniversary!
- Matthew 10 months, starts to walk!
- Lots of babysitting and playing with friends
- Summer Olympic Games- many late nights!
- Lots of swimming at Summit Park, playing at parks in foutains
- Date night swaps with Ritters & Dobsons
- Happy Birthday to me!
- Plan girls night with Natalie
- Lots of showings on apartments, no notices!

September
- Caleb turns 3!
- Date night swaps with Palmers & Churchs
- Stake Conference
- Preschool starts for Jacob and Caleb
- Jeff’s vacation week- Aquarium & Battleship New Jersey, Lancaster & Strausberg- trains, Smith Playhouse, and lots of time with Daddy!
- Fishing as family
- Lots of running, sign up for Richmond Marathon
- Matthew 11 months
- Start really getting ready to move

October
- Visit Philadelphia Art Museum with kids, have a good time and no major accidents
- General Conference, Philadelphia is getting a temple!
- Preschool Field trip-Freddy Hills Farm
- Caleb dr visit- shots, no fun!
- Cornmaze date with friends
- More running, MWFS at 6am, 18 and 20 milers, seeing progress
- Spencer Cahoon born
- Jeff & Vince fishing with kids
- Matthew’s 1st Birthday!
- Halloween. Church party, Preschool party, trick-or-treating
- Packing and moving, leave apartment

November
- Moving day, crazy! Move to 1-bedroom apt for Jeff’s VA rotation
- Lots of unpacking
- Presidential Election. Obama vs McCain. Obama wins
- New ward, wonderful people
- Richmond, Virginia Marathon…26.2 miles, experience of a lifetime
- Fun times with Scott, Amanda, Kimber & Mike, lots of fun talking, laughing, games, church together, time goes too fast, fun memories!
- Thanksgiving, dinner at church with friends, Black Friday-sales, Cricut cartridges
- DC Temple trip, meet up with Kimber & Mike, dinner together at Baja Fresh, lots of driving

December
- Bowling together as Family at Chacko’s
- Surviving 1-bedroom surprisingly well, lots of time with the kids, good memories
- First Presidency Christmas Devotional
- Getting ready for Christmas, setting up tree, shopping, spending time together
- First snow of the season! Sledding, and playing outside
- Sick kids, no fun
- New calling, Gospel Doctrine teachers
- Merry Christmas! Miss our families, but have a fun time together
- Happy New Year!

"Muffin"

Matthew has affectionately earned himself the nickname of “Muffin” I’m not sure exactly how it came about, but he is definitely our little muffin. He has turned into such a busy, active, opinionated little toddler. This morning he managed to single-handedly break both of my big pyrex/glass bowls that I’ve had for 6 years since we’ve been married. He pulled them off the shelf and dropped them on the floor. It was a huge mess, but at least he wasn’t hurt and at least it was right before I cleaned the floor. A couple hours later, he managed to break another glass cup on my now perfectly cleaned floor.

Matthew is our “Techno-Geek” He has a huge fascination with anything that even remotely involves technology. His favorite toys are: cell phones, pdas, pagers, computers, card readers, cameras, DVD players, calculators, radios, etc. He amazes me with what he can do. He calls people and takes pictures with our phones, he enters new info in Jeff’s pda, he likes to pull the cap off of our card reader & plugs it into the computer where it starts to download, he reprograms the bread maker, changes out DVD’s in the dvd player, puts cd’s into the computer, and so on. Sometimes it’s frustrating to keep him away from everything. At Christmas time, one of his favorite activities was to plug in & unplug the Christmas tree. He’s just too smart for his own good.

Even though he’s super busy, he’s been so much fun. He has a definite love of chocolate milk. He prefers it ALL of the time. He’ll go to the fridge, pull out the chocolate syrup and bring it to me with his cup. He laughs when shake it up, and gets so excited. It’s funny to watch him drink it, when he’s about half way through, he’ll look at his cup, shake it up again himself, and resume drinking.

Matthew loves music and loves to turn on the radio. He’ll usually start dancing to the music. He’ll dance up and down, as well as side to side. He’s got pretty good rhythm and keeps us all entertained.

Church is tricky nowdays. Matthew has become quite a handful, which is to be expected, but I have a feeling that these next 4 months will be interesting!

Skinny Jeans

Okay, here they are...the skinny jeans. They're still going back to the store, but at least it will go down that there was a point in my life where I owned a pair of skinny jeans. I'm sure my kids will get a kick out of it someday.

