In January I learned that I can be a pancake genius! I made a Wall-e, ninja turtles, letters and a Dragon (pictured below, can you see it?) I had to get creative because we were eating a lot of pancakes due to the lack of much money.
In February I discovered
Honeyvillegrain.com wonderful website...but mostly I discovered their powdered cheese. Which was great. We also were fortunate to get to see Texas' record breaking snowfall. We even got to play in it.
March was a long month for me. I was going stir crazy because I was ready for Owen to be born. My wonderful mommy took the boys for the month. Xander spent his 3rd birthday at grandmas, and I had Owen on the 26th. Owen was born with a knot in his cord but was entirely healthy and had no other problems. Boy were we happy to see that sweet little boy.
In April on the 4th we were reunited with the rest of our boys, and they got to meet Owen for the first time. Mikey turned 4 and we got a small swing set to celebrate. We had a lot of kid mischief this month because mom was busy with the baby. Xander and Gavin found a black stamp pad. We were able to get it off of Gavin. But Xander stamped all of his hair pitch black. We washed his hair over and over but we never fully got it out. It ended up turning his white hair pink. The next week, Mikey found our clippers and shaved dots all over Xander and Gavins heads...easy fix for the pink hair, we shaved it off because of the bald spots. Also we started getting to know our wonderful neighbors Wendel and Rosie, who have now become our adopted Texas grandparents.
May was a fun month because we had all the Compton cousins (minus mason) at our house for Owen's blessing. And I learned how to make my own ice cream cake. Instead of having to pay $30 for a small one from DQ. I also turned 23 on the 18th.
Uncle Marshall got off his mission in June. We all packed up in our little Oldsmobile, every seatbelt filled and we were busting at the seams. We went out to Great Grandpa Adams' house and Daddy took Mikey and Xan fishing. They both caught their first fish on the 4th. Then we got a babysitter and me and all my siblings (minus Garry & Keith) went to Silver Dollar City for an entire day. SO MUCH FUN! We got the chance to stay for Aunt Lilly's baptism and Gavin turned 2 on the 28th.
July Started off slow. Wendel taught me how to tune my piano and let me borrow his tools so I could get it tuned. Mikey and Xander discovered Legos, and we paid a visit to our Chamberlain cousins here in Texas. We all went to a place called Jump it with bounce houses and blow up slides. The kids LOVED it. After we were done there, Heather offered to dye my hair. It was pretty thrilling to dye my hair for the first time. And I decided to go all out and do Red. Loved it and will probably dye it red again. By the end of the month we had gotten really busy preparing daddy to go to Afghanistan.
August was hard on me because thats when Mike left overseas. I knew I wouldn't see him again for almost 2 months so me and the boys stayed at my moms house in Missouri. I tried to keep my schedule full so I didn't get too mopey and it worked most of the time. I visited as many of my relatives as I could, both Compton and Adams relatives. It was a lot of fun being with family members that I hadn't seen in a long time. Every morning I'd take a picture of the sun rising and send it to mike because it was the same sun he had just seen set over in Afghanistan. We video chatted as much as we could but foreign internet always disconnects randomly. So it really was a game of chance as to how long we talked. During the hottest part of the month, moms air conditioning broke. We basically spent 2 whole days outside playing in the water. We also went out to lunch with Gramie, Aunt Sarah, Aunt Dawn, and Aunt Analla (and all the cousins that go with), the boys discovered Star Wars, went to Bas Pro with Aunt Sarah and her kids, went to Great Grandma Willis' house and played with lots of second cousins, found our first frog to play with, and had a birthday party for our new friend Brandon Craven.
September started off with me seeing some of my old friends. We visited Tiffany Goodfriend (met at girls camp our first year) and her daughters, and Samantha Baker (friends since grade school) and her son came over to moms house on occasion to play as well. It was nice having them both so close. The boys spent their mornings trying to get grandpa to come out of his shop and play, and spent all their afternoons outside with their uncles. One night we did the armor of God with paper sacks for FHE. The boys thought they'd been put directly into Star Wars with all that gear on. When I felt a little crowded the boys and I went out together. Sometimes out to eat, and sometimes to a cousins house. Owen got big while daddy was away and decided he wanted to start crawling. Stacey Compo was visiting Springfield and heard that we were in Willard and dropped by to see us. We've been friends since 6th grade and it was so much fun to have her around for a bit. We went out to Great Grandma Adams' house and the timing was just so that I got to see cousins that I hadn't seen in years and their kids. That was a SUPER fun day. I got the chance to go up to the St. Louis Temple where we got married. That day helped me a lot because even though Mike was on the other side of the world, we were still married for forever. We spent some more time at Gramie and Papas house. And this whole month we had become really good friends with Brandon, so we all went to the Zoo. We were preparing to leave but I had to go visit Sarah again. She had just moved out of a little town home into a nice new rental house. And, we found out we were getting another cousin.
The first of October Hyrum and I left for Texas in my car with all of our belongings to go get the house ready for Daddy to come home. Grandpa and Grandma were right behind us in their new van with the munchkines. Even though daddy wasn't there, it was SO good to be home. Finally we were reunited with our Daddy on the 4th. We decided to get mike a rolling craftsman tool chest and a BBQ grill for all his hard work in Afghanistan. Mike took a week off when he got home and the rest of October was just plain wonderful because Dad was home. Daddy turned 27 and to celebrate we went to the Dallas air show and got to see an F22 live! And the blue Angels. Very crowded but very fun.
My ears had been popping randomly ever since we came back from Missouri after Marshall got home. So in November I went and got my ears checked out. I ended up coming out of my appointment with a prescription for Shananagans. Free Lazar Tag and Go-Karts. Who knew? Gavin discovered his inner ninja, and has given sever bumps and bruises to his family members from rough housing. We spent Thanksgiving with Gramie and Papa. Our entire Compton side was all together for a day. Quite the feat if you ask me.
Just after we got our Christmas tree put up in December, Mike got another job offer. But this was stateside, and he could come home every weekend. But just before he left we got to see Mike and Michelle Arnold (friends from KC) and after they left I realized I didn't even get a pic of me and Michelle together. Dang it! So off Mike went again, and off we headed to Missouri for the holidays. This time I got to see Kristin Kline (another friend from highschool) because she was visiting Springfield. I helped Mom find a family to get rid of her corner couch that she's had for YEARS. (she's recovered it at least 3 times). Our friend, and adopted uncle, Brandon told us he was going to be baptized. On the 21st I stayed up with Joseph, Nancyann, Hyrum, and Brandon and we watched the Lunar eclipse. Everyone (but Garry and Sheri) came home for the holidays. First Marshall and Nanc, then Keith. We finally got an updated picture (mostly) of the family, and then there was Christmas. A house full of crazy people. The guys got marshmallow guns and were terrorizing the house. Seriously though, it was a blast. Then we headed to Compton's for a while. Daddy was only home for the weekend and then headed back to work. We ended the year with Me and Tiffany on a road trip up to Nauvoo, we went to Todd and Amy Guison's wedding. Which was wonderful. All in all this year has been a fun filled experience.
