The Mitchell Family's 2008 Year in Review

January: Graham turned 39 and Angie turned, once again, 29.  Emerson asked, "Why is mom always 29 years old"?

February: We took Emerson skiing for the first time.  She cried pretty much the entire day.  Angie was heard yelling "Suck it up Eme, this is a fun filled family activity that we are going to be enjoying for years to come"!

March: Graham raced in a triathlon.  At least he didn't throw-up in the ocean this year.

April: We went to a Padres game.  This was the record-setting 22 inning game-a whopping 6 hours and 16 minutes.  Didn't go to another game for the rest of the season.

May: Atticus finally says "mum"-he still doesn't say dad.

June: Michelle (a family friend) moved in with us.  Her parents moved to New York and she didn't want to finish her senior year at a new high school, so she moved in with us.  We love her and she has become a part of our family.

July: We went to Megan's wedding (Graham's sister).  I wondered why the groom's dad looked so much like my dad; turns out he is my dad's first cousin.

August: Emerson started 1st grade at her Spanish immersion school.  Her spanish is getting really good.  Thank goodness for the internet and free translation software; without it I couldn't help her with homework.

September: Graham started community college.  He enrolled in one class...soccer.  Graham and I went to Chicago for our 11th anniversary.  Atticus is now calling Graham "momo."

October: Yeah!  Atti finally called Graham "dad."  Marcus, Michelle's brother, has now become a permanent fixture on our couch.  Graham broke his foot in soccer class.  He realized he can't keep up with the 19 year old students that call him "Blue."

November: Atticus turned 2 years old.  Emerson barfed in her class.  She told  us, "Don't worry, I didn't throw up on the floor, I made it to the garbage can"!  Graham got pulled over 3 times within 20 minutes while driving home from Utah.  Good new, he only got 1 ticket.

December: Emerson turned 7, but going on 14.  Marcus moved to New York--Graham cried.

We feel blessed having you in our lives.  We love you and may the spirit of this season carry you throughout the coming year.

Love Graham, Angie, Emerson and Atticus

Merry Christmas!

Let the festivities begin!  Every year on Christmas Eve, we have a breakfast dinner.  We invite our usual crowd of friends, we make homemade waffles, sausages, bacon and eggs and orange juice.  We dress in our pajamas and we enjoy an evening with friends, lots and lots of kids and chaos.  After our breakfast dinner the kids try to present the Nativity story, then we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and have some cake.  After we loaded the kids up with enough sugar, we have them lay down and watch a Christmas movie.  This year they watched Charlie Brown's Christmas.  After everyone goes home and the kids are in bed, Graham and I enjoy watching our traditional viewing of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  Man, I love that movie!

Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

Atticus really enjoyed his cake.

Laying down to enjoy the movie.

Emerson wrote a little letter to Santa and left him some cake and milk.

Emerson and Atticus were very excited for Christmas morning.  It's so much fun watching the kids get so excited.  Even Atti gets into it too.  I think it's because he's watching his sister's reaction and he follows her lead.

Atticus loved his bean bag toss that Santa brought for him.

Even Putty got a little something.

Emerson has been riding her razor scooter all over the house.  

Another Christmas has come and gone.  Every year I have a list of so many things to do before the day arrives and every year Christmas comes way too fast.  I didn't even have time to send out my Christmas cards yet.  The goal now is to send them before the New Year.

We had a wonderful Christmas day.  We enjoyed opening presents and playing and wearing our new things.  The kids are getting more fun every year.  Emerson got sick this year.  She was fine in the morning but by mid afternoon she was throwing up.  The poor kid.  I felt so bad for her, but she was a trooper.  I hope that everyone enjoyed their Christmas.

October Pictures

I just got my camera back from being repaired.   From now on, I will be very careful with my camera.  Don't leave your camera on top of a wobbly box to  take pictures and walk away from it unless you want to spend $250 to get it repaired plus 8 weeks without a camera.  These are just random pictures I had taken in October.

One of Atticus's favorite things to do is play the Wii, especially guitar hero or guitar hero world tour.  Graham loves the fact that his son sings along to Ozzy Osbourne.  He is so cute.  I am going to have to figure out how to show video clips on the blog because he totally tries to rock out.

I have taught my kids well.  They both love to pose for the camera.  Now if only I can get Emerson to stop fake smiling.

Atti gave me some flowers for my birthday.

This is the ring Graham gave me for my "fake" birthday.  I love it!!!

There are three things Atti loves most.  His binkey, his 2 blankies and his "hat".  That is what he calls the headband he wears.  It's actually Emerson's headband from her Belle costume.  He usually wears it like a sweatband and points to it and says, "hat, hat!"  I haven't seen him with it lately though, I think Graham finally hid it or threw it away.

