As we look back on 2008 we have seen many things transpire, happiness, sadness, good times not so good times, but all in all we have come through it and are glad to be able to say, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL.

Let’s just reflect back for a moment.

January 2008,  We are enjoying the new bundle of joy that arrived on Christmas night. Brooke has made it a wonderful way to start the new year.

Kevin and Shan got to spend an extra couple of days home for the holidays due to a major storm that cancelled flights. 

and we had real PEI winter weather for most of the month of January.

Feb.  Pretty quiet month, Brooke weighed in at 13 lbs, on her 6 week check up. Wendell’s sister celebrated her birthday this month as well as his Brother Spencer.

March:  Wendell’s mom was in and out of hospital, I finished one program at work and was off for a couple weeks where I could babysit Brooke,  I loved having her everyday, she is just such a joy to be around. Karla started back to work/school and celebrated her Birthday.   The cold wintery weather was starting to get on everyone’s nerves we were all ready for spring to arrive .

April:  Michael McDowell crashed during qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway.  Our niece Tammy celebrated her birthday and on her birthday (APRIL 1) mother nature enclosed us in a winter wonderland . I was back to work in my 2nd program and was bored out of my mind due to no work coming in. and I think it was made worse by me missing Karla and Brooke and just wanting to be done of work and get into a routine with them again on a day to day basis. Kevin turned 28 !! 

May :  After trying for a long time our Nephew and his beautiful wife finally got to welcome the arrival of their first child Jake into the family. such a handsome little boy !

Brooke is sitting up by herself pretty good and is playing with bigger toys. Weather has warmed up enough to place the patio furniture out so we can enjoy the sunshine. Brooke and I start our daily walks around town. Wendell and I decided to nix the going away plans and put our money towards a new camcorder instead.

June: Wendell’s birthday . Lots and LOTS of rain this month!  still waiting for the REAL summer weather to appear.  We bought a screened in room so we could sit out and not be eaten to death by misquoit’s  after all the wet weather there are LOTS of them around.  I went for x rays on my wrist.   Brooke has 2 bottom teeth and 3 more coming on the top.  Wendell buys a new camera

Shelton and I joined Simply for Life as a couple for 3 months to try it out and see if we can’t get rid of some of ourselves. haha

July : Shan is home for a visit.  Karla finished school and got hired at Resolve. Brooke has went from crawling to sprinting across the floors. no more slow unsteady crawling for her, she has it down now how to move the hands with the legs to get moving FAST.

Rudy was rushed to the vets with a bone splinter lodged in his gum which caused his whole face to swell up. 

Gizmo had his 15th birthday and celebrated with some nice meaty bones that Wendell brought home for all the dogs,which they all enjoyed very much but there were some consequences for all that enjoyment. (see above statement.)

August: I gave myself a minnie makeover got my hair all chopped off,  and also gave the house a make over , changing furniture around to spruce things up and try to brighten it up a bit, still having LOTS of wet weather.  More rainy days than sunny days this month.   I have lost 16 lbs thus far and feeling much better. By Months end I had been going to VIBE for a week and was measured. Very happy to see a loss of 10 inches !   Kevin was home for his 10 year high school reunion. 

September: I am now down 20 lbs since June. feeling much better. and have finished Simply for life. Will start going to TOPS  to get the rest of the unwanted weight off.  Vibe is going well 

finally recieved the results back from the xray on my wrist (See June).  and Brooke is standing without assistance for a few minutes at a time, by months end she was taking 2 -3 steps on her own.

Basement flooded and Loralee came over and we cleaned it all out.  I got new stones made for the gravesites and got them placed.

Gizmo went MIA for a night. apparently he still likes to attend local parties in his old age !  got him back from the pound the next morning.

October:  Brooke got her ears pierced. 2 months into going to VIBE I am down a total of 30 inches.  Kevin and Shan moved into their new place.  I got all my new fall bulbs planted, and we joined up with friends of ours for a day of photography at Friendship park.  Brooke and I checked out the new Heritage Park that is being built just down the road from our place.  Brooke is now walking like a little trouper. 

Karla graduated from college !   Brooke went trick or treating and enjoyed it very much!

November:  I returned to work thus ending my Monday - Friday  quality time with Brooke.   and my updates on our site, guess I really let it go after going to work this time. 

December: Kevin and Shan come home for the holidays and get engaged Christmas morning!  Brooke comes to visit while we are off for the holidays. Brooke turns 1 year old !!  Wendell and I celebrated our 29th anniversary, and 2 sisters, myself, and sister in law celebrated birthdays. 

I am now down 27 lbs since mid June and just over 40 inches.  although not giving up on attaining my goal I am giving myself a little reprieve from the weight loss regeim to enjoy the holidays, back on the wagon again After the new year.

As I look back on those previous posts of 2008 I see a definate trend, Brooke was definately the center of our world (and still is).  I guess having a new baby around just makes everything else pale in comparassion.  nothing else seems to matter, nothing is to big or to small to celebrate. 

I’m sure I have left out a lot of things that took place over the last year, but of this I am sure, if we choose to make it so, we can make 2009 even bigger and better than 2008 was. 

We were pretty lucky in that we didn’t lose anyone this past year,  although a few good friends have lost loved ones.  we have no control over that but we can celebrate in the memories they left behind.  so lets go forward into the new year and vow to make it even better than the last. 

and remember:

Being Happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect,  It just means you have learned to look past the imperfections. 

