The Year 2010

It doesn't seem that long ago that I did this! But alas, another year is done, and I find myself wanting to put it into a neat little summary, to keep things straight!

January 2010:
Hunter turned ONE and got his first haircut. Joe ran his first marathon: The Disney Marathon in Orlando!

February 2010:
Sawyer turned FOUR, and I turned 27 (only two more years until I stop aging! I throroughly intend to stop at 29). It SNOWED in Atlanta on Sawyer's birthday- the first time ATL had that much snow stick in anywhere from 6-20 years, depending on who you asked around town.

March 2010:
Sawyer did T-ball and had a great time. It snowed in Atlanta- AGAIN!

April 2010:
I sprained my ankle at the park with the boys (for the 3rd time). Our car broke down while Joe was driving alone. I chopped my hair the shortest it's ever been (but am now growing it out).

May 2010:
We took the kiddos to DISNEY WORLD for their first time, with the Smiths whom we love. The trip was fantastic!! Then MOM went to San Diego for her getaway girl trip, which was also spectacular!

June 2010:
Sawyer got his first two-wheel bike, we visited the Atlanta Botanical Garden, and me and Joe went to see CONAN O'BRIEN at the Fox Theatre, who is our favorite!

July 2010:
We had a great 4th of July, going to the Marietta parade, and the downtown Atlanta fireworks! We spent lots of time at the pool, and Lake Allatoona for swimming. Hunter had his first trip to the emergency room, because of horrible asthmatic type breathing within an illness (late on a Saturday night- of course).

August 2010:
BOTH of our famillies came to visit us in Atlanta! My parents and baby brother came first, then the next weekend Joe's parents and baby brother came! It was awesome to show them around!
Joe's grandpa Kindt passed away, and we all flew to Milwaukee for the funeral.

September 2010:
We had the most fabulous family vacation ever on Amelia Island, Florida! I finished making my cloth quiet book from scratch (simple-creativity.blogspot.com), and earned my Young Woman Medallion at church (10 years later than I should've)!

October 2010:
Sawyer finished his awesome soccer season, which he LOVED! We got rid of the Subaru & bought our Pilot. We went on an awesome camping trip with our best friends the Schlossers! For Halloween we were a family of pirates. And, we found out we were moving HERE- to NEVADA...

November 2010:
We moved here- to Nevada. We went on a road trip to Vegas for Thanksgiving to see my brothers & sister in law!

December 2010:
Sawyer went ice skating for his first time, we did lots of cute Christmas activities, and had a fun Christmas on our own for the first time (not travelling anywhere or with other family). :) We went to San Francisco/Oakland for Joe's cousin Spencer's wedding.


We've been very blessed this year, to continue to have health and a JOB in this economy! Here's hoping that 2011 will move us for the last time for awhile (I'm tired!). :)

Morning!

This was our first Christmas without visiting parents/grandparents, so I was a little worried of how it would go, and if it'd really 'feel' like Christmas. It turned out great, though, I think mainly because our kids are old enough to be excited and aware. Sawyer left out cookies for Santa (which he ate, proving he came to our house!), we had German stollen for breakfast (just like Joe's mom always made), and we were able to take lots of breaks to enjoy each moment.

I know watching others open random gifts isn't exiting, so this is mainly for grandmas' benefit, since most of the gifts came from them. :)

Eve

Christmas Eve was fantastic. We went for a hike in the morning, and couldn't have had better weather. Beautiful sunshine, moderate temps, and just a little snow as we climbed in elevation a bit.

In the evening we went to Crystelle & Tyler's home (our new friends in the neighborhood). Crystelle is French, so she made us some amazing creme brulee! Sawyer finished his before anyone (and started after others had)! We had a fantastic dinner, watched a Christmas movie together, opened jammies, and overall just had a great time hanging out and getting to know them. Thanks you guys!

Our Traditional Houses!

This has become one of our traditions that'll stick: making mini graham houses for each individual person to decorate, instead of constructing a massive gingerbread house. Everyone has so much fun every year! Can you guess who's is who's?

Top to bottom, left to right: Hunter, Sawyer, Carrie, Joe. Was it that hard to guess? :)

We had over our friend Alison from Joe's office. She's doing a GE rotation here just like we are- except she's single (BORING in this town!), so we're excited to have her hang out with us!

Hunter learned the word "DOTS" the first time he heard it & saw it associated with that big box of candy. It was a miracle (Hunter doesn't talk very much yet)! :)

All five together in their Christmas village on top of the kitchen counter:

Merry Christmas!

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Winter Fun!

Last Monday Joe took Sawyer ice skating for the first time. While it was difficult and they didn't offer the little kid-walker-things like I'd seen other places, Sawyer still had a great attitude, was determined to do it on his own after some practice, and really had a great time! Notice the beautiful Cactus Jack's casino in the background instead of Christmas lights? Ahhhh.... Nevada.

We had a big snow day on Friday, around 4-6 inches by early afternoon. I got a good workout shoveling the driveway, and Sawyer was determined to try the shovel, too (and cleared a nice line up our walkway).

The boys had a bunch of fun playing out back in our little fenced yard. Hunter even took his boot and sock off of one foot. Luckily Sawyer told me right away. I was inside assembling our mini-gingerbread (graham) houses to decorate that night. I ran out barefoot in the snow to get him. Is that irony? Not sure...

