My Favorite Pictures of 2008

Okay, so those of you who take the time to stop by and check out what we have been doing in our little corner of the world know that I love to take pictures. I decided that it would be a good chance for me to look back through my plethora of pictures for the ones that captured the year. Keep in mind, I have LOTS of pictures to go through so this actually has been a little painful because I have many favorites. These favorites are from before I began this blog.

This picture was not taken by me (but my friend, Jenn) from the top of my school building. This is every student and staff member from our school. The colors represent the six pillars of character: Trustworthiness - blue, Respect - yellow, Responsibility - green, Fairness - orange, Caring - red, and Citizenship - purple. I am working with a group of amazing people to improve the character of our community. It is something I believe strongly in and I am going to work this year to improve my character as well. You should join me!
In early March our school's "Miracles for Mikayla" campaign for Riley Children's Hospital was on. Our students brought in many items to be donated to the hospital to help brighten the lives of the children there. I am happy to report that we needed to take down two vans that were pretty full of donations. Belinda, Tracey, Sasha, Mikayla, Grace, and Mallory traveled down to help with the items. This picture has been precious to me (it is posted on Mallory's door). It shows how far Mikayla has come since being diagnosed with a brain tumor. In this picture I see Mallory being a friend to her very tired friend, Mikayla.

My money winning shot! I LOVE this picture so much and am happy to report that many people from the area will be looking at it for the month of August in the yearly calendar. Isn't that exciting???

Ahhh...you have to love it when Ryan gets behind me to make Mallory and Miles truly show their happy faces:). I still cannot believe that Miles kept the bunny ears on long enough for me to snap this shot!

Early in the year Mallory's artwork was chosen to be displayed at the FAME Festival. It was such a high honor. She was thrilled to go see her artwork and I have to admit that I had butterflies in my stomach that morning due to my excitement for her. We ended up having a fun day there and will more than likely go again this year.

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of Mallory. She looks all grown up. This hand, and other creative concrete structures, were outside of this wonderful restaurant I wanted to go to. This lady had been challenged by Bobby Flay of the Food Network and so I ended up ordering her "bourbon ball french toast". It sure was yummy!!!

The love between a brother and sister is...well...like oil and water mixing some times! They do love each other and this picture shows one of the high times.

In June we traveled down to Louisville for a weekend of fun. We went to the Louisville Slugger Museum and then traveled south to see Thomas. We surprised Miles with it and boy was he ever surprised. I don't think I will ever forget his asking us when we were going back to our pretend house (the hotel). Not one of us had mentioned anything like that to him. Our day out with Thomas was a lot of fun.

No prompting for this face...just a little boy trying to make a statement I guess.

For the second time in her young life Mallory sold lemonade at the stand Ryan made for her two years ago. He built this super nice stand to teach her the power that giving and donating feels. The first go round she donated her money to the city fireworks and ended up being honored by the mayor of our little town. This go round the money was donated to an animal park nearby.

Doesn't this picture make you crack up? When I snapped this I laughed so hard. Since the pool is all of...what...12 inches deep? Mallory and Miles had a lot of fun playing in their "dragon pool" (as Miles referred to is as).

Miles thinks he is this strong! Oh to be young again!

On Grandpa's birthday we were all able to get together to celebrate. If only Miles would have been looking at the camera this would be the perfect shot. See what you have started Uncle Paul?

This is such a sweet moment between my sister and Payton. It was so much fun to be around both of them. My sister is a very good mom and will soon be welcoming a sweet little girl to her house. We are very excited here!

This is the best picture that I have of Mallory, Miles, and Payton. Unfortunately Miles is feeding his face, but they are all looking at the camera and that is great. Priceless!!!

Me...me...me...I am actually in a picture! Wow...that does not happen very often. That is probably why I treasure this picture so much. This was at the zoo on a day when Mallory, Miles, and I went with my mom. We had a lot of fun (we usually do when we go to the zoo).

Family pictures with my family = lots of fun!

Mallory and Miles became quite the water bugs this summer. Mallory would always do cannonballs (she would yell before jumping off of he pier) and Miles caught on by yelling, "Meatball!" No one ever corrected him because it made us all laugh.

This picture sums up the fun that Mallory and Miles have when their cousins, Liam and Emmett come down from Chicago. They get a little crazy!

I believe this is the one and only snowman Mallory and Miles were able to make this past year. They scattered the carrots around the base of the snowman so the animals would be able to eat them.

