Review Extravaganza, Part 4

We've made it to the final day of:


Today, I'll look back on October-December.  And then, well . . . the year is OVER!

October

We got our piano!!  I have loved every minute of having it (yes, even when the children make up songs!)  I wrote about how it was just like Christmas here.
Mimi had her birthday and my kids had the best time wrapping her present.
And of course, Halloween was so much fun.  My dino and my princess were to die for cute!

November

I shared a summary of our typical day here.
Todd and I celebrated our seventh anniversary
My uncle took these pictures:

And we enjoyed counting our blessings with family over Thanksgiving dinner!

December

Ethan's birthday will always be a December highlight
Singing in my Christmas concerts was my favorite part!  I've never felt the true meaning of Christmas more.
And, of course, every thing about Christmas was as good or better than I could have hoped for.

Wow!  What a year!  Looking back, I grew a lot this year and I'm happy to start again with a new one in hopes that I'll continue to improve myself and enjoy my family a little more each and every day.

Happy New Year!!!

Christmas

Christmas this year was fabulous!  I failed miserably at taking pictures though.  I spent most of the time taking videos (which is what I neglected last year) and so now I'm hoping the NEXT year I can do both.  But here are a few pictures of the day:

"Thank you Mimi" with a bow stuck on his bum - we were crackin' up big time over that:

 Cherry turnovers for breakfast - I was too busy eating them to pose them for a lovely picture:

 Playing with her doll house - hard to beat a PINK doll house

 Playing his animal Wii game on his new bean bag chair:

 In the afternoon, we finally convinced the kids to get dressed and we headed down to great grandma's house for MORE presents.  Talk about overload!

Ethan cried at bedtime saying, "I just don't want this day to be over".  Yes, it was that good.  Good news though, we've had good days every day since too!  woohoo!

Our Christmas Eve

We began our Christmas Eve as we always do, making candy houses:

As you can see, Madeline enjoyed herself!

The neighbors gave us a gingerbread kit this year, so I made that one.  Todd is the back left, Ethan's front left, and Madeline's front right:

Later on, we decorated tables for 16 people

while Great Grandpa read books to Madeline.

We had Ham and Broccoli Boats, twice baked potatoes, and this jello awesomeness:

 We then played Christmas songs with my chime set.  Everyone had a chime and no one had the camera.  But it sure was fun!

Christmas jammies came next, along with hugs!

 My Mom and my other Mom.  xoxo

 The kids with their grandparents.  We were just too lucky to have them all here together!

Then it was off to bed, to sleep poorly!  

Ethan's Note to Santa

Review Extravaganza Part 3

It's time again for part 3 of:

 
This week, we are remembering the highlights of July-September.

July:

I got to go to the Stadium of Fire.  I loved it.  Even though I got sunburned!
It was my birthday!  I turned 27 and had a delicious cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes
And we enjoyed Grandpa's waterslide

August:

We got to go to Lagoon for free!!
Ethan wrote his first book

September:

Ethan started preschool and went on his first field trip to the zoo!!
We painted our sewing room blue!

And here are some fun pictures from those months:

This Week's Fun

As if the batch of thumb print cookies and the double batch of candy cane cookies wasn't enough, we went ahead and made these too!

 They are sooooooooo yummy (even when blogger makes the picture upside down!)

 And we built a snowman too.  Always fun. 

I've also been wrapping lots of presents - who hasn't, right?  Oh wait, the people who are still trying to shop aren't wrapping presents yet.  Phew, glad that's not me! 

I also did a last minute sewing project this week - a bean bag chair cover for Ethan.  It turned out cute, but no pictures yet. 

And tomorrow is Christmas Adam . . . ahem, a joke from my childhood that I never let go.

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Dolls

This week, I finally finished sewing my Christmas dolls.  My mom inspired me (and sewed some of her own with me) to make these.  I'm loving how they turned out:

 And where is their home?

 On the tree, of course!  Next year, I think five more will join them.  It adds a lot to have them sitting on the branches.  And they like it too:

Merry Christmas!

Review Extravaganza, Part 2

This week, we are remembering April - June in the:

 April:

We spent the month organizing and settling into our new house.  And we had tons of fun playing in our new park-of-a-backyard!

We painted over bright red walls and turned them gray and purple

We took pictures in Mimi's flowers!

May:

Family Reunion time!  This included funny face pizzas, snuggling with cousins, giant bubbles, and my nephew surprising us all and coming TWO MONTHS EARLY

June:

Family Reunion with the other side!!!  (My kids were so lonely after all the cousins left - two months of FUN!)

I also made up a recipe for Blueberry Cookies!

What crazy fun months!

More on the Birthday Boy

He had this grin on his face most of the day:

Some of his favorite gifts included an animal book , an animal game, and art supplies complete with an animal smock made with love from Nana and Auntie Laura.  Can you tell what Ethan is into lately?  He was so excited, that he promptly put on the smock and starting drawing animals out of his new book, using his new supplies.

                                     
  Here is his Toucan

 And his strawberry poison dart frog

I think he's turning into quite the artist!

A big thank you to everyone who made his birthday fun!  (He spent a good portion of the following day making Thank You cards.)

Ethan Todd

Here are a few of my favorite shots from Ethan's five year old photo shoot.  I seriously can't believe he's already five.  He's growing up fast and I know it will just get faster!  Hopefully I can get festivity pictures up tomorrow. 



Ethan's Crocodile

Ethan's first birthday cake was a simple white cake which said Happy Birthday on it.  Then he chose to have a chocolate football cake when he turned 2, 3, and 4.  But this year he finally branched out and chose this crocodile cake:

 Made with cupcakes, my favorite!  And do you think Ethan liked it?

 His exact words were, "Woah Mom, that is totally awesome!  That is so amazing.  It is so awesome."

 Happy 5th Birthday Ethan!

Happy Birthday Ethan!!!

Just look how you've grown!  I love you very much - my big FIVE year old!!!  Happy Birthday!

 5 years old

 4 years old

 3 years old

 2 years old

 1 year old

newborn