The Bergs (family photo shoot at Snow Canyon, UT 12/2013)

While we were in Utah for Christmas vacation we had both sides of the family with a photo shoot.  Here are pictures from my family.  We had them taken by Carly Grace Photography at Snow Canyon.  They turned out awesome and we will definitely be using her again in the future.  

 Ethan - typical picture currently

 Jacob

 Ellie

 Kiara

 Ellie, Newell, Kristina & Jacob

 Newell & Kristina

 The whole family

 Papa Steve, Grammie & the grandkids

 Mom & Dad

 Newell, Kate & Doug

 Doug & Kiara

Reflection and What's to come

Looking back over my 2013 goals I think I did pretty well with what I set out to do.  There will always be hiccups but I am excited for what this year will bring.

2013 Reflection: 

* Monthly date with Jeff.  Life has gotten in the way for several years and it is hard not having any family nearby to help us out, but I found a great kid, who is an 8th grader in the same school as Ethan, and we have had several recent dates going out just the two of us, as well as other times meeting friends.  **We did pretty good with this goal. We had several fun nights out this past year.

*  Continue in my efforts to a healthier lifestyle.  Neither Jeff not I want to pass the bad habits we have had for the last 18 years onto Ethan, so we are both making a conscious effort to better those habits.  **This will be a life-long goal.

*  Make a weekly menu and shopping trip.  I have been doing this monthly, however, it is one area of my Type A personality that I suck at.  **Still working on this.  I did better with shopping more often, now need to work on planning out the menu better.

*  Upgrade my gym membership so that I can go to different clubs around town and have no excuse not to make it to the gym 2-3 times a week after work before I pick up Ethan.  **I did upgrade my membership, however, was not able to make it to the gym as I had hoped.  Starting back at this tomorrow (1/6) though.  

*  I just purchased a new pair of running shoes, and once my foot is completely healed, hopefully within the next month, I plan on taking them to the road.  My goal this year it to be able to run a whole 5k without stopping.  I ran/walked several 5k's last year, which was a great accomplishment, however, I want to be able to be able to prove to myself that I can accomplish running the whole way.  **Plans for this definitely didn't go as I was hoping.  My foot healed up nicely and I did several 5k's throughout the year, however, most of them I walked as most of my peeps aren't runners but were willing to walk with me.  In April I signed up for a 5k training with Legacy Health Systems, the hospital that I used to work at.  I trained for 8 weeks and then ran in the Starlight Parade.  Unfortunately, about half way though the training my forefoot started to hurt as if I was walking on a marble continuously.  As I am a frequent flyer at my podiatrists office, good thing we are friends, he determined it was a neuroma and did several injections.  While still training and getting injections, I developed the start of a stress fracture right next to where the neuroma was and subsequently had to have an MRI and spend the entire month of July and part of August in my cast boot.  It was an awful way to spend the summer, especially as Ethan was spending that time in Utah and Jeff and I missed out on several things that I had planned as I wasn't able to do them with the cast boot on.  It has now been over a year since my foot surgery, the neuroma and stress fracture have subsided and healed and I am looking forward to getting back to exercising and training to run a 5k. 

*  Spend more time with family and friends.  We have several fun adventures and fun trips planned this year, one to Sunriver in March with the Springer family and then the 3 of us are also going to Yellowstone to meet some of our family members for a week this summer.  Ethan will also be spending a few weeks in Utah this summer with our families and Jeff and I are looking forward to finding some new adventures of our own. **We had some great adventures in 2013. We spent a weekend in Sunriver with the Hall's, had a week-long vacation in Yellowstone with several of our family members, learned to kayak, and road in the Providence Bridge Pedal with Ethan.

*  Get a tattoo.  I thought about this for a long time before I did it, and last year just before my birthday, I got a tattoo on the inside wrist of my left arm.  The words help remind me daily of the person I am striving to become.  As one of my other friends had said after she got her tattoo, "I know it's "outside of the box" for how many people think of me, but to me, it is ME" and I feel the same way. **Done

Now onto 2014...This past birthday I turned 37 so I made a list of "37 while I'm 37" so I will be working on that. (click to make bigger)

 

Utah Christmas (12/20-12/30)

This year was our year to travel to Utah.  We enjoy spending the time with both our families but I don't call it a relaxing vacation...I guess most vacations probably aren't relaxing as you usually need a staycation after a vacation just for some relaxation...anyway it was a shorter trip this year with 4 days driving and 5 days bouncing back and forth between both our families but we had a great time nonetheless.  We arrived in SLC on Friday evening to see Doug, Lori, Brian, Lexie & Falon and then we all traveled down to Hurricane the following day.

