Saturday, December 31, 2011

A Year in Review

January:
 Sarah was nine months old and had just started walking a couple of days before January started. It was also the first time that Sarah really got to experience snow (more than just a dusting)!
Not amused by the snow

February: 
Sarah was 10 months old and we were really struggling with what to feed her. She had a strong aversion to textured baby foods, but wasn't quite up to eating table foods yet. Sarah started dancing to music and doing her sweet little baby butt shake whenever music came on! Sarah also had her very first Valentine's Day! 
We got to hear Andrew's heartbeat for the first time this month as well. 
Our tiny walker!

Busting a movie in Grandma's kitchen

Little lovebug!
March:
Sarah was 11 months old and had her first major scrape up this month. She fell off of my bed and totally rug burned her nose, and unfortunately it stayed scraped up for a long time! She got to leave the baby room in the church nursery and go to the "walker" room. I think this was the first time that it it hit me that my baby was getting bigger and growing on up. This was the month when Sarah started wearing shoes all the time. Sarah's talking actually started turning into real words and we had a hard time deciding just what her first word was. Oh and it was her first St. Patrick's Day!
My baby bump officially became noticeable to others this month!
15 Week Belly

Look at world, here's an established walker!

Baby shoes

Scraped nose!

St. Patrick's Day Cutie!
April:
The main things this month were Sarah's first birthday and her second Easter! But it was her first real Easter egg hunt. Oh and we found out that Andrew was a boy a few days after Sarah's birthday!




May:
I celebrated my second Mother's Day and had a great time. I felt like I had earned my day this year versus being a new mom that was being spoiled. I really felt like I had come into my own as a mom and was feeling better prepared for two babies! Oh and Sarah finally had enough hair to have a clip in it without needing a headband. And Sarah discovered that she loved playing in hoses.


June:
We marked the 4th anniversary of my sister's murder, never a happy thing to think about. But I can't avoid thinking about it whenever June rolls around. We also marked Father's Day! This is also about the time that we lost Sarah's bottle for good. She really got the hang of her sippy cup! We went berry picking as a family for the first time and we discovered that Sarah doesn't really like berries. Ryan and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary with an overnight away from Sarah, it was the first time we left her.
Photo shoot for Father's Day card

Tasting the berries, then spitting them out afterwards!

July:
We had the annual golf tournament that raises money for my sister's foundation and celebrated Ryan's birthday later in the month. We also did swim lessons with Sarah and discovered that our girl was a little fish! This was the first time I got Sarah's hair into pigtails! And about this time I was over being pregnant. I felt huge and we were hit with one of the hottest summers ever! 


36 weeks and so over it. 

Golf tourney

Sarah at the golf tourney

Daddy's birthday

Sarah's first pigtails

August:
This is the month we welcomed our handsome baby boy to our family! My grandmother passed away the day before he was born, so it was kind of a crazy time.  Sarah's vocabulary really took off at this point! She was able to communicate so well and I was pretty shocked at how much she could say. It made the transition to two kids under two so much easier!
Our precious boy!


Hospital diaper change!

On the scale, big boy!



September:
Ryan did a nice photo shoot of me with the kids. We celebrated my birthday this month. 25 years and 2 babies! What a crazy life I've had so far! Sarah started showing interest in her potty and actually did go potty a couple of times before losing interest. We went apple picking this month too and had a blast doing that, what a way to welcome fall! Oh and I caught Andrew's first real smile on camera, well on my cell phone's camera.






After eating her cupcake and ice cream

Adorable gummy-toothless smile!


October:
This month brought us  a few big things. We went to a cider mill (where Sarah rode a pony for the first time), Sarah had Hand Foot and Mouth, Andrew's dedication, Halloween (and our adorable Princess and Frog), and Sarah's love/obsession of/with Elmo! Again we hit another milestone with Sarah's hair, her first ponytail!

Look at her hair!!

Dedication

Family shot at dedication



November
We had our first health scare with Andrew this month. He went to the children's hospital with a fever and got an IV in his head! (So sad!)  Thanksgiving was our first as a family of four and we were able to celebrate with  both sides of the family together at my in-laws' house.
So sad!

Sleeping baby

Happy Thanksgiving!



December:
This month has been fantastic. We did everything from decorating for Christmas, baking cookies, celebrating with families, and welcoming my twin nieces! They were born on the 27th! I also rediscovered just how much I love the holidays now that I have kiddos! 
Andrew started playing with toys and his jumperoo this month, and he is in love with the spinny ball! Andrew's first two teeth broke through.Sarah "sang" us all kinds of Christmas songs and really got into the spirit of things. I love how she said Kiss-mas.
Sarah's tree


This is her "cheese" face. Someone was playing in flour




My nieces Evelyn (left) and Katelyn (right)