A Look Back: December 2007

2007 was probably one of the most eventful years of our lives.

We began the year celebrating Jacob's 4th birthday at McDonalds. Grandma Patton won a drawing for a birthday party there and Jacob wouldn't think of having his party anywhere else. Thomas the Train was the theme of the party and Grandma Kay Kay made the cake.

At the beginning of February, Jill & I took our first trip to Las Vegas together. We spent 4 days seeing all of the sights and donating some of our money to the state of Nevada. Later that same month, Larry, Jill's dad, found out he had colon cancer. He fought through months of chemo treatments and beat it. In fact, he found out last Friday he is completely clean!

In March, Jacob began his 3rd soccer season with the Tigers. He has thoroughly enjoyed playing with this team and made several friends including Ethan, Zoe, & Natalie.

Joshua celebrated his 2nd birthday in April by inviting all of the family over to our house. Grandma Kay Kay made a Lightning McQueen cake and there were enough "cars" around the house for everyone to play with.

At the beginning of May, Jacob graduated from his Awannas church class and received his Bear Award in the cubbies group. This month also marked the first of several trips to the Dallas zoo. We had purchased a membership in October 2006 and this was the first time in 2007 we were able to visit and the weather was fantastic.

The water spray ground that was built a year earlier finally opened up in June now that all water restrictions were lifted in the city. We received a ridiculous amount of rain the first half of the year and all of the lakes that were 10 to 25 feet below normal were actually overflowing. The water park took the place of the normal playground as the kids favorite place to go outdoors for the summer.

The end of June & first of July marked the first time we traveled to another country as a family of 4. With new laws in place, we were all required to get passports to travel to Cancun, Mexico. We had a party of 18 other family members join us including Jill's Grandpa Denton, the Cramers of Ohio, Michigan, & Indiana and the Dentons of Texas.

In August, we headed over to Shreveport, Louisiana to visit John, Beverly & family. The boys had a blast going to the Sci-Port Discovery Center and stood with 20 feet of a passing train.

Once we came back to Frisco, we officially found out we were going to be moving to Houston. I received a promotion and began training the last week of August in Dallas.

The third week of September I began commuting to Houston on Tuesdays and returning to Dallas on Fridays. We put our house up for sale on September 24th and it has been viewed by potential buyers 50 times through the remainder of the year. We have had 2 offers on the house but neither was willing to accept any counter offering. We seem to be in the top 2 or 3 of everyone's house hunting list, but it looks like we will be selling the house in 2008.

Our October vacation took us to Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio to visit at least 25 relatives over the course of 1 week. The boys dressed as Power Rangers for Halloween and Jacob completed his 4th and final season with the Tigers.

November & December continued my commute to Houston as Jill & the boys made several trips to visit. They even surprised me by showing up on my birthday along with my parents & sister. Wow, what a great surprise! The holidays are nearly over and we were able to spend time with both Grandparents & siblings.

What a year! Here's hoping 2008 is a little less hectic. Happy New Year to all!