The Rest of Christmas Break

We enjoyed the rest of Jeff’s break after Christmas. Friday we spent a lot of the day getting the house back in order and putting things away. There was more playing with the new toys, Jacob and Caleb really started to figure out their new cameras and have been our non-stop photographers. The cameras are really pretty fun, they’re easy for the kids to use, and they can take pictures, and videos as well as ‘clip-art’ pictures (allowing you to put funny hats or backgrounds in your pictures), and even have a couple games like tic-tac-toe. It’s been funny to see what they’ve come up with so far.

Jeff and I were also able to find some time to get to the apartment complex’s gym. It’s not much, a couple treadmills, one bike, one stair-stepper, a sit-up bench, and one multi-function machine, but it’s definitely better than nothing. I felt pretty wimpy running & calling it good at just under three miles. It was a decent pace, 8:15, and I had just lifted weights, but I’m definitely more out of shape than I was a few weeks ago. I blame it on the fact that I was on a treadmill, staring at a white wall- I have a hard time running when I’m not going anywhere! If anything, it was good to get even a little exercise in.

We also had a couple movie tickets so we decided to take the boys to the movie, “Bolt” it was in 3D so we got some pretty nifty glasses to wear too. I don’t remember the last time we took all three boys to the movie theater, but it was pretty fun. Even Matthew sat pretty well during the first part of the movie. He was definitely ready to be moving around by the end though, luckily the row in front of us was empty, so we weren’t worried about him disturbing others. We had a good time, but I was reminded of why we don’t go to the movies very often…they’re expensive! I sure would love to have a cheap theater around here.

It was nice to be able to get out of the house, and the weather has actually been pretty mild lately. We had quite a bit of snow, but most of it disappeared Christmas Eve after we got a bunch of rain. It’s been raining on and off over the past few days. I was sad to see that the radio stations aren’t playing Christmas music anymore. I know it’s been a couple days, but it’s always sad to see the end of such a special and fun holiday. I finally brought myself to actually put away the Christmas tree and decorations this morning.

We’ve also loved being able to visit with our families on the phone. They’re pretty busy enjoying each other, playing games, and keeping busy, but it’s fun to be able to squeeze in a 15 minute phone call here and there.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! We had a nice relaxing day at home this year. It was kind of nice knowing that we could just relax at home all day without having to go anywhere or do anything. Other than Matthew, who was ready to get up at 6:30am, the boys slept in a little later than usual. We finally made our way into the living room at about 8:30. The kids were pretty excited to see their stockings stuffed, and pretty wrapped presents on the couch. We watched Jacob and Caleb open their gifts and helped Matthew with his- he was happy wandering around playing with random toys and getting into some cereal that Santa had left. We sure felt spoiled by grandparents, and family members who sent gifts, toys, pajamas, and clothes. Even though we didn’t get to see our family, we sure felt loved by all their thoughtfulness, and sweet cards.

Some of Jacob’s favorite gifts: camera, watch, cars, blocks, & books. Some of Caleb’s favorite gifts: camera, water animals, cars, & books. They both loved their ‘moon sand’ and their CTR super-capes from Aunt Tami. Some of Matthews favorite gifts: ball, puzzles, cars, egg toy, books, and treats.

After the boys had opened their gifts, they were pretty content to play together with their new toys. There was one toy in particular that was easy for all three of them to play with together that they really enjoyed- a little Mega Blocks car set with tracks & a couple little cars. They played pretty well and Jeff and I opened our gifts while watching them play. Jeff got some nice clothes, shoes, pajamas, some fishing/hiking/snow gear, a massager, and some other various things. He also picked out a few new movies. I got some clothes, a new dress, pajamas, slippers, necklaces, and some other fun things. I do have to laugh, Jeff actually got me a pair of skinny jeans. I tried them on, Jeff thought they looked cute, but I think they’ll be headed back to the store anyway. I just don’t know if I’m brave enough to wear them out of the house.

We also learned that tin foil makes a great substitute wrapping paper. We ran out of wrapping paper on Christmas Eve, so Jeff ended up wrapping most of my gifts in tin foil. I thought they looked nice.

It was so fun to enjoy the rest of the day together. The boys watched one of their new movies, Kung Fu Panda. We played with toys, books, and games; and a few of us even enjoyed some naps. We had a pretty casual dinner of French toast, and Jeff and I finished off the evening watching a movie together.