Thanksgiving

It has been over two weeks since Thanksgiving and now is when I post the pictures.  I broke my digital camera at the beginning of October and it has been in the shop for repairs since.  It has been over 8 weeks.  So, I am now using my old camera and I don't take the film in to get developed quickly.  I miss my digital camera.  I hope I get it back soon!

We went to Utah for Thanksgiving this year.  I do not know how long it has been since we spent any holiday with any family.  I don't think Emerson was born yet since the last time we had THanksgiving in Brigham City.

My Family

My kids really had fun with their cousins.  I wish they lived closer.

My Chef of a husband made the entire Thanksgiving meal.  It was delicious!  He even brined his turkey.  It was so juicy and yummy.

All the boys played a little football to work up an appetite.

My grandma didn't make it to my mom's house for Thanksgiving but we went and visited her for a few minutes before we went home.  Grandma's still looking great!

We had a great time seeing family and some of my old friends.  It was short but sweet and I forgot how cold it gets in Utah this time of year.  It was 90 degrees when we left San Diego to Utah and I was complaining how sick and tired I was of the heat.  After a few days in Utah, I was ready for the warmth again, but it was a nice change of scenery for a few days.

Happy Birthday Atticus and Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday, Atticus!

Atticus running around on his birthday in his birthday suit.  Atticus learned a new trick on his 2nd birthday.  He learned how to take all his clothes off.  He's been able to take his pants and his diaper off for a while now, but on his birthday, he learned how to take his shirt off too.  Every time I got him dressed, 2 minutes later he was running around naked and laughing!

My big guy Atticus weighs 26.2 lbs. (30 percentile)and is 34.5" tall (50 percentile).  I can't believe my baby is two already!  He is so much fun and brings so much joy and laughter to our family.  He is quite the little jokester and gets funnier everyday.  He definitely knows what he wants and cannot be talked into anything he doesn't want to do.  He's a talker too even though we don't understand 99% of what he is saying.  

The skull and cross bone red velvet cake.

The dinner menu.

We had a halloween themed dinner party for Atti's birthday.  It was a lot of fun.  Atti really seemed to understand that this party was for his birthday.  Every time we asked who the birthday boy was, he would reach both hands up wide and say "MEEEEE!"

Everybody sang "happy birthday" to Atti and he sang along.  It was so cute when all the kids sang the "cha, cha, cha" he sang along with them.  He loved blowing out his candles.

Trick or Treat!

These are the pumpkins that Atti and Eme carved this year.

I decided to make our costumes this year.  Emerson was a cowgirl.  This was her first year not being a princess.  Atticus, was a cowboy.  He refused to wear his hat.  I was their Indian.  I do not know exactly what Graham was.  He never told me what he wanted to be so I didn't make his costume.

Atticus did not want to wear the cowboy hat.  He would only wear his firefighter hat.

Always hamming it up for the camera!

Michelle was a cowgirl too!

All the candy Atticus collected.  Look how cute he looks trying to lift up his basket with one hand because he wanted to hold onto his candy in his other hand.

Graham tries to find any excuse to wear this mullet wig.  It creeps me out every time he wears it.  I don't know why it creeps me out, maybe it's because it looks so natural on him!

Swimming With Dolphins!

I got to be a dolphin trainer for the day at Sea World!  

Don't Maggie and I look like we belong together?

My friend Laura and her boys gave me this gift for my "fake birthday."

I know, my birthday isn't really until January.  Most of you know I don't really know when I was born so when I was adopted, I got assigned a birthday ( January 10th).  I have never enjoyed my birthday because of this.  As a joke, I said if I could pick my own birthday, it would be October 4th because 4 is my favorite number and October is in the fall which is my favorite season and I want to be a Libra.  So, some of my friends now celebrate this day as my birthday.

Maggie trying to catch the fish I threw at her.  

Dancing to my own beat with Maggie

Pacino, taking me for a ride on his dorsal fin.  I successfully hung on the entire ride!

Petting and feeding the momma dolphins and soon-to-be mommas in the "maternity ward."

I had sooooo much fun swimming with the dolphins.  It was an amazing experience, one I will never forget.  Dolphins have been my favorite since I was a little girl.  I asked for a dolphin for Christmas after visiting Sea World when I was a little girl.  Santa never brought me one and I have been always so very disappointed.  I have always dreamed of what it would be like to swim with them.  They are such beautiful creatures.  I think I had a silly little girl giddy smile the entire day I was with them.  I will never forget this.  Thanks for the dream come true Laura, Elam, Miles and Jack.  It was the best present ever!!!!!!!