Catching up

Being that this is the beginning of a new year, I think it's natural to look back at the past year and what things we want to remember.  That was really my purpose in starting this blog in the first place.  So, I am going to go back and at least give an outline of some of the things that happened.  

2011 in a nut shell-

This past year really did contain quite a few big moments.  In April, Abby turned 2.  She is quite a piece of work! :)  She is definitely a social butterfly, willing to talk to almost anyone at almost any time.  (She is still 2, so things can be unpredictable.)  She is also VERY, VERY funny!  Some of my recent favorites include:  In the evenings, Randy will often ask Abby if she wants to snuggle with him and "be his pumpkin" for a little while before she has to go to bed.  She would frequently say no, since she knows this means it's almost bedtime.  However, one night she was trying to put off going to bed and decided to turn the tables on him, asking "Daddy, will you sit with me and be my pumpkin?  Come here, Pumpkin!" It really is rather hard to say no to something like that.  We do say no when needed, however.  For example, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we had some almond bark pretzels on hand.  Again trying to stave off bedtime, Abby asked Randy if he could get her one.  When Randy said no, Abby replied "Yes you can!  Just try!  They're in the kitchen!  You can go in the kitchen!!!"  Hmmm...has she perhaps heard us asking her and her siblings to simply try something?  Perhaps. :)  (And yes, the answer to the pretzel inquiry was still no.)  

July was also a very busy month in our home.  We started the month at Family Camp, along with some good friends of ours.  This was our second year attending, and it really is a terrific time of family, faith, fellowship and fun. :)  I was not able to participate in quite as much of the fun, as I was trying very hard to refrain from having a baby during camp.  (Also, by "Family Camp", I do not mean anything involving actual camping.  We were at a Christian camp, and we had very nice accommodations that did not involve tents or anything of that nature.)  I did end up spending a lot of time relaxing with my feet up and doing some crocheting, but I was able to attend all of the services.  We returned home on Tuesday, July 5.  Just a few days later, on July 8, we welcomed Michael David into our family!  He is a VERY happy baby and a terrific sleeper!  Less than a week after that, Emma turned 9!  She is such an amazing young lady!  She is extremely patient with Abby and Michael, and a tremendous help!  She is also a fabulous dancer!  She has such a loving, caring heart, and her love of animals is definitely a gift.

In September, Randy and I celebrated our 10th anniversary!  It is really hard to believe that we have been married for 10 years!  Time really does fly when you're having fun! :)  At the same time, it feels like we have been married forever.  (Not in a bad way!  Just in the "we have been together for so long that it's hard to remember what it was like to not be together" kind of way.)  My beloved is amazing, by the way! :)  He is one of the hardest workers I know, but still makes God and our family top priority.  I can honestly say that I love him more now than I did 10 years ago, and I feel VERY, VERY blessed indeed!  Two days after our anniversary, Timothy turned 7!  It is really awesome to see how grown up he is getting to be!  He LOVES anything to do with farming, almost anything to do with being outside, and creating/building/engineering things with Legos, tools, scrap wood, wire, string and anything else he can find.

In November, just before Thanksgiving, Michael learned to roll over!  While many babies get very angry about being on their tummies, he saw this as an opportunity!  When we set him down, he would immediately roll to his tummy, pull his knees up under him and try to go!  He was determined to keep up with the "big kids".  About 2 weeks later, he learned to roll onto his back again.  It was only a day or two before he realized that he could roll over and over to get from one place to another.  He has done a little bit of that, but he is still bound and determined to be crawling. 


So, December brought us a rolling baby and his very first Christmas.  We also did something different with Emma and Timothy this year.  I got the idea from another mom in our homeschool group.  It is called an Advent Jesse Tree (based on the Scripture prophesy that the Messiah would come from the stump or tree of Jesse- father of King David).  In addition to our regular Christmas tree, we have a small, fiber-optic tree that I thought would be perfect for this project.  Basically, every day from December 1-25, we started our day with an Advent devotion.  The book that I have gives a memory verse for each day, along with a Bible story and both a children's devotion and an adult devotion, followed by a couple of questions and a short prayer.  These devotions take you from the Creation all the way through to Jesus' birth, and each day has a symbol that goes along with that day's story.  We took a couple packs of felt and made an ornament for each day to hang on the tree.  (Ok, by the end we got a little behind on the ornaments, so we are still missing a few, but we have 11 months to get them ready for next time.)  I will post pictures on another post, since this is getting long.  We were able to get together with some friends of ours the day before Christmas Eve.  We then spent that night and all of Christmas Eve at parents' house, celebrating with Mom and Dad, my siblings and their families, and some extended family.  It was really a wonderful time! :)  We came home Christmas Day, and had a little bit of family time before having supper with my father-in-law and a couple of my sisters-in-law and their families.  We all got to hang out again on Monday before Tina, Josh and the kids had to go home.  Lynette, Dayne and the kids got to stay until Friday the 30th.  Monday night we all got together with some more friends and had a fun supper and game night, which was awesome!  Tuesday, Lynette and I got to go shopping all day, mostly kid-free.  (We did have Michael with, but the guys had the rest of the gang.)  Wednesday, we took the kids bowling and then to the new Chipmunk movie.  It was another very fun day!  Thursday, we just hung out and took it easy.  Everyone was getting tired and a little overwhelmed, but it was still very fun.  The guys (and sometimes the kids) were able to do a lot of ice fishing and quite successfully, which was very exciting!  (It's also very funny that that was really the only week that it was even possible to be on the lake!)  On New Years' Eve, we ran a couple errands, went out for supper with the kids and then came home for a popcorn and movie party, watching Rio with the kids.  And that was pretty much our year, and my cup runneth over with blessings! :)