Xander and Curtis

Xander and Curtis
Our little men

Friday, January 6, 2012

Top Moments of 2011

It's that time of year again.  A time for resolutions and reflections on the past year.  I'm going to go ahead and take a look at the milestones I've pasted in 2011.  Like last year I'm not going to rank them so much as go chronologically.  However, this year I do have three milestones that are by far more important than the rest and I've ranked those.

January 1st - Bringing in the New Year with Pam.  For the first time we had someone to kiss when the New Year happened.  So we made out for New Year's in every time zone of the United States except for Hawaii since it was getting kind of late.  It was a really romantic time.  Unlike this year when I was sick and puked January 1st.

February was temple month.  I was able to go with the Huxholds to Snowflake and then I was also able to go several times to Mesa.  It was wonderful.

April had lots of things that happened.  Not all of them necessarily milestones, but certainly highlights to the year that made it special for me.

There was touring Nauvoo with my family.  I did this twice.  Once with the Larsens and Johansens who I hadn't seen in a long time and once with my wife after having just married her.

A night of Epic Winning with my brothers who gave me an awesome bachelor party.

April 23rd by far outranks everything else this year.  I married Pam.  My Aunt Linda remarked that she had never seen me so happy before.  It was an incredible moment when I saw Pam in her wedding dress for the first time.  Our first kiss as man and wife was so intense that people had to break us up.  It was an amazing day.

The next milestone is another ranked one.  Getting Married was number one and coming in at number three was the Honeymoon!  Driving through the wonderful state of Illinois and then flying down to Mexico!  It was truly incredible!

Our trip to Chitzen Itza was very scenic.  It was truly amazing to be at the sight of one of the New Ancient Wonders of the World.  (Yes the title is a little confusing, but the original list of seven ancient wonders was made by the Greeks and therefore doesn't include things like the ruins that I saw or even the Great Wall of China.)

Xcaret was AMAZING!  So many animals!  And the night show was fantastic.  This is most definitely a world class resort with world class entertainment.

And that was April.  Lots and lots of fun.

May was a very important month for Pam and I.  Soon after our honeymoon Pam started taking pregnancy tests to confirm what we already pretty much knew.  Finding out that I was going to be a parent was the second most important milestone to me this year.  It's hard to rank any of them.  But my wedding, my child, and my honeymoon are the three events that mean the most to me.

June 4th We got to see a baptism and celebrate our marriage with family and friends in Utah.  By this time it was already official that Pam was having a baby.

June 5th This day wasn't such a good day for me, but it was still very special.  My grandmother had a stroke and as I gave her a blessing I once again felt that my Grandpa Maynard was there.  As I struggled to give her a blessing, a blessing that told her that she wasn't going to recover, she lifted her hand and touched mine.  Like I said, not necessarily a good day, but a special and spiritual one.

It was on that same trip to Utah that I got worried about Pam and the baby and took them to the hospital, where.... We had our first ultrasound!  Xander has certainly grown a lot since then and I'm looking forward to the next ultrasound that we are going to have!  At the last one he weighed in at 4.3 pounds!

June 16th It was the first time that I got to spend time with my wife on her birthday!  We went to two movies that night, X-Men First Class and Green Lantern.  Pam's Mom was also there.

I'm not sure when this event happened but we did baptisms for the dead with Pam and it was wonderful.

In July we met Hope the Squirrel also known as the Rez Cat as well as his brother Chance who didn't make it.  Hope has been a fun addition to our family.

August I started my second year as a teacher.  I feel very happy that I have a job in the profession that I was educated for and that I do something that I love.  Everyday is not loved equally by any means and some days I don't even love it at all; but I am happy to be a part of this great and noble profession.

October was a month of anniversaries.  It had the anniversary of when I started dating Pam officially, when I started to realize that I loved Pam and was also the anniversary of asking Pam to marry me!  We don't seem to waste much time in our relationship.  We also got to make our special chili for the chili cook off again. It was yummy.

October 31st I had way too much fun as Pam puts it.  She put me to work in a Haunted House and yes, perhaps I did have a little too much fun but it's a Haunted House and I was the finale, I had to make it worth it for the kids to come all that way!  Not a milestone by any means but certainly a highlight.

November, my second trip to Ohio, much better than my first one.  Was expensive to get there.  I got to spend time with my wife's family and even go Israeli Folk Dancing!  Thanksgiving was a little rough because I got sick for most of it and Pam missed her family prayer, but all and all a great trip.

December 21st Pam's Endowment.  After such an epic struggle to get her the right endowment with the right information on it we were able to participate in the beautiful ceremony.  The trip to Utah had lots of highlights but this one by far was the most important and special to me.  There I was in the temple and Pam was right there with me!  What a feeling it was!

Christmas Eve in Stone and Christmas in Smithfield!  The Christmas play, always a treat.  Sean said the way I held the doll baby Jesus was creepy since it's not a real baby.  I say one it's called good acting and two pretty soon I'm going to have a real baby to hold so what's wrong with a little practice?

After Christmas Pam and I did sealings with my parents and then our family had an early celebration for my 27th birthday!

All in all I'd say that I've had a great year.  Looking forward to the treasured moments of 2012!

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