The Vallecillo’s

January 1, 2009

2008 Year in Review

Category: events, family – luis – 11:00 pm

It has been one of those years, the kind that simply passes by in the blink of an eye. Time was not on my side this year and blogging was simply not in the cards. I barely had time to take a fraction of the photos I’ve been wanting to take, but at least the photos I did manage to capture made it to our flickr account for everyone to see. That, in a sense, became the method by which we would let everyone know what we had been up to, alongside my twitter updates (and subsequently my Facebook account since my twitter messages get automatically posted there).

To make up for the lack of blog content I’ve decided the best thing to do is try and recap the year in an attempt to bring everyone up to speed. This coming year I fully intend (just like I did on 2008) on paying more attention to our blog instead of letting it sit on a corner and rot like I have. Landri is now 1 year old and that hopefully means less worrying about every little thing she does, leaving just a sliver of extra time for ourselves.

But before I get any further, I should let everyone know that Mandi is doing fine. My last blog entry left things up in the air, but there really wasn’t that much to report since none of the test results shed much light on what may had been causing her to be ill in the first place. There were more tests done in the following months, but still the results didn’t offer much of an explanation.

We did find out Mandi had a prescription wrongfully filled twice prior, and during, her illness. Since this was the wrongdoing of the pharmacy, we are currently trying to figure out how to best handle the situation. Legal advise? Anyone?

So without further ado, here is a brief recap of what has been happening since my last blog entry:

April 2008:
This was the month Dallas got hit by the worst weather in a long time. Sometime during the early hours of April 10 we were hit with winds of 70+ miles per hour, wreaking havoc all over town. It was pretty scary hearing the howling of the wind inside the house, so we all cuddled together in our bedroom until the storm had passed. Luckily there was no damaged done to our home, but on my way to the office that morning I saw how bad the storm had really been by the large number of downed fences, trees, and signs I saw along the way.

Other than that, Landri is growing fast and getting cuter by the day, Larsen dresses the part for biker theme day at school, we spend a day in the country at Amy and Chris’ land in Val Alstyne – TX, we attend our neighbor’s daughter Gracie’s 5th birthday party, and Mandi finally gets her cast removed.

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May 2008:
Landri is working on learning how to eat without making a huge mess, Larsen has a school field day, Landri says “dada”, we spend time at the neighborhood pool, Larsen draws a portrait of mommy for Mother’s day and celebrates Cinco de Mayo at school, we discover one of our favorite places for breakfast is now closed, I upgrade the hard drive on my laptop, and Mandi has an endoscopy.

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June 2008:
More time spent at the neighborhood pool, Larsen goes to work with daddy and creates a whiteboard masterpiece, we discover the Texas Roadhouse restaurant, Landri grows some teeth, Larsen graduates from Kindergarten, I spend $2,000 to get my car’s overheating problem fixed, I STILL miss those no-longer-available delicious Tostitos chips, Mandi gets a colonoscopy (eek!), and we upgrade from DSL to Cable for our Internet access.

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July 2008:
Landri gets her ears pierced, Larsen looses his first tooth, Landri starts crawling, we take time to visit abuela in Puerto Rico, I turn 41, and spend $2,500 to get my car’s A/C fixed,

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August 2008:
We return to Texas from our Puerto Rico trip, still no forward progress with Landri’s messy eating problem, Mandi has a birthday and hurts herself yet again, Larsen starts 1st grade, and Landri gets ear tubes.

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September 2008:
Landri is on the verge of walking, we attend Landon’s birthday party, Larsen becomes a Cub Scout, Landri kick-starts her passion for shoes, we attend the Owen’s birthday party, I get introduced to the First Chinese BBQ restaurant, and I try sitting on a ball at work instead of a chair,

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October 2008:
Landi has her 1st birthday, we take some family photos at Prairie Creek Park, we attend the Castle Hills fall festival, I discover liquid bandage, Mandi passes a kidney stone, Larsen looses tooth #2, and we celebrate Halloween.

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November 2008:
Larsen and I visit Lewisville’s Firehouse #6 with our Cub Scout den, I finally setup the kids playground after a year of it sitting in our driveway, Larsen and I go camping with the Cub Scouts at Hickory Creek (brrrr!), and we have Thanksgiving with the Wright family at our house.

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December 2008:
Larsen celebrates his 7th birthday, abuela (my mom) comes to Texas for the holidays, but we are forced to have an early Christmas with her when she cuts her trip short, we take our Christmas card picture, Larsen finds our missing TiVo Series 3 remote, and we have Christmas with the Wright family at our house.