Another year has passed and I am still sitting here wondering where it has gone. Two thousand eleven was a big year for our family, let’s take a quick look down memory lane:
January
– Carter surprised us by knowing how to spell “Cup” at 22 months.
– Carter had bronchitis – the first time in my life as a parent that I my heart ached while looking at him breathe through a nebulizer. We are so fortunate to have had good health in our lives.
February
– We made the bold decision that given the housing market, we should sell our house now and try to find a new one. Annnnd I am 8 months pregnant at this point.
March
– I am the “crazy pregnant lady” with our neighbors as I clean up our yard the week I am due. My motto was, “What’s the worst that can happen? I go into labor?”
– One week late and a GIANT, Gavin Charles was born on March 20th at 3:24pm, 8lbs 10oz and 19” long. And he is the easiest, mellowest, sweetest kid imaginable.
April
– Uh yeah … we bought and sold a house in the same weekend. ‘Nuff said.
May
– We move into our new home and LOVE IT. Love the house, love the yard, love the neighborhood. And the feeling hasn’t stopped.
– Our old house continues to delay in closing.
June
– Spring had sprung and there were bunnies all over our yard. The strawberry feast was on from our strawberry patch and Carter loved running around in the big yard!
– Finally almost six weeks late, we close on our old house. WE ARE DONE!
July
– Now we are seeing deer and raccoons meandering around our yard.
– Run the Torchlight 5K with Grandpa, Scott, and Angela.
– Dinner, beer and lounging by the fire pit in the back yard at night become our favorite past time with Mark, Kimmy, and Nikki
August
– I start my running program to prepare for the Oktoberfest Half Marathon
– Our yard is in bloom with all sorts of fun variety of flowers and my cucumber harvest is crazy (however our summer weather was not so great).
September
– Gavin hits six months old and starts crawling.
– I return to work after a nice long maternity leave.
– Melissa and I get the downstairs and entry painted.
October
– Fall is incredible this year – and it was a whole new experience with our new yard and all the color.
– My dad, Scott, Kim, Denise, and I all ran the Leavenworth Oktoberfest Half Marathon – this was my dad’s first half marathon ever!
– I FINALLY bought my Canon 5D Mark II.
November
– Gavin got his first tooth.
– We hosted Thanksgiving for Jeremy’s side of the family – our first sit-down meal in the new house.
December
– Gavin is on the verge of walking – he stands on his own for several seconds before falling over.
– Jeremy and I head to Las Vegas with Scott & Kim, where Scott and I run the Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon (where neither of us ran the six week prior, nor walked the four days after).
– Christmas in the new house – everything I dreamed and then some.
If I was more ambitious, I would have a photo slide show documenting all of it, but I am not. I got kids to deal with and a house to get cleaned today. Instead, here is a photo of our family from August.
I hope that 2011 was as wonderful for everyone as it was for us! Happy New Year!