Our year in pictures!

Wow, it's February already! The post says January 11th...but really it took me till Feb. 2nd to post this! I know I haven't blogged since like, mid-December. Life is crazy! And I'm tired...pretty much all the time now. Mr. M and I were looking back on 2008 and it is just amazing to see all the things that the Lord has brought us through and all the blessings that He has bestowed upon us!

In January, Mr. M was still in Iraq. The kids and I (and our cat) rang in the new year in Wisconsin. We had traveled there for the holidays and stayed for about a month! We left on the 3rd and ended up stopping at our good friends house in PA. We try to get together once a year to see each other and this would be our short visit. Whenever we get together we take a pic of all our kids. I had my 3 and she had 5! While I was there they shared with us that they were expecting #6! I was so happy for them and baby boy Nathan was born in September to this great family! Here is our 8!

On February 1st, Mr. M was promoted to a Lieutenant! It was very exciting and I was so proud of him. I wasn't able to be there with him since he was in Iraq, but he had a nice ceremony outside one of the palaces there and he sent me pics. Also in February we reached the halfway point for him being there! And the Packers ALMOST made it to the Superbowl!


March was a fun month! My Mom came to visit for my birthday which just happened to fall on Easter this year! So we had her there for both! We had such a great visit! The girls got American Girl Dolls for Easter which they love!

April was filled with lots to do! Doctor's and dentists appt's, we finished school, baseball started, there was a tornado, preparing for Mr. M to come home, and we got to go to NC to visit my cute little nephew and celebrate his 1st birthday!


Finally May had come!! The month that Mr. M was coming home! We had some ups and downs (and delays) but at last...the day came! It was so wonoderful and joyous! Then of course the next day we drove to Florida and went to Disney World for 10 days! Ahhh, May was the best!


In June we spent a lot of time just being a family again! We went camping and we also celebrated Little Man's 2nd birthday on one camping trip!



July was very busy with Tink's 1st time at camp (I went with as a counselor!), our packout (which Mr. M did by himself with Princess and Little Man in tow), and preparing our house to be rented. We also celebrated Princess's 6th birthday by going to Water Country with some friends! I can't find my pics from that since we were in transit, they may still be on the camera! But here is a really cute pic of our little princess!

August was the big move! We packed up all the stuff we had left and left Virginia. The day we were trying to leave their was a huge storm...it was almost as if Virginia didn't want to let us go! Mr. M drove the van pulling the camper and I drove the car. It was a very long trip! We were so happy to get to Wisconsin! I have no pics from August, cause again, they are still on our old camera and I don't know where the cord is to download them and I don't want to put off this post ANY longer!!! But August was great getting settled at Mom & Dad's, camping, riding bikes, enjoying the weather, and going back to our old church!

September was bittersweet for me! We found out on Labor Day that we are expecting baby #4! This was a planned and prayed for pregnancy and we were ecstatic...then the morning sickness hit. It was a tough time, although not as bad as when I was pregnant with Little Man...but miserable none the less. We did manage to have some good times camping and Princess learned to ride her bike without training wheels!! We are so proud! Mr. M also took the kids to the zoo and we got a family pass. Oh yeah ~ I also got my new camera!!

October we finally were able to move into our own place! It was so great of my parents to let us stay with them as long as we needed to...but we were pretty cramped! Our house in VA finally rented out and we rented a house here. It's a great house and a true blessing! We celebrated Tinkerbell's 10th birthday...her first double digit! She had some girlfriends over and they had a movie night, it was fun! We also celebrated our 14th anniversary! Wow! Of course we didn't do too much since I was still very sick.

November meant the begining of the holiday season and holiday baking! The kids had so much fun making pies with Mr. M! Also right before Thanksgiving I finally started to feel better! We had a great Thanksgiving with my family...and way too much food as usual!

December brought more festivities, more baking, and more family! First, the girls were in a Christmas play at church with their Junior Bible Quiz program. Tink was a shepherd and she got to sing in a trio. Princess was an angel and she had a line in the play. They both were adorable and did a great job! Mr. M's parents and sister all came to visit for Christmas and we had a great time decorating cookies, opening presents and just spending quality time with everyone. This was the first year that Little Man was really fun with opening presents! I gave Mr. M a special book that I made of pictures from our holiday's last year when he was in Iraq, he really loved it!

Oh yeah, we got lots...and lots...and LOTS of snow!!!
All in all, 2008 was a great year with many changes for our family! We are excited about all the changes coming up for 2009 as well! I am going to try and do better on my blogging so that my fans (HA!) can keep up with us!