2012 Catch Up

Some more catch up.  Here is a picture a month from my last post in 2012 through December 2012.  I'll have another one for 2013 soon.   

June

Camping with Grandma and Papa Darling at Ponca State Park!

 

July

Summertime Fun!

 

August



A mommy daddy trip to Atlanta for the Big 10 Pub Crawl!

 

September

 



2 Pictures from the kids birthday! 


October

 Halloween!

November

Helping Daddy with the finishing touches on the remodel!

December

Christmas 2012!


 

Holiday Fun

This year we are having so much fun getting ready for Christmas! 

We introduced our family Elf.  We read the story behind the elf and watched a tv special that I recorded on DVR.  Caitlyn decided to name him Matthew despite my attempts to name him something cute and fun.  Every night he goes back to the North Pole and reports to Santa how she was that day.  Then she has to find his new hiding spot each morning.  It's been so much fun! 

We went to the Museum downtown to see the huge Christmas tree and Santa with PaPa and Grandma Darling.  Caitlyn was all excited about seeing Santa until we were next in line.  She ended up in my lap again this year.  At least this year we sat next to him and not on the floor below him!  We also toured the museum and all the trains.  Caitlyn loves trains right now! 

We took family photo's and the kids individual photo's in front of the Christmas tree for our Christmas card.  I have so much fun picking out a fun card to use each year!  We actually got the family picture in the first sitting.  The past 2 years we've had to try 2 or 3 different times.  I love how our card turned out this year! 

Last week Caitlyn had her Christmas Program at school.  I was so excited about this!  The set up was kind of crappy so it was hard to see all the kids since I didn't get there early enough and were in the back row.  I did get a small video and a couple of pictures though.  We then helped decorate a gingerbread house in her classroom before going home. 

My Christmas shopping is all done and all the gifts are wrapped! 

Last Saturday we celebrated with Grandma Kendy's family in Seward.  Lunch and Pitch...unfortunately Caitlyn was sick with diarrhea so we didn't get to stay long after lunch. 

Last Sunday we celebrated with my immediate family.  We included Uncle Tony's new girlfriend Darcy who I just love and picked names.  We opened gifts and ate dinner.  Caitlyn got up at 6:00 that morning and has given up naps so she was pretty tired and crabby by the end of the night.  But we still had a lot of fun! 

Christmas Eve we'll go to Church and then dinner at Biaggi's with PaPa and Grandma Darling. 

Christmas Morning is just the four of us and my dad may join us for breakfast casserole!  Totally laid back and all about us!  So excited!   

I am so full of happiness and joy this year.  I can't imagine it being any better than this! 

Merry Christmas!!!

What Could Be Better....

...than free Christmas cards for us to send to family and friends this year?  Shutterfly is having a special for bloggers (to see more info click here ) 50 free Christmas cards for writing a blog post about their wonderful holiday cards!  Check out some of my favorites...although I'm not sharing my favorite as that has to be a surprise for the mailbox! 

For some reason I'm drawn to candy cane's on Christmas cards.  Since having Caitlyn the past 2 cards have had candy canes on them.  Something fun and childlike maybe???  That's why this one was one of my favorites.



I love the colors on this one!  And I thought I could put a family picture in the center with pictures of Caitlyn on either side. 


Oh Holy Night is one of my all time favorite Christmas songs so I think that's why this one speaks to me.  It reminds me of Midnight Mass as a child growing up.  So simple and beautiful.  


I'm also working on one of these for Christmas for Caitlyn...I've never made my own photo book before but have heard through the grapevine that kids love them.  And I know that Caitlyn loves looking at pictures of herself in my scrapbooks so it should be a great stocking stuffer for her this year! 

I'm so excited to order these cards and finish with our holiday photo shoot!  Christmas really is a wonderful time of year and I'd like to thank Shutterfly for adding a little bit of holiday cheer to my Christmas season this year! 

30 Things

On Facebook a lot of my friends and family are listing one thing they are thankful for each day this month.  So here are my 30 things I'm thankful for this year in random order. 

I am thankful for....

• My senses.  To be able to feel, taste, hear, see and touch when so many can't do one or many of these things.
• Our dog...Zeus.  He may be annoying but he teaches me patience and is so loving and forgiving.
• Our home.
• Caitlyn's daycare providers.
• Having my Jeep paid off this year! 
• Being able to refinance our house with half the interest rate and half the time!
• My online friends who have gotten me through some rough times over the past 5 years.  It's awesome to have girls to talk with about things that they understand when it seems no one else does.
• My real life friends who also listen to me when I need it and keep me occupied (take me out drinking) when I need distracted!
• My Faith.
• Pedicures with my sister.
• Our Freedom in America
• Our armed forces who help us keep our freedom.
• My job.
• Jared's work and that his work has still been plentiful this year.
• All of our extended family.
• The 2 vacations that we took this year.
• Modern medicine because without that we wouldn't have Caitlyn and wouldn't be trying for a brother or sister for Caitlyn.
• Sports that both Jared and I enjoy talking about and watching together.
• My marriage and feeling safe and secure in our relationship.
• My education
• Caitlyn's opportunities for education
• Season changes.  Waiting for snow now so Caitlyn can go out and really experience it!  
• My dad who did a great job raising 3 kids on his own!
• The love of cooking & baking.
• The love of hosting parties.
• Working electricity...enjoying our Christmas tree & Christmas music on my ipod this morning because of this awesome invention.
• Holiday's and time with family that we don't always have.
• My sister who gets me.  And has the same likes and hobbies as me so we can spend so much quality time together.
• Jared.  For being an awesome husband who brings me back to earth and keeps me in check. 
• Caitlyn.  For being the best daughter a mother could ask for.  Words can't describe how thankful I am for the gifts she brings me everyday! 

