Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!

Bye bye ’08, you were a good year; we enjoyed our time with you. But, we’re SO excited to see what ’09 has in store for us!

2008 really was a great year; it was full of amazing blessings for our little family. My favorite being, (or at lease one of my top 5)….. my return to the working world! I know; I had some reservations about it in the beginning. But, now I couldn’t be happier with my decision to return to work! Not to mention the job, which I was truly blessed with, is amazing. I work for an awesome corporation and with a great group of people… so for me this was one of my favorite things about ’08.

2008 brought some new and exciting things for the rest of the family too…. Ryann is now in the FIRST grade, kinda crazy huh? She started learning the violin and ballet, lost her fist tooth! Scored her first goal in soccer!!! What an exciting year for our princess!

We found out what a little smarty Aiden is in ‘08! At just 3 years old he finishes up this year working on a combination of kindergarten and first grade school work!! He started 2 new schools, and moved up another level in gymnastics!

Adam changed jobs within Lockheed this year, started playing indoor soccer, got his little body in great physical shape, all while working on his masters in systems engineering, (which he’ll finish up in August!)

Like I said it was a good year! We’re so excited to see what new adventures are in store for our family and yours in 2009!

Please have a wonderful and SAFE New Years Eve!

I’ve updated our photo albums, instead of seeing an individual album for each month of ’08 on the main page, you’ll see albums for each year; there is an album for each month within each yearly album… Enjoy!

Happy New Year,
Adam, Courtney, Ryann and Aiden

Sound it out - the video take 2!!

Sound it out... the video!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas! We hope you all had a great one! Ours was just perfect. Our whole year has been full of amazing blessing, and our Christmas was no different. We were able to enjoy all of our wonderful family traditions, and might have even added a few.

The kids, Adam and I visited Prairie Lights this year. Gamma and Papa came along for the ride. This was a great deal of fun, and something I hope we can look forward to doing every year. There was a long line, and I was afraid it would soon turn into a nightmare, but we stuck it out; and I’m so happy we did. I think it was JUST what we all needed to get us into the Christmas spirit.

We built, or at least attempted to build something out of Gingerbread, this year we tried a train. I say we attempted, because this in NOT something that either Adam or I are very good at. The thing always ends up falling over before we complete it, but it’s always so much fun trying!

We invited Kay and Craig over Christmas Eve for lunch and to give them the gifts we had picked for them. Lunch and the company was GREAT---as always,(the company).

The kids made cookies for Santa. This is always so much fun for everyone! This year we decided to cook them on Tuesday, and decorate them on Christmas Eve. They all turned out great!

After decorating cookies we headed to Church. In case you didn’t know, the Nabors family found a church home a few months ago. We really enjoyed having a Church home to include in our family traditions this year. After church we headed to dinner at our FAVORITE local hibachi and sushi restaurant. We decided to eat at the hibachi, not knowing this was a first for Ryann, (Aiden’s been at least a half dozen times, but somehow we’ve never been when we had both kids – who would of guessed?) She was AMAZED, and asked if we could go back the next day! LOL! After dinner we headed home to finish up our pre-Christmas traditions.

We watched the Polar Express,

Read the Night Before Christmas

Put out milk and cookies for Santa, and celery for the reindeer

Ryann woke in the morning to find that Santa had come for a visit. She RAN in woke up Adam and I, then headed to Aiden’s room to wake him. Aiden was not so thrilled about getting up that early. Adam had to carry him from his room to the living room, where he sat on Daddy’s lap until he was wake enough to realize what was going on. Once that happened all the gifts were open and played with.

We finished up Christmas at home, and then headed to Gamma and Papa’s for fellowship and fun. We came home with a car full!

Christmas is over, but you’d never know it by looking around this place. I’m not sure that our house will every fully recover from this Christmas! LOL!! We hope you are all doing great! Check out the photo albums for about a million pictures, plus; if you had a hard time following my ramblings.... the pictures do a great job telling the story of our wonderful Christmas!!

Love to all!

Dear Santa,

So there is our little guy with the big guy. I wish I could fully make you understand the excitement this little boy felt today..... It was SO cute! We waited in line, for about an hour. To my surprise Aiden didn't get board and ask to leave, as I anticipated when we first walked up and saw the snake like line. He was SO good during the wait. We talked about this and that, he talked to the surrounding kids, and I talked to the surrounding parents. Really an hour, that wouldn't mind doing over again. The kid, (he was a 7month old...with a stroller) in front of us was finishing up, I turned to Aiden and asked, "Okay, are you just about ready?" With out warning, he ducks under the black tape and RUNS for Santa.... I quickly give out a loud, "Wait!" Being the good boy he is, he turns around almost instantly and runs smack dab into the little boy's stroller..... I mean HARD! I was sure he would cry, or that the side of his face would instantly swell..... All he said, was "I'm okay, but I'm going to sit with Santa now." He was all smiles the whole time. Just before hoping down and saying good bye to the jolly old elf, he asked him for a motorcycle..... From what I understand he just wants a small one he can hold in his hand - so we'll see if Santa pulls through this year or not!

