I meant to put a little look at the year in our Christmas cards this year but never got around to it so I'm going to post what I want to remember here:
Jan - Thatch (our border collie/australian shepherd) entered our lives thanks to Chris thinking that Murphy needed a friend so that she would stop pestering us.
Jan - May - I was pregnant, need I say more on that?
Jan - June - Chris worked at the hospital in St. George and I learned to hate 45 minute commutes as much as he did. And downloading the cost of the gas into Quicken. Ouch.
May 3 - I graduated with my Masters in Business Administration from Southern Utah University.
May 7 - Max was born. Please refer to that
post if you want any other details on that...
End of May - we bought our Honda minivan and got a car payment (yuck)
Beginning of June - we moved to St. George from Cedar City, UT. Chris ended his one-year "fellowship" with Intermountain Healthcare and began his new job as a Practice Manager for a group of general surgeons in town.
June 17 - We celebrated our second anniversary. And I thought, "I can't believe we already have a kid! What were we thinking????"
June - Murphy competed in her first flyball tournament - YaY!
End of June - sold my Honda Accord - just in time to not pay for car insurance and registration again
July - (maybe still going on) - Chris worked hard at his job and I worked hard at staying sane with a little baby and two dogs at home and 110 degrees outside. I also looked for a job every other day but never found anything that would work. I miss Seattle and the pay there. I miss my job as an analyst and working with excel. I miss the mental stimulation and Sudoku only does so much for that. But Chris needs to work late sometimes and we have no family and didn't know anyone that I could leave Max with. So it was just never worth it to have me go back to work. Plus Max is just so dang cute I have a hard time leaving him for any amount of time. I also thought about getting pregnant again numerous times but I think I was just trying to make myself less bored. I'm glad I never went through with that.
Sept - Visited NC and had a great time with family and miss them very much, especially now that I have kids.
Sept 20 - My generous father-in-law brought horses down. He even paid for the gas to bring them down and the hay to feed them!! We had waited until September so that we could pay for the gas to bring them down so that was a nice surprise. (I'm kind of careful how we spend our money - especially when we get a new job and I don't know how much we'll have every month.) We still love having the horses and being able to ride when we want.
Beginning of Oct - Max cuts his two bottom teeth - He would say Ow! Ow! Ow! if he could comment - which should tell you how it was for his parents :(
Oct - My sister came to visit from NC and we had a great, great time hanging out with them and were so glad they were able to stay with us despite allergies. Her kids are super cute and loved my dogs. Her little boy would mimic my voice when telling the dogs what to do. It's funny to listen to yourself through the eyes of a four-year-old.
Nov - We sold two of the four horses.
Nov - Went to Thanksgiving with the Gappmayers. Max started sleeping through the night earlier in the month but was not very good this trip. I did not look forward to going back up for Christmas three weeks later. We sold Chris's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero for a whopping $750 (yes!) and went down to one car. So far it's been fine. And cheaper :) We also brought
Pixie, who we affectionately called "the rat", home with us and started housetraining which made me glad my dogs are done with all that.
Dec - Max is absolutely adorable and sleeping GREAT. He even slept well when we went up north! It's amazing what sleep-deprivation does to one's life and the difference when you get that sleep (life) back. We spent Christmas and New Years at home together and wouldn't have it any other way. Max is starting to move around a little on his stomach, hold himself up higher, and doesn't mind "tummy-time" as much. I try to push him over if he starts to crawl. Chris sometimes asks if Max has had tummy-time in the day when he gets home and usually he hasn't. I'm not encouraging mobility in this kid. My house is NOT child-proof and if we're just going to buy in a few months, I'm not going to fix it now. Pixie found a home with a nice family with five kids. Good Riddance, I mean, Luck, to her. She got sweeter but we like dogs who weigh more than 6.5 lbs.
This year:
I'll probably try to get pregnant again - eventually.
Hopefully we'll buy a house.
Hopefully we can keep the horses down here.
Hopefully Chris's job will like him and keep him.
Hopefully we can buy a truck so we can bring our horse trailer down.
Hopefully we will still be as happy and healthy and safe at the end of the year as we are right now. (Chris had a dream we had a baby girl the same night I had a dream that I was a widow...)
Does Max start school this year?
Max snuggling after getting home from going out. He was really tired.
Her dismount:
This was a fun picture I got of her floor routine. I made some changes with my photo editing software. This is the original (cropped): 
With a blurred background:
With a black and white background:
With a "colored pen" background: 
With a "watercolor" background:
We love having Kaleb as an older cousin because his parents bought him such cute BYU gear. 
