All that said, I will definitely be more guarded now. But I'd like to continue to record our lives, as time allows, as well as my thoughts on different things. Sometimes an outlet, sometimes a journal, sometimes a bragbook, sometimes just a way to just sort through things... but something I'd like to print out as a scrapbook and journal of our crazy life. :)
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Recap:
January -
SG's one-year anniversary of being cleared from having Conradi-Hunermann! Yippee!!
We moved back home to our house.
We decided to homeschool ZZ for the semester to revive his love for learning. He is thrilled to be home. I'm not one to be against teachers, nor do I want to play "victim" but I do think he had a crappy one and it was her fault. I don't know if we would have actually pulled him out or switched classes, BUT we were moving anyways, so we just decided not to enroll him in the new school.
Lots of fort building. And since we live in Texas... popsicles. :)
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February -
A was born!!! I got really nervous towards the days leading up to his birth... anxious that he would have that stupid rash. He also didn't have a name, so that was somewhat concerning...haha. It was an incredibly smooth delivery and they let me start nursing him as they were still sewing me up. Amazing! Such a special time. And, no rash. :) We finally named him while we were holding him. He is pretty stinkin cute. <3
Brian's birthday! Whoohoo!
SG starts ECI speech therapy because the little stinker won't talk. She only says Thank You. Which our therapist thought was hysterical.
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March -
ECI therapy starts working for SG after we planned a very mean session during a mealtime where she had to say a word for food. Bless her little heart. But it worked!
I discover Pinterest and lose hours/days/weeks of my life.
A gets to go the church for the first time... (this pic cracks me up)
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April -
Brian underwent some outpatient surgery. I guess I didn't pay enough attention during the pain-management instructions because we had a moment where I was supposed to have already picked up some pain meds and I hadn't done it. So, big big oops on that, and a big hallelujah for having leftover pain meds from A's birth. On a side note, I'd rather not ever ever ever see Brian in pain ever ever again.
A starts to show his little personality and boy is he precious. Always. Smiling. He is so easy going and sweet and calm and patient. We are in love.
We have our annual Easter party with friends. I love our friends. <3
ZZ gets pnemonia. :(
SG starts turning into a little mommy
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May -
We started attending a new church. I miss our old church a LOT. But the drive wasn't feasible for us. :( Some don't like the mega-church concept, but I just loved it and felt so welcome there and spiritually FED. And my kids were busy and active and known by the staff. I especially loved Wednesday nights when we'd eat dinner at the cafeteria, play on the indoor playground with friends, hit the church library for books/videos, ZZ then had awanas and choir, SG was taken care of by my sweet friend Ashley, and I got to work the info desk with some super cool people. Just a really fun part of my week and I miss it.
We redid our kitchen. Really, we just switched out the doors and painted everything white. But it just seemed like so much more than that at the time. Whew! It turned out great, though. :)
ZZ brought home baby chicks from co-op. Definitely the highlight of the month. He loved them so much and spent so much time holding them and playing with them. He knew their personalities and gave them cute nicknames. He wants a pet so badly.
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June -
Decided to put the house on the market. It became obvious that our plan to have the littles share a room was not going to work out. And we were all lacking in the sleep department!
Brian's brother gets married and I adore his wife. She's a super sweet sister-in-law and she has 4 wonderful children. <3
Found out that ZZ got into a great private school in our area! SO exciting! We knew this was exactly the kind of school he needed.
ZZ does a triathlon and we are so proud! (and yeah... I am wearing a shirt even though it doesn't look like it...)
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July -
Brian and I almost finished the 60 days of Insanity. He lost 17lbs fairly quickly(don't even get me started... he didn't even need to lose weight!!). I ended up finally losing 20. Still 20 left, but was a good start.
We spent lots of time this month in the car during house showings. SG still hates the car, by the way... so that was, um, interesting.
And our kids are just cute, so here are some pics from that month.
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August -
A month full of home inspections, packing, purging, and nerves. Selling/buying is tough! We both had a peace about it all, though. Neither of us let ourselves get too excited about the new house until it was all said and done.
Spent the last couple weeks with ZZ before he was back in school. We were so excited for him!
