2012 Recap (Part 2 - The Holidays)

Ahhh, the holidays. Such a fun and busy time of year.  This year we spent Thanksgiving at my parents home, in their newly renovated kitchen - (it was finished just in the nick of time).  Thanksgiving continues to be my favorite day of the year. 

This was Chase's first Thanksgiving and he was happy to try lots of new foods.

Our family photo...it wasn't until after we took the pictures that I realized Ashlyn didn't have her skirt on.  Oops.

Just hours after Thanksgiving dinner, we went full swing into Christmas preparations.  All the women went out to start Christmas shopping Thanksgiving night.  The Christmas season was jam-packed full of fun activities, outings, traditions, and parties.  I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves...

Amongst all the chaos of the season, we also welcomed a new nephew into this world.  Jake and Carla had a baby boy, Jacob Dylan, on December 15th. 

We were also blessed with a heck of a lot more snow this year and were able to go sledding a few times.  Good, cheap family fun.

We ended the year quietly, at home.  To be honest, I was a little partied out.  It was just me, Brian, and our four kids.  We played board games, hide-n-go seek, and the wii, we watched a movie, and we ate lots of good food.  Brian finally ended his year of no sweets with a big serving of moose tracks ice cream. It was a fun but low-key night.

And that's that.  Now I can finally start on 2013!

The LONG Awaited 2012 Recap (Part 1)

I think I've put this off long enough!  Time to get back into the blogasphere. This is not necessarily in chronological order, but at least I'm blogging, right? Here are some things I missed writing about in 2012:

Luke continued to be our accident prone child.  Poor kid hasn't had a day without some sort of bump, bruise, or burn.  I'm not quite sure how this one happened.  It was about two weeks after Chase was born and I had just taken Luke out of the bath.  I got him dressed and went to get Trent out of the bath.  I heard Luke scream and I ran back into our bedroom.  The iron was on because I had just ironed all the boys clothes, but it was now on the floor.  Luke was standing on a rocking chair next to the ironing board.  I didn't even see his chin at first and couldn't figure out why he screaming so loud.  He was also holding onto his finger, so I thought he maybe had touched the iron.

Once I saw his chin, my heart just dropped.  It was my saddest mommy moment yet.  I felt horrible.  The burn was in such an awkward place, I still don't quite understand how it happened.  The only thing I can figure is that he got on the rocking chair, reached for the squirt bottle (which he loved to play with), knocked over the iron, lost his balance and landed on the iron.  the burn quickly turned into a huge blister and I didn't know how to treat it so I took him to the pediatrician.  The doctor actually ripped off the blister!  It was horrible. Luke didn't want anything to do with a bandage and kept taking it off, so I had to continually re-apply the burn cream.  The burn was in a bad spot because as it tried to heal, the scab kept getting rubbed off, especially at night when he would roll over in his sleep.   A year later, it looks a lot better, but he will always have a gnarly scar on his chin.  Poor kid.  I'm certain it won't be his only scar.  

The kids loved playing in their new play area, especially the sand box.  We are contemplating swapping out the wood chips for sand in the entire play area because the kids keep complaining about how hard the wood chips are to walk on.  And it's true, they are. We should have just used sand to begin with.  You live and learn, and sometimes waste money in the process.

The kids spent a lot of Sunday afternoons wrestling with their Daddy, a favorite past time.  I stayed safely behind the camera and snapped pics of my favorite people. 

The kids cooled off on hot summer days by putting a sprinkler under the trampoline. They have already started asking to do it again this year, but it's not quite hot enough yet.

Ashlyn looked beautiful as she danced her little heart out at her end of year recital.  I love my sweet and sassy little dancer.

We celebrated the fourth of July with lots of family fun.  The night before we went to the Riverton town parade.  The next morning Mindy and I ran a 10k and then went to eat a yummy breakfast at my parents house, complete with homemade donuts.  Yum! We went to the Riverton town days, where the kids got to participate in a haystack dive and go on carnival rides.  We hosted a BBQ that night and then watched fireworks.  It was a perfectly fun day.

I got a zoo membership and we spent several days at the zoo.  The favorite attraction being the new polar bear exhibit. 

Mindy and I took our kids to tour the Sweets candy factory. 

We spent some time (not enough) enjoying nature.

Just an after church impromptu photo shoot because the kids looked so darn cute!

We made play dough.....and made a mess.  The kids were happily entertained for a couple hours. Happy kids = happy mom.

Yay for football season!  Brian was able to get season tickets this year and had so much fun going to all the games.  However, he got a little to caught up in the excitement during the BYU/Utah game and came home hobbling.  As he was jumping up and down after a big score, he landed wrong and ended up with torn ligaments, two sprains, and a dislocated big toe.  Crazy Ute fan!

Brian accidentally grew a very successful pumpkin patch.  He became a composter and threw in pumpkins from 2011.  Apparently the seeds didn't quite die off as they should have and when he spread his fertile soil across the garden, he inadvertently planted over two hundred seeds!  Brian pulled up almost all of the starts that came up but left a few and those few completely over took the garden. They all looked awesome on our porch, but I think we'll be buying our pumpkins from now on.

Luke was thrilled with the first snow fall of the year and had a ball until his mittens came off and his hands turned to little balls of ice. 

I had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands, six weeks apart. I am so happy with the results.  No more pain.  No more hands falling asleep ALL THE TIME.  One of the best things I've ever done for myself. 

I watched Chase grow and grow and grow.  It was bittersweet.

We welcomed Lorenzo into the family on August 28th.  He is a super cute, super sweet baby and is solid as a rock!  Chase is so squishy compared to this kid.  We wish they lived closer!  They came up to visit in October for his baby blessing and we also got to meet Stacey's boyfriend Kevin.  I am very happy for Stacey.  When it comes to being a mother, she is a natural :)

And we are back to summer.....HA!  I am too lazy to put these pics in order obviously.  Anyway, we spent many an afternoon at the splash park.  I love splash parks.  The kids get their water fun and I don't have to get wet! 

We went to Tracy Aviary with Mindy and her kids.  It had been a few years since I had been there and I was super impressed with all the changes and improvements.  Luke loved chasing the peacocks. Of course he did.

Ashlyn and Trent took three rounds of swim lessons.  They are improving, but still are not independent in the water.  They loved swim lessons and will hopefully start up again soon.  

PHEW!  That's it for now.  Be back again soon....I hope.