New Year's Eve

Another year has come to an end.

Another chapter in our lives. 

2015 was good to us. 

• We bought our first home! So grateful we could do this and settle down and be D.O.N.E. with moving. 6 times in 5 years is plenty for me. We love our new place and have some great neighbors and hope to stay here for a while. 
• We've had a roller coaster of a ride the whole entire year with potty training Andrew. Yep! We started last January and we are still working on potty training. I knew this would be a long journey. It went from being mostly potty trained after a few months and only having maybe 0-1 accidents a day to regressing and wanting nothing to do with going potty and wanting to wear diapers again. Then slowly back to trying but not self-initiating AT ALL. Then after working with his mobility specialist at school we were able to make some accommodations here at home which helped a ton! Then the last few months have been very up and down with not much progress. I seriously  thought the girls would be potty trained WAY before this kid. Well, while he was home for Christmas break he just decided he could do it. And he did.  He's pretty much done it every day since. He had maybe two accidents over the entire 2 1/2 weeks off of Christmas vacation. Wahoo! Totally self-initiated and totally in underwear all day! Going back to school has been a tough transition, but it will come.  Best Christmas Present EVER!
• We've had a handful of visitors this year and loved seeing lots family and friends. We figured 6 out of the 12 months we had someone coming to visit us! We love every minute of it! 
• We saw a lot of firsts for both Kathryn and Olivia in 2015. From first giggles to crawling to first steps and first words. 
• Its been a year of growing for both Stephen and I. We had a few really big decisions we've had to make with regards to our little family. Those are never easy. And sometimes although you move forward with what assuredly feels like the best decision, life becomes even more difficult and more stressful and you wonder why was this the best decision. But that's when you grow and when you put your trust in the Lord, that he knows far more than you.  
• We are so grateful it's been a medically a low-key year for us. It's the first year since Andrew's been born that we have not met our deductible AND our out of pocket expense. Next year though, will be another story as we are prepping for another surgery for this kid. But we'll take it this year!  
• We've been able to really see and do much more this year here in Georgia. Our first year here was kind of crazy with being in the hospital 2 1/2 months and having newborn twins. I'm starting to really have a love for the south and the southern culture here in Georgia. We've seen some neat things, met some wonderful people and now it feels like home to us. Andrew is even starting to get a little southern accent from being around all his teachers during the day. It's pretty cute!
• We survived our first year with twins. I've talked to a lot of twin mom's and I'd have to say we are blessed with two very easy going girls. I'm so grateful for them.  A lot of prayers answered. They make being a mom easy to two babies at once easy. Although....we are now hitting the toddler years and then next comes the terrible two's....and then three was so much harder with Andrew than two was....so we've got a few years before we're out of the clear. 

Our New Year's Eve celebrations ended up being a really fun night! This was the first year that Andrew really got the whole concept.

Starting around 4-5pm we got our entire family in our pajama's and had a family pajama New Years Eve party. Stephen and I had blown up a bunch of balloons and we wrote different times on them. Every 15 minutes, starting at 5:00pm we popped a balloon as part of our count down. We ordered a little Chinese take-out for dinner and played a night of family games. Andrew was in heaven. We played his favorites like Don't Eat Pete and Hide 'n Seek and some of the girls favorites like Ring around the Rosie and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. We also played a few simple minute to win it games put a new puzzle Andrew had gotten for Christmas together. Then at 8:00pm we found the Netflix countdown and rang in the new year with horns, crackers and a little bit of silly string. Then up to bed and just like that they were all asleep.

our cracker crowns

Then Stephen and I watched a movie and had a bit of our Martinelli's. We stayed up until about 10:45 (guess we're getting old)  then headed up to bed. Our neighborhood sure celebrated though. Starting at about 10:30 we had non-stop fireworks from our next door neighbors. I mean the big mortars that shoot into the sky. We had the perfect view from our bedroom window. I couldn't fall asleep so I found my book and stayed up until almost one when the fireworks finally died down. 

Happy 2016

Wow! Santa Left a Mess Underneath our Tree!

We had a wonderful Christmas and LOVED having family come to visit. This was the first year that we haven't traveled for the Christmas holiday. And although it was different, it was wonderful. We were lucky enough that Stephen's parents and his little brother would drive all the way to come spend a  week with us. They came down before Christmas and we did all of our playing and celebrations with them. Then they headed back on Christmas day so they could get back to Michigan in time for other family who was coming into town for the week after Christmas.

We had to take a few days out to go and visit Aunt PJ and Uncle Chuck. We love that they live only a few hours away in North Carolina. We truly got the see the "smokey mountains" as we drove up to visit with them. So much fog and still so green this time of year. It was beautiful. We attempted to take a few hikes while we were there.

Uncle Chuck & Olivia

 This sweet Aunt PJ knitted these girls these darling sweaters. I haven't really dared let them wear them because 1. they are white 2. I didn't know how well they'd hold up with washing. But I've loved them and had to get a picture of the girls wearing them with Aunt PJ.

 John is the favorite uncle by far and these girls knew it, They haven't seen him since

 July, but they love uncle John!

