A great way to look back on our year and remember 2012! **(2011-2012Sidenote - I was home with my kids all of 2012 on maternity leave with Sailor...)**
JANUARY - Enjoyed some ice fishing, introduced Grey to ice skating, still made time for the park, drank hot cocoa, had some play dates, went sledding in the snow, enjoyed a few trips to St. Louis to see Uncle Adam, Auntie Georgia, and Jayne, and of course time for snuggling in bed.
and I can't forget more sledding fun and some gymnastics with Auntie Mims...
and if there wasn't enough snow outside in January we made some of our own:) Look at Sailor's hair...ha!
FEBRUARY -Went to the Mardi Gras Parade, brought the kids to the dog show in Chicago with grammy Ann, enjoyed a couple trips to Bass Pro shops with daddy, played dress-up, took the kids out to Starved Rock for a walk, Grey made star wars valentines for library group, celebrated Valentines Day, and celebrated Nate's 31st birthday at Dee Dee's.
Our Valentine's Day Card 2012
MARCH -Took Grey bowling, weather started to get nice so outdoors it was, spent a lot of nights out at Lake Wildwood, outdoor picnics, fun with sidewalk chalk, soccer on the beach, Tootie got her 'sprout' on her head, St. Patrick's Day party with friends, St. Patrick's Day parade, date night, and more fishing.
APRIL-Had my first real photography gig (small wedding), bought a really BIG lens for my camera, enjoyed parks and picnics, hiked at Matthiessen State park, cleared trees on our 'property' because we thought we were gonna build a house, colored Easter eggs, went on a LOT of Easter egg hunts;), enjoyed some four wheeler rides, did a little horseback riding, went to a Pirate party for our friend Brody, and went to the Children's Discovery museum, and Jayne came back into town to play:)
MAY- we celebrated Mother's Day, spent lots of days at the park, took the Gator for lots of rides, did some fishing at Baker's Lake, planted my flowers, Nate planted his vegetable garden, pulled out our little pool for the first time, had a ton of outdoor picnics in our yard, whole family came home for my parent's 35th wedding anniversary, Uncle Alex proposed to Gina, Nate went on his annual fishing trip.
JUNE - Nate returned from his fishing trip and the kids were so excited, spent most of June at the pool, went to the splash pad a few times, celebrated Papa Davey's birthday, Grey learned how to do the monkey bars, visited the fire station, had a little family reunion for my grandma Joyce, grilled out almost every night, and Sailor turned ONE!!! I spent most of June planning her first big party which we didn't have until July;) We also took advantage of the canal...
JULY - We celebrated the 4th down at Dee Dee and Papa Davey's, we had Sailor's first big birthday bash-Nautical/Sailor style, Grey was getting fancy on his skateboard by July, we were POOL RATS, my mom and I took the kids to Raging Waves, Nate and I celebrated 7 years together, we enjoyed some bonfires and of course made s'mores, Alex and Gina found out they were having a baby girl, and Grey became quite fond of putt putt golf, and Grey also became pretty good at jumping off the diving board.
And we also took the kids to the Naperville riverwalk and I remember that so well because I had my black eye...Grey and I had that little accident - that one HURT...(i didn't take off my glasses the whole day)
the black eye looked like this -...remember?!
(It was a bad one)
we also enjoyed a lot of golf cart rides and gator rides and we played with our cousin Braeden
and my favorite picture from Sailor's first birthday party.
AUGUST
Nate and I decided that we were going to hold off on building a house (it became complicated with the lot and zoning and tying into the city and we didn't want to miss out on the low interest rates) and instead bought a house. So we packed up our whole home and moved in with my parents for 2 weeks until we closed on our new house. Luckily we didn't even have to buy a 'for sale' sign for ours. It sold that fast (thank goodness) but August was such a CRAZY month. On top of buying a new house, packing up our old one, I went back to work teaching and a NEW grade! Livy returned from Nevada and we had a party for her. We had some fun visiting our friend Macklin's new pony, Grey visited the dentist for the very first time, and also started Pre-school. Livy started cheering so we made it to a couple of her games. (CRAZY month FOR SURE')
SEPTEMBER -
Little by little we started to get settled into our new house, Nate bought a John Deere for our big yard, Sailor started sporting pig tails, we celebrated my 31st with a little party at our house, Nate and I enjoyed a couple date nights:), all the RIVA'S came home for a family RIVA wedding, LOTS of park days, we had a baby shower for Gina, went fishing with daddy, spent time at the sandy beach at daddy's work, had some bon fires at our new home and yes we made s'mores. Adam, Georgia, and Jayne came into town. School started good for both Grey and I.
OCTOBER-I did Alex and Gina's maternity pictures, enjoyed a family wedding with the Ernat's, took the kids to the Burgoo, took lots of fall pictures of my kids and some other families, finished Grey's bedroom in Star Wars, took the kids to the halloween parade, read lots of books, went trick or treating in our new neighborhood while my parents sat at our new house and handed out candy, carved pumpkins, went to the pumpkin patch, Grey went on his first field trip with daddy to the pumpkin patch with his class, and I had a red power ranger and a proud little peacock for October:)
NOVEMBER -
We had a big red power ranger party for Grey's 4th birthday at our new house, our new niece Giuliana was born, we celebrated grandpa Hank's 84th birthday, we celebrated Auntie Mims 21st birthday, and we celebrated my mom's birthday, Grey had his first book fair at school, we had our family pictures taken, I ran my first 10K (6 miles), had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Deb's where the kids played dress-up in the woods, and the Riva's from St. Louis were home AGAIN:))), and we bought our real Christmas tree and started decorating our house for Christmas, and went to our friends house -for Lyla's birthday. (TONS OF BIRTHDAYS IN NOVEMBER FOR OUR FAMILY)
DECEMBER - and finally there was december...........I really kept us busy this December. I made sure we had breakfasts with Santa and Christmas activities every weekend there was...we really enjoyed the season.....
I took newborn pictures of Giuliana, we went to breakfast with Santa with my mom and dad, deb and dave, and then Nate and I took the kids to starved Rock for a breakfast with Santa, we made Gingerbread houses at school, we had a Christmas party here at our new house and had fun with a hot cocoa bar, went to St. bede for some holiday fun, St. Nick came to our house, Woody the elf surprised us everyday, hung the pickle on our tree, celebrated Livy's birthday, went to a hockey game with the Ernat clan, and had a WONDERFUL Christmas with our families!
What a year!!!
Now let's see what 2013 has in store!
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