Merry Christmas everyone!
Some of you may be 'regular' blog readers and some of you may be stopping by thanks to the note on the back of our Christmas cards this year. Instead of writing, printing and sending out our regular family letter, I thought I'd write one on our blog so I can include pictures and share more memories from our 2010. I'm glad you stopped by and hope that you return again and again and keep up with our family.
*you can click on any of the underlined links to go to old posts about that topic.*
2010 came with a lot of ups and unfortunately, a lot of downs, too.
January was full of birthday celebrations including
Adam's first birthday, Paul's birthday and my nephew Luke's 2nd birthday.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
February was a horribly difficult time for our family. We received devastating news that my oldest brother, Andy,
passed away unexpectedly on our Mom's birthday. He was still in the Navy and in California at the time. We are all still dealing with this loss and grief, which seems even more striking during the holidays. Please keep us all in your prayers. Just days after his funeral, we returned home as Jacob needed to have some
minor surgery. While surgery on a 3 year old is nerve wracking enough, it was even harder after the loss of my brother. Thankfully, everything went smoothly and he's as good as new now!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
March brought
a lot of snow and time spent with family. We began traveling to Kalamazoo a couple weekends a month to help my sister and brother-in-law restore an old home they were planning on moving into. Paul did a lot to help them while my mom and I often kept the kids entertained on those weekends. Jacob and Sarah got their
first bikes while Adam started to
walk run.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
April gave us hope that
spring really was coming again this year. We celebrated
Easter at home by ourselves because for the second major holiday in a row, we were plagued by the flu (Christmas 2009 was bad, too). Thankfully the Easter Bunny braved the germs and still left the kids treats. Paul and I celebrated our
9th wedding anniversary with an evening out full of wine, dinner and laughter.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
May was a pretty quiet month for us but the weather must've turned nice quick because all the pictures I have of the kids on the blog are in shorts and t-shirts!
Jacob and Sarah turned 3.5 and
Adam was 16 months old. Adam also started talking more and began to learn his animal sounds (
cute video here!). I also celebrated my 33rd birthday in May the same weekend as Mother's Day. We had asked family and friends to for-go birthday and Christmas presents last year and instead asked for money to be used towards a big swing set for the backyard. We found time at the beginning of the month to put it up, thanks to the help of my Dad and Mom and the kids had a TON of fun, all year long on it! Paul and I also got away for a weekend to celebrate my cousin's wedding. It was only our 2nd night away from the kids and we had a lot of fun with my family.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
June marked the end of my 10th year of teaching and the promise of a summer home with my own children (I used to work summers as a teacher, but now that I'm a mom...you can't pay me enough to give up that time with my kids!). Jacob and Sarah moved up to the Preschool room at their daycare and got to go on
their first field trip (a place we'd been to many times before but it was SO much more fun in their eyes as a "field trip.") My sister and brother-in-law
finished up their house and moved in Father's Day weekend. Our entire family put a little bit of them into the project and it turned out wonderful! At the end of the month, I made a tough decision to give Adam his
first real haircut. He had these adorable curls in the back but it was getting pretty long and messy. It still amazes me how much more grown up he looked in a matter of a few snips. Jacob and Sarah started gymnastics!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
July was Summer Fun at Full Speed! (you can scroll through the
July archives here for lots of fun pics). We had play date after play date, field trips, 4th of July fun, water fun and more!!! All 3 kids took
swimming lessons, visited lots of parks and tried to stay cool during the hot summer! Paul's oldest brother
Jim visited from Colorado, Adam turned
18 months old and we enjoyed the gifts that our
yard and garden gave us. We closed out July with a
family vacation to one of our
favorite places in Michigan and the kids got to check out Great Wolf Lodge!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
August started off with another loss. Paul's Aunt Kate
passed away and it stirred up a lot of emotions. Paul's other brother, Joe, visited from California for a weekend. It was also another extremely busy month with swimming lessons,
gymnastics and
Physical Therapy for Jacob. We had more play dates including a special one to see
Thomas the Tank Engine (both boys LOVE trains!). We got
new windows and did a few other home improvements (or at least made plans of some...we haven't touched the living room yet) and helped my Mom throw a
Surprise Retirement Party for my Dad. Summer had to come to an end sometime though and I headed back to work at the end of the month.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
September started my
11th year of teaching with a new sense of determination. Paul has been fortunate to stay on board with HP (formerly EDS) and is currently working on a project with the DNR doing website/application development. He works from home most of the time but does get down to Lansing about once a week to meet with his co-workers face-to-face. We wrapped up our summer with a great
picnic/carnival with my Mothers of Multiples group. Just weeks later, we were ready for
fall fun!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
October was lots of fun with our 3 little ones - they were all excited about
Halloween! Jacob and Sarah chose their own costumes this year and Adam
really got into the fun of it all! We celebrated Halloween at Crossroads Village on the 31st and the kids loved the train ride. Paul and I had some fun of our own and got out to see a
concert in Detroit. We all had lots of fun and enjoyed Michigan's beautiful
fall colors!!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
November was extremely busy for both Paul and I at work and home but things settled down enough to celebrate
Jacob and Sarah's 4th birthday and Thanksgiving with both of our families at our home. Its
hard to believe they are 4 already! Adam has eczema and we decided to take him to U of M to see if a
different doctor had a better approach for his skin. All 3 kids know Christmas is just around the corner...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
December and the magic of Christmas is in full effect here. We have a
few house elves that are keeping the
kids on their toes and excited for the holiday. Jacob and Sarah are doing gymnastics again and VERY excited to see what Santa will bring them for Christmas. Adam will be 2 in less than a month (although he thinks he's already 4 and tries to do everything his siblings do...). We are looking forward to celebrating the holiday with our families as the past year has reminded us, even moreso, how important they all are to us.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
We hope your 2010 was joyous and blessed. We know times are tough all over the place and we are very fortunate to still both have our jobs, our home and our beautiful family safe together. We hope you can say the same and that 2011 brings you many wonderful memories!
With Love
Barb, Paul, Jacob, Sarah and Adam
