Looking Back at 2008

I can't believe that this is the last day of 2008... Cliche or no cliche, I'm completely amazed at how fast this year has gone by. It's made even harder to believe when I look back at all the things that happened this year... Fortunately, everything we do gets documented here so it doesn't get forgotten... Let's review, shall we?

We rang in 2008 at Disneyland, acting like children... Kinda ironic that a year later, we're taking care of a new child of our own!

In late January, we had some snow! After the last two weeks, it's hard to believe that we were so excited to have that little dusting...

February was an exciting month around here. Not only did we get opening night tickets to the big Hannah Montana concert movie, but earlier that same day, Cindy fell and broke her ankle... Overcome with a sense of commitment to the kids, she decided that the show must go on, and hobbled her way into the theater. We wouldn't actually find out until a few days later, that her ankle was, in fact, broken... Oh, and the movie that was supposed to be out for one weekend only, was promptly expanded to a general release. Way to reward the TRUE fans, Disney...

Also in February, we learned a great new game - Speed Scrabble! If you like Scrabble, check it out... We haven't gone back to regular Scrabble since!

On February 21, Tyler reached the milestone of his first Double Digit Birthday, and we celebrated at the Space Needle.

In March, Andy created a new weekly comic strip called "Rodney & Jim" and it started running weekly here. The first couple months of the strip suffered some growing pains, but by the end of the school year, it started to really hit its stride! Click here to look back over his creations!

April saw Tyler playing as a Hun in his school's production of Mulan the musical, and Ellysa learned how much fun it can be to combine swimming and basketball! We also took a Spring Break getaway to the grand opening of the Great Wolf Lodge Waterpark. I can't wait to go back there... Shortly after returning to work, I got to have the fun of bringing some work home with me. And when you work for a construction company, you can bring some COOL STUFF home from work!!

As April wound down, I started writing a weekly column about music - my experiences working in the music business, some of my favorite albums, and more... I kept it up for 16 columns, but ultimately I didn't have the time to keep up that pace. I hope to start it back up again sometime, because I really enjoyed it! To read through the archives, just click here!

The end of May saw some of the warmest weather of the year, and I DJ'd the first ever Fircrest Pool Party, which was a complete blast, and inspired us to re-launch the DJ Business! And as one business had a new beginning, we are (or at least, I still am) mourning the loss of Mad Jack's Ice Cream...

In June, we decided to help out our niece from Arizona, by letting her move in with us. It ultimately didn't work out, but in hindsight, it was a great practice for adopting our new beautiful baby girl!

June was also the highlight of the Music Monday column, when we had the big debut of the song Kaylee and I wrote and produced, "Breathe"!




With school out, summer approaching, and our niece Chelsey due to join us soon, we decided it was time to get a bigger vehicle. The decision was quickly made, and we love our new van! (even if we're not crazy about the payment...)



July kicked off with an explosive 4th of July weekend at my uncle Richard's lake cabins... And then a 5th of July Karaoke-fest at our house!



In September, Kaylee made it so that all four of our kids (which was all of them at the time!) are now wearing braces. Our orthodontist is living comfortably off our family, no doubt... And, at the height of Twilight Fever, Cindy and the girls went to Forks for the first annual Stephenie Meyer Day!



October is Soccer month for Kaylee, and this year we got some great action shots! And sticking with photography in October, we got awesome new family pictures taken!



From November through the end of the year, the big news has been our adorable, tiny, adopted baby Danee! We've had way too many posts to even pick a highlight to link here, so if you, by some small chance haven't heard this news, just scroll back through the past two months. She turns one month old tomorrow, and is surpassing all expectations - even all hopes and dreams! She is, quite simply, our miracle baby!



Happy new year to all of you! We can't wait to see what kind of fun and exciting things 2009 has in store for us!