2009 Year in Review

I'm slow getting around to this post, but I love to do a Year in Review post at the end of every year. I love to see all the things that have happened over the past year. Here are a few of the highlights.

January

• Caleb starts Primary as a Sunbeam
• Time spent with friends in Wilkes-Barre, dinners, sledding, fun afternoons.
• Lots of cold, snowy days. Even some sledding & snowman building.
• Start making baby quilts
• Inauguration of President Obama
• Card-making opportunity
• Jacob turns 5!

February

• Last weeks teaching gospel doctrine
• Jeff’s 12-days of Valentine’s
• Happy Valentine’s day- date night with Jeff
• Packing to go back home from Wilkes-Barre, saying goodbye to wonderful new friends
• House we’re going to rent gets flooded & move-in date is postponed. Apartment search ‘fun’, sign temporary 2-month lease at SP apartments.

March

• Great to be home & see all our old friends again
• Jacob & Caleb excited to get back to preschool
• Back to running with friends and gym time, missed that!
• Register Jacob for kindergarten
• Preschool Fire station field trip
• Birth of new nephew Tyler Menssen!
• First day of spring, lots of playing outside at the park

April

• General Conference and Easter celebrations
• Lots of errands, ebay selling, running, playgroups, preschool, etc.
• Jeff turns 32, takes OKAPS
• Cousins come out to sell security systems, time with Tiffany.
• More packing, short term lease is up, put everything in storage, continue waiting on rental home.
• Preschool graduation ceremony for Jacob and Caleb
• Leave for trip home. First time back home in over a year. Fly solo with all three kids…survive.
• Enjoy time with family, dance festival, errands, playing etc.
• Grandma & Grandpa Tanner, and Jonny Stevens return home from missions to Mexico & Argentina.
• Jeff & Angela’s long awaited trip to Mexico gets cancelled due to outbreak of silly, overrated “Swine Flu.”

May

• Jeff & Angela instead go on last-minute planned vacation to Las Vegas. Boys enjoy spending time with grandparents and cousins. We have fun together.
• Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K with family members in honor of Grandma Forman and Mom Tanner
• Lots of fun times with family, park visits, game nights, shopping trips, movie nights, birthday parties, date nights, church meetings, library visits, lunches, long runs, boating, Memorial Day fun, trip to Haworth farm, Tanner home, more extended family, old friends, teachers, & some of the most fun of a vacation home.
• Benson Tanner farewell, Jonathan Stevens homecoming, Grandma & Grandpa Tanner homecoming. Lots of visiting with family.
• Say goodbye to Jeff who has to return to work, even though we have nowhere to live yet. He stays with friends for a couple weeks.
• House rental falls through, we scramble to find place to live with only 2 weeks notice. My ‘3-week’ trip turns out to be longest vacation home I’ve ever had-6 weeks, because we had no home.
• Finally find, and sign a lease on a new apartment at SG apartments.

June

• I return with the boys on the 3rd, again flying solo…survive.
• Lots of unpacking and getting settled into new apartment, unloading storage unit. Finding “new” furniture on craigslist & slowly making the apartment a home. Slowly come to realize what a blessing in disguise the whole house/apartment situation really was, even though it was very frustrating & stressful at the time.
• Ward temple trip
• New calling in Young Women’s, camp fundraising, weekly activities
• Jeff busy with work and new residents
• Boys start soccer at YMCA
• Olsens visit from Wilkes-Barre, spend the weekend sight-seeing.
• Swimming at the apartment complex, running, playgroups, etc
• Birth of new niece, Alyson Ruth Sorenson

July

• Find out we’re expecting baby #4!
• Jeff starts 4^th & final year of residency! Wow- 8 years of med school & residency almost done. Busy with work & new residents.
• Family fun day at Hershey Park. Swim park and amusement park.
• Spend a fun day with Tiffany. Time with cousins.
• 4^th of July BBQ with friends at park. Softball game, and fireworks
• Youth Conference for young women, church activities, busy with callings
• Trips to the beach with friends & family, fun times!
• More running, playgroups, errands, date nights, soccer Saturdays, swimming at the pool, catching fireflies, time at the gym, etc.

