It was a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!! It has been quite a year and we are glad for it to be over and to have another year to try to be better hopefully then the last and continue with the things that we have conquered and done better at. We talked about goals the other day, so we will see how long we do what we have written them down and hope to do better and not quit as soon as we did last year. hee hee Tanner decided for himself that he would wake up happier in the mornings that he has daycare, he even came up with it himself, we talked about a couple of things and examples of things we each could do and then let him decide and so I was glad he put some thought to it. I am horrible at goals, so I hope I can be better. I am so thankful and happy to have a home, and healthy children and not only things that I need in life, but some of the pleasures and wants of life as well. Jason did a good job this year at getting me some things, and of course I got a few things for myself as back up as well. hee hee. I finally have an alarm clock again, this one plugs in, as the last one I had about 8 months ago didn't and the only thing we can figure out is that Brylee threw in the garbage and it is long gone in the landfill. He got me a couple of books I wanted and a couple of cute outfits. He will be excited to use his backpacking gear for his next trip with the guys this summer somewhere in the Colorado Mountians. They have to go in August because it will probably still have snow even in August. I am glad he enjoys to spend time with my brothers and since he wouldn't buy them for himself I bought him a real backpacking backpack and a walking stick. We also found on steepandcheap also a good sleeping bag and tent, so he will be all set, well just about, just a few more little things. Look at the picture he was so cute just as big of a smile as Tanner and when he openned his gift. I am glad he liked it.
Well just a cute story on Christmas morning and I mean morning Tanner must have been excited he woke up at 2:30 yes 2:30 am, he didn't even go out to the family room, he came in and woke me up and said "Mom can we go see if Santa came?" I looked at the clock and told him "Tanner it is way too early we can't wake Brylee up this early." He started to cry, and ok so he doesn't completely understand the consept of time yet, so I took him out and we saw that yes indeed Santa had come and eaten the cookies and drank the milk, but forgot to take the note. Oops. Everything wasn't wrapped thank goodness, so we openned two of the boxes and let him play with them and told him to go back to bed. He then said "Mom, Santa did good!" 10 minutes later he came into our bedroom with his two toys and said "Mom can I put my toys by your dresser and lay by you?" Of course I let him and he layed by the side of our bed and thankfully slept until 7am. It was so much fun watching them and seeing Tanner go through the presents finding which belonged to whom and of course he unwrapped his lots faster then Brylee, so he started helping her and would say after every one, "Oh Brylee that will be so fun to share, huh!" I said "Tanner so are you going to share all your things you openned too with her?" He of course will he is a good brother, it is so cute they do love each other as you can see above in the pictures. They are love to pose for the camera and see how cute it is afterwards. We were off to the Rays for Breakfast and then to my parents for a late lunch early dinner with the whole Shurtleff Family!!
We did a family picture with my family as all of us were lucky enough to be together for a few days, it was so much fun and I just wish all my family lived closer, but it sure is fun and good to see them when they come into town. It was cold so this is the best we could do, but I think it turned out pretty cute!!! Pretty good for me being the photographer huh!! Ok I didn't take the ones I was in, but I did take the rest. hee hee 
We did Christmas Eve dinner at our house with the Rays, it was a lot of fun we had lots of good food to eat and good company, we even were able to play a game of Catch Phrase with the adults for a bit while the kids played. It was fun to have Ty in town and Tanner was his little buddy every time we got together. It was awesome to see Ty and spend time with him and hear and see pictures about his fun adventure to Africa, Uganda to do dental work. Wow after hearing and seeing what they don't have makes me appreciate all that I do have. We missed Jarom & his family this year, but they were definately in our thoughts. We will be saving to make a visit!
