A View of the Past Year

This past year has been exciting and also rewarding..... Last year Preston and I did a tree for the Festival of Trees in Honor of my Brother Shayne who was killed in an Air Med Helicopter at Snowbird while trying to save an injured skiers life.... what a great time we had doing this and remembering our brother and uncle... our tree's name was, "Hero's Never Die"! Because as most of you know... Shayne was my hero and the person I wanted to be like when I grew up! He will always live in our hearts FOREVER! We did it in the Old Baseball theme.. because Preston Loves Baseball and also because... Babe Ruth said... Hero's Never Die!

Preston was also very honored to get an award from our "Blankets for Baghdad" project he and I did. We were on 3 news channels and with the help of people from all over Utah and some other parts of the country... we were able to send over 1,000 blankets to Baghdad to Orphanages, Children's Hospitals and some villages... He was awarded several awards from doing this with his mom. He received the Good Deed award from a local dentist and also the Good Turn for America Award from the Boy Scouts of America. To get this award you had to be nominated and also accepted. They only gave out 6 of these awards throughout the whole Nation! What a great honor this was! We are so proud of Preston and all of the great things he does!

Then.... February came and I along with my great husband and son made it through the past 9 months and were able to bring a baby I wasn't supposed to have into our lives and family! Little Miss Avery RaeAnn was born February 15th. She caused her mother a bit of trouble during the long 9 months... but she was well worth it! She has blessed our lives so much! She is literally a little miracle!

The next several months were full of Football, Baseball, Basketball and even a trip to Cooperstown, New York with Preston and his Cyclones Baseball team to play baseball and visit the Baseball Hall of Fame and tour New York City with Avery and I along with my Mom. What a great time we had! We were gone for 11 days and enjoyed almost every minute of it! Preston even made friends with the little man who runs the elevator and he let Preston run the elevator to the upper floors of the Empire State Building! We were able to visit all the sites in the city and spend a week watching baseball games all week long! The boys were also inducted into the Youth Baseball Hall of Fame! How cool is that? The boys had trading pins that they were able to share with all the other teams so he was able to get pins from boys from every state in the U.S. It's a once in a life time dream for these boys!

Preston also started Jr. High at Rocky Mountain Jr. High! This was really hard for me.. knowing he is getting so grown up! I want him to stay little! ha! ha! I tell him all the time to stop growing! Instead.. he's as tall as I am now! Not that that is hard to accomplish! ha! ha! He's loving school and doing very well! He made the High Honor Roll last quarter and is on his way there again this quarter! He's very dedicated to his school work. It makes me so proud to be his mom, knowing I have such a great young man as my son! What a great example he is going to be to his sister!

Avery loves the pool... we went swimming all the time last summer and you'd think she was a little fish! She also was able to spend some time with Nick's brother George who came to visit this summer and she was able to get an Indian Blessing. When she turns 3 she will be able to get her Indian (Sioux) name from Uncle George so she can keep her Indian Heritage going. She enjoyed her first ride on the boat, camping at our Fikstad Family Reunion, traveling to her brother's baseball tournaments, her first plane ride, traveling on the New York Subway... walking through Queens, Visiting Time Square, the Statue of Liberty... Ground Zero, a Horse and Buggy ride through Central park and even a trip to a New York Yankees Game!

The Holiday's came and we were lucky to have Nick's Mom ... Grandma Ramona come visit us and be with us for Halloween! She got to see Avery in her cute little Caterpillar costume and share in her first experience of Trick or Treating. We love Grandma so much and can't wait for her to come back and visit for Avery's 1st Birthday and have a birthday party for her also! What a great memory for Avery to be able to share her 1st Birthday party with her Grandma Ramona! What a great memory for Grandma too! (Sorry.. I couldn't get these to turn. Hope you can see them okay!)

Christmas time was a great time for family and friends and also our annual Sub for Santa Project Preston and I do every year! We were very busy from October till days before Christmas finding families... making an ornament tree.. buying, wrapping and delivering for 35 kids! Thank you all so much for all of your support and help! We couldn't do this many kids without you! It is such a great reward for us and knowing we helped make those kids and families Holiday's a great one!

Our first Christmas with Avery was a crack up! She loved the paper more than anything! Nick got to enjoy a quiet night in the bed alone while I slept out in the front room with Preston and Avery for our annual Christmas Eve Slumber Party waiting for Santa to come! Watching Preston and Avery open presents and see the excitement on their faces really made us realize what great kids we have. We put the wrapping paper in a sack after we opened each one... little Miss Avery discovered this and got her little hands on it and took out all the wrapping paper... crunching it with her cute little hands and covering herself totally up with paper! She just makes us laugh! We were sad to see Preston leave for Mexico for a week.. but we knew he'd have fun! We're just glad he's back home with us now! He sure missed his little sister! I think she quite missed him too! She loves her brother! I know this is long.. but I'll attach some photos to go with the story! It was a great day to spend with my Parents and Nick's brother... Uncle Bub and my Aunt Julie. Avery was sick on Christmas so most of our family came to us! We love them so much and appreciate all they do for us! (The Christmas Photos are on their way.)

Always remember we love you guys so much and are very grateful we have you in our lives! I hope your New Year will bring you all the happiness you deserve! I think we are ALL due for a great 2008! Don't you! :)