Saturday Evening we spend at George & Brittney's house (Jeff's brother).  Ethan had a great time playing with cousins Avery & Taylee.  He was not so fond of baby Kaden, who is 5 1/2 months old, but he warmed up to him eventually.

 If this picture doesn't say it all....

Kaden is such a happy baby, I only heard him cry a couple of times the whole time we were there.  He is going to be a heart breaker.

 A couple hours later and no one else to play with at the moment...now they are good friends.


Monday afternoon we had the Berg Family pictures taken at Snow Canyon.  I don't have the disc yet but the pictures turned out awesome, and you can view some of them at carlygracephoto.com
 (The Berg Family, 12/29/13). 

(Kristina, Newell, Jacob & Ellie, Doug & Kiara, Dad & Mom, Ethan, Kate & Jeff)

 Snow Canyon, what a beautiful sight.  We used to spend a lot of time here and I learned to rock climb here as well with Jeff 18+years ago.

Christmas Eve - My family has always had the tradition of taco dinner & then making and frosting homemade sugar cookies...which I thoroughly love...Jeff and I carried that tradition over to our own little family and do it on the years that we don't go to Utah as well.  Lots of laughs, good food & games, and new pj's.

Christmas morning with the Hadley's...

 Santa was very busy and there were a lot of smiles

 Ethan was extremely excited about his Hersey's bar that is close to his size.

And was even more excited about Disney Infinity.  Overall, it was a great day and we then went to my parent's house in the afternoon to open presents with the Bergs.
 

Thursday afternoon we had Hadley Family pictures.  We don't have any of those back yet so hopefully in the next week or so.  

 Cousin love...Avery & Ethan.

Then we made a mad dash for the shooting range before it got dark as that was our last evening there.  Jeff, George, Brian, Lexie, Brittney, Dad and myself doing our best to blast some brass.

 Kate & Newell (my first best friend in life)

Friday morning we then left for home taking a new route and stopping overnight in Reno to visit Jeff's bff, Jed.  Traveling along what is named the Loneliest Highway in America, Hwy 50, we traveled to Reno and came across the shoe tree just outside of Fallon, NV.  I love Ethan's questioning look.

 Ethan and Napoleon.

We finally made it home on 12/29.  Ethan was excited to use one of his Christmas gifts, a hot dog cutter, for dinner. 

 And Finally New Year's Eve....growing up my family also had the tradition of having fondue.  Our picky eater was very leery of trying the cheese with his hotdog but eventually he gave in a tried it and tried it and tried it....maybe someday he will like more than 5 items.

So long 2013...We look forward to all the adventures to come in 2014!!!

Fillings.....dang it

I was really hoping that we could have avoided fillings, however, Ethan and I are going to be more diligent with flossing nightly so we can prevent any further time in the dentist chair. 

The day before we left for Christmas vacation Ethan had his first dental experience with getting fillings and sealants.  He had to get 2 fillings in baby teeth and sealants on his 6 yr molars on the right side.  He will have to go back for 2 additional fillings and sealants on the left side in February, but hopefully we can avoid it after that. 

Merry Christmas!!!

We decided that between lack of spare time to get the to-do list done before we leave for Christmas vacation, as well as the ever-increasing cost of postage, we would mail out only a handful of Christmas cards to those who don't have facebook, email, or read the blog and the rest could view our card online. 

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and look forward to what 2014 will bring!

Top 5 Events for 2013    

1.  We had a week-long family vacation to Yellowstone.

2.  Ethan had his first ER visit and 2 stitches in his lip.

3.  We embarked on our new hobby…kayaking.

4.  We remodeling our kitchen and got a new roof.

5.  Ethan is in 1^st grade, has learned how to read, and likes math and crossword puzzles.

 With Love, 

The Hadley's