Reflecting on 2007 and Happy New Year

Right now I am sitting in a hotel room in Canada (Wheels Inn in Chatham) while my daughter and husband have their afternoon nap. Today is the last day of 2007 and we are spending it together having the most fun we could drum up. I wanted to take a moment during this pause in the day to reflect on the year.
First let me say that I am feeling full of joy to think of the great blessings we have been given this year. I know that all we have is because our Heavenly Father has blessed us and I feel so grateful that He has filled our lives with so much. We are a family that lives with an abundance of the best of everything. We have the best family we could possibly ask for, loving and united and always there for us. This year we have been blessed to spend a lot of time with family and the family has grown too, Ryan and Casey had little Roman and Rob and Dayna had little Valentino. Our family has shared in the success of Rory's college graduation, Natalia's new job, Fernando's new job and Ryan's new job. The closeness we have with extended family is special to us. We have had fun at the family gatherings and family dinners this year. We love that Jasmine sees her grandparents here every week and that she sees her other family (The Barolins, The Ricks', and Titi and Abuela Meme) here frequently.
We have the best of friends. We pride ourselves in being good judges of character and our friends don't disappoint. We have been fortunate this year to have gone to visit many friends (The Peterson's in Arizona, Terry & Michele in Cleveland, Summer & James in Canada, Amy & Martin in Columbus just to name a few). The friends that live close to us also spend a lot of time with us and we have shared so many memories to last an eternity this year. We loved our trip to Florida with The Childs, Great Wolfe Lodge with The Childs, our trip to North Carolina Outer Banks with The Childs (don't leave us, we love travelling with you!) and made some new friends, The Shupes and The Kolowichs. We visited The Vallejos in Christiansburg VA and I took a trip to Atlanta with Kevin Zarcone and started the year off taking a road trip with Cindy to a scrapbooking retreat. We have enjoyed game nights with Jeff & Jill, Shelly & Matt, and The Hansens. We have spent so much time with our friends and neighbors The Traugers. I can't say enough about how much we enjoy our friends. We welcomed Annie Astle this year and so look forward to meeting Baby girl Child and Baby girl Zarcone in the New Year! I am also grateful for my friendship and partnership with Marcia - we have gotten to know each other so well this year and she means a lot to our family!
This year we have travelled and seen more of the world, both in the United States and abroad. Jasmine and I got to spend a week in Wurzburg Germany for a wedding of a dear friend. We went to Orlando to Disney World and spoiled our little girl. We went to the visits mentioned above. We are a family on the go and hope to continue that trend in 2008. We decided to end our year in Canada and have had so much fun.
I have grown a successful business this year and have begun moving forward to open my own bakery in 2008. I never imagined that a hobby would turn into a profitable business that I would enjoy and still be able to mother my beautiful daughter. I continue to sing with The Mormon Choir of Washington and also have become their flute player. I work hard as a counsellor in the Primary Presidency and above all love my role as mom.
Lorne has grown in leaps an bounds in his job and has closed many successful deals this year. He is impressing his colleagues and his boss and is working so hard and it is really paying off. He has also gained great responsibilities at church as the Elders Quorum president and it has been wonderful to see the changes that have come over him as he serves the members of our ward.
Jasmine started preschool, I can't believe it. She has grown and is becoming a sweet, beautiful, loving and smart little girl. She has had many adventures in her short life and she seems to relish every moment she spends with us and with others. She is a girl with many friends and people who love her and I believe this love makes her blossom into the girl she is becoming. It truly takes a village and we have such a strong one.
We have been able to make some wonderful changes to our home as we slowly repair it and get it looking like we imagine in our minds it will look like when it is finished one day. We remodeled our master bathroom and also got new windows and shutters. We also gave our master bedroom a paint and bedding makeover and are so happy with how it all looks.
We were able to pay down debt and pay off my car and are so happy to be able to be saving for Jasmine's college one day.
As I think about how happy we have been this year and how we have been blessed and surrounded by loved ones, I can only pray and hope that 2008 will be as wonderful for us. We hope to become a bit healthier, do a bit more traveling, remodel a bit more, visit some more friends, get a little older, and if we can be blessed with our deepest desires, have another child. Keep reading this blog next year and we will keep you updated on all our adventures!
For now, We wish you all a Happy New Year and a Prosperous and Joyous 2008!