10 hours left..

The countdown to the end of 2011 is here, and in a few shorts hours 2012 will arrive.

Although 2011 had some challenges along the way, it was a pretty darn good year for us.  Here are some memories from the past year:

• surprising the boys with the Monster Truck Jam
• snowtubing at Wintergreen and Whitetail with a ton of friends during the winter months
• a good friend getting diagnosed with breast cancer, and then kicking its' ass
• Logan's first venture into t-ball
• Dylan, my baby boy, turned 8.
• we visited Busch Gardens over spring break with Grandma Bobbie and Grandpa Joe
• a super fun family day trip to Shenandoah Caverns
• finally renovating and upgrading our master bath from disaster to gorgeous stone spa sanctuary.
• Dylan's first swim team season with the Lightning.
• Andrew turned 40.
• Girls weekend at Lansdowne Resort.
• Logan turned 5.
• Logan passing his swim test and going off the diving board for the first time.
• spending time at Lake Anna with Grandma Lynn, Grandpa Robby, and all the cousins.  Probably our last trip to the lake house since its still for sale.  Gosh how we loved it there.
• Logan starting kindergarten and  Dylan starting third grade.
• spending time at Chincoteague, VA
• Dylan starting Cub Scouts
• Back surgery for Andrew, finally taking most of his back pain away.
• Logan had his tonsils and adenoids removed.
• taking our kids to Disney World for the first time, and enjoying time with Grandma Bobbie, Grandpa Joe, Chris, Jessica, Josh and Maya (Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five)
• I turned 40. 
• splurging on new family room furniture
• Logan getting rid of training wheels forever.
• the sudden illness and loss of John Lane

We don't have lots planned for 2012 yet.  A snowtubing trip with friends in February.  Perhaps a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's over Spring Break, with a wide trip to Busch Gardens.  Perhaps a week at the beach this summer.  More swim team for Dylan.  Logan's introduction to spring soccer.  Perhaps a family reunion on my Dad's side this summer.

We'll see what makes it onto the calendar.  One thing is for sure. There is hardly a dull moment in our little circus.

Here is one of my favorite photos of 2011, taken on Easter.

Happy New Year to you and yours!  May 2012 be filled with happiness, good health, and fun times with people you love!

Feliz Navidad 2011

I'm slowly coming out of a Christmas fog.  After the emotional days spent honoring John's life, and then catapulting into two full days of Christmas festivities, the fog is slowly lifting.  What just happened?

We had a lovely Christmas, and it truly got off to an unique start.  On Christmas morning, I woke to a quiet house around 7 am, and thought "Ahhh, let me get a shower before madness ensues."  While in the shower, Dylan busts into the bathroom to inform me Logan was downstairs ripping open presents, all by himself.  "Whaaaaaaa???".  I grabbed a towel, bolted downstairs and sure enough a super overly excited Logan just couldn't wait, and decided to have his own personal Christmas.

It was certainly a different start to our Christimas morning than I had anticipated.  But after recovering from the shock of it all, we settled into a cozy morning of gift opening, toy playing, breakfast eating and preparations for the journey to Grandma's for Christmas, Part Three.

Part One was spent on Christmas Eve at my brother and Jessica's, for Christmas with my Dad and Stepmom.  The kids always enjoy eating lots of yummy food and opening the first round of presents.  And how lucky are we every year that we get to celebrate Christmas three times?

The boys love leaving cookies for Santa, after sprinkling reindeer food out front!

One last note of the season from Tyler, our Elf:

Our tree, adorned with loot, before we settled in for a long winters' nap

aftermath

Mom and Robby's tree, before gift opening

Maya and Josh, looking very tall

My Mom holding our newest family member, Baby Violet



my gorgeous stepsisters

And, no Christmas is complete without a dance party, and a game of Headbandz!

John

This week, our family lost a very loved, cherished member.  John, my Stepdads' Stepdad, was an amazing person who devoted his life helping others, spreading Gods' love, and spending time with his children and their spouses, and his 35 grandchildren and great grandchildren.

