2012 in Review

Here's what we were up to this year...
January
*My mom came to visit us in NC.
*We found out baby #2 was a BOY.
*Sheri and Lisa came to visit. It was so, so fun and needed!
*We went to the North Carolina Zoo on a warm winter day.

February
*We took our first visit to the Catawba Science Center.
*Jonathan and I went to Greenville to see Will Hoge. We visited the Caskeys on the way. The concert was sold out, so we ate a nice dinner out instead.
*I turned 30! Eek!
*I had fun decorating our bedroom doors for Valentine's Day.
*We played outside a lot!

March
*We had a Seussical 2nd birthday celebration for Brenna.
*Brenna turned 2!
*We picked a name for Davin Ryan.
*Brenna and I spent a few days in Bristol to help my friend Wendy with her consignment sale.
*We had family pictures made in Bristol.
*My family threw us a baby shower in Abingdon.
*We decided to attend The Cove church in Newton.

April
*We went to church at TFC and celebrated Tinley's first birthday in Salem.
*We spent Easter at home in NC.
*Paige and I threw Sheri a baby shower in Pulaski, VA.

May
*I tried to potty train Brenna. FAIL.
*Mom came to visit again.
*We celebrated my last Mother's Day as a mother of one.
*I had a little procedure at the OBGYN office. Terrible. Horrible.
*Jude White was born!

June
*My mom followed her motherly instincts and came to NC about 3 hours before I went into labor.
*I went into labor on my due date. Welcome baby Davin!
*Brandan and Rachel came to meet Davin.
*The Caskeys came to visit.
*We celebrated Father's Day at Cracker Barrell.
*We went to Bristol for Davin's newborn photos.
*Leah Jones was born!
*I didn't sleep much.

July
*We went to Jonathan's parents' house.
*Jonathan's dad came to meet Davin.
*We all got to meet Jude and Leah finally.
*The Bashams met Davin.
*Brenna went to Bible school for a week.
*Jonathan, Davin, and I went to Nashville for a week. Brenna split the week between Jonathan's parents and my mom's.
*We celebrated our 4th anniversary at the Grand Ole Opry.

August
*I got a horrible case of mastitis the day before we left for the beach.
*We spent a week at the beach with the Bashams.
*We stopped at the NC Zoo on the way back.
*We celebrated Brady's first birthday in Bristol.
*Sheri brought Leah to see us in Austinville.
*We watched lots of Olympics.

September
*The kids and I spent a week with my mom. I helped my friend Wendy with the consignment sale again. I got really sick on the day we were supposed to head home.
*We also spent a couple days with Jonathan's parents.

October
*We met the Caskeys at the Children's Museum in Rutherfordton. SO fun.
*Davin rolled over.
*We went to the balloon festival in Statesville.
*I took Brenna and Davin to the apple festival in Taylorsville.
*We had family photos made.
*We went to pick apples at an orchard in Morganton.
*Jonathan's dad came to visit and we went to a pumpkin patch in Maiden.
*We attended a Halloween party with some of Brenna's friends.
*We had a short play date with our old neighbors, the Collins family.
*I pulled off a great surprise birthday party for Jonathan in Christiansburg.
*Davin was dedicated at Pine Mountain Church.
*We went trick or treating in our neighborhood and the mall (terrible idea). We had the cutest Pebbles & Bam Bam ever!

November
*We had Christmas photos made.
*Brenna potty trained.
*We attended a fun Thanksgiving party with our playgroup friends.
*We spent a day in Charlotte where J and I ran The Color Run, Sissy and I took B to the Renaissance Festival, and we shopped at Ikea.
*We celebrated Thanksgiving at both of our parents' houses.
*We worked out a lease until purchase on our dream house in Newton.
*Davin began sitting on his own.

December
*We moved to Newton.
*We had 12 adult and 20 kid friends over for a Christmas lunch party play date.
*Davin had urology surgery in Charlotte. We went back to Ikea.
*Davin is SO close to crawling. He rolls and scoots and pulls up like crazy.
*Davin started having trouble with naps. Brenna started fighting bedtime.
*I reunited with my King girls in Wytheville.
*We spent two days with Jonathan's parents, two days with my mom, and a day with Jonathan's dad for Christmas.
*I told Jonathan I want to move to Uganda. I'm only slightly kidding.

Adios, 2012!

Oh, 2012.

You were a year off contradictions. You saw me at my highest and my lowest. You saw lots of smiles, laughs, tears, and cries. You saw memories I'll never forget and days I hope to forget. I never expected all that you held, but I survived and I'm ready to look ahead.

You brought me a baby. Our son. Quite possibly our last child. And that will make you linger forever in our lives. You'll be written down on every form that asks for his birthday. And long after the bad memories fade, like they always do, you'll always be the year I became a Mommy of two. June 9, 2012 was a precious day.

You brought me a new home. Oh, how I hated our rental house, where we spent 11 months. I feel like a brat complaining, but I've done a lot of it. It was never really home. I went into labor there, brought my baby home there, and tucked my sweet toddler in there every night. But I longed for something else. December 1, 2012 will be remembered as the day I smiled when I pulled into our driveway. I have hopes for this new home. I smile more here already.

You brought me trials and hardship. I don't know if it was PPD, but I was sad a lot. I cried a lot. And I put up a brave face. I never expected it, but it consumed some of my days in 2012. I knew I was lucky and blessed and had much to smile about, but I cried. Sometimes I cried a lot. I loved my kids and my husband deeply, but I had hurdles I didn't even understand. I was tired. And overwhelmed. And desperate to be completely happy. I'm getting there. 2013 holds more happiness and memories for our little family.

