Top 10 of 2009

Here are the top 10 happenings in the Myers family for 2009

1: Luke Ryan Myers joined our family on January 14 (10 days before my due date) at 7:48pm, weighing in at a hefty 8lbs 9oz and measuring 21.5 inches long. He's been a joy in our family and his smile and personality just light up the room! And who doesn't love that curly mop top of his?!

2: Andrew turned 3 years old and started preschool in the fall. I can't believe how fast he's grown up. He speaks like a little grown up and is so smart it's scary sometimes. He's active and loves his little brother...sometimes too much.

3: We were able to spend two weeks in Idaho with my family. It was so much fun to get to spend time with loved ones and get to show my family some of the spectacular sites of Idaho.

4: Over the course of the year, we were able to pay off our car and two of our three student loans. And we aren't too far from paying off the last one. We used the ideas from the LDS Church's guide "One for the Money" and have been able to pay off a lot of debt faster than we might have otherwise.

5: Clayton turned the big 3-0 this year. It was nice to have my honey join me in the 30s. It was a pretty quiet day, but it makes me feel better that we are both in the same decade of age again.

6: 4th of July was a good one for us. Clayton and I hadn't been to a fireworks show since we got married and decided to find one. We ended up in Coolidge and boy was it a fun day. Clayton's brother and nephew joined us and we took the kids to the pool for some free swimming. Then we headed to the park to wait for the fireworks. They had all kinds of bounce houses and water slides to keep the kids busy. And the fireworks display was amazing. It lasted for a full 52 minutes! That's right... 52 minutes! Almost an hour. We will definitely be going back next year.

7: Clayton finished his Masters and graduated with his Masters of Science in Information Management. It was a long year and we have loved having him back full time. It was actually a busy month for the Myers boys. All three of the brothers received a degree within a week of each other.

8: After over three years of staring at a brown back yard, we finally planted grass. It's green...mostly due to some strange fern-like plant that I've never seen that has taken over the backyard. Maybe one of these years, we'll actually have a real grass yard...but at least for now the back yard is green.

9: This year, I decided to get serious about food storage. I bought a wheat grinder and a bosch mixer and have been making my own bread. We have stored up a lot of canned food items as well as dry items. We still have a ways to go before we have a full year supply, but we are well on our way.

10: We tried to grow a garden last year, but we got it in a little too late so everything fried in the hot summer sun before it could fruit. This year, we started a little earlier and were able to enjoy fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, etc. It was so great to eat something that I grew myself. We still were totally successful, but we were one step closer and looking forward to trying again this year.