Saturday, January 2, 2010

A New Decade

Or the last year of the old one, depending on what side of that debate you are on... but if you look at the tens column of the year, and it changed, to me it's good enough to call it a new decade.
Here is our family 10 years ago...



Let's see, 10 years ago... that would have been us living in Kentucky, expecting Emilie, living in a townhome in Florence. (Cincinnati area) We were close to the airport and Turfway park, a place they race horses. Michael was 3 years old and Benjamin was 1. Here we are at the end of 2000...


2000- We had Emilie while living in Kentucky. We took a camping trip to eastern Kentucky that summer. Tom worked for Walmart in management. We were in the Northern Kentucky 2nd ward and loved it.

In 2001, we moved to Ohio, Benjamin got his tonsils and adenoids out, I went to the hospital many times and we had Joseph, and lost Joseph. We were in the Milford Ward in Ohio.

In 2002 we moved to the other side of Ohio (middle of nowhere!) to a little town called Coolville, near Athens. Tom had just changed jobs to work for Anderson Merchandisers. The fun thing was, he was assigned to an area in Western Ohio... so for the first few months after we moved we only saw him on weekends. The best part of living here was being two doors down from the library, and we literally went every day. We went to church in West Virginia (Parkersburg Ward) and that was also an adventure. We started officially homeschooling here because Michael would have started kindergarten, incidentally, at the elementary school next door.
In 2003 we had Nathanael (yep, in a little tiny hospital in Athens, Ohio... his pic is still on the hospital website instead of taken off like the big corporate hospitals LOL) (and we were only at the hospital for 9 minutes from the time we entered the ER doors at 2:40 in the morning until he was born, in L&D) This was also the year of our marathon, 2 wedding trip across the US without Dad. He did join us in California and Utah though, for a few days. We also went to Glenn Beck's Rally for America in West Virginia. Awesome.

2004 was a big year... this picture is actually from early 2005. First thing in 2004, we moved to Pennsylvania. Tom had already started working in PA in December of 2003, alternating weeks between his new territory and his old one. We lived in this house in a valley between Indiana PA and Clymer, in the foothills of the Appalachians. The stars at night were amazing. The fall colors made me fall in love with the area, and our Indiana Branch was wonderful even though we were only there for 9 months- Tom got a promotion to the home office in Amarillo, Texas. We were expecting Samuel SOON at this time, so it was a crazy time for us. Tom actually moved to Texas and was there for 6 weeks before we moved there the week of Thanksgiving. Benjamin started homeschooling also, though it was sporadic at this point with moves and another baby coming...


In 2005 we had Samuel. Emilie started kindergarten. We got used to Texas weather... welcome to the Panhandle... we also celebrated our 10th wedding annivesary.

In early 2006 we travelled to Utah for the first time in a long time. Tom was tired of Texas stuff everywhere... and this picture is the result :) Yes, we both graduated from BYU and are very proud of it!
In 2006 we bought our first home! After many years of renting (ok, our whole marriage LOL) we looked at the homes that were in our price range and bought one... We are still happy with our decision. Timothy joined our family in November. This year also marked 2 years in Texas...
In 2007 I started working for Sears Portrait Studio, first regular job I had had since working for BYU.

In 2008 we had Christopher and I stopped working for Sears. We took a trip to California in our new 12 passenger van, going through Utah and Colorado on the way back. I had not seen my sister and a few of my brothers in 5 years, so it was about time! and Nathanael started homeschooling...


In 2009 we had Liberty, our 2nd daughter. We also have a teenager now! Michael turned 13 in November. Earlier in the year we took a trip to Illinois via Arkansas. That was fun, too, we hadn't seen some of Tom's brothers in a while. And Samuel started reading :)

We have now lived in Texas for 5 years, fully half this decade! This is longer than we have lived anywhere. Tom still has the same job and it has really treated us well. We've also been in the same ward for 5 years. Michael is now 13, Benjamin is 11, Emilie is 9, Nathanael is 6, Samuel is 4, Timothy is 3, Christopher is 1, and Liberty is new! It has been 8 years since we held Joseph.

It has been a good decade. Here's to many more! This decade should have some interesting events... by 2020 we'll probably have 2 sons go on missions and 3 kids go to college... 4 teenagers at once, a few Eagle Scouts we hope... but amazing to think about! In 2019 Liberty will turn 10, Christopher will turn 11, Timothy will turn 13, Samuel will turn 14, Nathanael will turn 16, Emilie will turn 19, Benjamin will turn 21, and Michael will turn 23... yikes!

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