Seven ...

Seven years ago I became a mom … yesterday Justin celebrating his 7th birthday and I celebrated 7 years of motherhood! Where has time gone??

Thursday night Aunt Sheri came over and decorated his cake! Justin is really into sports. Baseball, football, soccer, basketball etc … he loves them all but decided this year he wanted a Denver Broncos Football party!

~ The Cake ... Aunt Sheri always amazes us ~

Yesterday afternoon I took Justin’s favorite treat … Strawberry Glazed Donuts with Broncos Sprinkles on them to school to share with his friends.

~ Justin with his Best Friend Chris ~

Last night we had his family party at our house with Pizza, cake, ice cream and presents. Grandpa Stan, Bobbye, Grandma Sharon, Grandpa Bruce, Great Grandma Faye, Aunt Nadene, Cousin Amber, Aunt Sheri and Uncle Bob all joined us to help celebrate Justin’s special day!

~ His Smile pretty much says it all ~

~ City Lego Set from Grandpa Stan and Bobbye ~

~ Batman Sweatshirt from Aunt Nadene ~

~ Opening Presents ~

~ Singing "Happy Birthday" ... we had to light the candles several times because Makenna kept blowing them out ~

The birthday excitement will stick around for a while ... his friend party is scheduled for next Sunday!

Redneck Sledding ....

Dwight and the kids had a blast sledding today. We still have plenty of snow left from our big snow storm several weeks ago. I guess these tractors are good for something :-)

Just adorable ...

I’m only 2 months behind schedule but I finally did it! Today I took Makenna in for her 3 year photo shoot. This was the 1st time ever that I have walked away from a photo studio spending less than $100. It wasn’t because the pictures were bad … they were ALL adorable. It was just yesterday that I organized the overflowing envelope of photos from her 2 year photo shoot. Honestly I have enough photos left over from last year that I could wallpaper an entire wall with them. Organizing old pictures was an excellent project for the day before picture day. It made picking my 2 very favorite poses so much easier. Sadly 2 poses didn’t qualify me for the free picture CD that I am use to getting so I had to scan the photos. Must be their way of protecting their prints cause the coloring in these are better on the original prints. But seriously ... it's she just adorable? :)

Y2K +10 ...

It might have been safe but sane I’m not so sure. We joined 9 other couples and more kids than I could count and spent New Years Eve at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Loveland. It was a great time. We all gathered for a “happy hour” downstairs in the main dining area and then finished the night hoping from room to room. Justin and Makenna crashed out early … poor babies were too tired to make it until midnight.

~ Ready for a night of fun ~

~ Daddy and Makenna ... excited to be at the hotel ~

~ Just a few of the kids ~

Brody VanCleave, Justin holding Conner Lance, Makenna, Grace VanCleave and Ciera Lance

~ Happy Hour ~

~ Justin and Makenna drinking their "Shirley Temple Cocktails" ~

~ Dave Marrou . Dwight . JC VanCleave . Cris Lance ~

~ Me and Jen VanCleave ~

~ JC and Dwight ... Surprised Dwight made it to Midnight he partied like it was 1999 ~

~ Jen . Julie Marrou . Anne and Ciera Lance ~

~ View from our bedroom window ... minus I-25 the mountains were stunning ~

~ Dwight keep his promise and took the kids swimming in the morning ~

Looking Back ...

Things I hoped to accomplish in 2009!!

CHECK-… Spend more time with Justin and Makenna ... Pretty sure no parent ever feels like they spend enough time with their kids. They just grow up so fast … I am sure this will be something on my “to do list” for the next 15 years.

CHECK--… Curtains and New Livingroom Furniture … Uh a check with a double minus because the curtains are all done except the big picture window in the front room. I know we so desperately need a curtain for it … yet it will require either me getting a job or finding a sprouting money tree to get the curtains I want for that window. As for the furniture … hopefully soon!!

FAILED … Scrapbook, scrapbook and more scrapbooking … some how this past year my craft room turned into my crap room. Failed this miserably … didn’t even complete 1 page. UGH :(

FAILED … Participate in Relay for Life … hopeful for 2010.

CHECK … Join MOPS … I joined MOPS at First Presbyterian Church 4 months ago. I cherish the bi-monthly morning break.

CHECK … Family Vacation … No where super exciting but according to Justin was his favorite vacation ever. We spent last spring break in Iowa with my sister Lori and her family. About a month ago Dwight and Justin were talking about the vacations we had been on since he was born.

Justin - “My favorite vacation was our trip to Iowa”
Dwight - “Iowa is better than the beach or Disney World”
Justin - “Uh yeah, I love my cousins”

CHECK …. More Date Nights … Now that the kids are getting a little older it is easier to find family babysitters who enjoy watching them. Allows for more date nights when you aren’t having to spend the extra $$ on babysitters.

CHECK … Stay Connected with Friends ... Had my 20th High School this reunion this year and had the chance to catch up with old friends. Between my reunion and facebook I have reconnected with several old friends.

