So, wow! It has really been a while since I have posted. And there are reasons for that, that I think I'll post about eventually... but I really wanted to get this post up. Especially considering how stinkin' long it took me to put it together.
I'm definitely not the first person to do this. And I'm a million years late to the ball (Holy February?!). But I have loved reading other blogger's recaps of their 2012. And it sounded like a fun idea to make one of my own. So here we go! Our Scribbled Wall's 2012 Year-in-Review!
January:
In January we welcome in the New Year with salad wraps, donuts, and (our favorite) ginger beer! We make/watch our 2011 highlight videos. I begin putting together our playroom supplies. I finish a Circle Time board for the kids and I find new bins at Wal-Mart for organizing our toys. It is crazy to me how much our inventory has grown since then! I have fun dressing Emmie up like a girly girl. Kay begins to see some real success in his potty training. I learn how to fold fitted sheets (thanks to youtube!). I am happy my bad (self) hair cut is starting to look a little better. We give Em her first piggie tales. We watch Kay and Em play together, and Em continue to grow and progress... much faster than we'd prefer! We start running, 3 times a week. I follow the Couch 2 5k program. First time in my life I have ever found running enjoyable. I get the stomach flu and spend all night, alone with two kids, puking my guts out. Kevin's phone is dead and he is at school, working late. I'm on my own. Best night ever...
February:
We buy girl scout cookies. Samoa's are my favorite =).We keep up our running routine. I eventually work up to running for 20 minutes straight. I am insanely proud. We daydream and research all of the 5k's we want to do during the upcoming summer. Kevin continues to intern as a 4th grade teacher. Gets knocked on his butt by some personality differences and miscommunications with his mentors. Has to pull a few 19 hour days, and countless 15 hour ones to keep up with his work load. It is depressing, frustrating, tiring, and scary. We are afraid the situation will cost him his graduation. We worry. A lot. We stop running. We enjoy a brief distraction from our worries when two of my brothers (and their families) come to town. We make homemade tamales, visit a dinosaur museum, go frisbee golfing and inner tubing. We play Ruckus, enjoy shopping, and make plenty of cupcakes to celebrate a birthday. Kevin and I celebrate our fourth anniversary and Valentine's day at a dance put on by our church.
March:
I have absolutely 0 photos from this month because my camera is partially damaged and out of batteries. Kevin finishes his last observations! His professor comes to see him teach and resolves (for the most part) much of the misunderstanding and miscommunication between him and his mentors. He receives passing grades! We begin applying for full-time teaching jobs. We want to live in Oregon, but receive two job offers from a local Teacher's Fair. Kevin interviews with and accepts one of these job offers. It means moving, and not to Oregon like we had hoped, but we feel good about it. We finish paying over $8000 in hospital bills from Emmie's birth and are officially debt free! I travel to California with my mom and my cousin in law. While visiting, my sister in laws and I try our hands at home made cheese. Yum!
April:
I sell an unused bedframe of ours and have enough money to (finally!!!) buy a new lense for a DSLR camera my sister in law gave me. We visit Kevin's brother (and family) in Oregon and I take way too many photos with my "new-to-me" camera. We have Easter, enjoy some egg hunts, and eat tasty corn beef brisket. We visit the Portland Zoo and go to OMSI. We visit our friends Sam and Brandon. We make dinner at their house and Kevin covets their dog. My cousin and Aunt come down from Washington to meet up with us for dinner! We eat Pizza. On our way home from Oregon we secure ourselves an apartment in preparation for our move to a new state. We celebrate Kay's 3rd birthday. We take him to get all you can eat french toast. We buy him a Thomas the Train set and a train table we found on craigslist for $20! He remembers everything about his 2nd birthday vividly and wants us to recreate it, exactly. We run into a hitch. The pirate pizza place we took him to the year before had shut down. We settle for Costco pizza and watching Pirates of the Caribbean instead. Kay calls it "Pirates of the Carrots and Beans". We laugh.
May:
My cousin in law and I take our kids to the Zoo. We begin packing up our home for our move out of state. We meet up with as many friends and family as possible before leaving. We eat at a few of our favorite restaurants. Kevin graduates with a Bachelors of Science in Elementary Education. We go to a book fair and meet Brandon Mull. We buy one of his books and get it autographed. Go on a family date. Drink (more) Ginger Beer. Kevin's parents and my dad come to help us load up the U-Haul and clean our old apartment. We make the 4 hour drive to our new home. We take our time getting settled and make a few trips to Home Depot for some necessities. We dedicate one of the rooms in our new apartment as the playroom. We turn an old garden stand into an art desk, hang rain gutter bookshelves, and add a few art supply shelves to boot. Started reading the Fablehaven series with Kevin. Em starts to crawl.
