Galan Family Latest and Greatest

1.Yes, I am back! I realize I have greatly neglected my blog and my faithful readers, but my life has been crazy the past well...several months and the blog has not been at the top of my priority list.  I've wanted to update, but my slow internet connection and  unreliable computer kept me from doing so. But... now we have fixed both problems and are back in business!  We are now the proud new owners of an iMac. (queue choirs of angels)  Yes, we made the switch and are happy campers.  We also switched from DSL (which seemed to be unusually slow here) to cable internet.  Things are going much faster now.

2. We survived another Fall deployment. (hopefully the last)  Perry returned home mid-December from the middle-east and we are so happy to have him home again. Although he is out of town again right now for a couple weeks.  Grrrr!  Have I mentioned that I can't wait to be out of the Army??  The traveling is getting really old.
This is a picture of Perry finally home after traveling for 20-something hours and him passing
out little gifts brought home for the kids.









 3. Abigail turned 7 in December and is getting so big.  All she wanted for her birthday was to go ice skating with her best friend Rylan, so that's what we did.  She did gymnastics in the Fall and loved it.  The other day she came home and had won an award at her school for a contest we didn't even know she had entered.  She had to draw a picture of "Americanism."  Her picture won first place out of all the first graders.  She recieved a medal and a $50 savings bond.  Go Abby!

4. We had a great Christmas with our little family.  We went to Lights of the South, saw Santa Claus and spent Christmas Eve and New Years with our friends the Terrys.

5. Andrew is growing up fast too.  He also took gymnastics in the Fall and had a great time.  Right now he is taking Karate two days a week and is doing very well.  We are very happy with the program he is in and he is learning a lot about respect, discipline, and self-control.  He's also been learning about setting goals, focusing and listening.  What a cute kid.

6. Avery turned three December 23rd.  I can't believe my baby is three!  She is just so tiny and petite.  In the Fall we were a little concerned with her speech.  It was hard to understand her.  She tried really hard but the words didn't come out right so she has been in speech therapy for the past several months.  I can't believe how much she has improved!  She is talking like crazy and we can understand her!  Now if only we could get the whole potty-training thing going.  Right now she has no interest.  We tried in December and she was so excited to put on her new Dora panties.  I told her "Now, don't pee on Dora, go pee pee in the potty."  Well, she peed on Dora and has been scared to pee on Dora ever since.  She won't put them on. 

7. In November I made sort of a last minute decision to fly home with the kids for Thanksgiving.  The kids had an entire week off of school and I was overwhelmed and just needed to be around family, so we bit the bullet, actually got a pretty good deal on tickets and went to Utah for the break.  We had a blast and I am so glad I did it.  We were able to go to my niece's wedding in Provo, The Polar Express, Ice skating, temple square, shopping, Discovery center and everything else that makes visiting Utah so much fun.  It was so wonderful to be around all of my family and have their support and help.  My kids were entertained the whole time. 

8. In January I went to my annual girls scrapbook weekend with some wonderful friends.  Although we can't really call it a scrapbook weekend anymore because only a couple people actually scrapbook.  We rented a cabin in Virginia and just relaxed all weekend.  This is our 6th year. I look forward to this every year and it is always so great to catch up with old girlfriends.  We talked and talked and ate and ate, played games, cried, and laughed a lot.  It's always very therapeutic.  The only thing we never do is take enough pictures!  Love these women!

9.  For Christmas we got our kids season one of Avatar, The Last Airbender.  Its a series that used to be on Nickelodeon a couple years ago. (not the same story as the movie Avatar).  We've been hearing all about it for some time now from our good friends the Addingtons.  We were a little hesitant about the whole Japanese anime stuff so we decided to rent it first and the kids loved it so we got it for Christmas.  It's a great show for the whole family.  We just found out that M. Night Shyamalan is directing the movie and it will be coming out in July.  It will be called The Last Airbender.  We are hoping it will be kid-friendly.  If you are looking for a good entertaining show for the whole family, check it out.

10.  In May, Perry and I will celebrate our 10-year Anniversary.  Since we went on a cruise for our honeymoon, we thought it would be fitting to celebrate the same way on another relaxing cruise, this time to the Western Caribbean.  The cruise is booked and we are so excited for our getaway mid-April. 

This is basically what our family has been up to for the past 3 months.  Hopefully I can keep up with the blog so I don't have to do these HUGE quarterly posts.  I still have yet to blog about our trip to Disney World from 5 months ago.  Sigh...one of these days!