2013 in Review

2013 had its ups and downs just like any year.  Some days/months were better than others.  We made it through though!  

Here are some highlights of things that happened this past year.


January:

*  Chris got an award during Awards Day at school.  He received the Character Award for Honesty.  :)

*  We reconciled with Eric's family.
*  Nothing else major happened in January.  Just the usual day to day activities.


February:

* We went to the book fair at Chris' school.  That's always a potentially dangerous thing.  ;)    I can put away a lot of money at book fairs!

*  We had our first (and maybe only?  I don't remember) snow of the year.   It was exciting, even though it didn't last very long and we didn't get very much.

*  My husband Eric turned 30 years old.

March:

*  We took the boys to a couple of Easter Egg hunts in our area.  We even took their cousins along for one of them.  They had a blast together.

*  We had an Easter celebration at Eric's parents house.  It was the first time everyone had been together in a long time.  This is a picture of all of the cousins together.

April:

*  We took a trip to the lake.  We hadn't been before so it was pretty neat.

*  We took a couple trips to the library and science center.
*  Chris started playing baseball for the local recreation center.

May:

*  Field Day at Chris' school.  Those are always a lot of fun.  They come up with some pretty fun "events" for the kids to participate in.  His school also had an end-of-year party this month.
*  Logan was diagnosed with ADHD.
*  Went to a couple of baseball games.  The circus animals visited during one of the games!

*  We went to the opening of a new park a couple cities away.  It had a huge play area but the most appeal came from the fast that they were opening up a splash pad, too.  We didn't have anything like that in our area so the boys were pretty excited about it.

June:

*  School was out for summer!   Chris brought home an awesome final report card and was officially a second grader.
*  Chris took his first ever ride inside of an airplane!  I was scared out of my mind the entire time he was in the plane but he had a blast.  The Young Eagles program at our airport allows children ages 7-17 to get a free 30 minute airplane ride once a month.  They even give you a little passport to log how many miles you have flown.

*  To keep the boys busy during the summer so they didn't get bored, we took lots of trips to the library, skating rink, science center, and baseball games.
*  I turned 28 years old and celebrated my 8th wedding anniversary with Eric.
*  Eric was finally able to get on first shift at his job.  The entire 9 years we have been together he has always had to work second shift at whatever job he had.  With him being on first shift, it gives us so much more time together as a family.
*  We tried out a water park that our friend had told us about.  It's a little bit of a drive to get there but is totally worth it!  We had a lot of fun.

July:

*  We continued to keep busy with trips to the park, playground, library, science center, and things like that.
*  For the 4th of July we went to the fireworks show at the baseball stadium.


August:

*  Went to a race at the local speedway and Chris got to go down onto the track and meet a few of the drivers.  He thought that was so cool.

*  Went to a pool party to celebrate my niece's 13th birthday.
*  Logan started Kindergarten!

*  Chris started 2nd grade!

September:

*  Went to the pool a few more times before it closed up for the season.

*  The boys participated in the annual Walkathon at their school.  Logan walked 2.25 miles and Chris walked 2 miles.
*  We went to Eric's company picnic.  We had a blast.  They had tons of activities for the kids to do.  We even won some prizes.

October:

*  Chris turned 8 years old!

*  We went to a pumpkin patch and brought along one of the boys' cousins.  :)

*  We roasted marshmallows for the first time.  Chris and Logan absolutely loved that.

*  And of course, we went Trick or Treating on Halloween.   (the white specks are bubbles)

November:

*  After Halloween, a pumpkin patch down the road from us let the remainder of their pumpkins go for free.  We picked some out, brought them back to the house, and made a little set-up in the back-yard and took some fall pictures of the boys.  Our neighbors thought it was such a cute idea they asked if they could use it when we were done.  They even offered to get a family shot for us.  All of you moms out there know we don't usually get to be in the pictures very often because we are the ones behind the camera.  ;)

*  Logan lost his first tooth.  He had been waiting on this for such a long time.  Chris started to lose teeth when he was about 4 1/2, so with Logan being almost 6, he was definitely ready for one to come out.

*  We celebrated Thanksgiving and had dinner with our entire family, both my side and Eric's.  With so many clashing personalities, I'd say it went pretty well!  :)


December:

*  Logan turned 6 years old!

