2008 Favorite Things List

1. Ringing in the New Year at my cousin Jesse's New Years' Eve wedding in Michigan. It is a great memory... the snow was falling heavily outside and we were having a great time dancing inside. For me, it had been a long time since a really fun New Years' Eve. So fun!!! A few minutes before midnight they lowered a big screen and we rung in the New Year with Dick Clark. Driving home with my sister, Grandma, and Mom in the heavily falling snow (especially since I wasn't the one driving) is a really good memory.














2. SNOW!! SNOW!!! Snow!!! We had lots of snow in 2008, beginning with the best Michigan Snow in January and even snow in TEXAS in January AND in March! Snow brings out the fun in everyone! I love watching it fall, playing in it, and especially watching the boys play in it for hours!
3. Puppies!!! In November 2007, we adopted two puppy sisters. Just like raising kids (well kinda') it has been crazy fun training them. When we took two puppies instead of one home with us that day, we couldn't believe how crazy we must be, but now I recommend it to everyone. Besides the huge bag of dog food sitting in our house (Thank you Sam's club!), it has been easier having two dogs than one... they never cried in their kennel as they would just cuddle up next to each other. Also,they run and exercise each other in the backyard.

4.Facebook and Blogging! How fun to reconnect with so many friends! I am loving finding out about everyone's lives, knowing how to pray for them, and seeing pictures and updates from important moments in our friends and families' lives. It has truly blessed me!

5. Sports- With three boys and Dan as a girl's varsity basketball coach,we spend a lot of time playing and watching sports.



This year Dan coached for Sherman and now, Hooks. He also coached AAU baskeball in the Spring and Summer. His club is called Texas Thunder Basketball.
Also, Bryce played modified coaches' pitch baseball, Upward basketball (Dan coached), and Pee Wee football for the Hooks' Hornets. Dan coached Jayden's first organized sport, 4 year old T-Ball! Rylan and I were practice buddies and were along for all of it! We also have our exchange student, Marianna, who is playing Varsity basketball on Dan's team, so we are going to all of her home games as well. Dan is still a Yankees and Redskins fan, but at least he likes the Mavs. We also have two new football teams to follow with our new jobs, the Hooks Hornets and The Texas High Tigers.
6. Birthdays!!! I have always loved to celebrate my own birthday, friends' birthdays, and now my husband and children's birthdays. Birthdays are a big deal.. they are your day, and they are a day for the people who love you to let you know that that they are glad you were born on that day!
Grandma came to visit us in August, so it was really fun to get to take her out to eat on her birthday! Rylan had a Nemo birthday party this year. Dan always does a great job making me feel special on my birthday!

Jayden was very excited to turn 5.. just in time to start Kindergarten (for the first time?)
I teased Dan that is he almost 40, with the rounding rules (5 or more raise the score!)

Bryce turned 8 in '08, clearly enjoying every minute of it!

7. Cade Paul Reagan! One of the best gifts of 2008 - a very special gift from God given to our friends, Jill and Brian Reagan. Jill and Brian had been praying for a baby for many years, and one day their prayer was answered. Cade entered their lives, all of our lives, on April 22,2008 Thank you, Jill and Brian, for sharing Cade with us. We love him!!!

8. Friends!!! Never having lived close to any relatives since high school, God has blessed us with many special friends through the years.
Thanks to Jill, Brian, and Christine and others who threw us really fun going-away parties when we moved in July.
Also, thanks to friends who invite us to come into town and stay with them, and change plans for last-minute (that's how I roll!) visits with us when we come into town.

Also, I miss so many of you and the friendships we had developed over the years... those of you from work-the familiarity that comes with working with some of you, for five or even ten years plus.

And, I miss my walks through Stonebridge with Jill and Kim (as scary as they were sometimes), and even though life got so busy and we hardly saw you, we miss those of you we saw periodically at kid birthday parties and for me, the occasional girls night out or Dining Divas supper club.Thank goodness for facebook and blogging as a really good way to keep in touch.


9. Family pictures... mostly candid, sometimes posed, we (okay, mostly me!) love to catch that special moment on film (and, they're all special moments, right?) Here are a few favorite pics from 2008.

Rylan and Dan sharing a happy moment on Valentines' Day this year.

A couple pics from Easter

Bryce building a snowman in my grandmother's backyard.

My cousin, Jesse, and her new husband, Ryan, with my grandmother laughing in the foreground.

My sister, Angie, at her college graduation in April. Isn't she beautiful?
Jayden at his first baseball game!

Mothers' Day 2008... the boys thought it was hilarious to drive me to church in this van! Made my day!
Happy Faces on Fathers' Day... the boys adore their father!!!

This is the real emotion of a little boy waiting for his turn on the Slip n Slide!
It doesn't get much better than this.. eating a s'more at the end of a busy day of camping!

Dan at the zoo carrying Rylan and Jayden to find the next animal!

10. Family vacations... mostly short weekend trips done on a budget, but the memories are what is important, and with three boys and two dogs, the memories are plentiful!