June:
I finish sewing Kay's baby blanket. The one I started 6 months before he was born. I remember why I
July:
We travel a few hours west to visit Kevin's brother and his family for the Fourth of July.We barbecue (until his grill catches on fire), go to a local park for a firework show, light sparklers, and eat ice cream sandwiches. We ride bikes the next day and pack a picnic for a trip to the Redwoods. We explore nature and Emmie gets filthy dirty. My mom finds a kitty buried in her garden bed. Kevin and I adopt it. Kay names it Rose. We find another abandoned kitty under my Grandpa's mobile home. Kay names it Marshmallow. We bottle feed the newborn kittens and help them poop and pee (guess who got that last job? Yum...) I spend hours cleaning out my parent's barn. With help from my sister in laws, my parents and I set up a garage sale (to earn money for Disneyland!). We drive up the California Coast to go camping in Oregon. Kevin loses his wedding ring in a river on the side of the road. We explore tide pools, fly kites, visit with family, go cliff jumping, build sand castles and skim board. We leave after a week. We eat garbage grinders in Medford, OR and reunite with some great friends. We travel to Disneyland for a two-day trip with my parents, two of my nieces, and Kevin's brother's family. Emmie has her 1st birthday and takes her first steps. We go to a family reunion and watch the Summer Olympics. Kevin and I finish reading the entire Fablehaven Series.
August:
My brother and sister in law take our family photos. I attend my best-friend-since-childhood's baby shower. We pack up all of our belongings, say our goodbyes to loved ones, and head back home. We get home at 3 am, just to realize that we left the key to our apartment with my brother (who lives in a different state). We sleep in the car until maintenance comes to unlock our door. I catch the stomach flu. Again. I make a business trip back to our old stomping grounds. I spend whatever time I am not working hanging out with my cousins, my brother and sister in law, and dad. I drive home. The kids and I make new friends in our new town. We prepare for the 2012-2013 school year to begin. We take full advantage of all the sunshine and nearby playgrounds. We spend a lot of time enjoying our new playroom.
September:
School starts. Kay has his first day of preschool. I start babysitting for friends. We give away our second kitty, Marshmallow, because our apartment complex requires a $300 non-refundable pet deposit, per each pet. And we can only afford one deposit. Our kitty, Rose, misses Marshmallow. Our kitty, Rose, attacks us for no apparent reason. Our kitty, Rose, refuses to stop getting up on our counters. Our kitty, Rose, drives me nuts. Our church's Elder's Quorum holds a barbecue. We enjoy Italian Sodas, juicy burgers, and making new friends. We continue our park excursions. I make lots of homemade bread. The husband and I go to Barnes and Noble, order a Pumpkin Creme Frapp, and pretend that we are novelists. We brainstorm ideas for children's books. I update my General Conference Prep Pack and launch my very first public blog, Our Scribbled Walls.
October:
Our family watches all of the sessions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint's October General Conference. We make In-N-Out 'animal style' grilled cheese paninis. We begin doing weekly play-dates with neighbors. We have our first snow of 2012. Kay is ecstatic. Emmie? Not as much so. The kids and I go with some friends to a pumpkin patch. We switch the playroom over to the master bedroom, and the master bedroom over to the playroom. We hunt for Pirate treasure. We carve pumpkins. I make an unearthly amount of spritz cookies. Kay covers them with an unearthly amount of sprinkles. I make curtains for the living room. We decorate graham cracker haunted houses. We help daddy with his school's Halloween Carnival. Some of our longtime friends live nearby. We go to a Halloween Party held in their parent's barn. We attend a Halloween night potluck and go trick or treating with friends.
November:
Like most of the country, we cast our votes in the presidential election. We hold an election night party with some friends. And
December:
We go to a friend's birthday party. We play with balloons. Kevin and I put together Kay's Lego Table. Kevin lays on top of our finished project... for dramatic effect. We have a pajama/crazy hair day/holiday party with Kevin's class. Our whole family wears footie pajamas to said party. Kay finally saves up enough of his money (from doing chores) to buy his very first bike. He counts his money, sets aside 10% for tithing, and hands the rest to the cashier. He rides out of the store, triumphant. We take our new bike home and Kevin and Kay work hard that night to supe it up. We drive to California to visit family for Christmas. We make Christmas Eve Candy (I make Pumpkin Creme Brulee! It may not exactly be candy...but it is delicious!) and enjoy a Christmas program put together by two of my nieces. Em enjoys some snuggles with her grandma. We enjoy our new Christmas jammies. We open presents. Em and Kay inherit their cousin's old play kitchen. We meet up for lunch with one of Kevin's brothers. We buy a new bed set. We enjoy spending time with family. We drive home in 12 degree weather. We have the key to our house this time. No sleeping in the car this time around. Kev and I work hard loading all of our new presents into the house. We set up the new toys in the playroom. We celebrate on New Years Eve with our neighbor friends. We eat snacks, play games, and solve all of the worlds problems in one conversation. Because we're pretty smart like that. We say farewell to 2012 a little over an hour early. Being parents has turned is into lazy wusses. We went to bed at 10:30.
Whew! That was long winded. And I'm thrilled to have finally finished putting all of this together! And I'm sure you're thrilled to have finally finished reading this! Oh my forever! I guess all I have left to say at this point is 'Here's lookin' at you, 2012!'
Very, very nice presentation of a year, m'dear!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Margaret! It was fun to put together. At least at first. By the time I was 2 weeks into it...and not even done with May... it got a little old, lol. But now that it is done, I am loving it again! =P
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