Highlights of 2009

As I think about this past year, i think about how much my little family has been blessed!! It has definately been a year i will NEVER forget! i think we had been put through more fun, exciting, loving, hard, difficult, and trying times than I have ever experienced in one year, but I am sooo greatful for all that has happened! Here are a few things we did this past year...Its so fun to go back and look at pictures of the things we had done...I hope you enjoy them as well!!This is what my little princess started out as the beginning of 2009!!
I started the year off expecting and started looking like this!!
These 2 little love birds are yes...still in love! This was the little munchkins at the beginning of 09...

and this is them towards the end!! Cute kids, I must say! (i love how lincoln is double in size, and britlyn is still the same haha) we were able to attend the wedding of my brother kresdon and his wife Ali in March...seems like that was just yesterday! And now they are expecting a baby girl the 1st part of april!Britlyn had a great Easter! She actually had a great time this year finding easter eggs!!We had a rough month of May...We had to send daddy off on another deployment! Probly the worst day of the year..We took a little family trip to Vegas to see daddy one last time before he left for Iraq! It was such a fun time!! We went to the M&M factory and to the shark reef aquarium!Britlyn got to celebrate her 2nd Birthday twice this year! One was an early party with dad, and the other one was in delta on her actual birthday june 19th!

We had a great 4th of July and 24th of July in Delta! Britlyn learned to really love parades this summer!!
We spent quite a few weekends in the canyon camping with grandma and grandpa Hughes!!

Britlyn is and always will be in love with horses! She is definately my little cowgirl :)
We had a scary horse accident, but she is one tough cookie and Aunt Abbie is amazing so all is well now and they are both back on their horses riding as usual :)

We spent quite a few months in delta and we had a summer packed with fun and activities! We had more watermelon and sno cones than we can count...more trips to the rez than ever before and countless hours spent at grandpa's farm!! We had a great time this summer!!

Britlyn grew so much this year! She has been such a joy to watch as she learned new things! She learned how to pedal her bike this august :)

Aunt Abbie came and stayed a week with us and Aunt Chelsie came a few days too!! We spent numerous hours at the pool this summer! Britlyn learned how to swim with just little arm floaties too!!

I was fortunate enough to have amazing friends who threw me a baby shower for Kolten! It was such a good time with some people in our ward!!

I of course grew large over the year! Luckily I had a pretty good reason :)We managed to be together and witness the most amazing miracle of 2009!! thanks to technology and carly :) Luke was able to web cam with us and be apart of the entire birth experience!! It was one of the most amazing and probly one of the hardest things we will do...but we did it and are so grateful for the outcome of it all!!This is our little miracle...and highlight of 2009Britlyn became a big sister and has loved every second of it!!Kolten has managed to survive his 1st few months of life so far! His big sister is definately in love with him! I thought that it would wear off after a while...boy was i wrong!! But i love seeing the 2 together and he will even talk to her now and it is so cute!! Kolten had his 1st Halloween! He was a turtle and britlyn was Abby Cadabby and she LOVED trick-or-treating!A deer managed to take its own life and run into me :) so this is what managed to happenand this is what it turned in to :) so i can't complain too much!
Britlyn got her 1st hair cut! Aunt Ali was awesome to do it, and Britlyn loves her now :)
We went to St. George for Thanksgiving! It was Kolten's 1st Thanksgivingkolten had his 1st Christmas too! I have some happy happy kids! I love it! This is at the Maughan's house on Christmas Eve! They were so nice to invite us over so we wouldn't be alone!
Also at the Maughan household is this sweet baby girl that they were so blessed with!! She was born Dec 2nd! Her and Kolten are only about 9 weeks apart! They are the most amazing couple I have ever met and after all they have gone through, they definately deserve this little baby Henslee!! They are the best parents! It is so fun to have Kolten and Henslee so close in age!