I’m sure grateful for my sweet little family. There is nothing that brings greater happiness. I’m grateful we could celebrate the birth of our Savior together.

Christmas Eve

Today was Christmas Eve. The boys were pretty excited from the moment they woke up. It’s fun when your kids really start to get old enough to understand. Jeff had to work until late that afternoon, but we had fun at home, making treats, and watching Christmas movies. The night before, I made a big batch of cinnamon rolls for Jeff to take to work to hand out; apparently they were a hit at the hospital, and we enjoyed them for breakfast too.

This is the second Christmas we’ve been away from family. I do fine, but it is a little tough on Christmas Eve knowing that everyone is together enjoying the evening except for you. We’re fortunate to have such a great ward, we’ve had a couple invitations to come over for dinner tonight. We ended up getting together with three other families; the Garlicks, Slades, and Olsens. It was such a fun evening. We had dinner & dessert, and enjoyed the time visiting together. The Olsens have one little girl that is two, and the Slades have three little boys. Jacob and Caleb are close in age to Andrew & Ethan. They were all pretty excited to be able to play together so we didn’t see much of them during the night. Josh & Emily, the Garlick children, were so sweet , they entertained and played with all the younger kids almost the whole night. Matthew entertained himself by running circles through the dining room/kitchen/entryway. I’m not sure if he enjoyed it because he had so much space to run around in, or because he liked the sound of running around on the hardwood floors. His only tantrum came when I wouldn’t let him climb up the large staircase by himself. It really was such a fun evening. We had such a great time that we didn’t even end up leaving until almost 9pm. As we were leaving, we were saying that it’s hard to be away from family during the holidays, but if we couldn’t be with family, being with friends really was the next best thing. We sure appreciated the Garlick’s hospitality. They’re such great people and we were grateful to be able to enjoy the evening at their home with friends.

We got home a little late, but still let the boys open one present that night. They were excited to see their new pajamas. Matthew got Thomas the Train, Caleb got Wall-E, and Jacob got Spiderman. It was fun to see them so excited running around in their new jammies. We were then able to read our Christmas story, the nativity account in Luke 2, and sing a few songs. Christmas Eve is also nice because the boys go to bed so willingly, and then Jeff and I were able to get things ready for Santa to come. We felt grateful for the blessing of good friends, and for our Savior who is the reason for the season.

Welcome to the Ward

Saturday morning I checked my phone and realized I had missed a call. Turns out it was from the bishop of our new ward. I returned his call and also left a message. He ended up calling back Saturday night while I was out shopping. He said he had missed us last week (I related our humorous car-trouble story) and had wanted to visit with us after church. Then he said he usually doesn’t do this over the phone, but with the weather being bad, he didn’t want us to have to drive all the way to church, and he wanted to give us a calling. Then he asked if Jeff and I would be willing to be the Gospel Doctrine teachers. We were sustained on Sunday, and I will start teaching next week.(Jeff and I will alternate each week) I’m a little nervous for this one. The funny thing is I had just been saying to Jeff about two weeks previous, that I was glad I wasn’t the gospel doctrine teacher. I guess it’s a good lesson not to talk about unwanted callings out loud. I'm nervous, but I think it will be a good learning experience.

Fun in the Snow

Today, Jeff had the day off and the boys were excited to get out in the snow! Jeff had to take the car in to be adjusted that morning, and on his way back he stopped to get some snow supplies for the boys. They were excited to put on their snowsuits, boots, and hats; and I found our snow-tube that we’ve had for a couple years. It was pretty cold outside, so Matthew didn’t last long. I would carry him outside to watch the boys for about 10-15 minutes at a time, then we would head back inside when he got too cold. I hope he’ll be back to his regular self soon- he’s getting better, but still not fully over being sick.
Jeff was a great sport playing in the snow with Jacob and Caleb. Originally they wanted to build a snowman, but the snow was too hard at this point; so they just went sledding down the small hill in the back of our apartment. It’s not a very big hill, and not very long. In fact, Jeff would run down the hill while the boys went down on the tube and make sure they didn’t go far enough to run into the other apartment wall. They had a great time, and fortunately there were no injuries, just some good laughs. I think the boys would have stayed out a lot longer if we had let them.
We had a hot pizza dinner, then Jeff and the boys had a fun night at home while I went out to finish up some Christmas shopping. I’m glad we’re so close to all the stores, because the traffic and crowds were crazy. It was nice to have a little time to shop alone, it’s amazing how much more you can get done that way.

