Merry Christmas 2008

My mom has been after me for a while to write a Christmas letter, so instead of copying, folding, stuffing, sealing, stamping and addressing, I figured anyone we wanted to share our lives with would know about our blog. So, here goes. Our very first Christmas letter:

2008 has been one of the most exciting, surprising, and event-filled years we've ever had. Scratch that. It has been THE most exciting, surprising, and event-filled year we've ever had. So, in a nutshell, this is what we've been up to.

January brought a major milestone to our household: potty training! It was 36 intense hours, but couldn't have gone better. Some people may not be impressed by this major event, but when two first-timers are put together (Ally and me) you never know how it's going to turn out. Our standard of living improved dramatically afterward. We actually thanked her everytime we walked by the cases of diapers at Sam's Club without picking up a box. I am still really impressed with myself that it went so well. And I guess Ally deserves a little bit of the credit too.

What could top our spectacular January you ask? One word. February. First, Our Baby Girl turned 3 and decided she knew it all. Whoever came up with the term "terrible two's" never had a three year old. She can be a handful (mostly because she's so smart), but she's so sweet that she can melt our hearts.

Second, my 1991 Dodge Dynasty gave up after 17 years. She put up a good fight, but finally could last no longer. Unfortunately, she bit the dust in a ward member's driveway and had to be towed home by my parents.

Third and most exciting came the news that Ally would no longer be our only child. How do you find out you're pregnant in February and have a baby in June, you ask? Easy. Don't find out about it until you're 23 weeks along. (For the record, yes, that is 5 months.) I highly recommend the 4 month pregnancy. I don't know why everyone doesn't do it. The best part is having an ultrasound at the first doctor visit. They told us he was 100% boy. They couldn't have been more right.

Our fourth exciting February event came the day after we found out about the baby. We bought a minivan. And I'll admit it. I love it. I don't know that I could go back to a car. Ever.

Exciting thing number five (yes, this is still February we're talking about) came about two days after the van. We called a contractor to finish our basement. We decided a family of four would need a little more room than our house could offer.

The basement took up our March and April. We painted the whole basement over Conference Weekend. It took 20 gallons of primer and 15 gallons of paint to get the entire project done, but it turned out fantastic!

We spent May preparing for the baby and hoping we had everything ready. We didn't know how good we had it. No major life changes for an entire month.

Christian was born on June 17th after 3 trips to the hospital hoping he would come. After only 3 hours and an epidural, he was here and we couldn't have been more thrilled. He had to stay in the Level II Nursery and we couldn't bring him home until the day after I was released, but he's been doing great since he's been home.

July brought big news that brought about some more major life changes (are you beginning to sense a theme for the year yet?). Mike called me from work and said he had an interview with Millenniata, a new company in Springville. He would be working in the chemistry lab devising new ways to make DVDs. Would we be willing to move to Utah County? Surprisingly, I didn't feel nervous about it at all. We both felt that he should go for it and everthing would work out.

Mike was offered the job on August first and gave his notice to Kelly Scientific. We worked on fixing up the house and finally got it listed for sale (brand new basement and all) on Mike's first day of at his new job: August 15th. It was stressful, but after 3 weeks (thank you, Aaron), we were under contract. Mike's commute was at least an hour each way and it was starting to wear on us all.

We found this house and fell in love with it in September and spent most of the month packing everything we own into cardboard boxes. I had no idea we had so much stuff!

We closed on both houses on October 10th and were finally able to move in here on the 16th. You can probably guess how we spent our November.

So here we are in December. We are all happy, healthy, excited for the holidays and everything the new year has in store for us. We hope it is a little calmer, but we'll take it.

Drop in and see us whenever you can. Believe it or not, it will probably take you the same amount of time to get here as it did to get to our West Jordan house.

We hope you are all well and enjoying the holidays.

Love,
Mike, Amber, Ally, and Christian Miller