A couple weeks ago when Joe was out of town, the town did their little Christmas tree & gazebo lighting. The high school band was playing Christmas music in the street in black tie, and it was actually pretty cute. The next day there was a parade down the main road full of lit up floats made by different schools/churches/businesses, with Santa at the end.

This is my favorite picture I've taken here so far. The colors were just spectacular that night. This is out our front windows.

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum...

wie treu sind deine blatter!

(in German. Gotta keep the family heritage going a bit).

It's been 4 years since we've had a big tree, so this was a lot of fun- and smells AMAZING!

We set it up on Tuesday night, then last night (Wednesday) we decorated it. We had the missionaries over for dinner, and they brought along a new church member & her friend; so we all did it together. It was a lot of fun!

A Taste!

Here's a little taste of where we live now. It's very... unique!

This one's the most entertaining (read the marquee):

Not sure if I can get used to the casinos everywhere, but it sure is interesting while we're here!

The New Place!

Well, I thought I'd share our new place with you guys. These are the original pictures I snapped while touring it, not since we moved in. It's less work than taking new pictures... :) So far we're loving having space for the boys to run & play & spread out their toys! The master suite with garden tub has spoiled us already, as well as the three car garage: room for the car AND the boys to ride their bikes during cold weather! :)

One of the best parts is the view out all our front windows:

The Sierra Nevada Mountains. Lake Tahoe is right on the other side of those, about a 30 minute drive.

Last Days in ATL

Playing catch-up: here were our last days in beautiful Atlanta:

Dinner with the Smiths on our last night at The Iberian Pig in Decatur (you guys are awesome & we miss you already- a lot):

Our goodbye party at the Haymore's: Me with two of my favorite ladies, Jennifer & Britt:

Sawyer and Hunter in their room one more time, before the mover's started:




Packing up the living room:


Eating pizza in the empty apartment at dinner time:

Goodbye, Wildwod Ridge Apartments! You were my favorite place to live, ever. Lots of tears leaving this place:

We're Here!

Check out the new place:

Check out the pretty sunrays & the casino (and endless RVs)...

This was our empty flight from Phoenix to Reno. I guess no one comes here.

The flight leaving Atlanta:

Yesterday was a completely insane, frazzled day, but things are going to be ok. It was a huge culture shock (good thing we didn't go to China or something): everything has slot machines, there are Casinos everywhere (even multiple in our tiny town), and even the commercials for supermarkets are all about slots/gambling perks. There are lots of cowboys driving trucks. Lots of RVs. Lots of cows and horses. Thank goodness we found a hotel with a color TV & internet access! :)

ARRRRRGH! (Happy Halloween!)

We were a family of pirates this year, and had a lot of fun with it! Sawyer & Hunter loved having matching costumes! Tip: this is also an extremely CHEAP costume idea ($14 for all of us! $2 striped fabric from Walmart to make pants, leftover fabric scraps to make vests/sashes, wearing our own white shirts, three pirate accessory kits from Dollar Tree [$1 ea], plastic beads spraypainted gold to make necklaces & use as hair beads, and $6 pirate boot toppers for Joe)

We had a fun time carving pumpkins this year! Sawyer did his own carving for the first time & was so proud! Hunter chose his design from images on the computer, and then I carved it for him. Joe had fun making a multi-faced pumpkin, and I loved trying my hand at a new shape: the witch on her broom!

Goodbye Subie, It's Been Nice...

Well, we really said goodbye to the Subaru this past Tuesday. We gave it to a family at church who really needed a vehicle. It was great to have such a simple exchange, without worrying about 'if someone will buy it before we go'.

I bought my Sube when I was 19. The only car I've ever owned. I put 108,000 miles on it over 8.5 years. It's broken down on us three times, but two of those were within the last year. Lots of buttons were falling off, lots more rattles were starting, and there were two new oil leaks. It was time to be DONE. Sorry, Sube. We appreciate you holding on for so long; we only asked you to last through grad school, but you held on for a year and a half beyond it! :)

It was still a little sad to say goodbye. I brought 2 babies home from the hospital in this car. But boy, this made us really appreciate our NEW car!

The Last One!

Sawyer's last soccer game was on Saturday the 24th. He scored 7 out of the 9 goals! He sure LOVES soccer, and is so driven and focused! He's really hoping they'll have a soccer team in Nevada! :)

Here is his team of eight:

Sawyer, Miles, Sam, Grant, Reed, Carl, Ethan, & Carter (and Coach Gillen)

The New Baby!

Joe is almost 30, yet this is the very first car he's ever bought. But what a way to start!

We are absolutely thrilled about our new car!!! I've been admiring Pilots for years, so this is seriously a dream come true!

It's a 2006 Honda Pilot EX-L, silver with dark gray leather interior (these are the actual pictures). It's FABULOUS! The interior is in near perfect condition, and just a few scratches to be found on the exterior. We got an amazing value, waaaay below blue book (I'm guessing it's thanks to the poor economy?) I'm SO NERVOUS driving it!!! Is that going to fade soon??

Hillcrest Farm!

On Saturday we headed up into the mountains to Hillcrest Farm with our friends the Smiths. We had a great time, and I couldn't believe how WARM it still was (around 80*)!

The PIG RACES! So funny. They asked for three adult volunteers, and Joe was chosen. Then they had those three 'volunteers' do a race around the pig track on stick horses. Did he win? Check it out!

Acres & acres of apple orchards, all varieties.

And of course a petting zoo. Probably the best petting zoo we've ever been to. BABY CHICKS!