Auld Lang Syne

2008 has arrived and boy does it make me feel old. I will be 34 years old this year but more importantly, 2008 represents a milestone for a lot of other things. In July it will have been 10 years since my father passed away. Since having kids I often think of what he would have been like as a grandfather and how much he would have loved all four of his grandkids. I will always miss him but New Year's (along with Fourth of July) always bring back a flood of memories. My Dad loved playing with his band at a party on New Year's Eve and then on New Year's Day he would watch all the bowl games and pretend to tackle me and my brother Tony creating a "dog pile". My Dad wasn't big on all the holidays but he loved New Year's.

The other milestone that will be reached in 2008 is that Joe and I will celebrate our (gulp) 10 year wedding anniversary. They say that time flies when you are having fun so how do you explain why it does not even seem like we have been married that long? JUST KIDDING! I love Joe will all my heart, cannot imagine my life without him and am thankful that someone could a) put up with me for 10 years and b) convince me to have children b/c I cannot imagine not having Jake and Jadyn. I love being a mom and I owe that all to Joe.

Okay so enough with all the nostalgia - how did we celebrate New Years???? These celebrations change a lot when you have kids. What once would be a holiday to get blitzed out of our minds has now turned into a cozy night at home (or in our case at the home of my brother and sister in-laws). I almost had to be forced to take the one obligatory shot that I took:

Now do not get me wrong, my brother had been drinking when we took that picture, but he was not as drunk as he looks. LOL! Meanwhile, the kids loved playing with the party hats and blowers:


They also decided they wanted to pretend to play poker, which was pretty cute:

Here are up close pics of my two little cardsharks:


This is the first year that Joe and I actually stayed up until midnight, probably in about 4 years. While our niece Madison and Jadyn both went down earlier, our nephew Ethan and big boy Jake both stayed up long enough to ring in the new year and set off some poppers, which they found quite fun. Here is my sister in-law Tawnya with Ethan. It is probably my favorite picture of the night:


I hope everyone enjoyed their New Year too!