What more do I need to say? Hannah Montana rules! Rebekah (my niece), Mallory, and I made sure we got together to see it. I enjoyed myself and think they did too.

The school's fall carnival was a lot of work but the work did pay off. To those of us who were putting this together for the first time ever it was new to us but we made it through and now have notes on how to improve things next year. This picture of Mallory and Ryan is special because Ryan generally does not like to get his picture taken.

For those of you who know Miles you know that boy is beyond determined. Because Miles wanted to sit backwards on the log ride at the zoo, the rest of them

Fun at the zoo running through the misters on a warm day.

Laughter is always the best medicine. Thanks to Jared (you cannot see him) wearing a bow on his head this cute shot was possible.

Miles' third birthday with his Thomas cake. This boy is seriously obsessed with trains!!

Mallory's first day of first grade with her teacher. She LOVES her teacher!

This past summer Gail and I tried to get together once a week to have a playdate with our children. We went blueberry picking, to a really cool park near us, to their house to play, to the lake to swim, and I am sure I am missing something. I love this picture because I cannot think of the last time we had our picture taken together. It would probably be my wedding and that was over ten years ago! This picture is special and will stay on my fridge for quite some time.

Ryan's birthday was special. My mom baked this cake and it helped us to celebrate a little more. Mallory and Miles love to get right in there (you have already seen that in other pictures).

Mallory, Miles, and I went with Jenny and Macy to see the Wiggles. They put on a great show and we all enjoyed it (I think that Jenny and I did almost more than our children). Mallory really had fun because she knew all of the dance moves and songs since she really grew up watching the Wiggles on Playhouse Disney.

What's a year without watching Mallory and Miles helping to blow out someone's birthday candles? They sure do love to do this and Grandma is always a good sport to let them help her.

Family pictures...family pictures...why oh why do Ryan and Paul always seem to sit down next to each other? The camera is always on a tripod when we do this and there are always many pictures that need to be taken so that we get a "normal" one taken. I have to admit seeing what Paul and Ryan come up with is quite something else:).

Mom with her three favorite grandchildren (until one more is added in May). I have this feeling these three will grow up being great partners in crime:).

Mallory with many holes in her teeth. Believe it or not, one more came out after I took this picture. I must admit that I was sad that she did not get to say, "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth". Oh well!

Our Birthday Girl Turns Seven

On Monday Mallory turned seven. She was thrilled from the time I brought her breakfast to her (a ham and cheese omelet) with a candle and sang "Happy Birthday" to her all the way throughout the day until her official birthday party. She told me more than once that she was still six until her birthday party. I thought that was cute.

During the day we were surprised by a phone call from a local floral shop. Mallory had received seven roses and a Webkin on the 22nd from her Grandma and Grandpa (they were going to be in Arizona visiting my sister and her family for Mallory's birthday). When the delivery was made, it was another seven roses (this time on her birthday) because the floral shop had sent them on the wrong day. She was thrilled with the roses. I must say they are beautiful! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the beautiful centerpiece (they smell wonderful too).

We were not planning to have Mallory's birthday party until this Saturday for all family members but when we learned that Mallory's cousins (and aunt and uncle) would be here from Michigan on her birthday we decided to split the parties up. We sometimes do that.

No matter what we do Ryan and I work very hard to separate Christmas from her birthday. There will come a day when she will complain about her birthday being four days after Christmas. I have a story ready for when she does:). She is our miracle. As many of you know, there was a lot that happened before her. I am thankful because we never would have known her. Like I said, she is our miracle:).

Back to her birthday party...she told me when she was waiting for her guests to arrive that she was most excited about her family coming over (not the presents and cake). She sure is growing up before my eyes!

Everything was Tinkerbell...the cake, plates, cups, napkins, and even the balloon colors matched Tinkerbell (Mallory's idea). During her party we even had the Tinkerbell movie playing (very cute if you have not already seen it).

As Mallory opened her gifts she thanked who they came from. She was thrilled when she received a savings bond from her Auntie Amber, Uncle Dougie, and Payton earlier in the day. She said, "Look Mommy...money for college!" She even said that when her Aunt Bev stopped by earlier in the day. I think that Aunt Bev was surprised when Mallory waved the money inside her card and said, "Thanks Aunt Bev! Money for college!" What seven year old has reactions like that? We now have the important task of taking her money to the bank to put into her savings account. I find it so interesting that she has never asked if she can spend some of her birthday money for a toy or something like that. She is amazing!
We all had a good time celebrating Mallory's seventh birthday together.