The next two days will be filled with services where we'll all come together to celebrate John's life.  Its hard to lose someone any time of the year, but the holidays are especially hard.  John loved Christmas.  As difficult as these days are going to be, I know he would have loved everyone coming together.  John was always at every family gathering, taking hundreds of photos, making jokes and holding at least one grandchild.  I'm sure I don't know half the stories of people John counseled and helped during his lifetime, and I look forward to hearing them.

This is John and Martha, surrounded by all of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren (minus my brother and I and our kids and spouses).   Chris and I were at Disney in November when a very last minute beach trip was planned by my Stepdads' family so John could see the sunrise on the ocean.   That's where this photo was taken.    The photo underneath is John and Martha with their 7 children.

May you rest in peace, John.  You will be missed.

ho ho ho

Logan woke up yesterday and asked if he could 'finally' go have his photo taken with Santa. He's asked a few times but ideas with him can be fleeting and I was waiting to see if he was really serious before I braved the mall. I've managed to not go there once in months and I wasn't about to start now if I didn't have to.

Dylan has no interest in going to see Santa this year. He still believes, but he typed up an email and we sent it off to Santa, content that Santa has entered the digital age and would get his list that way.  Plus, as he told Logan, everyone knows the "mall" Santa is only a helper of the "real" Santa who is busy up at the North Pole.    So he said "Nah, no thanks" when I asked if he wanted to go see him in person this year.

Logan, on the other hand, seemed pretty intent on the idea.   He asked again early yesterday morning and I looked at the clock realizing if we hurried, we could possibly be first in line before Santa even arrived at 9 am.  Which would be perfect since he doesn't have to catch the kindergarten bus until 11:20 am.  So off we went, and we even beat Santa.

Nothing quite like watching Santa come down the mall escalator....  But Logan rehearsed what he was going to tell Santa in line, and got some nice one-on-one on Santa's lap.   Which, as a sidebar, had me wondering how many times a  season Santa gets peed on?  But anyway, we got a really nice photo and $35 later (wth??  You can't even take your own photo) we were done.  

One more thing checked off the ole ho-ho-holiday list.

Santa's giant sack-o-lollipops

That's one happy boy. He's a cutie isn't he? And Logan isn't bad either.

D's winter swim meet

Dylan has been enjoying his year-round swim team since it started in September.  Its very low-key, he only practices on Sunday afternoons and they have a meet once in a while. We were out of town at Disney when the last meet took place, so this past Sunday was his first meet since his summer swim team in July.  He did a great job swimming his two events: freestyle and backstroke.

Way to go Dylan!

...one is silver, but the others gold

We had some dear, old friends over last night for a sort of small, spontaneous holiday get together.  I've known most of these people since middle school, and some of us even went to college together after that.  Most of them live in Maryland a couple of hours away so we just don't get together as often as I'd like. But when we do......

Wii "Just Dance 3" - a RIOT!

We stayed up way too late, ate way too much, and imbibed more than our fair share of holiday adult refreshments.  We laughed until our stomachs hurt and enjoyed the kind of hugs you can only share with friends who have known you for more close to three-fourths of your life.  Each one of them walking through our front door was like getting a Christmas present.  And what could be better this time of year...spending time with old friends is what its all about.

two wheelin'

Logan woke up this morning with one thing on his mind - no more training wheels. After breakfast, he asked Grandpa Joe to take the training wheels off his bike.  We had tried this once before, months ago, and it wasn't pretty.  Training wheels went back on and we figured he'd figure out when he wanted to try again someday.  He's like that...he tends to decide if and when he's going to do something and as long as its his idea, its all good.   If you try to ask him, tell him, or convince him of anything, forget it.

The second Grandpa took the training wheels off, Logan hopped on and off he went, like he had been doing it for years.   Proud and grinning from ear to ear.  Of course we're heading into the dead of winter and there may not be a lot of chances for leisurely bike riding for a few months.  But knowing my child, he'll be out there in his snowsuit riding that thing when its twelve degrees.

That little bike kills me, have you ever seen a bike that small?  We've had to buy three back tires for it in less than a year because he skids out so much.

Enjoy your new freedom, buddy!