August

• Celebrate our 7-year anniversary
• My first doctor visit
• Hot summer days, swimming, fountains, and beach trips, Rita’s water ice, and lots of afternoons at the park
• Memorable date nights, Harry Potter.
• Angela turns 25, wow-quarter of a century, get to celebrate with Kristie & Tom- best birthday present ever!
• Jeff has 4-day business trip to Texas for ophthalmology conference
• Houston gets home from his mission to Chile!
• Leave for Outer Banks, North Carolina for week long vacation with friends

September

• Spend a week in OBX at a beach house with friends, have a blast despite the less-than-ideal weather. See sights, play games, hang out at the beach, date nights, and finally even soak up some sun.
• Caleb turns 4! Starts preschool.
• Spend weekend with Menssens on way home from Outer Banks- great BYU football game
• First ultrasound- get to see our sweet little baby
• Jacob meets his new kindergarten teacher & starts kindergarten!
• Home for a few days from Outer Banks before we leave for Idaho! Fly home for Jeff to interview for job positions & for Houston’s homecoming. Enjoy a fabulous week with family playing games, Jeff’s interviews/meetings, sports, tennis, girls shopping trip, play together, Kaden’s baptism, enjoy extended family & share the news that we’re expecting baby #4. Week goes by way too fast!
• Get back into busy life of school, preschool, church, work, and everyday life.
• Car accident #1, takes out our little black jetta, down to 1 car.

October

• General Conference, busy weekend.
• Sell jetta, trailer, get a ‘new-to-us’ minivan. Reluctant about the minivan, but it grows on me.
• Baby showers, babysitting, date nights, helping out in Jacob’s class, walks to school, selling items on craigslist & ebay to start to downsize
• Matthew turns 2! Can’t believe our baby is 2.
• Caramel Apple Girl’s Night- lots of fun.
• Jeff takes 5 day business trip for Ophthalmology conference in California, we miss daddy & are excited to have him home!
• Find out Tom & Kristie are expecting their 1st baby in June.
• Ward, Kindergarten, Preschool Halloween parties. Happy Halloween- trick-or-treating.

November

• Big ultrasound, *It’s a Girl!*
• Car accident #2 takes out our Ford Explorer, down to 1 car again.
• Birth of new nephew, Michael Mark Howell
• Ward activities, school activities, errands, date nights, girl’s nights, New Moon Movie, doctor’s visits
• Angela gets a hair cut
• Thanksgiving in Virginia with Kimber & Mike. Enjoy a great weekend full of fun activities in Charlottesville.

December

• Jeff leaves for 5-day business/interview trip to Washington/Oregon. We’re all so glad when daddy comes home!
• Getting ready for Christmas, fun festivities.
• Jeff’s resident Christmas dinner. Fun formal evening with friends and co-workers.
• Lots of selling on ebay to earn money to pay for Christmas!
• Blizzard 2009- dumps tons of snow in the city.
• Merry Christmas! Enjoy spending time with our little family.
• Washington DC trip, fun activities for the vacation week.
• Ring in 2010, Happy New Year!

Washington DC Trip

With Jeff having some time off, and not having much time left here before it’s time to move, we decided to take a little vacation to Washington DC to do some more sight-seeing. Fortunately with it being the holidays, we were able to book a hotel for really cheap. We took off Monday morning and spent most of our day in DC visiting the Air & Space Museum, one we haven’t seen yet. There are actually two museums, one right in downtown DC near all the other Smithsonian’s, but there was enough material in this particular subject that they opened up another part of the museum away from the city. This is the one that we visited and it was definitely a hit!

Matthew in the little museum restaurant- we took our lunches in to eat them there. I was coming back after getting something, and this is what he did when he saw me through the glass windows- he's so funny.

All three of the boys were in heaven! This is a museum that they could spend the entire day visiting. There were so many airplanes, rockets, jets, helicopters, etc that it takes at least 2 hours to walk quickly through the museum. We loved being able to see everything and read brief descriptions about when they were used, where they were made, accomplishments, and other fun facts.

There were many favorites for everyone, and it would have been fun to stay even longer, but eventually the museum had to close. I was also glad we made it through the whole experience without anyone touching/breaking anything- although there was the one time where we looked over to see Matthew sitting in a little roped-off golf cart type car that museum workers would use to drive around. We got him out before anyone noticed, but I did think it was kind of funny to see him- he just loves things that drive!