You brought new friends. And caused me to lose others. You taught me a greater reliance on God and on family.

You brought way too much weight gain with pregnancy and not near enough weight loss after pregnancy. 2013 will be the year I see myself as pretty again.

You were a hard year. A wonderful year. An emotional year. A complicated year. Thanks for the memories, because I know that I'll remember the good times we had, which although often overlooked, were plenty.

2013, here we go.

Christmas Randoms

We're on the last leg of our annual Christmas tour.  We were at Jonathan's parents' from Saturday afternoon until very early Tuesday morning.  I spent Saturday afternoon with my King College friends at a restaurant in Wytheville.  We came straight to my mom's for Christmas morning celebration.  We're leaving here in the morning to head to Jonathan's dad's house for the day and then home to NC!  It's been great to be with so much family, but it'll also be great to be home again.  The kiddos have gotten lots and lots and lots of love (and gifts!) with family this week.

 B slept in a big girl bed for the first time at Jonathan's parents' house.  First night was rough.  Second night was good.  Third night was perfect.  She also napped in a full size bed at my mom's and got into bed with Jonathan at night after sleeping in the pack n play for awhile.  My girl is growing up!

Christmas church dress

 pretty girl

 Baby's First Christmas

 opening gifts at Neena and Pa Bill's house

 Davin fell asleep on MawMaw on Christmas Eve

 opening his stocking from Nanie

 Nanie got Brenna a Sit n Spin.  Big hit!

 Brady got a riding turtle - and a Noles hat!

 silly cousins

 my precious nephew

 pretty girl on Christmas morning

 all dressed up for Christmas dinner

 my sweet boy

 having fun washing dishes with Sissy

sweet cousin Jayla opening a gift 

Soon I want to chronicle some of the homemade (mostly Pinterest inspired) gifts that we gave this year.  They include two Lego tables, a recipe frame, a dress up clothes dresser, a canvas, a hairbow holder, ice cream bowls, an old photo canvas, hand scrub, photo tiles, and a cool thing for Sheri that she hasn't opened yet and someone on Etsy made - but I wish I'd made it.  Does that count?  I'll be computer-less again starting tomorow, so you may just have to wait in suspense for a little while!!

Christmas Morning

We did Christmas as a family yesterday (the 22nd) before we left town for our annual Christmas tour.  I was really looking forward to it, since Brenna is more aware this year.  Of course she picked that morning to sleep in, but we finally got everyone downstairs and had a good time doing gifts, breakfast (muffins, such a cop out, right?) and reading the Christmas story.

 Brenna's gifts from us

 D's gifts from us

Davin's ornament finally came!

Santa 2012

 We bought the kitchen at Ikea.  Then hacked it.  

We painted the counter and added the fabric backsplash.  I love it!

 B also got the homemade Lego table (another Ikea hack) and the beanbag.  

Davin got the mirror to play with, plus the ball roller coaster and Pooh plush stacking rings you can barely see in the two above pictures.

I really like doing the three gifts from Santa.  They got plenty more from us (too much, admittedly) but I hope we can keep the 3 thing down to keep some relation to the story of the three gifts for Baby Jesus.  Always trying to find ways to tie in the story!  We read the story of Jesus's birth after doing Santa gifts but before doing wrapped gifts this year too.  I liked that as well.

33Before33 - #25 - Party!!

 So we moved in to our new home on December 1.  That's a whole different blog post about how it all happened so fast.  With pictures!  And stories of how the Lord worked it out perfectly!  But, anyhow, I had already planned a Christmas playdate for Brenna's friends, so I just kept the date the same and worked like crazy to get the house in some sort of order.  There were 12 adults and 20 (I think?) kids, so it was crazy and chaotic.  But fun!  I'm pretty sure there isn't one single picture of my kids, but here are some pictures anyway.  I'm thankful we're starting to have a friend base here in Hickory.

 hot chocolate bar

 Krissy (about 3 weeks from meeting Baby C) and sleepy D

 E chowing down

 sweet K

 cutest kid on Earth - so sweet

 B's favorite Hickory friend - C

 cutie pie A

 reindeer doughnuts that never got eyes

 snowmen doughnuts that never got eyes or buttons - oops

 making Christmas lights fingerprint cards

 Dawn and L

 C and A found the Memory game!

 sweet, sweet little L

 making edible Christmas trees with ice cream cones, green icing and lots of toppings

 the only picture of B!  hiding in the kitchen as usual - ahh!

 sweet boy C

Jonathan made me take this picture.  Welcome to motherhood, right? 

6 Months Stats

Davin had his 6 month well check on Friday.  (This was three days after a urology surgery on Tuesday that required general anesthesia.  This won't be elaborated on to protect my boy's dignity, but just know everything is fine now and he did great! ;)) He did great at his appointment, although the doctor thinks he may get an ear infection since he had lots of fluid in his ears.  And he's since gotten a bit of a cold.  Boo.  Anyhow, here's how he faired.
17 pounds, 1.5 ounces (33rd percentile)
27 inches long (60th percentile)
43.5 cm. head (50th percentile)

Just to compare....at the same age (6.5 months), Brenna was
15 pounds, 12 ounces
26.25 inches long
17 in. head (which is almost exactly the same as Davin)

I adore my chunky monkey!

33Before33 - #10 - Dishes

For some crazy reason I have been really wanting to make some Christmas dishes.  So, I did.  I used a Pebeo Porcelaine pen, which makes your writing/drawing permanent after baking.  I used Christmas carol lyrics, and I adore them.  I may make placemats to go with them next year, but I was really digging the table runner I found at Target this year instead.