Thursday, January 1, 2009

Goodbye 2008...Hello 2009

January 2008
--We started out 2008 in the Philippines with Ritchell's family. It was a great time! We really enjoyed our time there with family and friends. Dan turned 27. AnaBelle got to meet Mom's side of the family for the first time.

February 2008
--February was Ritchell's month. She turned 29! She got her US citizenship! It was a very great month. We also started the petition for Ritchell's mother to come here to the US.

March 2008
--Not much significant happenings in March. We worked, we spent a lot of time planning our new home and getting the paperwork in order for our loan.
April 2008
--We started construction on our new house! Dan had his graduation ceremony and a nice big party afterward.
May 2008
--Construction on our home really took off. We got the concrete in and a lot of the framing done. The real highlite of the month though was at the end of the month when we went to Florida for a family reunion.

June 2008
--AnaBelle turned 1 year old! Our home was finished with framing, windows, and rough HVAC and electrical. Heidi and Lee came to visit us. We also went to Idaho to see Grandma! At the end of the month, I was laid off at J Ballard Homes.

July 2008
--July was a difficult month. I was unemployed and spent most of my time looking for a new job and also supervising the construction of our new home. The home was mostly finished at the end of the month with the exeption of cabinets and a few other miscellaneous items.

August 2008
--I found a new job! It was and has been a blessing to have employment at Condie Construction. We finished most of our home...except for cabinets. AnaBelle loves the new carpet.

September 2008
--Ritchell and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. We can hardly believe what has happened in such a short time. We also found out that we are expecting our second child May 15th, 2009! We finally officially finished our home and moved in.

October 2008
--A good month. We were busy with work and getting settled into our new home. We enjoyed spending a lot of time with my sister's family.

November 2008
--November flew by. We were notified that Ritchell's mother will be interviewed for her visa in December.

December 2008
--We had a wonderful December. It was great to have so much family and friends here with us to share Christmas with. We are still enjoying the company of family and friends. We have truly been blessed in 2008.

2008 was full of surprises. In the end, we have no regrets. It was a great year!

In 2009, we look forward to having Ritchell's mother arrive here to live with us. She passed her interview in Manila and is currently awaiting the arrival of her visa so that we can fly her here!

We look forward to the birth of our second baby in May! We are excited to find out what to expect on January 6th!

AnaBelle is growing fast and will be 2 in June.

Happy New Year!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday!

ROAST said...

What a crazy fun year for you guys. Congrats.

tracyp said...

Thanks for the laugh with the Abbot and Castello bit.

Mike