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As we get ready to ring in the new year I’ve taken some time to look back on this past year. 2012 was a good year for us, it was also a year of big change.
A year ago, as we got ready to welcome 2012 things were very different. Our beloved kitties, Lily and Laura, were still with us. Anna was still teeny tiny (okay, she’s still tiny, but she was just a wee babe). And, we were still in our little green house in St. Louis.
2012 was good to us in many ways, but it was not without its low points. We have much to be thankful for, much to look back on with smiles, but 2012 also brought us tears and sadness. We said goodbye to our sweet Laura in March and then our dear Lily in November. We miss them terribly but we are so grateful for the years they were part of our family.
This time last year we had no idea what 2012 had in store for us. We had no idea that a year later we would be living in a different city, hundreds of miles from St. Louis. 2012 found us making big decisions and making a huge move, halfway across the country to Seattle. It was hard to say goodbye to our friends and our home but we are enjoying Seattle and settling in.
Even with its low points 2012 was a good year for us. Our girls are healthy, beautiful and full of life. Louis is now part of our family, causing trouble and winning our hearts. Life is good. I can’t wait to see what 2013 has in store for us.
Happy New Year! I hope you have a wonderful time ringing 2013 with friends and family and I hope the new year holds great things for all of you.
The tree is up and filling our home with light and beauty (and endless fun since Maya and Anna have been playing with the ornaments daily since we put the tree up 3 weeks ago). Beautiful lights outside bring a little holiday cheer to our neighborhood. Presents are wrapped and hiding in the closet. All the ingredients are purchased for a what promises to be a very yummy Christmas dinner.
I love this time of year. All the holiday cheer. All the smiling faces. Finding the perfect gifts for everyone on my list. I’ve always loved this time of year, but seeing it and living it through the eyes of children just make sit that much better.
I hope you’ll have a wonderful weekend and enjoy all those last minute preparations. If you are traveling, safe travels.
We had a wonderful Easter, very low key, but lots of fun. Maya had a blast hunting for Easter eggs and Anna enjoyed her first little Easter basket.
We started a new tradition this year. Saturday afternoon Maya planted some “magic” jelly beans in our garden. I gave her a small handful of jelly beans and told her they were “magic beans” and that if she planted them in the garden something special would grow from them and be waiting in the garden for her Easter morning. She wholeheartedly believes in magic right now so her eyes light up and she went on and on trying to guess what they might turn into. Easter morning we headed out to the garden and she found that her “magic” jelly beans had turned into a flower lollipop and a carrot filled with jelly beans. It blew her little mind! It was such a fun little activity and will definitely be a yearly tradition for us.
Though Anna is way too young to understand what was going on Easter morning she sure did enjoy the fact that a bunch of fun new toys appeared in front of her. She had so much fun playing with the little plastic eggs and her little Easter basket.
We had a lovely Easter morning with our girls. It is so fun to watch how excited they get and how magical it all is to them. The rest of our Easter was spent outside working in the yard and enjoying a nice dinner on our new patio. It was the perfect day.
On December 17th we woke bright and early to start our Christmas vacation. We loaded the car with all the stuff necessary to travel with two small children (which is A LOT), and headed up to Canada to spend Christmas with our families. The girls kept themselves busy as we were getting things ready so we could head out the door.
The drive went so much better than I ever could have imagined. Given that Anna is not a fan of being in the car I had visions of us driving for hours and hours with a screaming baby in the back seat. Instead, Anna surprised us all and did really well. She fussed and cried occasionally, but for the most part entertained herself very well in her seat.
We spent the first week of our Christmas vacation with Lorne’s family. Maya had a ton of fun playing with her Uncle Cliff and Aunt Emma. The girls were totally spoiled and except for the fact that Maya, Lorne and Anna were all sick with the Christmas Plague of 2011 we had a wonderful time.
Christmas Eve we said goodbye to the Mitchell clan and headed to my brother’s house to spend the final week of our trip with my family. We hadn’t seen my family in a year and a half so it was so wonderful to spend time with my mom and my brothers. Maya had a blast playing with her Nana, her uncles and her cousins. Anna wowed everyone with her constant smiles and laid back ways.
After a fun filled two weeks with our families we packed up the car with all the stuff our girls got for Christmas, boy were they spoiled, and headed back home. Christmas vacation 2011 will go down in the history books as the year we all battled the neverending Christmas Plague of 2011 and the year Maya decided to talk about poop, toots and stink endlessly 
Good times!
Tomorrow morning, bright and early (well not too early) we will be hitting the road. We are making the trek up to the Great White North to visit our families for the holidays. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone. I am not, however, looking forward to the travel part of it. But, since they haven’t invented a teleporter yet I guess I’m stuck with the travel part of it *shrug*.
Since we’ll be traveling with a baby who still enjoys eating every 2-3 hours we’ve decided to break the 14ish hour drive into 2 days. Breaking it up is nice in that neither day will be too crazy driving wise. But, at the same time, it is nice just to get it all over and done with in one day. I’m hoping Anna does well on the trip. She has, recently, started tolerating her carseat a little better. She certainly doesn’t like it by any stretch of the imagination, but she doesn’t cry as much now and can entertain herself a bit with her toys back there. Hopefully there isn’t too much crying so we can all maintain our sanity. The night in the hotel could get interesting too. Hopefully we all get a little sleep.
Today I’m busy packing and organizing, 100% sure I’m going to forget something. Hopefully it all fits in the car!
Yesterday I took the girls to see Santa since I had been procrastinating and needed to get it done before we left. Maya had a blast and talked Santa’s ear off. Anna was determined not to crack a smile for the lady taking the picture and burst into tears moments after the first picture was snapped when the lady tried to tickle her. Oh well, at least the first shot was a good one
I hope you all have a great weekend. Please keep your fingers crossed that our weekend of driving, driving and more driving goes smoothly.