2012 in a Word

Successful. That is the word I choose for my hopes for the new year.

I hope we are successful in selling our house and buying one I love.
I hope the boys have successful school years.
I hope Sully is successful in making the middle school soccer team in the spring and the high school team in the fall.
I hope Madsen successfully gets his drivers license.
I hope Matt is successful at work.
I hope we successfully change school assignments for Declan and Cannon.
I hope I am successful in my fitness goals.
I hope we as a nation successfully elect a new President.
I hope that whatever happens this year we will successfully choose to have positive attitudes and make the best of whatever circumstance we find ourselves in.

The End

The year wrapped up with not much excitement at our house. Madsen blamed me for not having any friends and I reminded him that no one had called and invited him any where for New Year's Eve either! Sully was at a friends house. We sent Declan and Cannon and Waverly to bed around 10:00 with a sparkling juice toast. Matt, Madsen and I stayed up watching silly shows until it was time to watch the ball and acorn drop. We toasted and picked Sully up and went to bed.

2011 was a year full of ups and downs like most years. Good things happened and bad things happened. The most frightening was Matt's potential job loss which ended up with a transfer. My van transmission died. Cannon had surgery. The water heater died. We survived.

The boys had successful sports seasons. Sully's soccer season was cut short with a broken thumb. Madsen had an excellent cross country season, receiving his first varsity letter.

Madsen and Sully had "the best summer ever!" spending nearly 5 weeks in Colorado with grandparents. They loved it. Sully was not ready to come home and I think would head out again any time. Madsen was ready to be home. Declan and Cannon enjoyed the time with out those brothers!

Sully got braces on in September. The teeth that were sticking out were down in a normal position after just a couple of days. He gets the set on his bottom teeth next month. Not much fun right now, but he will love the results!

Matt started a new job in November and so did I! His is much more important. We love that we get to stay in North Carolina. He loves that his commute is now only 20 minutes. I love that his new job is close to the high school so I don't have to go up there to get Madsen after practice. Mostly I love that it will enable us to FINALLY buy a new house.

All is well that ends well. And now for the adventure of a new year.

Testing out the new camera

 

 

 

 

Since the weather was so delightful over Christmas we took a walk around the duck lake to test out the new camera. Matt loves it. Hopefully he will take lots of great pictures of the kids to make it worthwhile!

Christmas 2011

 

 

 

 

Christmas did happen at our house despite the temperatures being in the 70's. I was not complaining! We took the kids to see the Santa House in the neighborhood by the church. We do this every year. There was a lovely red BMW convertible for sale at Santa's house. Madsen tried to convince me to buy it for him. I resisted.

Apparently I did a realy bad job documenting Christmas or Matt did not move pictures from my camera to the computer. Oh well. The kids rushed through gifts before church, ignoring me telling them to choose one and wait til later. Oh well! All the boys got NFL jerseys. They were excited about those. Waverly got the prettiest dress ever and Russian nesting dolls that are, yes, pink and sparkly. The big gift was a google tv that will eventually be in the bonus room of my new house. Currently it in Madsen and Sully's room waiting for the new house!

I finally gave in and bought Matt the digital SLR camera he has been wanting for years. It was on sale for a really good price. He did not know I did it so it was a fun surprise. I told him Merry Christmas, happy Father's Day and happy birthday 2012. I will re-wrap on those occasions to remind him.

We had a good Christmas season and enjoyed the traditions of donuts and clam chowder and raviolis and countdowns and Christmas stories and reflecting on the gift of the birth of our Savior.

The Girl Turns 3

 

She was very excited about her pink presents.

 

She will be starting a dancing class soon so she got her dancing clothes and shoes.

 

She plays with the dishes at "our job" so we got some of her own.

 

Her cake was made to order. She wanted a pink square cake. It was a strawberry cake with strawberry icing and pink candles. Can you guess what her favorite color is?

Waverly was very excited about her birthday and being big and turning 3. 3! How did that happen? Whenever we asked her what she would like for her birthday and Christmas her response was always "pink sparkly presents." That is it! She is easy to please. She is so funny with the dishes. She only plays with the pink things. All the blue and white ones stay in the bag. Her dance class starts next week. I am looking forward to it and kind of anxious. I have not spent much time with groups of moms of princesses. It might be a little overwhelming!

She had a good birthday and we were happy to celebrate her. She is a joy and delight. I adore her.

What to do with thousands of acorns!

This year is an acorn year. It is crazy out there. I wish I had a penny for every acorn on the ground in the back yard. I am pretty sure we could pay off the student loans. I googled acorn crafts and found some really neat ideas. So, instead of throwing the acorns in with the leaves to be sucked up by the sucker truck, I am going to gather them and do some crafting. I just may have discovered something really fun and neat and Christmas gifts for all my family! Don't worry guys, the pictures are pretty, not lame stuff. So, I am going to make the boys gather acorns and hats for me tomorrow while they are home from school and I am at work.

A Privilege

I voted yesterday. I will not pass up the opportunity to have my small voice counted. My town was voting on Mayor and two town council spots. Apparently not many people in Apex care. There are nearly 40,000 residents in my town. Just over 4,000 votes were counted in this election. Pathetic, I tell you. In my opinion, the only people who now have a right to complain about the way the Mayor and Town Council run things are the 4,000 who voted.