The old adage is true, the older you get, the faster time flies. It seems just like yesterday that we were learning how to deal with twins… wait… that was yesterday.

2007 was an amazing year. Here’s a month-by-month replay:

1. January: Uhm… can’t remember that far back.
2. February: Bryce turned 8
3. March: I went to Vietnam. A trip that changed my life forever (going back in a few months!)
4. April: I turned 31
5. May: Bryce was done with the 2nd grade, Kyla began her daily countdown to kindergarten, and I graduated from the internship at NorthWood
6. June: Bryce had her tonsils out
7. July: We drove to Colorado for a few weeks (a mistake we won’t soon make again! Not the Colorado part, the driving part.)
8. August: Kyla FINALLY started kindergarten… and it was everything she ever dreamed it would be!
9. September: Just another month (I’m sure someone was sick… that’s the norm around here)
10. October: All 4 girls went trick-or-treating with all our neighbors (our neighbor’s dog – a chihuahua – was dressed as a hot dog! It was hilarious!)
11. November: We enjoyed Thanksgiving with the Donnie, Meredith, and the rest of the Featherston crew! What an awesome family! We would be lost without them!
12. December: Christmas, shopping, stress, sickness (again, a monthly norm around here)

I’m not sure I’ll have a chance to post again until next year, so I’d just like to say thank you for reading this year. I’m sure I get more out of it than you do, but knowing my random thoughts, rants, and raves have entertained you some makes it all worthwhile. SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

Ah, yes. This year will be different. I will make my normal list of resolutions only unlike years past, I will actually DO them this year! Why, you ask? Well, for one, I have several motivating factors. First is my wife and kids… not that they weren’t motivating factors in years past, but we lived in a familiar town with familiar friends and familiar family. 2006 and 2007 I was going to school, Rennee was pregnant, I really didn’t have a job, things were on cruise control. But this year, ah yes… this year is MY year (I just cursed myself, didn’t I?). I have a job that I love (I feel totally unprepared and inadequate, but I always feel that way), Ren is comfortable in her job, two of the four kids are in school now, and life is finally in “drive.” That’s what makes this year different. So what are my resolutions? Here they are:

1. Read through the Bible in its entirety this year (not just the new testament)
2. Be more consistent with my journaling
3. Be nicer to people (you know who you are)
4. Be meaner to people (you know who you are)
5. Develop an accountability system that actually works for me
6. Take my heart and stomach pills (diet, exercise, all that jazz) when I’m supposed to
7. Lead my family like I’m supposed to

So what’s yours? Or are you opting-out this year?

Luke gave us a Christmas present! A new photo gallery! Go check it out by clicking on “pictures” on the menu to the left! Enjoy. I’m still learning how to do this, so be patient, it may look a bit strange for a while. OH! By the way, if you click on a picture in the gallery it should open the gallery so you can view the pictures in a larger format!

Well, another Christmas comes and goes with New Years nipping at its heels. Overall it was a good Christmas. The girls got what they asked for (with the exception of Bryce… her 3-page Christmas list was narrowed down greatly). Kyla got the jeep she so desperately needed, Bryce got a PS2 and Guitar Hero 2, and the twins got some bouncing-zebra-esque thing. Ren and I, as usual, chose not to get gifts for one another so that we could afford to get gifts for the kids (which, now with 4, we don’t expect to get anything for Christmas for a long, long time). But it’s all worthwhile to see the girls’ faces on Christmas morning… 5:30 in the morning. I don’t even want to see my face at that time of day! My body will be playing catch-up for the next week!

We hope you all had a very merry Christmas, and have a safe and happy new year!

Be watching for my annual “What Did I Learn This Year” post! It’s sure to be both entertaining and educational!

This is the most powerful song ever written, in my opinion and it’s not Christmas until this song is played over and over again.

…Ben Stein

There are two separate videos here, the one you see and THIS LINK.

Have you ever noticed how everyone who is white claims to be from Ireland? What’s the deal? What’s so cool about Ireland except alcohol, leprechauns, St. Patrick’s Day, more alcohol, and 4-leaf clovers?
I’ve always been fascinated with my ancestry. I love family trees. I love new discoveries of great-great-great grandfathers. I was lucky enough to know my paternal great-grandfather. Great-Grandpa Vaughn was a messy-haired, grumpy old man who always threatened to cut kids’ ears off. He was a hoot… scared me to death, but a hoot nonetheless. I have a second-cousin who is just as fascinated with genealogy as me, maybe more so. She recently sent me a folder in the mail containing my paternal line all the way back to the 1700’s! But even all the way back to then, we lived in the United States!

SO WHERE DID I COME FROM?

Well, I’ve dug, called, researched, paid money, bribed, everything and what I found out was more than likely we Vaughn’s come from Wales in the United Kingdom. More than likely my ancestors spoke welsh, and were, like me, smaller in stature (the name “Vaughn” means “small” or “little” in welsh). Every Vaughn coat of arms I have found have the latin term for “I will not return unrevenged” on it (proving that even the Vaughn’s of yesteryear had no grammatical skills either). So I must come from a bunch of pissed-off little people.

But what a glorious time we live in! You can search a paper-trail until your blue in the face, but in the end you still don’t know for sure if that is indeed where you came from (what if your great-great-great-great grandfather was adopted). So there is only one sure fire way to know – trace your DNA! I’m saving my pennies for THIS… among other things (see my Christmas list from a few weeks ago).

Maybe I’ll find out I’m African!! OOOOOH I hope, I hope!! That would rock!

I’m going to upset quite a few of you here.  I have not landed on a candidate that I like over another.  Shoot, I haven’t even landed on a political party yet (after all, they are ALL politicians).  But all politics aside, Mike Huckabee is taking great flak for his Christmas ad.  But I’ll let him explain it all in his own words.

Disney’s 1958 prediction of future transportation.  Some of it he got right (or real close to it).  Some of it we still laugh at.  You’ll see, Disney will one day rule the world and we’ll live just like this!