After the museum we went to get some dinner. Normally we’ll pack food or get something at the grocery store, anything cheap, but this time we decided to do something fun and go to a restaurant. We had a Texas Roadhouse right next to our hotel, and they had a deal for early dinner so we were able to get dinner for the whole family with taxes, tip & everything for $29. Still a little bit of a splurge, but we never go out to eat as a family and it was fun to take the kids- they were great and sure enjoyed it.

It was nice to be able to go right next door to the hotel afterwards. After getting the kids in pajamas, we played games-UNO is our latest favorite, and then got everyone ready for bed.

Tuesday, we had breakfast at the hotel and then packed up and headed for the temple. I’m not sure what it was, construction or something, but a drive that should only have taken about 35 minutes, ended up taking almost 2 hours. We had hoped to see some more museums after we each went through a temple session, but we didn’t have time. Either way, we were glad we could make it to the temple. Jeff went through the temple first while the boys and I enjoyed time in the visitor’s center (I mainly just tried to keep Matthew from touching all the display Christmas trees). Then I did a session afterwards while Jeff took the boys to play at a McDonalds and walked around the outdoor displays at the temple. By the time I came out, it was dark so we were able to see all the beautiful lights around the temple. We would have headed downtown DC, but at that point it was just too late- all the museums close at 5:30, so we headed home. I was grateful for the chance to go as a family, and as always, enjoyed a drive home with Jeff & the kids. Even though it was a quick trip, it was a fun one with some good memories.

30 Weeks

30 Weeks and counting... Talk about a growth spurt, but I'm on the down home stretch, and I can't believe how quickly this pregnancy has flown by. I've got 8-10 weeks left and lots to do before this little girl makes an appearance! :)

The Rest of Christmas Break

We filled the week after Christmas with family activities. It’s not very often that Jeff has so much time off and we wanted to take advantage of it as much as possible. We did our DC trip on Monday & Tuesday, and fun activities around the area the rest of the week. Jeff did have to go in to do some work during the week, but not for too long.

We were able to go swimming together at the YMCA and the boys had a lot of fun doing that. We haven’t been swimming for a while, and it was fun to take advantage of a warm, indoor heated pool. We went for a couple hours and it was still hard to get everyone out of the pool at the end. I accidentally left the memory card out of the camera, so I didn’t end up with any pictures, but we had a fun time.

Another day, we ended up going to the YMCA again to play on the climbing wall and in the gym. The boys had fun doing the rock wall and playing basketball. Matthew loved it when Jeff would lift him up to shoot the ball, he was trying so hard to do it himself, but it’s just a bit tall for a few years!

Another day we let the boys try out their new roller blades. The weather was pretty rainy and cold outside, and we found a great solution. The laundry room is right next to our apartment, and luckily we’re the only apartment attached to it, so the kids can skate in there without worrying about bothering anyone else with the noise. With it being the holidays, many people are gone so no one was using the laundry room anyway. It has a hard cement floor and was perfect for a couple little boys working on their roller blading skills. Matthew enjoyed riding around like a crazy many on his little bike. They had a lot of fun.

On New Year’s Eve, the boys took over the kitchen and made homemade soft pretzels. They were definitely a hit! I’m grateful for a husband who loves to think of fun things to do with his little boys- they loved rolling out the dough & putting on the toppings. It was definitely worth the time it took to clean-up to see them having a good time together.

New Year’s Day we were able to go bowling together. This is one of the kids’ favorite things to do! I love watching them, and I’m sure we provide some good entertainment for everyone around us! It was a fun way to spend the last real day of vacation.

Apparently taking a picture is a lot to ask during a game of bowling. :)

Merry Christmas

We had a nice quiet little Christmas with our family this year. We didn’t do anything too fabulous, just enjoyed being together. In fact, one of the best parts of doing it that way is that you can stay in your pajamas all day and not even feel bad about it. We actually had a white Christmas for Christmas eve and day, but that afternoon it started to rain and didn’t stop for over a day- so we had the perfect excuse not to go anywhere.