And can i just say how much I LOVE THIS PICTURE! haha, i love Henslee's face and I love the fact that Kolten is totally laughing at her! :) ahhh love at first sight! For him anyway, she doesn't looked thrilled by him at all! :) I know that she is totally thinking, eww mom...he has cooties!! hehe

On Dec 25th we had probly one of the best Christmas Presents we could have asked for! It was such a roller coaster ride to get him home...but boy is he worth it! Here is a short little story of what happened...He was scheduled to leave Iraq the 19th of dec, he didn't end up leaving till the 21st. They flew to Quatar and had to stay a couple days. They were scheduled to leave the 23rd and arrive in arizona the 24th at 1145 am! I was so excited! i packed up everything in utah, and my sister chelsie drove down with me to help out! I was so excited! Well tuesday night...the night that he was supposed to leave Quatar, he called me and told me the plane had been delayed 24 hrs and that he wasn't sure when he'd be home but it wouldn't be Christmas Eve anymore! I was devastated!! He would have to spend the holidays in the airport alone, and I was down in az alone! It was so hard to accept! How can an organization that is supposed to be so on top of things, be so unorganized?? It was horrible! Well he called me a little later and said that they were rerouting their flight and that they were supposed to be home on christmas day at 150!!! That worked for me! The days couldn't have gone any slower!! But the time finally came, and I found myself on my way to the airport!! I cried the whole way! I couldn't believe that it was over! The time had finally come to see him again! No more being away from each other and worrying about how much of his kids lives he is missing!! I was crying happy tears and I was so full of gratitude and relief that it would be over in a matter of mintues!! We met his mom and brother at the airport and luckily he had called me while they were starting to pull away from the gate to say that they were going to be about an hr early!! We got to the airport and there was no news cameras anywhere!! It was so nice to not be bombarded by them! There was only a few other people there waiting...the plane was so early not very many people new about it! A couple wives showed up right before they walked down the terminal thinking that they were way early, cuz they didn't know the plane was so early! Luckily the news wasnt informed either! So we had a nice peaceful welcome home time! There was one newspaper reporter there and once he found out luke hadn't seen kolten yet, he was all over us like white on rice!! I think if I go back and watch the video, all im gonna hear is the sound of his camera shutter!! :) but it was better than the huge news cameras! As soon as the plane had landed luke called and told us it had, but someone passed out so they couldn't get off! They had to wait for a medic!! Seriously people...didn't they know that we had been waiting 7 months to see those soldiers!! It seemed like forever from the time he called till we saw him turn the corner and walk down the little hallway!! As soon as I saw him I hurried over to where he would be walking and took britlyn with me! I tried to get her to spot him so she could run up to him! As soon as she saw him she yelled"DADDY!!!" and ran up to him! I can not even begin to describe the feelings that were going through me! I wanted to cry and laugh and smile all at once! I couldn't hold back the tears! I had waited for the day that I would see britlyn run up to her daddy and hug him! It was better than I ever imagined! She wrapped her little arms around his neck and held him so tight! He continued to walk up to me while holding her! I gave him a quick little hug cuz he had Britlyn and I had Kolten! I turned Kolten around and handed him to his daddy! It was the most amazing moment! It was like there was no one around us! I just stood there and watched my husband hold his kids, he had waited sooo long to do that! It was truly one of the most amazing moments in my life and I'm sure we will never forget it! After a few moments, britlyn got down and he had a minute or two with just Kolten! Britlyn didn't leaver her dad's side for 1 second! Kolten was so happy and smiling like crazy for him! It couldn't have gone any better! After a few minutes we went down to get his luggage and that took forever! But i didn't care! He was home and it was AMAZING!! I couldn't believe we were looking at him :) (I still cant haha)

This is just seconds after she ran up to him and hugged him!!

Here he his admiring KoltenOur 1st family photo of 4 :) It's amazing!!Holding his 2 kids!! I broke him in quick! :)She never left his side and wanted to tell him all about her baby brother!

We postponed Christmas a day so this is the kiddos on Christmas night in their Christmas jammies. It was truly a Christmas I will never forget!!

Luke and I were also able to finish out the year with our 4th anniversary! I am so glad that he was here to share it with me! We were married on Dec 26th 2005!!

2009 was a year filled with tons and tons of memories! We will cherish every one and are so excited for what the new year will bring us! Happy New Year everyone!