our year

january

in january i got the mutha of all toothaches. that taught me a little bit about our Heavenly Father (weird, i know!) and His love for us. sometimes we all have to go through some pain so we can learn and be willing to do the things we need to do. and as a parent, even though it's hard, it's necessary. simple, i know, but my toothache taught me that.

february
in february we celebrated love and all that goes with it. we had our first annual official 14 days of valentines and we added another teenager to our family. there was lots of basketball and lots of candy to be had in february.

march
march brought frankie's 1st birthday and a fun pink party, papa's fun visit and lots of sightseeing around our beautiful neck of the woods, and some st. patricks day celebratin' and lots of green.

april
in april grandpa ray came to town! we love spending time with our grandpas! we also took a fabulously fun trip to florida with the fischetti crew. on the road there we got our first dose of crazy weather for the year when we survived our first tornado. we missed christian while we vacationed, but also grew and learned from difficult situations.  and matt turned 42! yikes!

may
the warm weather started and we spent a lot of blessed time outside. we checked out beaches and had pool parties and wrapped up some school stuff.

june
june is our busiest birthday month with our 2 girls celebrating on june 3rd. matt and i ran our first race and we found out we were expecting our latest little bundle of JOY! school wrapped up, alexis went to girls camp, christian went to boy scout camp, and we prepared for our summer voyage.

july
brought our long, long trip to seattle and exactly 0 blog posts! the pregnancy nasuea and exhaustion came full force, but amy still made me participate in my second race and first half marathon. we sent christian off to texas (sad face) but he was kinda bored and miserable and came home earlier than he ever has before (happy face!). we checked lots off our seattle bucket list, spent time with lots of family and friends, and got our fill of traveling until after baby girl comes.

august
back to school! 8th graders and sophmores! it was also the month with the craziest weather ev-ah! in one week we survived a tornado, earthquake, and hurricane. we came out of august exhausted and broke, but safe and happy. we also found out we were having another baby GIRL!

september
the kids finally went back to school again, lexi made the varsity cheer squad, christian played baseball, mama and addie started preschool, matt finished up our deck, and frankie started gymnastics.

october
in october mama nested and worked hard to organize and become more efficient with life - including kid swaps and days of cooking. we also went to tofw, franks had surgery, lex had homecoming, christian gave his first talk, and we celebrated halloween. 

november
we painted, finished baseball, went to ny, got ready for christmas, and went to breaking dawn at midnight. we also enjoyed super mild and wonderful weather!!!

december
we had a wonderful christmas, the boys went snowboarding for the first time of the season, we experienced some teen growing pains and lots of parenting learning moments.

2011 was a good, good year. a relatively easy year. we didn't have any new jobs, new homes, new schools, new babies, it was just a good, calm year. which was twice as sweet because it was followed by a particularly tumoltous year. it was a year of learning and growing and discovering. relationships were tested and strengthened. lots of lessons were learned.
(wish i could say we were done with all the lessons being learned but something tells me otherwise;)

i think there's a good chance (but hopefully i'm wrong!) this next year and a half could be pretty difficult. 3 little ones at home all day, plus 2 big ones, plus some exciting stuff matt's been cooking up for awhile... just the thought of it all wears me out. so i'm taking some extra time to reflect on the good, sweet year we've had. and i know we can make it through the bad and that will make the good that much better. and i know that
 i can do hard things. in the strength of the Lord i can do all things.

so, i'm preparing as best i can. i'm willing to ask for help and accept it.
i'm looking forward with faith and excitement and gratitude and hope. 
2012, bring it.


christmas eve

 

santa in the grant

santa rode into our neighborhood on a fire truck a couple weeks ago and all the neighborhood came out to meet him. this was the 3rd time franks had met santa, and she wasn't feeling it. weird, because the 2nd time, she loved him.

ha, ha. i love the angry baby pictures.

not sure?

after the santa torture meeting, they got to ride around the neighborhood on his sleigh. there's addie's little pink capped head poking over the side of the sleigh on matt's right.

and after the festivities.

little miss did not want to walk.

she got over it.

our only carolers!

we finally got it together and went caroling this year (twice!) and it made me wish for carolers to come sing to us. and they did! after a rousing rendition of jingle bells they even pulled out the marshmallow gun, just for use on the kids of course.
(and then after the shooting rampage, the little girls had a delicious blast eating all the marshmallow "shells" all over the porch!)

it was sooo super chilly, so before the special justin bieber miseltoe number, we invited them in. of course frankie cozied up with sarah right away.

lexi loved her bieber serenade!

carolers with ukulele, hot chocolate, marshmallow guns, and bieber?!

awesome!

today

i'm interrupting my annual end-of-year blog-a-thon to focus a little bit on today.

the preggy-not-able-to-get-back-to-sleep-thing has started and after my 3am bladder relief (although last night it started after my 1am) i can't get back to sleep cause my mind is racing. things i need to do, random ideas, blogs to post, what to eat, you name it, my crazy can't sleep self thinks of it. of course, why wouldn't my mind be racing at 3am?