*  We decorated for Christmas and put our tree up, with a little bit of sillyness in the process.  :)

*  Our Elf on the Shelf, Ginger, came back this year.  We had a lot of fun waking up each morning to see what kind of mischief she had gotten into the night before.  What a crazy little elf.  ;)
*  We went to our city's Christmas parade.
*  We celebrated and spent time with both sides of our family on Christmas.


And tonight, on the last night of the year, we will ring in the new year cuddled up under blankets and watching the ball drop.  I wouldn't have it any other way.


All in all, 2013 was a pretty decent year.  I'm looking forward to what 2014 has in store for us.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you all have had a wonderful day.  We had a great Christmas here.  

We got started pretty early this morning.  Both of the boys were up by 7am and they started opening gifts right away.  By the time we were finished, it looked like a bomb had gone off in our living room.  They played for a couple hours and then my parents came over to give their gifts.  Within minutes, our living room had exploded again.  ;)  Chris and Logan got some more great toys.  My parents got Eric an Axe gift set and a cool thermal shirt.  My mom got me a tablet (WOOHOO!!!!  I finally have one!) and my dad got me some books I had been wanting for a while (The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks and Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich). While my parents were over, my mom made us some egg biscuits for breakfast.  Yummy!    

We spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon just spending time together around the house.  We watched a couple movies, then put on the Disney Christmas Parade.  I wish it would have been more parade and less advertising for their parks and cruises.  That kind of ruined the fun of it for us.   

That afternoon we went over to Eric's parents house to have Christmas with his part of the family.  We had dinner together and then everyone opened presents.  

It was a great day and everyone had a lot of fun spending time together.  

Happy Birthday, Jesus cake

all of the cousins together.  6 kids and only
1 is looking.  :)

Logan's 6th Birthday

Today my youngest child turned 6 years old.  That just seems crazy to me.  He's no longer my "little" boy, although I don't think he's been "little boy" for quite a while now.  He has been adamant that he is a big boy since he was about 3 years old.  ;)  

For lunch today, I went to the school to have lunch with him and to bring cupcakes for the class.   The kids are always excited about that.  I got a dozen chocolate and a dozen vanilla.  The chocolate seemed to go pretty quickly.   This one little guy in Logan's class was nearly in tears because he thought I'd be out of chocolate by the time I got to him.  He ended up getting one though.  ;)  

This evening we had a small family party for Logan at Chuck E Cheese.  He wanted a lego themed party.  For a snack for the kids, I made "legos" out of rice krispie treats.  The kids devoured those right up.  My sister in law Christi made a pretty awesome lego cake for him.  

After the party, we took Logan to Toys R Us to get his birthday crown and balloon.  The employee up front announced over the intercom that it was Logan's birthday, so if anyone saw him walking around the store, to wish him a happy birthday.   The kids always get a kick out of that.  It makes them feel special.  

Logan got to do quite a bit of shopping.   He had his own money that he'd earned, the Toys R Us giftcard that they send you in the mail, plus 2 giftcards to Wal-Mart that he had won a couple months ago at Eric's company picnic.  He may be all boy in everything else, but that kid looooves to shop.  He had a blast looking around picking out things to buy with his birthday money.  

I sat down with Logan and asked him his yearly birthday survey questions.   Here are his answers:  


Favorite color:   Red
Favorite restaurant:   Wendy's
Favorite book:   Diego (easy readers) 
Favorite movie:   Despicable Me 2
Favorite holiday:   Christmas
Favorite TV show:   America's Funniest Videos
Favorite DS game:  Toy Story 3
Favorite toy:   Black Widow figurine
Favorite animal:   Giraffe
Favorite food:   Fruit Loops cereal
Favorite drink:   Fruit Punch
Favorite thing to do:   Play with toys
Favorite thing to do at school:   Play with friends

Best Friend(s):  Darrow and Cooper
What do you want to be when you grow up?  a Daddy and police officer 
What scares you?   Nothing
What makes you happy?  Momma (awwww)


Here are some pictures of Logan through the years

The day he was born

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

Happy Birthday, Logan!  We love you.

Chris' 8th Birthday

I know I haven't been a good blogger lately.  I let some things get to me and got discouraged and stopped writing.  I'm back now though.   And what better reason to write a new blog than your child's birthday, right?!  :)

Today my son Chris turned 8 years old.   That just seems crazy to me.   Time is going by way too fast.  In just 2 years, he will be out of the single digit ages.  In 5 years, I'll have a teenager!

I've started doing a birthday interview for the boys each year so I can see how their answers change (or stay the same) as they get older.