Christmas Take Three

On the afternoon of Christmas we headed for Ryan's parent's house. It is nice to get together with his family. Mallory and Miles always look forward to seeing their cousins and we enjoy visiting with one another.

This year we celebrated with Ryan's brother and family, and Aunt Bev and Uncle Dave (of course along with Ryan's parents). Mallory, Miles, Rebekah, and Ryan were very patient and really did not ask much when we were going to open presents.

When it was time to open presents we all worked together to hand all of the presents out and then had the little people open their presents one at a time. It was a teaching time for me to make sure that Mallory and Miles said thank you for their gifts. They were really good about that.

Mallory was very excited when she opened her first present. It was an American Girl "Just Like Me" doll. I was unaware that she would like one of these dolls until recently when her grandma told me. One of the outfits she opened later was a soccer outfit. Mallory, our little soccer girl, was very excited about this as well.

Miles continued to open his presents one rip at a time. Imagine...tear, rip, throw, tear, rip, throw, tear, rip, throw, no matter how small or big the rip is. He is something else!

For the remainder of the afternoon we enjoyed snacking (a little too much), visiting, and playing. Mallory and my niece, Rebekah, played dolls with Mallory's new addition. They spent quite some time in the back room changing their doll's clothing. At one point my sister-in-law heard Mallory say, "They even have real underwear on!" We laughed about that, of course!

Wherever you were I hope that you enjoyed the spirit of the season with family and friends.

Christmas Morning At Our House

Christmas morning was so much fun at our house. Ryan was up at 6:00. He was showered, had made a pot of coffee, and also our special cinnamon twists. I heard him rustle around 7ish and he plopped down in bed.

We sat there for the longest time waiting for Mallory to wake up (last year she woke up super early) and heard nothing.

Finally we heard her moving around and then the noise of her climbing down the stairs. She ran down the hallway and we heard...nothing. Finally she peeked her head into our bedroom then back in the hallway and then peeked into our bedroom again. By then Ryan and I were silently giggling to ourselves. We were surprised to hear her climbing back into bed! We wanted to know what she was thinking at that point.

About five to ten minutes passed before we heard her climbing down her stairs again and rush down the hallway. This time we heard a, "Yes!" She peered into our bedroom a few more times without waking us up. We could not believe it when she climbed into her bed again!

Another five minutes passed and during that time we heard her feet pounding her mattress (her feeble attempt to wake her brother up who is in the bunk below her). Ryan and I were giggling as we waited to see what her next move would be. I wanted to put her out of her misery...but didn't.

Finally Ryan went into her bedroom and asked what that loud noise was. That was all it took for Mallory to say, "Santa's been here!"

Once Miles woke up he bounded down the hallway and gasped as he looked underneath the Christmas tree. It was so cute seeing both of them in awe. What a sweet moment!

Then they began looking through their stockings. They were super excited with the gummies, suckers, and special items that were in there. Miles really liked his new James engine and Mallory really was happy when she opened the Tinkerbell movie she has wanted for quite some time.

There were two things under the tree that were not wrapped. One was a teddy bear for Mallory (with the plump belly she had requested) and the other was Miles' new pet...Spike the dinosaur. Mallory hugged her teddy bear tight from the moment she realized he was hers and Miles was a little hesitant about Spike. He warmed up quickly and ended up terrorizing all of us once he became used to the controller...and Spike.

I was surprised with Mallory. At one point she opened the ABC scrapbook I had been working since this summer for her (Shutterfly is a great place to do things like this). She opened it and smiled as she took the time to look through each and every page. I was excited to see her appreciation for something I work this hard on. She sure is growing up!

After the fun of opening the presents it was Ryan and my turn to take over. For those of you who have children you will share my frustration in saying that many of the toys that were opened require an adult to take them out of the box. I am always amazed with how much plastic, twist ties, and tape that many of the toys (especially Mallory's) have. Phew! Getting through all of that was an accomplishment.

From there our house was full of exploring with the new toys and things that were opened. We had breakfast and relaxed and enjoyed everything. You will see from these remaining photos the fun that we had. It was a Christmas to remember.

I hope you enjoy all of the pictures I have posted and that you have had a very Merry Christmas!