Another year over.....

so 2010 is coming to a close. i have mixed feelings about this year, it's been a good one, we got a squishy, beautiful baby, but i feel it's been an emotional year as well. i think you always feel that way after having a baby, it's such a HUGE recovery and adjustment. emotionally, mentally and especially for me, physically---but enough about all that, maybe sometime i will find another extra 15 minutes and blog more details but for now, let's focus on the events of 2010 in the gatherum family...here are some of the highlights {for me}

*this is the first year that our house and yard really came together, we have been working NON-STOP for FIVE long years on it and i felt that it was really awesome this year--JUST in time to put it on the market---maybe we are just crazy-who knows!

*we had our 20 week ultrasound and found out that our 4th baby was healthy, thriving and growing right on track, we also decided we weren't going to find out the sex--the funny thing is, the ultrasound tech told us that the baby was being VERY generous-so we totally could have found out, for some reason, her saying that made neal and i think we were having a boy...it just added that much more to our EXTREME surprise in july!

*we commemorated the 4th anniversary of nathaniel's death and the 5th of my moms...funny how i can now put these days on the lists of "highlights" from the year-it's taken many, many years of healing and grief to be able to list these days as anything but sad, so that to me is major progress, thus making it a highlight of my year!

*we switched the kids rooms around in anticipation for #4, painted, redecorated and made them all really cute.

*we started in the hellish i mean exciting CRAZY world of competitive soccer--holy cow, i NEVER knew something could be SO time consuming. jury is still out as to whether we are going to continue with that for the time being or hold off a few years---i am STILL recovering and it starts up again in less than THREE months---the kids did great though and they improved and learned a lot!

*boe turned SIX!

*neal and i celebrated NINE years of being married! holy cow-time FLIES by, in another 9 years, gage will be SEVENTEEN!

*neal got a sweet promotion at work--i am so proud of him!

*we got the BIGGEST surprise of our lives, when on july 15th, we had a baby GIRL! i kept asking my doctor if it was really a girl and he asked me if i knew the difference between boys and girls!

*ryder turned TWO!

*neal turned 34-OLD MAN-with the GRAY hair to prove it!

*we blessed lucy

*we went to bryce canyon for a week and lake powell for another

*kaylee got MARRIED--my littlest sissie is now a married woman, it was THE most beautiful day ever!

*neal got himself neutered-i KNOW this is TMI but most of the three peeps that still read this blog are family or very close friends and they already know and they know that neal and i have a very inappropriate sense of humor...so sorry if you are a random reader and this offends you---it is AWESOME to know that we are done--LOVE having babies and LOVE my kiddos but SO happy to move onto the next chapter of our lives.

*gage turned EIGHT!

*gage was baptized!

*we celebrated lucy's first halloween {she was the CUTEST lil pumpkin you ever did see along with a perfect harry potter, a "NICE" lion and a rad hip hoppin' michael jackson}, first thanksgiving and first christmas. she pretty much slept through it all!

*i turned 33!!! the jury is still out on how i feel about that one!

and here we are on the last day of the old year. there is something about this time of year that gets me sentimental. reflecting back on events and happenings. evaluating situations and thinking about how i could have done things differently or better. all in all, i feel this was a year of self exploration, of many, many realizations and reflection. i have made many goals for the new year. sure i have the old stand-by of "getting back into shape" i have discovered that no matter how thin {or not} that i am, i ALWAYS have this goal, so it doesn't really count. i want to focus on the inside this year (although, i feel that i need to be honest and give full disclosure for a moment--i am planning on getting a rockin' bod back AND getting breast augmentation {read: boob job} this year, so i am not going to pretend to be completely... um, pure? ;) continuing on, i really want to focus on being a better person, being more patient and kind and empathetic and less judgemental. everyone has a story and sometimes finding out those stories can change perspective and opinions. speaking of opinions, i am going to try to be less opinionated too---i know this one is a STRETCH, but i'm gonna try. i said T.R.Y! i have realized that while i am trying i can always TRY harder, so i am going to. i think my number one goal for 2011 is going to be to try to live in the moment. i have a hard time with this. i have a tendency to look ahead and always plan for the next big thing, i am going to try to enjoy the little moments of life that make it real and that truly matter. i am going to try to live everyday so that if something were to happen tomorrow, i WOUlDN'T have a regret from yesterday. i hope that each one of you has a happy new year, that you look back and reflect on another year over, and a new one just begun!

July 2009

continuing on with the updates...

we ended the month of june with the last day of kindergarten for gage and with boe's end of year preschool program. i cannot believe that i am going to have TWO children in elementary school in just a few short weeks! gage LOVED mrs. winegar and i am so grateful for her for being such an awesome teacher and helping him into his kindergarten transistion. boe is going to miss mrs. amy-after two years of preschool with her, kindergarten is going to be a lot easier to handle, but he has loved going to mrs. amy's for school.
gage on the last day of kindergarten
gage and cute mrs. winegar, we are so happy to have her again this year for boe
neal, gage and boe on gage's last day of school
boe boe and his two buddies libby and mercedes, what cute kids
boe with mrs. amy
boe with kim and grandpa
cute boe boe during his program

i LOVE july! the 4th and 24th are some of my favorite holidays! we started our festivities early on in the month by going to a buzz game. the kids LOVED it and it was actually pretty fun. we had really great seats and ate dinner there. afterwards we got to watch a great fireworks show to get us all geared up for the FOURTH!




RIVERTON TOWN DAYS...
every year our little city has a bunch of fun festivities to gear up for the summer holiday season. they have the city of lights carnival, a rodeo, demolition derby etc. we went to the carnival again this year, went to the rodeo with our friends the gees and my friend jeri and i ran the riverton 10k. all of this BEFORE july 4th! it made for a fun, busy couple of days!








