2013: Year in Review

Happy 2014! I don't know about you, but our 2013 was a bit of a rollercoaster, so we were pretty much ready to say farewell when the ball dropped. We had some really amazing moments, and others that we'd rather forget. So to give 2013 a proper send-off, it's time to take a look back at the ups and downs before we turn our focus to all the potential of 2014! 

Here's how we spent 2013...

JANUARY

We started the year with baby preparations, completing Carsen's new room, and making a quilt for her big girl bed. It was a lot of work but well worth it. She loves her room and has a blanket handmade by her mama :)

FEBRUARY

The Ravens won the Super Bowl! We joined nearly 100,000 fans in welcoming them home after the win. More baby preparations ensued: cooking, cleaning, writing detailed instructions for the babysitters.

MARCH

Last-minute baby preparations and finally, just when we began to think we might have another April baby, Reagan arrived! One of the absolute best experiences of our lives. 

APRIL

Mostly spent getting back on my feet, getting to know Reagan, and adjusting to life with our two baby girls. And my sweet baby Carsen turned 3!

MAY

We continued to adjust to life with 2 babies, enjoyed some outside time whenever we could, tried to get back into the swing of normal life by actually cleaning the house and developing somewhat of a routine with the girls. 

JUNE

I turned 31, we soaked up sunshine at the playground and out on our front walk every chance we got, I officially began training for my half-marathon, and we bought a new car to better accommodate our growing family!

JULY

Much of my time was spent trying to maintain a regular training schedule. Reagan hadn't settled into a consistent nap schedule yet so we were working on that too. Otherwise we spent lots of time out in the sunshine enjoying summer. We played with sidewalk chalk a lot {even made our own} and hung out at my mom's to splash in the hose & baby pool.

AUGUST

Time to prep for our big family vacation to the Outer Banks in NC. List-making, planning, plotting, graphing, and other forms of type-A bliss ensued. I also planned, prepped and froze a lot of our car and beach snacks ahead of time. Oh, and more half marathon training, that is until I came down with a random chest cold. Carsen was also in my cousin's wedding as a flower girl - cutest ever. And Josh's grandparents came to visit to meet Reagan and our niece Faye {born in July}.

SEPTEMBER

We spent the first week in NC at the beach with my family for some much needed rest, relaxation, and time away together. It was amazing. I can't wait until we go again. Then there was more training and another hiatus for an infected toe. Cheers! Reagan turned 6 months old :) </3

OCTOBER

Training went into high gear, though not quite where I wanted to be. Race day went really well, though again not quite where I wanted to be. We spent a traditional day at the pumpkin patch with my siblings and their kids - it was randomly 80 degrees that day and we were all hot and sweaty. We also celebrated a dozen or so family birthdays in a 2 week span. The government shutdown caused Josh's contract at work to lose funding. He was placed by his company on a different task well below his skill level and at a 30% lower salary. Shit got real.

NOVEMBER

Josh scrambled to find another job as we started to wonder how long this financial situation could keep us afloat. This was probably one of the most stressful things we've experienced in our 6 year marriage. He got an offer for another job almost right away but the company couldn't start him until an FY14 budget was passed on the federal level. So he continued searching and sending his resume out to everyone he knew in any industry he could possibly work in. In the mean time we were trying to operate on 2/3 of our normal budget. Finally, the week of Thanksgiving he had a very promising interview that led to a new job at his original salary. Thank you, Jesus.

DECEMBER

We got into the Christmas spirit with a month of Advent activities. Josh started his new job. We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary with Olive Garden take-out {so romantic!}. And we had what we both agreed was our best Christmas yet!

To bid 2013 farewell, we went with a very original "2014" theme for the night, and decided to celebrate according to our age {old} and stage in life {parents of small children}. That basically translates to a quiet evening at home and forcing your eyes to stay open until midnight so you can kiss and fall asleep. 

In addition, I did make steaks in my new cast iron grill pan from West Elm! I was rather excited to try it out and it did not disappoint :) 

Reagan celebrated with somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean east of Bermuda but not quite to Ireland and went to bed at 8. She's a partier, that baby ;)

After Reagan went to bed Carsen and I played a few rounds of Curious George Memory, and she went to bed around 9. 

Josh and I watched a pretty awful movie called Idiocracy. That was a few hours of my life I'll never get back. We turned on the NYE special at midnight to watch the ball drop and start the year with a kiss. Then we made fun of all the painful remarks from Carson Daly & friends for a few minutes before calling it a night. 

