The Hart Family in a year

We can not believe that twelve months have come and gone. There have been exciting times, and hard times, but as a family we have come so far and look forward to many more together. We have a joke that our year always starts around June and July, because that is when we get
to go to our annual trip to Shaver Lake. This was Donovan’s first year and I think that
he took it pretty well. He was bummed that he wasn’t able to eat all the sand on the
beach, but it’s just something he can try to accomplish next year. While we were at
Shaver, Shannon was surrounded by all her family reading a book that she had never heard of. A little book series called “Twilight!” Thanks to all the convincing from some very persuasive women (mainly Jenny), she broke down at the airport and purchased the first book. She finished the series by the end of the week. She had a goal that she wanted to be done before our big trip to Orlando so she wouldn’t have that distraction to deal with.
Our family really splurged this year on a trip to Walt Disney World. This was Roxann’s first time and we wanted to celebrate Donovan’s first birthday
somewhere other than Chuck-E-Cheese. But we aren’t going to lie, it wasn’t about Donovan, this trip was mainly about Roxann. Thankfully, Grammy Jill and Papa Sam were good sports and agreed to come along with us. The feeling we had when we saw Roxy’s face as she walked toward the castle is unexplainable. Now we know why silly parents take their kids to these places. She still talks to Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Pluto on her cell phone, telling them not to cry, she will be back someday. Donovan enjoyed himself once we stopped forcing him to take pictures with the “fuzzy” characters. Aaron started school again right when we got back from Florida. He only has two more semesters and he will be all finished with his Liberal Arts degree. He can’t wait to be finished and move on to bigger and better things.

Shannon has been wasting away out here in Tennessee. She is out almost every weekend with her group of girls from our ward. She went to “Time out for Women” with a group of 12 and had a sleep over, and then decided to go out to dinner the following evening. They even went to see Twilight the night it came out. She is so happy and so grateful to have such a sweet and caring group of women around her. Aaron is glad when Shannon goes out because then he gets to have “Man Time” with his friends and his new firearm. He has a friend that set up a firing range on their property. A bunch of good men go out there and “try out” their toys. Don’t worry, one of them is a Doctor at Vanderbilt. Let’s just hope he isn’t the one that gets injured.

The whole family has been pitching in to help Shannon get the house ready for baby number 3! And no, we are not finding out what it is. The baby is due in April and we hope to give this one a blessing with as much family around as possible at our favorite vacation spot…Shaver Lake. We miss all of our family and friends that are not near us this holiday season. And we are grateful for all of the new friends we have made.
Love to all of you
THE HART FAMILY