Thursday, January 1, 2009

Our Year in Review

**Warning this is a long one...

January Ryan, a 4-wheeler, and a hill that was practically straight up in St. George was NOT a good combination!


We got a NEW dishwasher!


FebruaryRyan hit the BIG 12 and had a sledding Birthday Party.

March Ryan was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood, became a deacon, and got his first suit!


Our family attempted to fly to Hawaii, but got stuck in Las Vegas where we spent our Spring Break. We lovingly refer to it as our "UN-Hawaii vacation."


pictured: Katelyn, Haylee, Kyle & Ryan


AprilOn "Come to Kindergarten Day," Haylee performed in a Opera her class wrote.


Haylee turned 6 and has a "dress-up" birthday party. (as a sidenote, I had spaced off a Leadership Luncheon I was supposed to be at w/ Ryan and in my rush to get there, I crashed into a car in the restuarant parking lot - all just hours before this party - can you say, "frazzled" at this party?)

Our family won a combined $460 at the Annual Credit Union Meeting! Haylee won $300, Katelyn won $100 alone. (Thanks to all Ryan's "good luck" trinkets he wore around his neck and wrists!) The girls LOVED their freedom with money this year - can you say, "Ball park Concessions stand?"
pictured: Kyle, Ryan, Haylee, Katelyn


Ryan got to play in the 6th Grade vs. School Staff Annual Basketball game. Matt was asked to ref. (He swears he called it totally fair!) The 6th graders came back to WIN in the last minute (Ryan had the game tying shot). Of course, it didn't go without "incident," though. Ryan got pummeled to the ground (the crack of his head heard around the school cafeteria) and pinned under Mr. Murphy - they brought in the ice pack for his head, but he refused to miss out on the rest of the game & played w/ a "head injury!" (see him pictured in center back row)


May

Matt, Haylee & Katelyn went to Hawaii for 8 days. (Only getting stuck in Phoenix the first night and in Hawaii a few days on the tail end - real tough, huh?)...

pictured: Katelyn, Matt, & Haylee

...While Suzanne stayed home painting and painting and painting(and still didn't finish) two basement bedrooms we'd been building all year for Ryan & Kyle to move into before the baby was due.

Ryan had a lead part in his School Play, "School House Rock" and played the part of Tom, a new teacher. (and memorized a ton of lines.)
Brookelle May Brenchley was born!
May 28, 2008
2:14 p.m.
7 lbs. 11 ozs.
21 inches
A Complete Joy & a Blessing!!!



ONLY Matt & I had known WHAT we were having, so that was the BIG BUZZ going around after we had Brookelle - everyone talking about "It's a Girl!" AND the 2nd topic was the fact that she was SOOO little, a great "abnormality" for our family (2 1/2 pounds LESS than the other kids!)


Ryan graduates from 6th Grade/Elementary School (while I was in the hospital - Thus Ryan is wearing a baseball T-shirt and his classmates are dressed up!)
June

Matt in the "Birthday Chair" on his 37th Birthday.

Kyle plays on the Mariners with an awesome coach, Rocky Dustin. They finished the season #1.

Ryan plays for the Angels. He's also on a "winning team" and finishes as the #1 seed going into Post-season play.
**Baseball is what got me out of the house! In June, we were at the Ball Park 3-4 + times/week! I loved it!

Matt went on a work trip to the Oregon Coast (alone this time due to me having a 3 week old baby - he isn't too fond of traveling without me, he's decided!)

JULY Kyle made the All-Star team, which occupied our July! (Still LOVED it!) They took home the [huge] Second Place trophy in their first tournament.



Kyle's All-Star team was in the Farmington Festival Days Parade. (with Coach Steve Young - No, not THAT one, the Farmington one, who happens to be a BIG UTES fan!)
Matt & I (and Miss "B") went on a C.U. management retreat to The Canyons - without our camera.

AUGUST

pictured: Kyle & Brookelle
The Fowers Family Summer Outing - at Doug & Emmys...

... and at Cherry Hill.
Brookelle's Baby Blessing
August 3, 2008
Davis Creek 3rd Ward

Our August OBSESSION - Thanks, Michael Phelps - Need I say more?

We got a new fridge!



1st Day of School - 7th grade/Jr. High (Ryan), 4th grade (Kyle), and 1st grade (Haylee)

Ryan & Kyle went on a "Big Kid" camping trip with Uncle Trey & Aunt Michelle where he was introduced to Dutch Oven cooking....
SEPTEMBER


Ryan enters the Annual Ward Dutch Oven Cook Off -- and WINS 1st Place!!! (and I benefit from the cookbook & measuring cups that were included in the prize package!)
Matt & I celebrate our 14th Wedding Anniversary.

