A Glimpse of 2013

NYE.2013

How i spent the last day of 2013....

with my 3 littles.  

The majority of this past year was just the 4 of us.  I guess it's fitting that we end it that way too. 

Lunch at Panera with all of our favorite foods :)

 Pig and the Blankets for dinner

 and cookies for dessert 

an unplanned ouchie dampened little D's night a bit

 he bounced back okay...except when i made him stop so i could ice his swelling eye every 20 minutes. 

Last Family Pic of 2013--before putting D to bed

 i let the twins stay up a while--we watched Brave for the first time and ate lots of yummy snacks.  they were so excited all night...and they don't even know what NYEve is!

 come on 2014!

 monster snack

 after the twins went to bed at a very late 10:30, i watched the #rockin'eve show and rang in the new year with my love over skype. 

It definitely wasn't the most exciting NYE i've ever had and it was probably the only one i've ever spent by myself when the clock hit 12, but honestly, that was okay.  I had a great day with my kiddos, had some sweet conversation with my husband, and the slow paced night was kind of perfect for a change.  For these things i'm so blessed.  Now we welcome 2014...looking forward to seeing my love face to face soon enough and having my family back together. 

2013 Flipagram

cause everyone else is doing it of course :)

A Glimpse of 2011

thought i should get this posted before January and the New Year is officially over!

and if you wanna take a look at last year's as well to see what change 2 years can bring, click here

Saturday Sequence

New Years Eve Sillies

Set 1

more pictures??

 boo yaa!!

 settling down

 bored again...

Set 2

Silly Daddy making the kiddos laugh

 it was Knee-Slappin' funny!

Set 3

Little Smiles

 Big Smiles

Biggest Smiles 

2012 Bookshelf

I love to read. This year i started off strong, made a list for the year and tried my best to stick to it.  For about six months i did pretty well, and then Mike came home.  STOP.  NO MORE BOOKS.  Embarrassing kind of.  Except not really, because what's better than busy with the ones you love.

I'm getting back into it though--i've been feeling the itch--  and I've made a less ambitious list this year.  2011's list was pretty extensive and considering our move coming up in a few months, i believe i may be quite busy with things other than reading.

So here's the new list:

Parenting
-Shepherding a Child's Heart, Tedd Tripp (i'm already halfway thru it)
-The Mission of Motherhood, Sally Clarkson
-Don't Make Me Count to Three, Ginger Plowman


Pleasure Reading/Novels
-the Millenium Series, Steig Larsson
   Girl with a Dragon Tatoo
   Girl who Played with Fire
   Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
-Sing You Home, Jodi Piccoult
-Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card
-The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell
-Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
-Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese

Non Fiction
-Kisses from Katie, Katie Davis
-Growing Up Amish, Ira Wagler



Classics/Books of Note...the everyone should read these sometime in their lives list
-The Faraway Tree Collection, Enid Blyton
-Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
-Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
-Life of Pi, Yann Martel
-Emma, Jane Austen (the last half)

To keep up with my progress just check the 2012 Bookshelf Tab at the top of the blog.  I'll mark them off as i read them.

and if you were wondering what i read this year...

-His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
   Golden Compass
   Amber Spyglass
   The Subtle Knife
-The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood
-The Curious Incident of a Dog in Nighttime, Mark Haddon
-The Color Purple, Alice Walker
-The Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
-Emma, Jane Austen (the first half)
-Memoirs of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
-Rescue, Anita Shreve
-One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
-Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
-Testimony, Anita Shreve
-The Help, Kathryn Stockett
-Unplanned, Abby Johnson
-Water for Elephants, Sara Green
-A Cup of Friendship, Deborah Rodriguez
-The New Dare to Discipline, Dr. James Dobson

New Years, the Extended Version

Our New Years Eve was very good this year.  We were in Fayetteville visiting the Sweatlands again, and that morning, our friends, Mark and Carrie Davis (also from our Hawaii gang) came to visit for a few hours on their way back to their home in VA.  We haven't seen Mark in over 2 years and Carrie I haven't seen since last New Years.  It was good to catch up as always.  After they left, Mike and I went neighborhood shopping preparing for our big move in a few months.  Then that night Hillary invited some of her friends over to have dinner out and play games while our kiddos slept soundly in their beds.

Heres some pics of our day.

Aunite Hill reading to my kiddos

 Uncle Mike/Daddy playing Trains

 we made a real stellar parent move and put a DVD on while we ate dinner .  it worked well, yes?

 bath time--the regulars plus Channing.  Jack didn't want to join in for the picture

 Hillary and Jackie's New Years Picture--with Daddy Doll Jake

 the cutest 2 year olds on the planet

 my favorite people in the whole world--Last Family Pic of 2011!

 After the kiddies were in bed we played games, including our favorite--Gimp.  The Gimp hat this year was Jack's toboggan.  Mike rocked it. 

 

like i said, we had a good day and we did stay up till midnight--watched the ball drop live on the computer and even had some champagne, all in our PJ's.  Low-Key and Fun. 

 Woody on the other hand, his night must have been a little more rough...he wasn't looking so good this morning. 

Happy New Year!

We're here in Fayetteville with our New Years crew--those of us who could make it, we miss you Jake and  the Howell's.  Happy New Year everyone!  Here's to an awesome 2012!

A Glimpse of 2010

What change a year can bring!

Happy 2011!

The kiddos and I, (btw: the babies, are in all honesty, no longer BABIES, so i will now be calling them "kiddos"--just in case you wanted to know :) Anyway, as i was saying, we rang in the New Year in Fayetteville with our Hawaiian Ohana, the Sweatlands, Howells, Davises (minus Mark) , and Loars.

We all met in Hawaii and spent 3 years together celebrating holidays, enduring deployments and exploring the islands together. Crazy enough, we were almost all close by for New Year's and were able to spend it together. Of course we missed Mark and Mike, but Carrie was an acceptable date!

Party in the Tub!

Carrie and I remaking some old silly pictures--look: here and here

~she was my date for the night~

Uncle Jordan teasing Norabird

hanging out with Auntie Carrieour hosts and cleanup crew...Team Sweatlandand here they are giving Jack his New Year's Eve Kiss....Jack was teething this weekend and took his "chewing spoon" everywhere with him! and Kim may very well stop being my friend for this, but i am risking it anyway...

she got an infection in her eye and looked a little silly....

i only tell you this because, i love this picture with all my girls and needed to explain Auntie Kim's look so she wouldn't be mad...are you Kimsy?

When you are forced to spend the holiday without your lovey...as i often am, what better way to make the best of it than to get sloppy New Years kisses from the kiddos?

i do love them so!
the babies New Year's Eve ended as usual with the "Going to Bed Book" ..it is their favorite!