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September -
We moved! It was tough with the two babies, but Brian's parents came up to watch them. They ended up also moving a lot of boxes, too! A little irritating that we had movers scheduled, but the buyers of our home wouldn't let us buy-back a day. Come to find out, they didn't even move in for a week! Boooooo that we could have had movers and had to do it ourselves
Then when we moved in, we realized that between putting our offer in and moving in, the owner let his daughter and all her dogs stay in the house. There was dog pee EVERY.WHERE. It was so so so bad. So bad, that we scrambled to find every extra dime we had to go ahead and pull the carpets out and put down new flooring... but that meant also going ahead and moving all the walls that we had planned to move. In other words, the whole downstairs was going to be plastic, dust, and studs.
It was also a birthday month! We were able to have ZZ's Harry Potter party outside and have SG's in the playroom on the same weekend. Whew, that was a busy weekend. :)
The new house has one more bedroom, a study, and a much larger master bedroom/bathroom/closet. It also has a playroom for the kids, a nice side yard, and a grassy front yard we can play in (our old house had a front yard of all ivy). And it has a pool - SOOOO EXCITED ABOUT THAT.
ZZ started 1st grade. Such a big boy. *sniff*
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October -
ZZ's school was going awesome!
We had a fun month of fall festivals and candy. Trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood ROCKED. They closed off a street and everyone was on the sidewalk handing out candy and homemade treats and glowing sticks/rings/necklaces. There were 2 haunted "houses" (backyards) and a dunking booth. ZZ was Harry Potter, SG was a puppy, and A was a dragon.
We spent a lot of time figuring out the pool.
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November -
Chill month. We went to my parents for a turkey meal. We hadn't been in a while, so it was nice to see how it was looking up there.
We went to Brian's aunt's house on Thanksgiving Day and had a great time. Our kids have lots of fun with Brian's cousin's kids, and they did an adorable Thanksgiving play. ZZ played "Squanto." :) The best part is that they live so close. Packing up our family is not an easy or fun task, and driving a long distance is even harder. Just a season I suppose.
I got a new phone. Which might not mean a lot for some, but I was so excited to have video on my iphone! :)
Took our family pics with the self timer but they turned out pretty decent. :)
We spent more time with the pool. Brian took over as the pool guy. It's his new baby.
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December -
We introduced Andy the Elf (Elf on a Shelf), which meant very early wake-up-calls from our oldest who went searching for Andy every morning, and the mischief he got into overnight.
ZZ and SG loved the Christmas lights and we often took drives at night. We liked to try and find Nativities. :)
Santa made SG cry again this year. It was pretty funny.
We had a beautiful tree at first, but it soon looked like other trees I've seen at friends' homes... nothing on the bottom and then stuffed on top where the ornaments are out of reach.
Santa brought us a new car and a Great Wolf Lodge vacation. ZZ got a big-kid bike and his favorite gift: Mazy Lane the Rat. Yes, we got him a rat. And we all love her. :) So keep your rat comments to yourself because she is seriously the perfect pet...haha.
We cursed the jerk who planted an oak tree next to our pool. I mean, REALLY? It's pulling up the concrete. And the leaves. THE LEAVES. It became a chore to fish out the leaves and I considered charging admission next summer. But then all the leaves fell. And we loved the pool again. And we decided we will let people swim for free, so be sure and invite yourself over this summer! :)
No December pics because I need to recharge my old phone and get them off. I'll add some later!
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2011 was a year where I came to terms on a lot. I came to terms with the fact that the only person I can change is myself. I need boundaries. Sometimes I need walls. Sometimes people can't give you what you need. Sometimes people will lie to you, and themselves. Sometimes it's okay to just forgive. Sometimes it's okay to forgive but keep some distance. Sometimes things are worth talking through. Sometimes it's not worth it. Sometimes people's actions speak louder than words. I let go of a lot this year, and through it, found a lot of peace.
Above all, there are a few things that became even more important in my life...
1. My God is so big. Just so so big. And not to underestimate His power, and the peace and the happiness and the security that only He can provide.
2. And my husband knows me better than I think I even know myself. (although my sister is a close second!) I SO appreciate his honesty, his non-acceptance of my bs, his support, his undying love, his kindness and inability to be rattled, his tough skin, his gentle words. He doesn't enable, he doesn't "co-depend." He is so much fun and makes us all laugh all the time. I tell him all the time I wish I was more like him. I also hope our kids are just like him. (minus his high school days... I was much more well-behaved...haha) We are in such a beautiful stage of our marriage and it is amazing. I wish, years ago, I knew this was possible. I better stop here because this kind of thing drives him crazy and I could seriously go on forever. :)
Here's to another great year. Hopefully I'll be back to blogging more. :)
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