So, what's up next for 2014? We have a few things in mind :) I'm more of a goal-setter than a resolution-maker, so I have a few goals I'm planning to work towards this year. Check back soon to read about them!

2012: The Highlights

I've written full year-in-review posts before, but they are super time-consuming and nap time is winding down around here! Plus there are definitely some patches of 2012 that I'd rather not review so I'm choosing just to hit the highlights instead. Keeping it light as we bid 2012 adieu and welcome a brand new year! ;)

We began the year with some big projects in front of us. One of those was re-doing our kitchen. We managed to get half-way there. Can we say that's not "half bad?" I had originally wanted to replace appliances, paint the room (along with the rest of our main level), paint our ugly builder-oak cabinets white, and finally put down our tile. If you've been reading you'll probably recall that we managed to get the room painted and replace the appliances. Don't get me wrong, it's a giant improvement, but the other two items are still on my list of things to do. Here's to making them happen in 2013!

You may also recall the massive paint {in}decision of 2012 that I began the year with. While not exactly an enjoyable experience, we did finally pick a color and paint the entire main level, stairway and upstairs hall. I'm happy to report that I'm just as happy with the color today as I was the minute it went on the walls! Success :)

In the spring, C took her first dance class through our local parks & rec. council. She LOVED it. For me, it was just ok. It was a "mommy & me" class since she was barely 2 and most dance schools don't offer official lessons until 3 at the earliest. The downside for me was that we did the same exact things every single week. I didn't expect advanced instruction in clapping or stomping, but a little variety in the songs and activities wouldn't have been too much to ask. We'll be looking into actual ballet classes for the coming spring. C has since discovered/realized what ballerinas and ballet dance actually are and thinks they're amazing :)

We also celebrated C's 2nd birthday with a "Spring Fling" party. It was a fun gathering on a beautiful day with just our parents, siblings, and their children- a pretty decent crowd in itself. We had some lunch, played at the playground, and had dirt cups for birthday cake. Sorry boy cousins, but I'm pretty sure now that she's old enough to choose, this year's party will be very pink, if not totally princess themed.

This summer we did not take a family vacation. That's always a little sad for me because summer seems a little incomplete without one, but we had a great summer nonetheless. I officially started Eyeful Photography after lots of encouragement from friends and family I had taken photos for, and I bid my 20s farewell on June 1st! We also did a vegetarian challenge and tried a lot of new and amazing vegetarian dishes that we're still using, though we have gone back to including meat for variety's sake. We found that while there were many vegetarian dinners we loved, they weren't numerous enough to be enough variety for us. You can only do some form of beans/cheese/tortillas so many times before you're ready to move on. This summer also saw one of the best Os seasons of my lifetime. We went to a lot of games and had a lot of fun cheering on a {finally} winning team!

In mid-July we found out we were expecting our 2nd baby! That was definitely one of the very best parts of the year. We were hoping another one would arrive sometime around C's 3rd birthday and our due date is almost exactly 1 month before she turns 3. Perfect! Shortly after that, J had a big surgery in August and we spent 3 weeks at home together taking care of him and enjoying a new normal. I wasn't feeling my best since it was the first trimester of pregnancy but that faded pretty much on time around week 13-14.

I wish I could tell you about the month of September, but all I remember was that it went by in a blink. By the end of it, we were excitedly sharing the news of our new baby though :)

October was another whirlwind because we were not only trying to squeeze in fall fun, but we were preparing for J's sister, Jennie's wedding at the end of the month. We managed to do all the fun things we wanted to like going to the pumpkin patch with my brother and sister and their kids, having a fall-food & craft day at my mom's, half-a-gajillion family birthdays, helping my sister move, and finally Jennie's wedding on the 27th and Halloween on the 31st.

On Halloween we also had our 20-week anatomy sonogram and found out that our new baby is a girl! We decided that day to name her Reagan, and now we're just 12 weeks away from meeting her face-to-face

Much like I did on the blog, I'm skipping November. Highlights only, remember? ;)

December was full of advent activities, Christmas decorating, festive gatherings, and of course our merry little Christmas itself :)

It's hard to believe another year has passed. For many reasons I'm happy to say goodbye to 2012 and move on, but there were certainly many, many more happy moments, memories made, and amazing life events that I will always cherish. Tonight we're celebrating "in" with some close friends. That's just our style- rather than going big, we tend to go for quality with very special people (and yes, tonight that will include C!). However you'll be celebrating, I hope it's fantastic :)

I'll save a coming-up-in-2013 post for next year....  new year's eve humor :D