• Jan. 1, 2009
2008 In Review

!!!HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Our family would like to take this opportunity to tell you that we hope you had a wonderful 2008 and we pray that you will have a blessed 2009.  Here is a look back at our 2008:

Timothy - Our little guy did a lot of growing up in the last year!  I spent a lot of his 3 year old year thinking, 'if we can just make it till he's four!'  Well we made it and it turned out I was right.  In the past two months since his birthday he has grown up so much!  He talks all the time, to anyone and anything.  He is quite the character!  After an adventurous trip to the ER we finally reached the milestone of being fully potty trained!  Timothy loves tools.  He loves to pretend to be Bob the Builder or Handy Manny and help Daddy build things.  Timothy's other favorite past-time is singing.  He was very happy to be a part of the younger kid's choir this year.  Even if his first performance was a little overwhelming!  Timmy is starting pre-school in earnest this month.

Sarah - Now eleven, Sarah is becoming quite a beautiful young lady.  She is in 6th grade and doing very well in school.  She still loves to play Upward basketball and is looking forward to starting her 6th year in the coming week.  Sarah continues to oil paint and does a great job.  She has also started playing the piano again.  She is teaching herself and doing great.  I can tell that she is really starting to understand how to read the music.  After a nasty fall back in May we are happy to report that she is completely scar free now!  2008 seemed to be the year of the critter at our house thanks to Sarah!  We had a turtle, snake, frogs and lizards and wooly worms.  We now have more permanent residents in some aquatic frogs that we raised from tadpoles and a goldfish (that I somehow don't have any pictures of!)  Sarah thoroughly enjoys choir.  She played pretty major roles and had solos in both the spring and Christmas musicals in 2008.  She even took part in our adult Christmas musical this year.  Sarah also participates in the sign language choir at our church.

Jay - Jay stays busy with his painting business which is a blessing.  We enjoy the flexibility that him having his own business affords us.  He is very involved with our church.  Last January he became a deacon and this fall he began teaching youth boys in Sunday school.  He also helps out with the kids mission program on Wednesday nights and is one of the AWANA game leaders on Sunday nights.  Jay also enjoyed playing softball on the church's men's league this year.  This was the first year in 19 years that Jay has not gone deer hunting.  It just did not work out because of some rental property situations we have been having this year.  He did get a deer however, or I should say, a deer got him, just a few days ago.  He was driving down the road when a deer ran right into the driver side door of his truck!  The deer kept running but left him a nice little dent to remember him by.

Shannon - One of my new found hobbies is saving money!  We have always been pretty frugal, but I did not even realize how much I was missing out on in terms of really serious bargain hunting.  Thanks to my friend Michelle I learned a lot of tricks on how to shop, especially at Walgreens.  And she just told me that we will have a CVS opening in the area soon!  Something new to learn this year.  Most of my couponing adventures can be found here.  I also did a major overhaul of my couponing system.  I started out with this system, but by the end of the year had outgrown it.  My coupon system still consists of all the same categories as the old one, but now my coupons are in two 3 ring binders sorted into baseball card protector sheets.  It was a lot of work but I love it!  I am also very involved at our church and love every minute of it.  Music being one of my passions I love to be a part of the adult choir and handbell choir.  I also enjoy directing the children's choir and serving as the AWANA secretary.  I have a new found love for my Crockpot thanks to the Crockpot Lady!  Not to be out-done by Timothy I decided to take a trip to the hospital this year as well.  I had gall-bladder surgery in August which went perfectly and I am all healed up!  I have thouroughly enjoyed learning all these new recipes.  On top of reading several great books this year I am also in the process of writing one...yeah...(No, Kim, I haven't given up, thanks for praying for me!)...but more on that in a month or so!  Then of course there is this blog - I have thoroughly enjoyed figuring out how to do all this!

Our family enjoyed 2008 with all its ups and downs.  One of the highlights was our Branson vacation that we took with friends.  We also enjoyed apple picking and then canning all our apples.  I am not sure that I can say we necessarily enjoyed the election season but we sure threw ourselves into it this year.  It was fun to be able to really teach Sarah about how our government works and how the election process works while it was going on.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas with time spent with family and friends.  God, as always, was good in 2008 and we know that He will be in 2009.  We cannot wait to see what he has in store for us next.  We are trusting Him to refine us as gold as we reach higher in serving Him this year.

With Love,

The Sikes Family

(Post A Comment!)

Comments

• Jan. 1, 2009
Untitled Comment

Posted by Anonymous

Great family picture. Happy New Year to you too.

(Permanent Link)