October Festivities

I know...it's November!  I'm behind...what else is new??? 


Fall is my new favorite season!  I used to think spring was my favorite season, but only because I hated winter and couldn't wait for it to be warm again.  But all my favorite holiday's are in the fall.  So it makes sense that would be my favorite season.  It all starts with Jared and Caitlyn's birthday's in September.  Then we have the pumpkin patch and Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas!  It's a wonderful time of year!  I was (and still am) disappointed that I didn't blog about our pumpkin patch adventure last year.  It was one of my favorite memories, so I wanted to be sure that I got it in this year! 


We went to Vala's Pumpkin Patch on a Saturday (Oct 9th).  Last year it was just Caitlyn, Me and Aunt Bethy.  This year Jared really wanted to go with us because it's all I talked about last year!  It's like a mini amusement park!  I don't even buy our pumpkins there...we go for all the other attractions and the picture opportunities!  This year we...


Watched Pig Races






Played on the tractors




Watched the bunnies in their houses




Ate succotash, homemade potato chips and warm chocolate chip cookies




Got Measured




Uncle Josh wrangled a calf




Fed the goats




Went down the big slide




Cuddled with Harrison

Then we rolled into Halloween.  I looked all over for a costume for Caitlyn.  Since she was a sugar plum fairy last year I really wanted something that wasn't fairy / princess like.  I found this super cute girly clown costume.  Jared wasn't sold on it.  He said clowns were creepy.  And I agree SOME clowns can be creepy...but she was so cute! 

We didn't really go trick or treating.  We just went to see all the grandparents.  She had a great time handing out candy at Grandma and Grandpa Darlings house!  I thought she might be too shy or scared of all the people but she loved it! 

Now it's on to my two favorite holiday's! 

7 Months

This was written April 28th, 2009.

Life for our family has been quite busy! I feel like I'm going to miss

writing about so many of Caitlyn's milestones. She's totally sitting up on her own now. She's such a big girl! She can't get from laying down to sitting yet, but she'll get there. She scootches backwards really well and the other night she took a few movements forward. She's so close to crawling she can taste it! Jared and I on the other hand are so not ready for this! We still haven't started the baby proofing yet....better get busy! She's still working on getting the Gerber puffs into her mouth on her own. She can pick it up, but can't get them into her mouth so well yet. I also gave her bits of banana's the other night, again she has issues getting them into her mouth. We'll keep practicing! She's now getting 3 meals a day of baby food. The daycare started feeding her a solid at lunch time last week.

We got her a new baby tub - it's a ducky! And when you squeeze the beak it quacks! Plus we got her new bath toys...she loves bath time!

She had a great Easter. It was our first time since we got together (almost 8 years) where we had to fit 2 family gatherings into one day. A little stressful - but we made it! She got an Easter bunny from Grandpa and Grandma Darling and she got an Easter basket with goodies from Aunt Shanna! She also got the Easter Bunny from Hallmark that dances from mommy - he's so cute. She is a spoiled little girl and I have a feeling it's only going to get worse!

She's had almost a constant cold since starting daycare in January. 2 weeks ago I took her to the pediatrician because her cough was so bad she rattled. This was her first sick visit to the Dr. Come to find out that she had a double ear infection. So we had to give her an antibiotic to get rid of that. A week later and she was ear infection free! I'm a little worried because she's been tugging on her ears the past few days and she's got another cold that started Thursday night. Hopefully the ear infections aren't back....

We also had a visit to the dermatologist. She has a spot on her head on the left hand side about an inch back from her hair line. It started out looking like a pimple so I didn't worry about it. But then it got bigger and turned an orange color. So I called the pedi and they referred me to a dermatologist. It's nothing to worry about as long as she doesn't get any more of them. And it should go away on it's own in the next year. I felt like I was acting paranoid - but I'm glad we had it checked out. Piece of mind!

Aunt Beth's wedding is coming up and Caitlyn is one of the flower girls. The ring bearer (Noah) is going to pull Caitlyn and Melanie (Josh's niece) up in a wagon. It's going to be sooo cute!

This is what happens when I don't post for a whole month! Super long messages....