Suzanne turns 38!

Matt & I go to Las Vegas (with Brookelle) and stay at the Mandalay Bay in connection with a Credit Union conference (i.e. All-Expense paid trip.)

Haylee starts soccer - and Matt was just "tickled" - it about brought him to tears each game. (Notice I didn't document, "Haylee PLAYS soccer," it was more like run and watch your shadow moving along on the grass!)


OCTOBER

UEA in St. George.
pictured: back L to R, Kyle, Haylee, Katelyn, Daniel, Maddie
front: Ryan, Ben, Megan

Kyle has his 9th Birthday and our family goes to the South Davis Rec Center (for our first time) to celebrate.

pictured: Suzanne, Katelyn, Haylee, & Kyle

Kyle receives his Wolf Award in Cub Scouts.
Halloween 2008

pictured: Katelyn, Haylee, & Brookelle

(The boys were out partying on their own & they missed the Photo Op.)

NOVEMBER Katelyn has a "Princess Party" for her 4th Birthday.
Ryan attends the U of U vs. TCU [blackout] football game and rushes the football field afterwards, lays down, and does "snow angels" in his ecstacy. (It put the Utes 10-0 and TCU was favored.)

I had a "Sister's Weekend" with Michelle & Beeb (Matt & the kids all slept at Grandma's.) We were missing Dianne, Kristen, & Mom this time.

Thanksgiving 2008 at the Brenchley's.
DECEMBER

Matt chaperones Haylee's 1st Grade Field Trip to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.
Brookelle plays "Baby Jesus" in our ward's Live Nativity...
...and Ryan plays a "young shepherd" and Katelyn plays a "young angel."

We got another new [replacement] fridge.



pictured: back L to R: Ryan (Wise Man), Anna, Katelyn (Angel) front: Alyssa, Devan, Haylee (Mary's cousin), McKell, Carter, Kyle (Shepherd), Tayler, Cameron
Christmas 2008


And finally, OUR FAMILY at year end...



Thanks for the Memories, 2008!

11 comments:

Kristen said...

I hope your 2009 is equally as positive (minus the stitches and head injuries) and that you and Matt can make it to Hawaii together. If you need luggage handlers, my husband and I are excellent and would be happy to help you out in a tropical paradise! :D

Are you heading to St. George again over MLK Day?We'll be down there again this year.

Dan said...

For being so busy, you made an awesome year in review. I am impressed! It was fun seeing all that went on.

Michelle D. said...

Wow, what a post! It was fun seeing the year in review :)

Ry Guy said...

My favorite one is the second one under November!


GO UTES!!!

Anonymous said...

nice review. I don't think I could remember that far!

val said...

What a fun run-down on your year.. always fun to see what is going on! Hey, I was baby Jesus too when I was an infant in the ward Nativity!!! Next time you're in St. George, we'll have to come say hi. Your Dad came to visit on New Years Eve and beat all the boys in basketball.. fun times!

Mandy said...

Wow! You were busy this past year!! I am very impressed at all you did, and your good memory came in very handy for posting this. I can't remember much of anything we did!
I didn't know you got another new fridge. What happened to the other new one?

Suzanne said...

I know, Jill...this took FOREVER - why do all these weird spaces/gaps come up when I don't hit the return key? - and then if you mess with anything in "edit HTML" it screws it all up more! Remind me never to do this one again!

Mandy - the first fridge had a knick in the door that they were going to replace - one problem after another, then 4 months later...they still couldn't get one made since it was discontinued, so they gave us the option to take $300 & keep the "damaged" one OR pick out a completely new one of our choice, so we did that (I decided I needed one with more condiment space!) and it was a couple of thousand dollars more in value than our original!! :)

Siri said...

What a cute idea. If I had enough energy right now, I'd do it too! Thanks for sharing. Happy New Year!!

k8shoe said...

Good job! This a an awesome post! I wish I could remember what happened this past year but I can barely remember what happened last month. Also, Rocky Dustin was our old bishop. Wahoo Rocky!

Suzanne said...

A lot of you were saying you couldn't remember the year to do it yourself...but that's what's so great about Digital photos & the computer! My computer arranged all my photos in order for me by date, according to year, so I could just look at all these thumbnails & REMEMBER! Plus, you just hold your mouse/curser over the little picture and the date it was taken comes up in a box! I don't need my brain anymore! Good thing, since it' already going, going, gone!