CHECK - …. Lose 10 more pounds … Lost 12 before my reunion in June and then I ruptured my Achilles and it was down hill from there. I gained back 5 so for the year it is 7 lost.

CHECK …. Keep Blogging … Dwight will be the first to tell you that I’ll up date my blog before I’ll clean the house.

8 out of 10 ………. not too bad!!

Opening Presents ...

My dad and Bobbye joined us for "the opening of the presents" on Christmas morning.

~ Bobbye, Makenna and Justin ... Christmas Morning ~

~ Ready, Set, UNWRAP ~

~ Justin likes getting clothes as long as it is "cool clothes" ... Batman and Star Wars shirts are "cool" ~

~ Grandpa Stan, Justin and Makenna with the wooden crane he made for Justin ... this was a special order toy that Justin asked Grandpa to make ... it is super nice ~

~ The kids helping Bobbye open her playing cards ~

~ Makenna attempting to wait her turn ... her package is half open but she really is trying so hard to wait for daddy to finish opening his package ~


On December 26th Dwight's parents (Bruce and Sharon) and his sister (Nadene) and her family joined us for a Breakfast Brunch and package exchange ~

Dave and Amanda helping baby Memphis open his package ~

~ Madalee excited to open her present ~

~ Makenna and Justin opening up their "Movie Night" package ~

Happy Holidays ...

I was excited to be completely done shopping weeks ago but have seriously procrastinated with the rest of my annual holiday duties.

Justin is growing up way too fast. Can you believe he is almost 7 years old? He is in 1st grade and loves school. Besides recess he enjoys reading and has really excelled in math. We had fun watching him play his first season of baseball this summer. He like playing baseball so much that he just finished up an indoor fall season league and is excited to play again next summer. When not playing sports he likes to play with his Legos, Star Wars toys, fish with daddy and do wood working projects with Grandpa Stan.

Our wild one Makenna turned 3 in November. Fearless and full of spunk she will get into just about everything. She was slow to talk but has really made up for lost time with continuous chatter and constant questions. This year was an exciting year for her. She graduated to a “big girl bed”, is now wearing big girl panties and started preschool. Elmo, books, dolls and coloring keeps her busy.

Cleaning, cooking and keeping up with the kids keeps me busy. I joined MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) and love the bi-monthly morning break. It is wonderful to be surrounded by a room full of women who understand my world. I volunteer at Justin’s school whenever needed, do crafts or sew when I get the chance and try to keep up with our family blog. I started running again in spring and was up to 25+ miles a week when I ruptured my Achilles Tendon in early October. It has been a slow and long healing process. I hoping to get back to running again this year.

Dwight has had a year jammed packed with one project after another. He started the year off with a trip to Texas to pick up a new Peterbilt truck. He spent 3 months converting, painting and perfecting his newest addition to Michael Trucking. By April his black beauty dump truck was ready to make money. The next 3 months were spent restoring 3 tractors for a gentleman out of Pennsylvania. The transport semi came at the end of June and off they went. Dwight parents had a water leak in their house that caused extensive damage to their kitchen. Dwight spent close to 2 months negotiating with the insurance company and remodeling their kitchen. Despite the slow economy, lack of construction and road maintenance cutbacks Dwight still owns and manages Michael Trucking. Business has been extremely slow but we remain hopefully and look forward to seeing the upside of this recession.

Here’s to a new decade of memories and many adventures. From our house to yours.

Happy New Year!!
The Michael Family
Dwight, Bonnie, Justin and Makenna

Naughty or Nice ...

Apparently Justin and Makenna made the nice list this year. Santa unloaded his sleigh at our house. From the day we started talking about Santa in our house Makenna was stuck on wanting an Elmo Hat. Justin continuously changed his mind … Star Wars Toys, Legos, GI Joe Tank, Broncos Jersey, Broncos Bean Bag … the list went on and on. Every magazine, every commercial ,every trip to the store and Justin was changing his list. Based on their reactions I pretty sure they were both thrilled with what Santa left for them.

~ Our annual Tradition that Justin's Cousin Amanda taught him about several years ago ... if you leave Santa cookies and milk he will leave you a movie ~

~ Santa was here ~

~ The Kids waiting for Daddy to get the video camera ready ~

~ The 1st look at what Santa left ~

~ Makenna was SO happy ... her ELMO HAT ... seriously Santa could have left ONLY this and she would have been thrilled!! ~

~ Oh yeah ... finally a new jersey to replace the old "Cutler" jersey Justin has been wearing on Bronco Sunday ~

~ Makenna unloading her stocking ~

Justin with his FX Movie Replica Anakin Lightsaber ... This thing is pretty cool ... looks and feels like a real lightsaber ... Dwight was explaining to Justin that is was more a collectible than a toy to play with cause it was "just like the real ones used in the movie. Justin looked at Dwight with big eyes and said "does that mean I will kill Makenna if I touch her"?

~ Daddy and Makenna in her new School House ~