Bye-Bye 2010......Hellooooo New Year!!!

Cheers to saying good-bye to 2010, a pretty darn good year for our family:

Ethan had only 1 hospitalization the whole year

We moved into a wonderful home in an awesome neighborhood

Hailey made a club volleyball team, and is doing fantastic in 8th grade

Parker is learning to play the saxaphone and has made some great friends in our neighborhood

Brian and I have both lost 20lbs each and are continuing down the path of healthier lifestyles

We took a FABULOUS vacation to Disney World, and got to see my kids first experience in the ocean

These are but a few things I can say about 2010 that made it a great year, and though we may be sad to see such a great year go, we are only looking forward to making new, wonderful memories in 2011!

We had a great Christmas, spent with family and friends.  We tried not to go overboard on the kids since I hadn't been working for about 5 weeks, but I still feel like we got everything they asked for!  I got a couple new beads for my Pandora bracelet, a new Bose alarm clock/radio/CD player for my nightstand, and  12 more weeks at my personal trainer!  I'm still not sure if those gifts are meant to be insulting....after all nothing says 'I love you, honey' like an obnoxiously big alarm clock reminding me to get up off my ass and get to the gym, huh???  Oh, well-no insult taken, just happy to have 12 more weeks of James kicking my ass into skinny jeans! 




Hailey and Parker's new hoodies



Brian and I at his squad party



Ethan's new North Face jacket



My beautiful children



I finally went back to work the week of Christmas, my entrapped nerve started to heal nicely, and I even made it to the gym a couple of times.  Though I will have to say today was the first day I even pushed myself very hard, and I did manage to do a steady 50 minutes on the elliptical!  I am hitting the gym hard 6 days a week until the Policeman's Ball in February-gotta look smokin' hot for it!

We took Ethan to the dentist on the 27th.  It was time for his cleaning, and he has had two really loose baby teeth that I'm pretty sure have been bothering him for a while now.  I made Brian go with me to hold him because I was pretty sure Dr. Erica was going to yank those puppies out and since I was also pretty sure that Ms Kim was not going to want to inject him up with numbing stuff, I didn't want to be the bad person!  Yep, I was a coward and made Daddy hold him.  Ms. Kim and Ms. Whitney got his teeth all cleaned and pretty and white, and then when Dr. Erica came in, Kim showed her his two loose teeth, and before I could count to three she had flicked 'em both out!  Of course that was followed by some serious yelling, and real tears, but once the bleeding stopped, Ethan was just fine!  Once again, a huge thanks to Family Dental Care for taking such great care of our special little guy! 



Ethan at the Dentist.  Look Mom, two teeth all gone!!  (the two tiny holes on the bottom middle -his permanent teeth were already trying to grow in!)



We have added  a new member to our family....introducing Heidi, our German Shepherd!  A fellow copper found her in the inner city and couldn't keep her because she already has 3 dogs, so she got a hold of Brian, and we took one look at her and fell in love instantly!  She has been living on the streets for a while, as she is pretty underweight and has whipworms, but she is an awesome dog!   Someone spent some money on her, because she has already been spayed, is leashed trained, potty trained, and kennel trained.  But she is not microchipped.  We had the clinic check twice because if she does belong to someone else who is missing her like I know we would be, we wanted to make sure she got home.  But no, and we haven't seen any signs up looking for her, so now she's a Rawley!  She and Harley are getting along marvelously, and though initially very timid, she is coming out of her shell nicely now and starting to act like a playful puppy.  She has quite the personality! 

That's about all for 2010, as the year is now 'last year' I look forward to what 2011 brings our family and yours.  I will post our New Year's Resolutions in a few days, as we are going to sit down and discuss what we as a family would like to accomplish in this glorious new year.  We have already had some discussions along the lines of helping others, and devoting more time to charity, and of course the all time resolution to get back into church (you got us Andrea and Michala!!)  I have already started one of mine by comitting to a bible study class with my sister Kim and my Dad's wife Teresa.  We are starting out with the book of Esther, and I am looking forward to starting it in another week.  (Don't choke Wolz....)

Most of all, we just hope to have a safe, happy and healthy new year, to keep all of the wonderful friends we already have and adore, to mend any broken fences with estranged family and friends, to continue to make new forever friends and to never forget where we come from and that with dreams and goals and drive and determination anything is possible!

Much love, lots of hugs and many prayers for your New Year to bring you the best!