Happy New Year!

Wow! What a year! Its hard to believe that 2008 is over. As I sit here and contemplate the events of the past 12 months I can hardly wrap my head around the wonderful changes to our lives.

The year was really divided into two parts for us, before Hayden and after Hayden. The before Hayden part of 2008 was full of busy preparations! We didn't have long before Baby Hayden was going to make his debut into the West household. We had new jobs to start, the baby room to paint, furniture to put together and dog shows to attend!

In January Ray started his new career at Health Markets. It was a great opportunity for him professionally AND only about 15 minutes from the house - how great is that? He can still make it home for lunch to play with the dogs! We also started work on Hayden's room, we opted for an underwater theme and I have to say the room turned out beyond expectation.

In February and March we competed in our final dog shows before Hayden's birth. (By we, I mean Ray ran both pups, because I was roughly the size of a house and was not going to run ANYWHERE!)

In February, our friends Jenn and Peter had a wonderful get together with all of our dog show friends to celebrate the baby, it was so great to see all of our friends outside of a dog show (its always neat to see everyone cleaned up and in 'civilian' clothes!) Great food and great friends!

In March, my dear friend Pam threw us an amazing surprise shower. She did a wonderful job keeping things secret, including having The Moms; Muriel and Karen, both fly in and surprise me - and boy was I surprised! Pam had an entire underwater theme to go with the new baby room. It was so wonderful to see everyone and having the Moms here made it even more special - something I will never forget.

Then April.... the month we were all waiting for! On April 24th we welcomed our 'little' boy Hayden Lee West into the world. He came bouncing into our lives a little before 2p.m. - weighing in at 8# 12 ounces and 22" long! A big healthy boy.

We were lucky enough to have both Mom's here for the two weeks following Hayden's birth - I don't know how we would have done it without them, I threatened to never let them leave.... The only reason I did allow them to both go home though was that Hayden's Great Grandma Dorothy was coming in for the 2nd shift and stayed with us for 2 weeks. I don't know what I would have done without all that help! We are so lucky to have family who could come out and stay for an extended time.

Hayden's first few months flew by with lots of visitors, in addition to the mom's and great grandma, we had Great Grandma Rita, Great Papa Tom and cousin G all make visits. Hayden is one very lucky boy!

My original leave was for 12 weeks off, but as we approached July, I decided I just couldn't leave my precious little boy at daycare yet, so we decided to extend my leave an additional 3 months. I am unbelievably lucky to have a great boss who let me take the extra time off.

Hayden has grown by leaps and bounds over the summer and fall - seeming to develop new skills every day! From his first time sitting up, starting to crawl, pulling himself up on everything, cruising around, and his first teeth. It is hard to believe how fast they change!

Hayden's first Thanksgiving and first Christmas have been very memorable! We were lucky enough to have family here for both holidays. Christmas was fun, Hayden was much more into the gifts than I would have expected. He loved all of his new toys (of course that did include the boxes and wrapping paper!)

As we roll into 2009, we are so thankful for the loving family and friends who have in one way or another been part of this amazing year with us. We wish everyone a Happy New Year!!

With Love,

Shannon, Ray, Hayden and the four legged kids - Tawnie, Remi, Nemo and Taboo