Happy New Year!

2010 has been a great year. We spent the last night of 2010 with friends, eating, playing games, dancing and ringing in the new year. We had a lot of fun. As we experience all of these "lasts" for us it makes me a little sad. We have made great friends here in Michigan. We have had some really good and some really bad experiences here. Nothing I would change though. It's crazy to think that next year we'll be in Ohio making new memories with hopefully some more friends. We look forward to our new adventure and the opportunity those experiences will have to bring us closer as a family. Some of our family's new years resolutions have to do with helping and supporting each other with all of the changes that lie ahead of us, so here's looking forward to 2011.

Happy New Year!

Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas this year. We spent Christmas Eve at our friends the Arrhenius' experiencing Sweedish food. The kids acted out the Nativity, it was a fun night. On our way home we went and looked at Christmas lights. Olivia loves seeing all the lights and screams, "LOOK! LOOK!" every time she sees a house really lit up. When we got home the kids opened Christmas jammies and then we watched Joy to the World. We then put out our cookies for Santa and a Diet Root Beer:) Porter and Olivia went right to sleep, Logan was convinced he was going to see Santa this year. He finally went to sleep and santa came.

Olivia pushing "Bear" in her shopping cart from Santa.
Daddy enjoying Porter's present more than Porter did. He's been known to be downstairs in the basement riding that thing too:)

The boys in new snow hats that Aunt Whitney made.

Opening presents.

The Christmas tree before the kids got to it.

Porter and Olivia listening to a story from Dan on Christmas eve.

The kids in thier new jammies.

Our Nativity cast! Elizabeth was Mary, Logan was Joseph, Olivia and Victoria were shepherds, Porter was the 3 wisemen, and Maddie was the Angel. So cute!

On our first big snowfall the boys built this snowman. It was pretty cool, until someone came by and kicked it down:( We'll build another one when we get more snow.

Ugly Sweater Party 2010

Our Ugly Sweater party was Awesome this year. Everyone participated in the sweaters and we had such a fun group of friends together.
We played a few games and by this picture you can tell how into the games people were:) We had a reindeer game where we had to stuff balloons into nylons, and then one where we had to unwrap kisses with gloves and feed them to the person next to you.
We had babysitters down in the basement with the kid's and they had a little party down there as well. Olivia came up and found the kisses in a bowl and was happy.

The most wonderful time of the year!

We've been having a great holiday season this year. Here are a "few" pictures of what we've been up to.
Our ward party was simplified this year, we had a breakfast and Santa came for a visit. Which turned out well. Except for the fact Logan saw him go into the Clerks office and now "know's that it wasn't the real Santa, because why would Santa go in the Clerks office?" He was a little miffed about that. Porter was one of the first in line to sit on his lap and was just thrilled to see him. Olivia didn't want anything to do with santa but she wanted the candy cane.

Logan's first and second grade classes put on a holiday program. Logan had a speaking part and did a great job memorizing it. He's become more shy as he's gotten older and if you watch the video on the bottom can see that.

Oliva, like her older brother Porter has found a love for the heating vent. When it kicks on she runs over by it and sits, or lays down by it.

Sunday we had a really bad, rain, snow, ice storm. Before it turned to ice Brandon and the kids went out and built this snowman. School was cancelled monday and tuesday this week because of it. It's weird having snow days but I think I could get use to them:)

We've had a few Christmas parties.

Olivia loves Christmas!

We got together with friends and made gingerbread houses. The kids mostly ate the candy while I put frosting around the house. Then they smoothered it with the rest of the candy. They had fun and so did I, goal accomplished.

Dayton, Ohio Here we come... in July that is

We finally signed and sealed the deal. Brandon will be working with the Orthopaedic Institute of Dayton. He will start in July, and we are both very excited about this.
It has been a whirlwind of emotions landing this job. The group contacted Brandon back in May and wanted to meet. Due to Brandon being on an Ortho Trauma rotation he couldn't go out there right away. Then we didn't hear from them for a few months. They called him again in August and set up an interview for September. Then we didn't hear from them again for about 2 months. In that time another group from Ohio that Brandon had done a phone interview with had called and said "We sent you a contract, did you recieve it?" Brandon confused them with the ortho group and told them he hadn't received one. The lady then said,"I'm so sorry, I called the wrong person. You're not who we wanted." Brandon was devastated thinking that this group didn't want him. About a week later, he recieved the call saying that he got the job and that they were sending the contract (which took another month). It's been a long ride, but it has been worth it. We feel very blessed to get this job and feel very strongly that this is where Heavenly Father wants our family to be. 7 years ago Brandon said his dream job would be to get in an ortho group and do all their foot and ankle surgeries. This is that opportunity. We are very happy about this. Of course we would love to go west, but it didn't seem to be the right thing for us at this time. So Dayton, Ohio here we come!