last week i kept the kids nice and busy with the mall, movies, lunch dates, chores, practices, and shopping. but this week, not so much. we are getting a little stir crazy and i've been too tired to do anything about it. addie is turning the corner to little girl-dom and has been very annoying lately, and i say that with as much mommy love as i can muster. "mommy, let's play a game, will you paint my nails, can we play with play dough, can i open frankie's gift, can we make cookies..." non-stop! i love the girl, but seriously! and she's been so sensitive! you can barely tell her anything and she covers her face with her hands and runs away crying. ahhhhhhhhhh!!!! i need a break!

then matt was gone from mon-weds snowboarding. and then i got the bright idea to de-christmas the house by myself (which, in reality i do every year by myself, but not at 8+ months prego) and i have been exhausted and not doing much with addie, or anyone else for that matter. so i'm happy to report that yesterday we did everything on addie's above mentioned list, except make cookies, cause i don't think i can stand having anymore cookies in this house, and you know me, i never say stuff like that!!!

alexis is riding the teen roller coaster with a vengeance. one day she hates the world, and the next (this past monday to be exact) she's an angel, doing her extra list of jobs that i left her, 3 loads of laundry (washer, dryer, folded, and put away), her regular chores, and cleaning up after dinner and picking up the family room, all without being asked. i kept asking her if she knew something i didn't know, like that i was terminally ill. and she didn't even ask for anything! maybe there's hope for that girl yet. ;)

matt and christian went with the boy scouts up to some remote ski resort in west virginia. they both reported that they had an awesome time. there were something like 20 scouts that were able to go. the first day wasn't very cold, but it was rainy, so my genius son decided to snowboard in shorts. boys will be boys! matt tried skiing, since the ski's were included in the cost of the group tickets they got, but didn't love it so switched back to his snowboard by the first afternoon. i'm glad they were able to go and have so much fun. :)

franks has been sweet, but needy. teething maybe? who knows, but i'm trying to enjoy it. since matt's been gone, i've had the opportunity to rock her to sleep twice a day for the past few days. and since my glass is half full, it's been really, really sweet. and she hasn't cried when i've laid her down. no tears at bed/nap time for the past 3 days! yay! she's also stopped hitting me. double yay! and she really only (usually) hits addie when addie's being a pest. hope we're outgrowing the hitting phase, i really don't like it.

okay. we're getting ready to head up to baltimore to make good on the medieval times tickets i won at last years navy christmas party. the expire on the 31st, so i guess it's time. 2 hour drive there, long show/dinner, 2 hour drive back home, ugh. wish me luck!

santa in the grant

santa rode into our neighborhood on a fire truck a couple weeks ago and all the neighborhood came out to meet him. this was the 3rd time franks had met santa, and she wasn't feeling it. weird, because the 2nd time, she loved him.

ha, ha. i love the angry baby pictures.

not sure?

after the santa torture meeting, they got to ride around the neighborhood on his sleigh. there's addie's little pink capped head poking over the side of the sleigh on matt's right.

and after the festivities.

 little miss did not want to walk.

she got over it.

 

work christmas par-tay!

the day after our ward christmas party, matt and i got all dolled up (or as dolled up as an 8 month preggy pop can get!) and went to his work party.
i love getting all dressed up!

and christian's been adamant about getting pictures of me lately, so here ya go!

love date night!

we didn't win any i-pads (or anything actually) but we did eat a very interesting flower salad (no joke!) and wowed the crowd with our mad swing dance skills. or maybe we just wowed them that someone of my girth could still move. or maybe they were just nervous that i'd pop the baby out right there on the dance floor.

whatev's, we got some attention and we had fun. :)
and next year we're winning big again!

ward christmas par-tay!

we had a fun ward christmas party a few weeks ago.

there was yummy food and fun games and good music.

santa showed up while we were there, so we took the little girls and got in line. we got to visiting (in line) and then people up at the front of the line started calling for us to bring addie. turns out this little blondie decided to cut in front of 10+ people and climb on santa's lap all by herself!

she loved him!

 and since she was so happy, and our friends are awesome and didn't mind our little line-cutting, we quickly grabbed addie and had our turn.

some santa pictures come out better than others, oh well.

oh, and that's the baby Jesus that frankie is holding.

line cutting, stealing, hitting, she's kind of a mess right now!

gymnastics fun never ends!

gymnastics is still super fun, but has been getting pretty tiring for this big mama. so matt has been meeting us every friday to help with frankie's class. that means that i have lots of time for pictures!

~patient addie waiting for her turn. that's one of those little cheese spreaders in her mouth, ps.

frankie does not like stretching, or any part of the opening routine actually.

mommy makes her stay and stretch though.

i'm mean that way.

(here we are "rowing her boat")

finally she gets let free!

and she's off!

shhhh, sometimes we let addie sneak over to the bars during frankie's class.

this is her favorite, hanging like a monkey.

and franks flipping off of the bars. i know it's super blurry, but i love how addie's happily helping her baby sister.

"stick it!"

(and she actually did "stick it," which rarely happens!)

and i love the way frankie's looking up to her big sissy here.

and this is how frankie and i roll while we wait for addie.

princesses, books, and food (all over her face).

amy said she looks like a boy here, but i just think she looks cute. and dirty. and big.