Monday, July 13, 2009

BIG UPDATE!

Alright, I know I have been REALLY slacking on the blogging. I am a year behind! So I finally finished up 2008. I will try to update you for the first 6 months of 2009 soon! * Start at the bottom if you want to go in order!

Christmas 2008

Christmas this year was great! It was filled with Family, Hot Wheels, Friends, Hot Wheels, Guitar Hero, Hot Wheels, And Lots of Movies! Here are a couple pictures.
Our Christmas tree. I love real Christmas trees. And I Have to have one. Unfortunately, it never got decorated, but at least we had a real tree. (Good thing it was really cheap!)
My friends at I at where else but Swensen's. It was nice to see everyone and catch up and chat forever! Love you gals!

The traditional Christmas morning picture!

And the Hot Wheels begin. This is the Top 40, and we OPENED IT! I know we are crazy!

This is me opening my first hot wheel. WHAT AM I DOING!!!


Oh, it was worth it!
This is Darin opening WHAT??? A TREASURE HUNT! Are you insane?


Here is a close up of the precious Treasure Hunt.


Curtis and Alicia got an XBox 360 and Guitar Hero, so after opening too many hot wheels, we played Guitar Hero till the wee hours of the morning!

Here we are with all our stuff. See I told you Hot Wheels and Movies (gotta love Black Friday!)

Darin's Graduation!!!

Darin Graduated in December from UNR with a B.A. is Criminal Justice. I am so proud of him! And he finished a semester earlier than expected! Yippee!

Receiving his diploma!
All Smiles! He is FINALLY DONE!

Darin lookin' all smart with his dipolma!

After Graduation, we had a few friends over for lunch and presents. He got his own ukulele, and a trip to Disney World. I will post pictures later!
We catered L&L Hawaiian BBQ for lunch. Darin's favorite!
I made these cute cupcakes for dessert. I was so proud of myself. (Thanks for your help mom.)

My Haircut

I have a great Hair stylist. Her name is Sierra, also known as my sister-in-law. I was done having long hair, and so I wanted to have some fun before she cut 10 inches off. See below :)

Before: See my hair really needed to go!

I have always wanted to cut my own hair, so I said why not, and I chopped some off!

Midway through to give you an idea of how much I cut off. We cut about another 3 inches after this.

The finished product! Thanks Sierra!

July - November 2008

Quick Updates (sorry no pictures)
July: We had a Howton Family Reunion over July 4th Weekend. We had a Corbridge Family Reunion. Complete with late night card playing. Janelle went to girls camp and had a blast!!!
August: We went to Hot August Nights.
September: We went to our annual Labor Day Family Reunion.
October: Nothing too exciting. (Although this was a long time ago, and I do have a bad memory.)
November: We went to Saint George for Thanksgiving with Darin's family. Complete with a Cajun Fried Turkey compliments of Darin's cousin.

Sometime during these months (probably July), Janelle looses her camera. Hense no pictures!

Finally Meeting the Rest of the Family

Darin's brother, Lucas, lives in Taiwan with his wife, Mefong, and their 2 kids, Emily and Bradley. I had never met any of them, and Darin had never met Mefong or the kids since he hasn't seen Lucas since before his mission. So Lucas and Mefong and their family came to the states for about a month last July. They were only in Reno for a couple weeks, but it was so great to finally meet all of them. We had a great time. Darin, his mom, Lucas, and Jon (Darin's other brother) played Scrabble. (I watched. They are serious master scrabble players and I can't spell worth beans!) Her is a picture of Emily and one of Bradley. They are so cute! It was fun to hear Emily speak English and Chinese!