And so it ends (and begins)...

I guess it is about time that I finish up blogging for the month of December and the year of 2008. I'm sure I've kept you all in suspense, wondering what we've been up to.

Talya had a lot of "firsts" for the month. She took a bath in the bathtub for the first time. She also tried cereal and bananas, both which she loves. She also loves to be in the door-way jumper and the exercaucer. She rolled over several times in a row, and is starting to even sit up for a short time. It funny to see all the new things she can do now that she is becoming more "vertical".

We did a lot of fun, holiday type activities in December, mostly due to the lack-there-of last year. We took lots of time decorating the house and the Christmas tree (I didn't even put up one decoration last year... not even a tree.) Trey and Talya really enjoyed just sitting under the tree and staring at the lights.

My family joined us at the Springs Preserve for dinner and to enjoy the Christmas lights and a train ride one night.

We REALLY enjoyed the inches of snow we received on the 15th. Trey was just in heaven! For some reason, when it's really cold outside, it doesn't seem to matter to a 2 year old. He could care less if he we dressed in just a t-shirt and shorts. He was determined to be outside playing in the snow.

We listened to tons of Christmas music and drank lots of hot chocolate all month long and even enjoyed our favorite treat of Carmel Apple Ciders from Starbucks a few times. (Not to mention A TON of other treats and goodies from friends and family.)

We had a great Christmas Eve/Birthday dinner with Jordan's side of the family, celebrating Morgan's birthday. It's always a treat to eat Allyson's good food.

Christmas morning was especially fun as Trey was so excited to see if Santa ate his cookies, to dive into his stocking, and to open gifts. At one time, he was half done opening a present and noticed his cousin had just opened a "Mater" from the CARS movie. Trey instantly threw down his half opened gift, not caring what it was, and ran over to see Mater. It was so funny. We quickly found Trey's Mater from under the tree and let him open it to see that Santa had brought him one too.

Christmas Day afternoon we started our annual drive to Vail, Colorado, only to find the I-15 had been closed off in Beaver, Utah due to so many accidents on the road from the heavy snow. We had to stay there over night, instead of in Richfield like planned. We had such a great time in Vail this year. Jordan got in 4 full days and 2 half days of snowboarding. I was able to board 2 half days, which was great, considering I've taken off the last two years. Trey, again, was obsessed with the snow. We bought him a little sled to be pulled around on and saying he loved his sled is an understatement. We celebrated New Year's up there too, which included enjoying a fireworks show at the bottom of one of the ski lifts and then playing board games with all the nieces and nephews. I regret not taking more pictures while we were there, but it always took so long to get the kids and myself all bundled up to go outside that I usually forgot the camera by the time we left the condo. Oh well, there's always next year!

We always love how shows like "The Soup" recap the year and show funny and ridiculous things that have gone on this past year. Looking back, we sure had a great year. Talya came into our lives, we got a new backyard, Jordan finished a Ragnar race, and many, many other wonderful events and accomplishments that we'll always remember. Here's to the start of an amazing 2009 and the beginning of working on my Blurb family scrapbook to record all these posts since the start of "The Bunk House". (THAT is going to take me forever!!) I don't like to set New Year's resolutions because I never keep them (why set myself up for disappointment?!) but I think I will have a mission statement of sorts. It's the year to "Be Skinny!" That includes my ever-on-going quest to lose "the baby weight" (from Talya & Trey) and to other things, like decluttering and organizing our house/lives of the things that don't really matter (like cutting back on bills for things that we can afford to live without), to being more "healthy" in the gospel, like working on FHE and our food storage. So, here's to better health, better minds, better testimonies, and a better year!

The End!!

With love,
The Bunkers