Haven's 12th Birthday

It is official…Haven is 12 years old. He is a “tween”. We celebrated his birthday in Logan with the Atkins family. We all sang Happy Birthday, Haven blew out his candles and we ate cake. That was about the extent of it. It's fun to have his birthday on Christmas because all the family is together but on the other hand, we don’t usually do a big party with gifts since we all give Christmas/birthday gifts on the same day. I think 2009 may be the year to implement mid-year birthday parties so he can have a celebration with all his friends and do an activity.

Christmas with the Atkins

Christmas arrived on the same day it does every year at the Atkins house. This year was pretty low-key during the holidays. We didn’t over do it with gifts or obligations to do tons of activities. It was just a peaceful holiday – as it should be.

Our family spent Christmas Eve with Katie’s parents and her brother, Andy, who was in town from D.C. We had a very tasty dinner and then played cards until late in the evening. Just as we do every year, we read the story of the birth of Christ from a 19th century Bible Katie’s dad obtained in England while serving his mission there (he found the Bible at an antique shop and traded it for a copy of the Book of Mormon.)

After dreaming of sugarplum fairies, we woke up Christmas Day, opened gifts and had a delicious breakfast. It was a very needed break from the daily hustle and bustle of our regular days.

I DID IT! I'M DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!

I did it! I'm finally finished with school! It took me three years of serious hard work to get to this point but I'm grateful for every moment of the journey.

I took my last final exams today/tonight. When I got home, although I felt a HUGE sense of relief to have everything over with, I had a strange feeling - I didn't know what I was supposed to do. The house was clean, dishes done, laundry done, etc. Haven was working on homework and Kenny was on the computer. I didn't know what I should be doing since I am so use to studying. It was a very weird feeling. I'm sure that feeling will go away very quickly as I get back into a normal life of family, work, cooking meals, keeping the house clean, meeting the neighbors (some for the first time), spending time with friends and keeping Kenny and Haven in check.

There is no doubt I'm glad I'm done with school. I will likely start something up to keep myself busy. I just don't know what that is yet. We'll see what the next chapter in life brings my way :).

A huge THANK YOU to everyone that has supported me through this phase of my life. You have supported not only me but my family as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I wouldn't be at this point in life without your support, love and encouragement.

Leaves and Doggies - a fun mix

Kenny woke up early on Saturday to rake the leaves before the big snow storm. He is brilliant! He laid out a big tarp on the lawn and raked all the leaves on to the tarp. He tied up the tarp with rope, threw the bundle in the back of his truck, and took it to BYU to dump in the recycle bin. This took about 10 or 15 minutes. If he would have bagged all the leaves, it would have taken hours.

We had a little fun with the dogs before Kenny took the leaves away. We threw Dacy in the middle of the leaf pile. She disappeared! The leaves shook for a second then everything was still - she gave up on trying to find her way out of the pile. Cute little Sherby decided to go in after her. He jumped right in the pile and started looking for her. It was really cute!