Farewell 2011

Yet again we find ourselves at the beginning of a new year...and once again we find ourselves thankful for all the many blessing our Heavenly Father provided us with during 2011. It's always fun to look back on the year and remember things that took place making memories that will last us a lifetime. Like last year...here's a short run down of our month by month events that took place...it was a pretty good year :)

January:

Tim's brother Brig and his wife Kari welcomed a new baby boy into the Tappana family

I received a new calling at church...Primary Music Leader

After an afternoon of snow shoeing in Cottonwood Canyon, we hit a bear with our car on our way back down the mountain. Since then, I've discovered a variety of bear meat recipes on Pintrest that we've enjoyed throughout the year. If you're craving a delicious bear burger...come on over...we still have a freezer full of bear steaks!

February:

Completely against my will, I turned 28 (ugh!)

We headed to Las Vegas for a few days to witness our niece Brynn's baptism

Emmy got her first tooth and started crawling!

Tim finally had his dream come true when he spent a week as a contestant on Jeopardy. Sadly, his week reign ended when he missed a question about Mormon pop culture...go figure :)

March:

I entered a cooking competition and was awarded first place and a check for $10,000 until 24 hours later, three of the judges reported food poisoning and they disqualified me after the competition

April:

Tim started taking his last round of finals EVER! (well...at least until med school)

We successfully adopted a monkey named Zulu from Indonesia. So far, I've taught her how to cook, clean, balance the check book, iron, and drive a car. It's amazing how much more time I have on my hands!

May:

Emmy turned one!

Tim graduated with his Bachelor's from the University of Utah

I got into my first car accident going 5 miles per hour

Tim decided to take up a new hobby with all his spare time...currently he parades around at night dressed as Batman keeping the streets of Salt Lake City safe at night once more

June:

I chopped 12 inches of my hair off

Tim and I celebrated our 6th anniversary and left Emmy overnight for the very first time

The weather finally decided to cooperate so that Tim could plant his beloved garden

While digging in the dirt for his potatoes, Tim discovered a funny looking bone. After contacting the Archeology Department of Utah, we were told that Tim had found the femur of a prehistoric Stegosaurus. Since then, we have hosted close to 82 different scientists from around the world...they keep telling us the excavation will be finished "next week"...yeah right

July:

We found out we were pregnant with our second baby

Tim's brother Sammy and his wife Caitlin welcomed their first baby to their family...a girl!

We went and saw the very anticipated Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2...ending 10 years of anticipation for the next movie and making it a bittersweet night

Tim started a research project up at the University of Utah studying the ultrasound vocalization of rats

Tim helped birth a Lama for one of his service projects for school. Sadly, the mother died shortly after. Because Tim has such a soft spot in his heart for baby Lama's, he brought it home and she's been a member of our family ever since.

August:

We went with my entire family to a cabin in Brian Head for a few days

Tim and I were able to spend 8 awesome days in Hawaii as just the two of us

Emmy started walking!

We took Emmy to the zoo for the very first time

While at the zoo...some punk kid let out the hungry Siberian Tiger and a couple of lions. After climbing a tree, I surveyed the area and discovered them lurking by the zebras. Using my mad ninja skills...I had them back in their cages in a matter of minutes. The zoo officials awarded me a medal for my bravery and we were given a free lifetime family pass to the zoo as well as a couple gift certificates to Burger King

September:

Tim took the MCAT...again

We successfully canned our first batch of salsa for the season using tomatoes from our garden

We watched Tim's beloved BYU loose their pride to the University of Utah for the second year in a row

Our family was offered a chance to go on a family version of Survivor being filmed in Cambodia in the Spring of 2012. We turned it down though due to the size of spiders that can be found in that area.

October:

We started applying for Medical School...again

We took Emmy trick-or-treating for the very first time

We attended our third annual Halloween party thrown by Brig and Kari dressed as an oven and a baker

We found out we're expecting a boy!

After being told that we were having a healthy baby boy...the ultrasound tech then informed us that our healthy baby boy also has three heads...a first in medical history. We've already been contacted by twenty seven different hospitals throughout the country asking permission to be present at the birth. I'm not so sure how I feel about that. On top of that stress, we're trying to decide if we should name each head differently, or just stick with Jackson 1, Jackson 2, and Jackson 3...

November:

We started receiving secondary application requests...again

After an emotional OCD meltdown...I successfully made my very first batch of homemade rolls

Emmy turned 18 months!

Emmy spent her fist night in a big girl bed

Tim was promoted to a Medical Laboratory Scientist at ARUP

I got into my second car accident...this one however, was not my fault!

Emmy started nursery!

I felt our little man move for the first time!

After much debate, Tim and I decided that we would build an igloo out of the first snow of the year and live in it for the entire winter season. Sadly, mother nature has yet to provide any sort of decent snow fall, so we've been forced to live indoors all season long.

December:

We celebrated Christmas with my whole family this year

Tim turned 29!

We started a new Tappana family tradition...chinese food and Bingo on New Year's Eve :)

Emmy is now attending Harvard University. She's studying Biomedical Engineering and finds the field challenging but enjoyable. She's able to come home every other weekend for visits and it's been nice having her for a longer period of time for the winter break. Our little girl is growing up!

We hope your year was just as awesome as ours was and wish you a very Happy New Year with many happy memories to last a lifetime :)