All the best to everyone in the coming year. May all of you enjoy much Health, wealth and Happiness. !

Well everything seems to be working ok, in doing all the changes lastnight I noticed that this blog will be five years old come Jan. if you look at the archives we started this on Jan. 2003. and while I was working on the site backing everything up I was somewhat surprised to see that there is 162MB of just pictures that was uploaded for posting to the blog.

Anyway things are working good and it will be much simpler to keep up to date for upgrades to Wordpress now, should be as simple as one or two mouse clicks and less than 5 minutes  and it’s upgraded instead of the 30 minutes or more depending how much I backup before applying the update.

Phew !! ….. am I glad thats done and over with, still a few more tweaks to make but those can wait until tomorrow evening.

Brooke likes the tree, just not the feel of it. haha so she doesn’t touch it just looks.

I want to start Wrapping this week, so looks like tomorrow evening I’ll get started at that.  After that all that’s left is the little bit of grocery items to pick up ( pop, munchies ect) and then on the 23rd I’ll make my natcho dip and pumpkin chiffon pie.  Then all I’ll have to do is put the trays of food out Christmas eve day and wait for the company to arrive  :) 

Speaking of arriving , Kevin and Shan will be home in 18 more sleeps !! WHOOT !!  

Wendell and I are going out to dinner on the 13th for our anniversary Viv and Shelton will be joining us we are going to MapleThorp Inn , down in Bedeque, have heard some wonderful things about their food, and then I think Wendell and I will stay the night just to get away and relax for a night.  they have some really nice rooms there as well.  here is their website if anyone is interested in looking at it.

another week before I get a full paycheck from work, will be glad when it finally comes. Sucks having to wait so long to get a full pay. Especially this time of year. 

I hope everyone is pretty much ready for the holidays, I sure don’t envy anyone who has to get into the crowds at the malls this time of year.  I’m glad I’m done! 

Have a great rest of the week folks and thanks for stopping by.

I am just about ready, have a little more decorating to get done, have to wrap the gifts, but I am done shopping. So no stress there, finally got my first paycheck today although it lasted all of 10 minutes after I went online and got the bills caught up. **sigh** if only we didn’t have bills to pay :p

I spent the evening last night decorating the tree, not much on it but it took forever to make it look nice. hard to fill it all in and make it look festive with only ribbon and beads. !  I did end up using a half dozen or so balls just for color , we were hoping to not use any just in case Brooke got ahold of them I’d feel terrible if they broke and she got hurt. 

almost a month in at work now. its going along, at this rate it won’t be long before the count down will be on to be finished again.  Time just seems to be flying by !  

I think we are going to have Brooke for a sleep over this weekend, can’t wait to get my baby hugs !! Missing my girls big time ! 

we had quite a ritual going there while I was off work and it was wonderful to get to see them every day.  So I do look forward to that again when I’m done of work.

Only 24 more sleeps till Kevin and Shan get home !! the count down is on !  

We got lots of snow over the weekend but today was so mild that a lot of it is melted and there are even some spots where the grass is peeking thru again.

Well its that time of evening, time to hit the hay so I must run, Hope everyone has a great rest of the week.

Here a couple shots of Brooke from the last weekend we had her here.  She was having fun with my wicker basket and her monkey.

Last weekend we went up for a visit spent the day Saturday with the Wallace family and had a great visit. 

Tuesday Loralee and I went up and Karla, Brooke and Earls Mom joined us to go to the services in O’leary. Got to see a lot of cousins whom I haven’t seen in ages.  So that was a good day .

Yesterday when we got home from work Earls Mom and Aunt were waiting for us to drop Brooke off for the weekend. Was wonderful to see her when we pulled in the driveway !!  We had a great evening , Karla dropped in after work before heading out to do grocery shopping and home.  Brooke slept till almost 8 this morning, and is now down for her morning nap.

Will be taking her shopping later today , I have to pick up a few groceries and some of her toys need new batteries so I guess we’ll head to the $$ store for those. 

Brooke has a new word now, when she does something (moves a chair, or puts a toy away) she says Dare ! (There).  as in all done. haha too cute.  she also says dear dear . 

amazing how much they change in such a short period of time, in just 2 weeks she is so much more mobile and understands so much more (she now knows what no means).  

She has 2 more teeth coming thru on the bottom that will make 6 on the bottom when they are all the way up. and 4 on the top. 

Not  a lot to report from this end been pretty quiet around here, basically going to work, home, make supper, head down to Vibe and go walking at the wellness center for half hour or so by that time its 7:30 and time to get things ready for work the next day or get any errands done that need to be done.  

Well I must run, throw some clothes in the washer and then head down to Vibe while Brooke is napping. 

Hope everyone is having a good weekend , thanks for stopping by

and always remember:

Being Happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect, it just means you’ve learned to look beyond the imperfections. 

Here are a couple pictures of Brooke ready to go, first she tried on 2 outfits, but we ended up going with Sully from Monsters Inc.

Here are a couple I took the other day.

Brooke has found a new use for her piano.

Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween !!

Here are a couple pictures, Brooke giving mommy some flowers before we left and a couple of Brooke with Mommy after the graduation ceremony.

Here is one of Brooke playing with her cousin Calliegh, who is 13 months older than Brooke.

And here is one of the photo’s taken at Friendship Park on Sunday, Will post more when we get them back. 

Have to run, Brooke is demanding my attention. 

Have a wonderful day folks and thanks for stopping by.

here are a few snapshots I took.