A Journey Through 2011

We started 2011 off with Ringling Brother and Barnum and Bailey! It was Leah and my nephew Milo's first circus and they were mesmerized. Somehow even among the craziness Leah slept through about 15 minutes of the show, but other than the little snooze her eyes stayed glued to the 3 ring stage. We took a train and it was all of the kids first train ride! Leah started potting training and wearing big girl panties during the day. January was a big month of firsts! I was also unfortunately SUPER sick during January, which meant a blog that was lacking in every sense.

February rolled around and we found out that baby #4 would be a little BROTHER! We kept it a secret all day and announced it at a Texas Roadhouse dinner with cupcakes. Everyone bit into the cupcakes to find a blue M&M. Soon after I celebrated my 26th birthday with great friends and family at my FAVE restaurant. At the end of February Leah was OFFICIALLY potty trained! NO MORE DIAPERS! {Until June anyway...}

March 9th Hailey turned 6 years old! Instead of the traditional birthday party she chose to have her hair and nails done and go shopping. Such a girls girl! March was stressful. {My mom was found unresponsive and suffered two strokes that month.} I posted in March often about my love affair with food. I was OBSESSED with food. 

With April came my first delivery of cloth dipes! I was SO excited. It was crazy how I would play with them, organize them, over and over, I loved them and couldn't wait to use them. My mom celebrated her birthday as well as my niece and we all ate at Hailey's fave Nakato's. Since Hailey's birthday dinner was a bust due to mom's medical emergency, Hailey got to celebrate her birthday with her Mamaw and cousin! We celebrated a great Easter together as a family, but on the downside I was diagnosed with gestational diabeetus and said goodbye to sugary foods and carbs for the next several months.

May was HAWT. Summer hit with vengence and this pregnant mama was NOT loving it. I was pretty miserable in May. My love affair with Pinterest began this month. I found Pinterest, signed up, and 3,500+ pins later, I'm STILL head over heels. I celebrated my 9th Mother's Day, finished up my first quilt, and pined for sweets. May also marked the last few weeks of school! {I know the pic says last day, but I was wrong...oops!}

My last month of pregnancy, June, was probably the SLOOOWEST month of my life! I honestly mostly spent June laying around being pregnant and awesome. And miserable. Don't forget miserable. But obviously it was my favorite month of all 2011. I met my baby boy! And what an amazing little boy he has turned out to be! I lay awake all Wednesday night of the 29th, and most of the morning of the 30th, getting minimal sleep, I was too excited! At 7:30 surgery began, and Grayson came into this world at 7:47am, forever changing our family!

July was spent falling in love with G! We were all smitten. We couldn't keep him to ourselves forever though, so we had a "Meet the Baby" party when he was 2 weeks old. My cloth diapering journey truly began, my camera was put back to work full-time as I soaked up G's newborness, he had his newborn session with the amazing Dimples and Curls Photography, and I kept it easy, healing from surgery. We spent the month going back and forth to the hospital to see my brother in law, Tom. The last day we saw him was July 30th, Grayson was one month old. We said goodbye to Tom that day never imagining it would be our last farewell. He passed early morning July 31st. The hardest day of 2011.

August was spent remembering Tom. First at his small memorial service here in NC, and then in PA for a celebration of his life. It wasn't all sad though, we celebrated Joshua's 9th birthday! There was also the first day of school for Joshua and Hailey, so there was back-to-school shopping and preparations.

Before we knew it, it was September! September brought Leah's 3rd birthday, and VERY FIRST day of preschool! It also brought lots of firsts for G as he turned 3 months old by months end.

October FINALLY began to bring cooler temps and my fave season of all, FALL! I baked and cooked a ton in October, making lots of yummy food and sharing my recipes along the way. I got a wild hair and chopped my bangs, and did a little mini session with G as he hit 4 months old. We ended October with Grayson's first Halloween, trick-or-treating, with a gangster, angel, monkey, and dragon. :)

With November came Grayson's first Thanskgiving and lots of big achievements for our littlest man! I did a mini session for Hailey and was able to capture some beautiful shots of my gorgeous girl. Ye old blog got a new look too this month, and I tried spending the month being thankful for something each and every day. Will it be terribly awful if I mention the premiere of Breaking Dawn Part I? Yes? Okay, then I won't mention it...best of all though, we traveled to PA to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Renwicks. It was delish. Sad to spend our first holiday without Tom, but nice having our family be together.

The final month brought us a 6 month old! {How is that possible?!} December is becoming one of my favorite months. Getting our tree, decorating for Christmas, spending the holiday break with my kids, and of course Christmas is becoming more and more magical. We introduced an elf that the children named Thomas who brough hi-jinx all month. We celebrated Grayson's first Christmas, Mel's birthday, and of course New Year's Eve all with those we love most. The year ended with an amazing month for sure. Oh and last but not least, I got my iphone, which I LOVE! ^_^