This is Chris' interview for this year:


Favorite color:    Blue
Favorite restaurant:   Checkers
Favorite book:    Magic Tree House series
Favorite movie:   Batman
Favorite holiday:   Christmas
Favorite TV show:   America's Funniest Videos  (I remember watching this as a kid and still love it!)
Favorite Wii game:   Lego Batman
Favorite DS game:  Cars Mater National
Favorite toy:   Iron Man figure
Favorite animal:   bear
Favorite food:   burger and fries
Favorite drink:   Milk or pepsi
Favorite thing to do:   Homework.  (Yes, this was seriously his answer.   He's such a nerd LOL!  His school doesn't assign homework on Friday so the kids will be free for the weekend and he actually gets upset about it because he *wants* homework to do.)
Favorite thing to do at school:   do math and have recess

Best Friend(s):  Owen, Sammi, Christasia, Arianna
What do you want to be when you grow up?  singer
What scares you?   Monsters
What makes you happy?  cake, friends, and family



We had Chris' birthday party this past Saturday, so he got most of his gifts then.  This morning I let him open something that I'd been holding onto for him so he could still have something to open on his actual birthday.  He got the Mario Kart and Incredible Hulk Wii games.  :)

Eric and I went up to the school at lunch time so we could have lunch with Chris, and of course we brought cupcakes for the class!   The kids are always excited about that part.  We got 12 chocolate and 12 vanilla/yellow.  The chocolate ones went pretty fast.  ;)

When Chris got home from school, I took him to Toys R Us to get his birthday crown and balloon and to use the $3 gift card that comes in the mail from them.   The store was out of helium so he didn't get a balloon but he was still able to get a crown and use his gift card.  The girl at the front desk announced over the intercom that it was Chris' birthday so as he was walking around the store to find something he wanted to get, people kept coming up to him and wishing him a happy birthday.   That was pretty sweet.  




Here are some pics of how Chris has grown over the years.  

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Here are a few pictures from today

having lunch at school with him

Chris with his chocolate cupcake.  Yum

My not-so-little-anymore birthday boy

this is what he got with his gift card

Update On Us

First off I wanted to apologize for not being around much lately.  I've been in a bit of a blogging rut.  Blogging started to feel more like a chore than anything else so I wanted to back off for a while.


So, here are some random updates about what has been up with us lately.


*  I know I'm way behind, but I finally joined Instagram and Bloglovin.  You can also find me on Pinterest and Facebook.  Feel free to follow me and I'll follow back!
instagram
bloglovin
facebook
pinterest

*  Eric and I have hit a pretty severe rough patch in our marriage.  Right now we are just taking things one day at a time and are trying our best to get through this.  If you wouldn't mind, send up a prayer that everything turns out alright for us.  :)

*  Next week I will be taking Logan to a different neurologist to discuss my concerns about autism and ADHD.  For those of you who were with me last year, you'll remember our visit with "Dr. House".  Hopefully this doctor will be able to give us some answers.

*  We are finally back to being a 2 vehicle household!  That definitely takes a lot of stress off of me.  Having only one vehicle to take 4 people where they need to go (and even no vehicle at all for a couple months) was so stressful.

*  I've signed Chris and Logan up to play baseball.  They are pretty excited about it.  Chris is on the team where they do coach pitch and Logan will be on a t-ball team.

*  Logan and I having been going to our local library a lot lately.  He loves to play learning games on the computer, play on the lego table, do puzzles, and then check out some books and movies to bring home.

*  We have made a few trips to one of our local parks to feed the ducks.  The boys absolutely love doing that.  The first time we went, a few of the ducks came right up to us and took the bread out of our hands.  That was pretty neat.

*  Chris got all S's on his report card a couple weeks ago.  He's doing wonderful with his reading.  He's almost on a third grade level now.

*  I'm going to start exercising and eating better so I can get back on track with my weight loss.  I'm really wanting to stick with it this time.

Here are some pics from the past few weeks.  

playtime at the library.  He was a little upset that there
wasn't a third cow for him to put in the line-up

acting silly

feeding the ducks

at the bookfair at his school

Logan being silly

we finally got a *little* bit of snow, though it didn't last long
at all :(  

"spring fling" at our local baseball team's stadium

at the playground this past weekend

playing on the lego table at the library

Also, don't forget to stop by this post and tell me a little about yourself.  I'd love to get to know my readers! :)

Have a great week.