JULY 3RD
our pre-fourth festivities continued on friday when we met up with neal's family at eagle wood golf course in bountiful for their annual fireworks show. i don't know if there a more beautiful setting in the state for fireworks than this. gage got lost-he went to find his shoes and didn't make it back. neal and i were looking for him and we heard the announcer at the stage saying that they had a lost little boy. just as they were about to announce his name over the speaker, my sister in laws sister (did ya get that ;) heard him say his name was gage gatherum and his parents are adrian and neal. she told the policeman that she knew where his family was. so, with a police escort and all, they brought him back over to us. not gonna lie, it scared me, thankfully it scared gage pretty good as well! we ended the night without anymore drama and with an outstanding fireworks show.





JULY 4TH
we started out the 4th nice and early. as i mentioned, my friend jeri and i ran the riverton 10k. neal took the kids to the annual neighborhood parade and breakfast where jeri and i met up with them after the race. after breakfast we met up with my dad, kim, ashlee, kaylee and davey at willard bay for a day of boating! my dad had bought some kids waterskis that he wanted to try out with the boys. they LOVED it and did SO well! they both got up with just a little help from neal. it was awesome! we headed home after lunch to get ready for a bbq that night at our friend's the proulx's. after dinner we headed over to riverton park for the fireworks show. i feel that i have been to many a fireworks show and i am not kidding when i say that this is one of the best! it is so long and they have an awsesome variety and display of fireworks. we ended the evening with three VERY tuckered out kiddos.






whew! that gets us through july 4th! i still have a wedding, birthday and the 24th to blog about...we'll save that one for tomorrow!

June 2009...

i am still alive...VERY behind on blogging, but still kickin'! i am going to do several posts to try to catch us up on our latest happenings...

BASEBALL:
gage and boe both played their second year of baseball. boe was in t-ball again and gage did coach pitch. they have both improved a lot since last season. they were both lucky to have AWESOME coaches, thanks Cory and Mark! it was fun to watch them play and see how much better they are getting.





BOE'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS:
we celebrated boe's birthday on june 13. he wanted a hotwheels birthday. we had everyone over for a pizza party and cake and ice-cream. go figure, it RAINED in the middle of june so we had to do it all inside! it was a fun night and we love our little boe-boe.




EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY
on june 15, neal and i celebrated our EIGHTH wedding anniversary! holy cow we are old...it's been quite the journey. we've experienced a lot together and there is NO ONE else on the planet who i would rather experience it all with. he "gets" me-and that is no easy feat! here's to MANY more wonderful years together...love ya.


WASATCH BACK 2009
FINALLY on june 19 the event that we had been training for, sleeping for, eating for, waiting for, looking for-ward to, dreading-etc. etc. was here at last! we divided into 2 vehicles, the women in one the men in the other. the ladies had the first 6 legs so we had to be in logan first-we met at kim's house at 4:30 in the A.M., packed up our stuff and headed off to begin our THIRTY hour jaunt across the back of the wasatch mountains. it was an experience INDEED. we slept in the YUKON, on the grass at the highschool and wherever we could squeeze in a few extra ZZZZZ's. after our legs were over, we would go shag the guys. it was a great experience. i loved doing it w/family and friends. i still haven't 100% decided if i am going to do it again next year. i am giving myself until the end august to decide, so we'll see.
i just have to give a little shout-out to the men in our group...by and large they took the hardest legs. they ALL did AMAZING, i mean, literally, they ROCKED it. i would say the last 4 runners had the hardest legs. neal, jerimy, adam and josh took those legs and i was so impressed with all of them. neal, jerimy and adam each had a part of the mountain going over guardsman's pass. neal's last leg is called the "RAGNAR" because it is the most difficult leg in the entire race. it is 4 miles STRAIGHT up the mountain at an average 8% grade. not only is it the most difficult let, it comes at the end of the race after a full day and night of running and little or NO sleep. neal did SOOOOO-O great on it. his goal was to run it in 49 minutes, he did it in just over 50. good job babe-so proud of you! here are a bunch of random pics from the race...
here we are-bright-eyed and bushy-tailed...we are all WASATCH BACK virgins-have NO IDEA what is up ahead for us...
MARTI getting ready to start us off
me starting my first leg, i was runner #2
kim running-seriously this chick ROCKED it!!!
kaylee and i being...us...look at here ROCK hard bod-seriously, she got the good genes...
go kent stockton go...k, so THIS guy-he ran an average 8 and a half minute mile on ALL three legs...i won't publish his age, BUT, he's MY dad and I am 31, hmmm...the guys nicknamed him KENT STOCKTON...let's just say he has some shorts that are "quesionable" in length...love ya dad!
neals cute brother darren-we were so proud of him! he trained so hard and did amazing! way to go DEE!
goats tethered up to their front yards are just the sort of things you see whilst running through small town utah..
getting ready to start the night legs...
me getting ready to go shower and eat at the morgan high school...
this was the sign below the start of the RAGNAR leg...it ain't lying...
neal coming up on the end of the worst leg EVER! getting ready to hand off to adam-it was eerily quiet during this leg, usually you have people cheering and shagging their runners, but on this one people were basically silent trying to help the runners concentrate...crazy!
adam getting ready to start the last leg of his run...
neal and i after the RAGNAR...he was seriously pale...i was super proud of him...

Thankful For...

these four. I don't know what I'd do without them. In these times of economic strife, uncertainly, war, turmoil and sadness, it is easy to forget about ALL THE GOOD that still exists in our world. Love you...