The boys were so excited to wake up that morning and could hardly wait for mom & dad to get out of bed and get the cameras ready. Even Matthew kept yelling “presents!” and squealing with delight. We didn’t make them wait too long and they were able to open their fun presents. They all thought they had a pretty great Christmas. It’s not the most fun thing to be away from family during the holidays, but it was nice not to have to travel and we enjoyed talking to our families on the phone later in the day. It was fun spending time together playing with new toys and games and having dinner together. **

Pushing the limits as to how far they can go to wait!

One last smile for the camera, it's getting painful at this point.

I love the bed-hair!

Matthew deciding that using teeth is a great way to quickly open presents.

Jacob with his prized toy that he'd been asking for for months.

Matthew, perfectly content to sit and play with all his new cars-I don't think he can ever get enough.

Shown-Jacob and Caleb with fun gifts from Grandma. Not shown- the 'games' they would come up with, including taking turns doing target practice as the other ran loops around the kitchen/living room.

The boys with an awesome, motorized car track. They spent a ton of time making new tracks and playing with cars.

Playing 'Don't Break the Ice'. This was a favorite of mine. Matthew especially loved using the hammer to knock out the ice pieces.

Tis the Season

For creating, crafting, and making that is! December is usually a pretty busy month; luckily some of it is because of fun things. I enjoy having an excuse to make treats, crafts, and other things for people that we care about, and just for fun. I love that the kids enjoy being my helpers with everything too! They were always eager to help with any project I was working on.

I did chocolate-covered caramel pretzel sticks for co-workers, bosses, teachers, crossing guards, neighbors, and home teaching/visiting teaching families. I made quite a few pans of these. The boys were more than happy to be the taste testers.

Tags for the packages

Some of the finished products. It was a good thing I gave most of them away, because the boys would have liked to finish most of them off themselves!

I made these temple tiles with stands for our parents as part of their Christmas gifts.

We had a young women's activity one night making graham cracker gingerbread houses. It was fun to spend the night with the girls and see the fun creations they made!

I had fun making a wreath for our front door.

We made these cute little craft treat holders for Caleb's preschool class and Jacob's kindergarten class. Every little package held a bag of m&m's for their classmates. Jacob and Caleb were great helpers with this one.

We decorated homemade gingerbread houses at a girl's night. I can only take credit for the easy part, my friend Teresa was the gingerbread-making queen, making about 20 of these houses.

Snow Day

On Saturday, December 19^th, we had a huge snowstorm. It started snowing early Saturday morning and continued throughout the day well into the early morning of the next day. We had one of the biggest snowstorms we’ve had in about 20 years. Philadelphia got about 23.5 inches in just one day, we didn’t get quite as much in our area of the city, about 14 inches. We didn’t have church the next day, and school was even cancelled on Monday due to the snow- typical for the east coast. I felt bad for many friends whose flights were cancelled for a few days.

On Monday, I got the boys all ready to go in their snow clothes and we went outside to play! They were all pretty excited to get out and enjoy the snow. Even Matthew was running around excitedly yelling, “snowball” and “snowman” over and over. We decided to build a snowman together & the boys were great little helpers. We finished it just in time to go back in and warm up with soup and hot chocolate for lunch. I love having a good snow day every now and then, and I loved having a white Christmas. Of course, it’s always interesting to see the weather here- the following Sunday it was 50 degrees and sunny, and the snow was gone because it rained for about 36 hours straight. The snow is fun, but I sure enjoy having clear roads to drive on!

My Little Guys

Jeff has had a busy couple of months. He’s had business trips, conferences to attend, and a few interviews for jobs. The last one he went on, we said goodbye Monday night and didn’t see him again until Saturday evening. Combined with a busy schedule, (he’s worked or been gone every Saturday since the beginning of November until Dec 20th) we’ve had a lot of time on our own. I’ve found it’s much better to stay busy and keep the days scheduled. Along with school, preschool, etc. it’s been fun to find different fun things to do together. We love visiting friends, going to the library, playing at the park, doing activities, building train tracks, reading stories, and anything else we can think of. I’m grateful for these sweet little boys. They sure keep life busy, but lots of fun. I feel so lucky to be their mom.

Painting ornaments for the tree

Making cool train tracks in the living room.

Playing in boxes and forts.