Easter 2013

Easter pictures by Tyson

Egg hunt at a local college

 Always fun time coloring their eggs

Kylie turns 1

Our biggest event in March was Kylie turned ONE!!!  What???  Where did the past year go??? I can hardly wrap my mind around this fact. We decided to have a simple, family party. We had a great time of food, fellowship, and celebrating our 3rd blessing. We are just so complete now and so thankful for our little family. 

February 2013

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February was a good month as we enjoyed some "snow" days from school. We put up the tent, made an inside fort, and just played. The kids attempted to play outside in all the big snow we got, sarcasm here. I broke down and purchased snow outfits, boots, etc a couple years ago, thankfully got big sizes to last 2 years. Well, of course we have not had any amount of snow to actually play in in 2 years. So, if I don't buy any gear this coming winter, you know what will happen.......

Valentine's Day I got to have lunch with Keira at school and then return in the afternoon for her class party. This girl loves the parties. Kids had fun making valentines for the family and picking out cards for their classmates and friends.  

January 2013

January was a busy month as tax season began, basketball games in full swing for both kids, and just our daily happenings.  Brock went to the Monster Truck show with the hubby, boys night out. I took him one day to see a truck up close and personal. He loves it! Keira is doing well in school and basketball. She is a great big sister and Kylie adores both her and Brock.  Kylie scoots everywhere, she can crawl, but prefers to scoot on her bottom. Cracks me up.  She is into anything her little hands can grab. 

New Years Eve

We celebrated New Years Eve at home with our kids. No other place we would want to be, plus with all the drunks on the road, just not worth being out and about.  This year I decided to try something with the kids. I filled balloons with an activity to accomplish each new hour.  They got to pop a balloon every hour and loved it!!  We began in the afternoon and I had balloons all the way up to midnight. Keira insisted she would make it to twelve. First year we have let them try. We had a great time!!

Christmas 2012

Dec. 2012

Our first year with elf on a shelf. Kids named her Izzy Jewel. I guess she would have 3 names if Kylie could talk, ha.  I decided to use the elf and teach about grace and Jesus. My kids know Santa is not real, but they choose to believe, and we are fine with that.  We had a good time with Izzy and the kids really enjoyed it. Even the hubby got into it, giving me ideas to try.  Keira would leave her letters and Izzy would respond and sometimes she left letters talking about how Jesus gives us grace even though we mess up all the time. 

First of December we had a birthday party at church for Jesus. I had done this at my house a couple years ago, but decided it was too much distraction with toys and such, so we had it at church. Our church family collected supplies to ship to 3 military guys who are overseas.  We try and have the kids do a service project and teach them about giving, rather than always receiving. I think all the kids had a good time!

Yes, this little monkey loved the tree and hitting the ornaments. Thankfully, we have non-breakable ones.

December 16 we celebrated Christmas with my mom and stepdad and my brother and his family. Kylie and I stayed home from church, as she had a cold. By that evening, Brandon and I took her to the ER. Her eyes kept getting worse as the day went on, and sure enough, pink eye. We started her meds and her eyes cleared up in a couple days.  We had a rough week before Christmas. Kylie sick and then by Tuesday evening, the hubby began feeling bad and wed morning he was sick. But, he had to take another family member to ER for something else early wed morning. .  He finally was able to go to bed by the afternoon. 

Thursday he went to clinic and it was something viral.  Thursday afternoon, I missed Brock's little program at preschool due to Kylie still battling a cold and me not feeling great. Friday morning, I made it to Keira's class party and then by that evening, I was running a fever. So, my sickness began.  I missed Christmas with my family Sunday and Christmas Eve, I went to dr as I noticed I know had pink eye. So, I missed going to my dad and step-moms house that morning and then we all stayed home the rest of Christmas.  The past 3 years at Christmas have been somewhat rough. In 2012, Keira went to hospital on Christmas Day and ended up with a 3 night stay. 2011 we all were grieving over the passing of my father in law on Dec. 1 and then sickness this year. I think we jokingly mentioned next year, just leaving town and go somewhere warm :)

November 2012

What can I say about November? Well, it came and went quickly. School, basketball practice, and everything in between kept us busy.  We started going to my cousins high school games when we can. I love watching her play!  I actually went one saturday morning, all 3 kids in tow and scrimmaged against  her team. I loved it and realized how much I do miss being involved in ball.  The kids kept the score clock, which Keira loved.  

By Thanksgiving, Kylie was under the weather, so we missed our family get together. We stayed home all weekend. 

Kylie turned 8 months old and this girl loves her bath time. She has 4 teeth coming in and is scooting, rather than crawling. Keira and Brock are excited about Christmas coming up and we are looking forward to being with family. 

Visit to Georgia

Keira was on fall break and since daddy was finishing up the Oct. 15 tax deadline, we decided to go spend 4 nights near Atlanta at Grammie and Gary's house.  We left Friday after school and Kylie survived her first long car ride.  Saturday, we went to the aquarium and the kids had a great time. We spent all afternoon and stayed till it closed. Of course, they come out with souvenirs as we left the gist shop.  Sunday after church, Grammie and I took the kids to a nearby farm.  Grammie and Gary's sunday school teacher and his wife own the farm and have a maze and all the activities to go along with it. It was a blast!!!  I really like that they charge one admission price and you get to do everything. Here at home, we have paid admission price and then bought tickets to do other things. The farm was so nice and clean!!  I loved it!  We spent 5 hours playing! Monday we did some shopping. Kids loved their neighborhood and especially riding the golf cart around. They are ready to go back!!