Merry Christmas!!

Oh, and if you're wondering why Ryann isn't in that picture, She likes Santa, she's just "a little shy to him...."

The Nutcracker, Revisited

Ryann's first Ballet

The Nutcraker, Revisited starring Ryann Nabors!

We've reached another exciting FIRST! Honestly, I can't tell you who was most excited about Friday night’s recital. Ryann did a great job; she made us all SO very proud! It was just about impossible to pick a picture for this post, so please visit the link to our photo albums to the right, (if your a subscriber and this was emailed to you, you'll have to visit the actual blog) and check out the rest. I've been promised more from other camera happy fans, so I'll add those once I get them. Sorry for the poor quality of these - I forgot my big camera in my car, (we were in Adam's) Anyways, enjoy the video posted above at the very least, (Ryann's little sister, Kamri is the one just to her left).

Oh, and if you've been waiting for pictures/videos from the violin performance mentioned a few post back, it was canceled due to bad weather; but there are a few videos of her practicing in the above mentioned photo albums.

Sound it out.....

Driving in the car with Aiden today, we got stopped in a LONG line of traffic by the train..... After sitting very patiently for a while Aiden let's out a rather annoyed, MOVE CAR!!! I tell him, the car can't move, because we've all been stopped by the train crossing. Just as I finish that sentence the caboose crosses and I get a rather smart, "We'll there's the end, we can go now". I kindly reply, Aiden there's a stop sign up there, every car in front of us is going to have to stop.... this is going to take a while. He follows that up with, I can spell stop. It's important to note, he has had the spelling of this word down for well over a year now. But, I play along with his game. "Oh, really? How do you spell it?" "S-T-O-P, stop; see told you I could spell it". "Okay smarty pants, how do you spell car?" "Okay Mommy, and he begins to sound it out C, C-A, C-A-R, car!" Pretty impressed, I ask, "How do you spell hat?" Again he sounds it out H, H-A, H-A-T, hat!" We went through a whole list, and he got every one of them right. So proud, we called Daddy and let him hear the big boy! I knew he would work on spelling this year in his school, but I had no idea they were already this far. We are so proud of our big guy!

When I grow up....

This post is mostly for me, because it's one of those things that as a Mommy I don't want to forget. The kids and I were sitting at Starbucks over the weekend; chit chatting about this and that... then we started talking about goals, hopes and dreams. From that we had our first ever "When I grow up" conversation. Aiden has decided he wants to be a doctor, because he wants to help people. Ryann says she wants to be a teacher, she said she also wants to help people, but "Not the same way Aiden wants to help".

Like I said, that was more of a "just for me" post; but maybe you got something out of it too... LOL!

Making Music...

Just a quick little update about our very big girl…

For those of you who don’t know, Ryann has had the opportunity to be involved in a strings program through her school this year. The program is called Suzuki Strings. On December 16, 2008 at 6:30pm the Suzuki Strings students will be performing. We were first told Ryann would not get to be involved, because at that point she had yet to hold a bow. But, we learned that yesterday Ryann got to hold a bow for the very first time, and she will get to play her violin for the whole world to hear!!!!!! While this will be a short performance, we couldn’t be more excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Admiring God's Work...

Wish my picture really captured how beautiful and amazing this really was!

"This week, stargazers are in for a spectacular display by Jupiter, Venus and a crescent Moon, as the celestial bodies prepare for a triple conjunction on the night of December 1st. Throughout this week, the bright Venus and almost just as bright Jupiter can be seen drawing closer together.

Astronomers confirmed the display will be visible with naked eye, with the two planets separated by just 2 degrees. The crescent Moon will be only 20 degrees to their lower right on Saturday night, when the two planets will be 2.4 degrees apart, Sky and Telescope Magazine informs.

“It’ll be a head-turner,” said Alan MacRobert, senior editor of Sky and Telescope, according to the Associated Press. “This certainly is an unusual coincidence for the crescent moon to be right there in the days when they are going to be closest together.”

The event is one not to miss because although such encounters take place from time to time, the celestial bodies are sometimes not visible due to being too close to the sun. Furthermore, stargazers should know that another event such as this one will take place again approximately four decades from now. "