Week in Review

Here’s a brief summary of the past week.

Saturday 14th- Jeff did interviews for new ophthalmology residents all day today. He had to drive to the hospital at 5am in the morning and didn't finish until late afternoon. He started the 2 hour drive home around 5. We talked on his way home. He called me while driving again around 9:30 and told me the car had stopped completely. Long story short, he was about 20 miles outside of home and had to call a tow truck. Tow truck shows up, drops the car off at a mechanics, and drops Jeff off at home around midnight. Sunday comes around and we don't have a car, carseats or even a ward list. I was supposed to substitute teach a primary class & was a no-show. I felt pretty bad, but there was nothing we could do. We enjoyed a quiet Sunday at home, I taught the lesson I had prepared & we watched the first presidency Christmas devotional. Sunday morning I could hear the boys singing, “Jingle Bells” When I went out to see what they were up to, this is what I found. Here’s our version of a “one-horse open sleigh” Jacob pulling Caleb in a laundry basket with a belt attached through the basket and onto Jacob’s waist. I thought it was pretty funny.

Monday 16^th- Jeff was actually able to start doing surgeries again this week. It’s taken an entire month to get the OR back in operating condition. There was a mechanic who was supposed to fix the humidifier, back during the second week of November. Well, he left it on full-blast after fixing it and it ran all weekend. On Monday morning, when they walked into the operating room it was just dripping with water. They had to run all sorts of tests and throw away almost half a million dollars worth of equipment because of sterilization rules. It was a pretty unfortunate experience- especially because it cost Jeff an entire month of surgery. I’m pretty sure they’re going to adjust the schedule and we’ll probably be here until at least mid-March.

Poor kids have been sick throughout the week. Matthew’s had a whole week of it. It’s so sad to have a sick baby, Matthew just wants me to hold him all day and he just doesn’t act like himself. I’m definitely ready to be done with it; especially since we don’t have a washer & dryer in our apartment.

Tuesday 17^th- we got our car back today. It sure is nice to have a car! It was a pretty expensive fix, but fortunately it wasn’t too serious- just the clutch. Hopefully this one will last us for a while. I’m grateful that Jeff is close enough to walk to work.

Wednesday 18^th- we decided to make some decorations for Christmas. We made some snowflakes and some ornaments out of paper the boys had painted. Then I remembered when I was young, how some friends and I would make “claw fingers” out of paper. I don’t know if anyone else has done this, but I used to love it. I thought this would be a fun thing for the boys, so we sat in the living room together while I folded paper. When I was done, they each had a full-set of ‘claws’ to fit on their fingers. They were pretty excited! I did start to wonder if it had been a good idea when I heard Caleb asking Jacob if he was ready to fight. They’ve been pretty good with them though, and it brings back fun memories.

Thursday 19^th- we had all been cooped up way too long! The sun was shining outside and it was a semi-warm day near 40, so we bundled everyone up and went to the little playground just down the road. I think everyone enjoyed getting out to run around for a little while. Matthew was happy to have a little freedom outside and had fun swinging, going down the slide, and just playing in the bark. Jacob and Caleb loved it as well. We weren’t able to stay out real long before Matthew’s little fingers started to freeze- he won’t keep anything on them, and was crying. So we headed back from some hot chocolate and popcorn, but it was a nice break from our four walls for a little while!

Friday 19^th- they were predicting a pretty good snowstorm for our area. Sure enough it started snowing around 8am that morning and snowed throughout the entire day. By the time the storm was over we had about 8-inches. The boys were pretty excited, and I’m kind of excited that we’ll probably have a white Christmas- it’s been a while. It is nice to have 4-wheel drive though! The boys really wanted to go play in the snow, but with Matthew still sick, I didn’t want to take him out. Jeff got home a little later, but brought back a couple movies, so we had a movie night at home together.

Ward Christmas Party

Last Friday night, our ward had a little Christmas party. It was a fun evening to visit with everyone. We've sure felt welcomed here in this small close-knit group. The dinner was great, even though I was on my own most of the time with the boys, Jeff was asked to help serve so he was busy for quite a while.
After the dinner, the primary kids put on a little program. Jacob was super excited because they asked him to play the part of a wiseman. I was able to find a few things to put together a costume and made a crown of out paper that he loved. Of course when Caleb saw the crown, he wanted one too so we had two "wise-guys" running around the house. Jacob had fun in the program and did a great job walking in and presenting his gift.