2010

I definitely didn't blog much in 2010. I still blame it on the blog post a day for a whole month. (You can go back and find it if you are interested.) It pretty much killed me, but I did it. It was hard. But, here I am now. I don't really make resolutions, so don't expect me to say that I am going to blog more. If you see it, then you get it. BUT, I did figure I'd do a re-cap of the last half of the year (and maybe some stuff I missed) considering I didn't blog for the last half of the year. Don't expect any pictures at this point, that is asking a lot. Maybe I can update the sidebar pictures, what do you think about that idea? Maybe tomorrow. Maybe.

Where to start, I don't even know! I'll just jump in, so this may be a little random and crazy. I think I'll do list format, and then expound if I need to. That way my fingers (and sanity) will still be intact when I am finished, AND I'll still have a desire to do another post SOON.

Bryce - That kid, you just HAVE to love him! He is CRUISING through his scout stuff. He shot through Tenderfoot, 2nd Class, 1st Class, and is now sitting pretty at Star (but only for a little bit longer.) He has earned about 15 merit badges so far, and is not slowing down anytime soon. Okay, maybe he will once soccer starts again. Wait, it never stopped. (I was supposed to be doing list format.)
Excelling at Piano (still)
Turned 12 and ordained a Deacon
Outgrew ANOTHER suit
We FINALLY Painted his room. It is an awesome Red and Black, with silhouette images of him (and Chase) on the walls in soccer action shots. There are also some cool quotes and other things. I'll try to get pictures posted (as soon as they clean it up!)
6th grade now, and "afraid" of girls
Academic All Stars for Science (this means he got the highest score on his science test, IN THE WHOLE SCHOOL!)
Student of the term for academics. (Bryce is not at all "nerdy" though, he makes being smart, cool.) He has gotten a few of his friends interested in reading, and is working on the Reading Merit badge right now.

Ambri - She is still "Taylor Swift's Biggest Fan", and has every one of her songs on her iPod.
Turned 9 this year and started 4th grade
She loves school, and still wants to be a teacher, because of the great 3rd and 4th grade teachers that she has/had
Still doing soccer and piano
Student of the Term in June for Academics, which is very hard to do, because there are so many good students, and there are only 3 chosen for the whole school year!
Last year her "Rock Band" did a great recital in their music class. They Rocked! This inspired her to buy her own guitar and she is working on it again this year, with her awesome music teacher at school.

Chase - He had an awesome "Wings of Wonder" field trip at the end of Kindergarten, where they went to a Butterfly farm and saw all kinds of butterflies and got to go into the greenhouses where they fly around and live. Amazing!
Kindergarten graduation last year and thoroughly got into each and every song that they sang for the program. He has quite the personality.
Turned 6 over the summer and then started 1st grade.
Soccer
Chase is an amazing reader. He is challenged at school, and reads the scriptures very well.
He was Santa in his class play, and was hilarious!

Oakli - She also has been doing soccer. She turned 5 over the summer, got her shots, and zipped off to Kindergarten. She has waited for this day for SO long. She is loving every day of it, and she brings mom along with her 2 days a week to help out. She asks mom every day if she is coming to help out, just to see if she can talk Mom into coming a little extra.
Oakli was also student of the term, for the first term of Kindergarten. Way to go!

Doug - In June brought a new challenge for Doug, he was called to be the bishop of our ward. He has made some interesting changes, and we have been blessed as a family for all of our sacrifices.
We had a good wheat harvest this last year (17 acres) and then part of that land, Doug planted with more blueberries. The rest he put back into wheat for this coming year.
We made it through a strange flood in June, of all months, and the blueberry harvest was good, better than 2009, so that was a blessing.
Doug participated again, in the Newport Marathon in June, and finished again, just like he always does!
November took Doug and Kari to Santa Barbara where they did another marathon, hoping it would be warm. It was warmer than Oregon.
The summer found us at OMSI with Grandma and Grandpa Baxter, boating, water skiing (Ambri tried for the first time) Doug water skied with his own flag (hilarious, maybe I can figure out how to put the video up... you know when the skier goes down and you have someone hold the flag up? Doug skied with his own and held it up. So funny!) We also spent time camping, swimming, a little fishing, and time with cousins.

Halloween found us with 2 pirates, a rockstar, and a security guard. We had a wonderful Christmas that we got to spend with Grandma and Grandpa Baxter here for a whole week, what a surprise for us! All in all, we had a wonderful 2010! Here's to hoping for a great 2011.