Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
We had a great New Year this year. We were glad to see the end of 2008. It was definitely a year of many ups and downs. Obviously our biggest up was the birth of Isabella and the jury is still out on if the lay-off is an up or a down.

My Mom flew in the day after we got home from Virginia. She was going to come out in the middle of January, but her cousin was having a surprise 70th birthday party, so she changed her tickets and came out early.

We all went to the surprise party. They did a great job of surprising him! He was definitely shocked. He's like an uncle to me, so it was great to see him and his family. He has done so much to be supportive of my mom and help her with us kids. When I was 18 and needed a break from my life he let me come and live with him for a few months. He participated in our wedding and again in Isabella's blessing. He has always been there for me when asked.

That party was early on New Year's eve. I wasn't going to have a party here this year because our November and December were WAY too crazy to plan one. It was just going to be Amber, Paul, Mom, Frank and I. Then Heather called the day before and said she had a babysitter, and so did Stefanie and Amy, since Amber and Paul were already coming over I invited them as well. Well, Paul got sick and Amber was jet-lagged from going to England so they both bailed. I was glad that I had invited my other friends as well, or it would have been a VERY boring New Year's Eve. They all came over after we got home from the birthday party. We ate lots of food and played Taboo. Boys against Girls. The girls ended up winning, despite the boys cheating! They were here until 2 in the morning! This was the first time in quite a few years that I managed to make it until New Year's day. There were lots of laughs that night, despite "someone having to invite their MOM!" :)

New Year's day Mom and I went to see Twilight with Stefanie, Heather, and Heather's MIL. It was a good movie. I wasn't expecting much. I tried to read the book and got 75 pages into it and hated it so I never finished it. I had heard good things about the movie, so I went with an open mind. I was quite surprised how much I liked it. Would I see it 6 times like some people? No, but I will probably see the sequel's and I might even read the book. All the hype about the guy in it being gorgeous is ridiculous. He's not at all!!

After we got back from the movie we went to Alyson's for dinner. For 6 months Alyson and I have been saying we would get together and have never managed to make it. She invited Stefanie and Wesley and Frank, Mom and me over for dinner New Year's day. We had a great time and it was fun to get to know her family more. Frank was excited that he would be able to have dinner with some of my friends and drink alcohol (Alyson's husband is not Mormon, either).

Mom was here the rest of the week until Saturday. We didn't do much except shop and take down the Christmas decorations. I should say, Mom and Frank took down the decorations while I finished Bevan's beanie from Christmas.