Out for hikes with Ranger the Dog

 Throwing rocks into the river

 These girls are getting heavy, but this is how we hike! 

Andrew sure loves his Grandma! 

Of course we had to get a babysitter while they were here and go and see the new Star Wars movie! We loved it!! Did not disappoint! 

Heading out to see some Christmas lights and Grandpa knew just how to wrangle both girls. No stopping him!

This gingerbread house has been attempted to be made about three different times. I got it when we lived in Chicago and it never happened. So we packed it up with our Christmas stuff and each year since I've been meaning to make it. A few years ago I even opened it up, cut open the frosting and had it all ready and for some reason, it still didn't happen. This year I was determined that darn gingerbread house was going to get built and decorated. I was not going to pack it back up with all our Christmas stuff again!

So it did!

The finished product thanks to Grandma & Uncle John. Andrew gave up after a few short minutes and was way more interested in the candy.

Trying to eat the rock hard candy! Thankfully not teeth were broken!

We were hoping we'd have a day or two to put the few extra hands to work in the backyard. I think it rained almost every single day they were here. So that didn't really happen. But we did put those extra hands to work Christmas Eve. 

Santa's little helpers. Let's just say it took almost 3 hours

Christmas morning was so much fun!  

The first words out of Andrew's mouth after he came down the stairs was "Wow! Santa left a mess under our tree!"

We spent the entire day in our pajamas. The kids played endlessly with their new toys. We ate yummy leftovers. Relaxed and even took a little nap! Pure Bliss!

This kid spent almost 6 hours straight playing on his new wiggle-rider car. He only got off to eat and to go to the bathroom.

Giving good-bye hugs to Grandma! It was so sad to see them go! We loved having them with us for the Holiday! 

Merry Christmas 2016

Hello December!

The much anticipated month of December came and went in a flash. It was a wonderful and magical month and we loved celebrating!

We had our sneaky elf come back this year. Andrew got into a little bit more, but we'd still have to remind him to go look for him. He brought us Christmas Jammies and the Polar Express Book. Made us elf-sized pancakes and muffins for breakfast. And was as Andrew say. "He's a pretty pretty sneaky elf"

Andrew was super excited to decorate the tree. We pulled out all of his ornaments and put them in a small shoe box. He asked about each one. They all still ended up on the same branch, just like in years past, but this year had to be quickly moved because of the girls. I was kind of lazy and pretty much only half decorated my tree. No ribbons or bow and only a few of our favorite ornaments on the top half of the tree. The girls actually did pretty good.....considering being 14 months old. They'd come up and admire the lights, and shake the tree a bit, but that's about it.

Making Christmas Cookies. It's always a bigger mess and takes a lot longer. But this kid had such a fun time helping me dump everything into the mixer. 

I love pulling out all my nativities. Again. I was lazy and only pulled one of my big ones out, as well as the two or three the kids can play with.  Those are the ones that got the most use. It was fun to see them sit right by the tree and play.

We tried to make more progress on the huge backyard project, but with all the rain, we basically have a huge mud puddle in our backyard. And most of the rain has eroded what we had piled up in to the trench we dug. So much for all that work....

We love love love having the missionaries in our home and were lucky to have them a bunch of times during the month of December. Andrew has really started to admire these two missionaries. He wanted to stay in his church clothes, when he knew the missionaries were coming for dinner, because that's what missionaries do. I also love that they prepare a short message just for him. What great examples in his life!

We actually had quite a warm December with lots of Days in the 60's and 70's. Unfortunately, most days were downpour rains. So although they were warm, we couldn't really enjoy them. One day after Andrew's therapy we decided to hit up the park by our house. It was a little muddy in one area, but these three had a blast.

I was able to go and help with Andrew's "Winter Party" at school. The best part was that I didn't tell him I was going to be helping. The look on his face was priceless. It melted my heart and he ran right to me and gave me a big leg hug! Sweetest thing ever! Love him and we had a great time!

I loved that Andrew remembered the real reason we celebrate Christmas. This year we built even more upon what he remembered. He was so darling one evening after we had a little chat about why Jesus was born in the stable and how the animals gave him their manger for his bed. Not 5 minutes later, he was having the same conversation with Olivia. So precious and made my heart explode. Love them!

Andrew couldn't believe that these men had such big candy canes....lol. He cracks me up! 

We were able to take Andrew on a few "dates" over the holiday break. Both Stephen and I have been wanting to spend some one-on-one time with this kid. And this was the perfect timing with all the rainy weather. He was pretty excited too when we told him we'd be taking him on a mommy-son date and a daddy-son date.

He and Stephen slipped away one afternoon and went and saw "The Good Dinosaur" movie. This was Andrew's first time at the Movie Theater. He was pretty excited and had a fun time with dad.

Then another afternoon Andrew and I headed to the children's museum that's just right close by our house. I love that we don't have to head into the city to do this and he has a ball the entire time. We spent a good three hours there and could have stayed longer. His favorite this time was driving the real airplane. He loved it and spent most of his time there. So much fun!