Favorite Memories of 2011, part 1

A cute friend of mine posted on her blog a fun FHE they did where they talked about all their memories of the past year and made a poster of some of the big things that happened. (Thanks for the idea Em!) I thought that sounded fun, so we copied them and had a similar Family Home Evening this past Monday. (If I've never mentioned this before, Rylee calls it "Heavenly Fam Neeving" It is pretty funny...) Anyway - Since my kids are still pretty little and don't have a great concept of time or when things happened, so I decided to make a little slide show of some of our favorite memories that we could watch and talk about. I take pictures of almost everything, so it captured most memories we had. I thought I could just pull 2 or 3 pictures a month.... But if you know me and pictures, I can never seem to limit myself! So, I made a slide show of about 110 pictures that went through the first half of the year.... I am not so great with the concept of less is more! Anyway - Now, we have another great FHE lined up for next week. The second half of the year! After we went through them all and made a big long list, we each picked a favorite. Here is what we came up with. Our favorite family memory was our trip to St George in January to visit Grandma and Grandpa. We went to the Johnson Farm and saw real dino tracks, went to a kangaroo zoo bounce place the kids loved, played at a park, went swimming, got to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa and we also got to see our friend's the White's from Las Vegas. They also introduced Logan to Chuck-A-Rama for the first time. (Maybe not such a great thing...) It was a perfect little get away and we had a lot of fun just being together and having some warmer weather and getting over our post Christmas blues! Daddy couldn't decide if his favorite was going to see David Beckham at the Real-Galaxy game in March (where we nearly FROZE!!!)....Or going to U2 in May with the Lifferth's. That was an AWESOME concert and was one of Mom's favorite memories, too.
Mom's favorite memory was her surprise getaway for her 30th birthday to Salt Lake with daddy. She had no idea and Daddy did a great job planning a perfect little overnight trip and took care of a babysitter and everything. We ate at lots of yummy places, relaxed and Daddy went shopping all day with her! She also got her new camera which is her favorite new toy! Logan's favorite memory of the first six months was his Jedi Training Birthday party for his sixth birthday. He had a sweet lightsaber cake, too. It was pretty awesome... Rylee's favorite memory was going to Disney Princesses on Ice with mommy in March.
Avery couldn't really pick one.... We just picked one for her. She started nursery in March. Well... she started going there for a little bit. It took quite awhile before she really stayed there. I think it was about September before she really started liking nursery.
And now....for our favorite picture of the first six months.... Miss Avery eating her own poop in January. Pretty awesome, right??? It is good for a laugh now. Not so much then. I'm just glad that I grabbed my camera.

Here are a few of our other favorites.....

New Year's Oil Cakes at Uncle Ric's house
Rylee started Sunbeams!
Rylee started Tumbling in January
Aggie season tickets - Lots of basketball games! We also went to a few gymnastics meet and Logan loved going to the hockey games with Daddy
Our fancy candlelight Valentine's dinner
Trip to Hardware Ranch in February
Going to Juanito Bandito in February with Boman's
Logan's school Ho-Down with Mom in February
Logan's special friends day at school with Grandma and Grandpa
Logan's Special Me day at school in March
Avery's first set of stitches (and the first set for any of the kids at our house - Quite traumatic for Mom!)
Logan's first time to a Jazz game and a Grizzly hockey game
Trip to Boise to visit our dental school friends, the Scott's in March
1st time ice skating as a family
Rylee's 4th bday and Princess PJ party
Rylee got potty trained and had a Potty Party
Going to Baby Animal Days in the snow
Our pet frogs Tiana and Batman
Rylee's Princess tea party and she was in the newspaper in April!
Mom's trip to Women's Conference with friends
Rylee's Joy School Graduation
We planted our 1st garden
Logan's 1st Piano Recital in May
Fieldtrip to the fire station in May with Rylee's Joy School (Logan and Avery got to go, too)
Logan's Kindergarten program where he square danced and did poi balls
Logan's Teddy Bear picnic at school
Uncle Jeff's high school graduation
Avery's 1st real hair cut in June
Logan finished Kindergarten
Logan went to British soccer camp
Rylee went to Princess day camp
All of our kids contracted Salmonella from our pet frogs!!! Not such a great memory...
We babysat our cousin Ethan for a few days and we found out Aunt Heather was pregnant!
Logan had his 6th birthday
Mom and Dad saw the Beach Boys in concert with both Grandmas and Grandpas
Logan and Rylee went to swimming lessons
Logan played his first season of Tball with Mom as his coach

Oops....that list got a little long! I guess we had a pretty fun 2011! Stay tuned for part 2 next week. We had a lot of fun doing this and thinking about all our memories and I think it will be a new tradition at our house.
We also talked about a few things we wanted to do in 2012. Rylee said she would really like to go to Disney on Ice again this year and Logan said he wanted to go to Disneyland. When I told him that we probably wouldn't be going this year, he said, "But we go EVERY year!" I had to tell him that we might be skipping this year. I didn't think we went every year, but when we started thinking about it, it has been pretty close. I think 2012 will be one year we skip. Logan's second choice was Sea World. The kid thinks big! We'll have to see about that one....