Reflecting on 2010

Wow...2010 sped right by. It's interesting to me that my two middle kids noticed how fast the year passed as well. We had a great year filled with fun times, growth, and many milestones. I certainly didn't do to well with the blogging, but hey maybe this year will be better right?!?

I've been contemplating whether or not to add some memories from 2010 by month or by family member and struggled with what would be best. So I decided to do a little of both. This post contains some family highlights.

Last year marked the beginning of the end...for Mom's return to school that is. So in March we decided to book a Cruise to have a family graduation celebration as something to look forward to...

In June, we went camping in Green River and spent some time hiking in Moab and even golfed as a family. We all had a great time!

July found us enjoying time with family and neighborhood friends at a great neighborhood bash. We are so lucky to be surrounded by such great people.

August marked the return to school for all.

September, Matt, Brianna, Braxton and I journeyed to Seattle and had a great time visiting a part of the country we never had before. It was nice to get away and have some new experiences together.

December was a busy month for us. We celebrated the "end" by going to dinner on what would have been graduation night for Mom. Yes you heard that right, I am done with school and have a BSN now. Yippee!!! Unfortunately, we learned that our celebration trip was cancelled because the cruise ship we were to travel on caught on fire back in October and is not expected to be repaired in time. Sigh...the bright side is that we were able to get our money back and now have airline tickets that have been switched to June for a Disneyland trip with Grams and Gramps Richards, Mike, and the Clawsons. We had a great time at our annual Larry/Terry Messick bunch family party on Christmas Eve and then enjoyed some great times on Christmas day together with a yummy breakfast of Crepes with nutella, whip cream, and strawberries (Brock's request) and orange rolls (Bri's request) and then had some great time with the Richards later on.

Most of all we are grateful for our Savior who is the reason we celebrate Christmas! It has been a great year of spiritual growth for our family and we are very humbled by the blessings in our lives. We hope to continue the journey well in 2011!

Top 10 of vacations

Best:

1.  Spending time with the family.

2. Relaxing.

3. Creating memories.

4. Beach time.

5. Reliving as the stories are shared afterwards and knowing they had a good time.

6. Braxton-Discover the sand and ocean for the first time, actually relaxing and holding still in the swimming pool.

7. Brianna-Excitement in her eyes as we found crabs, star fish, snails and more in tide pools.

8. Brock-Learning to use his snorkle and mask and enjoying the freedom.

9. Matt-Actually getting to finally tour the USS Midway with only one kid quarrel.

10.  Returning home to a clean house that still smells like new after almost 2 years!  And most importantly coming home to Braden (who had fun with Grams & Gramps)!

Worst:

1. Waiting over an hour for our rental minivan.

2. Discovering when we hit 90+ degree weather in Cedar that the AC in the rental was broken.

3. Having to spill tears to get a suburban from the rental location instead of cramming the kids into a smaller vehicle.  Plus side though, the AC worked and loved the room of the "burban."

4. Coming home to a weeks worth of laundry for 5 people.

5. Missing the beach already!

We were able to have a great time in So. Cal bonding and sharing time together.  

Ahhh...air conditioning!

The bros swimmin'

Checkin' out the tide pools.

One of the starfish we found in the tide pools.

Brock feeding the flamingoes 

Amazing street performer that looked like a statue and proceeded to scare Bri and I when he started moving.  Later Bri was so cute as she gave him a buck that he lost his composure and started laughing.

Bri enjoying our favorite beach, Coronado and finding 4 beautiful sand dollars and numerous shells with Dad.

One year flies by...

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY BRAXTON!

Wow!  I can't believe it's been a year since I held my sweet  caboose in my arms for the first time.  We spent Braxton's first birthday at the beach and then Sea World.  He loved the sand and the ocean. The fishies were a big hit too.  He kept screaming when we would leave one area for another, but then calmed down to enjoy the new fishies.

  

  Braxton Kelly

We love you little guy!

Thanks for bringing so much joy and happiness to our family!  We love your smile, your giggle, and even your squeal.  I love to watch you explore the world around you and see you discover new things.  Wish I could understand your little language.  Sometimes you get soo excited and babble a full on sentence and seem frustrated when we don't know what you've just told us or other times you just laugh at what you've shared.  Watching you toddle around is a blast.  People love your fun personality and envy your gorgeous hair.  We look forward to watching you grow-up.  Love-Mom & Dad.

    

Entering the land of Blogging

I decided to finally enter the world of blogging. If I can make time to read others blogs surely I can spend a few minutes on our own right?!? I've always struggled with journaling and feel that this will help...so the goal is once a month for now.



Our little family of 6, (wow it feels weird to actually type that) is growing far too quickly without a lot of documentation so here we go. It's hard to believe that it has been 6 months already since our cute little caboose joined our family. Sweet little Braxton has been so much fun. He sure has grown from this quiet little newborn into an infant with an opinion who is even now trying to help me type this post.




















This summer we went camping at Rockport Reservoir. As a family we love to geocache and did several on this trip. Bri was so proud to have
found the cache. Too bad our resident photographer, Dad couldn't be in the photo
too.