2011 In Review - Part 2

The second part of our year in review....enjoy.  ;)

July - We ran in our mid-year with a 4th of July celebration that included many aunts and uncles and one day at the beach.  We followed up in the next few days with a celebration of our own as Ayden turned 4 and for his birthday we added our first pets to the family, a tank of fish.  (Ayden's favorite).  July also was a month of extreme thankfulness as Ayden received an iPad donated from a very special person. There was a small downside to this month, as we had to cancel our annual camping trip but, it was due to Mr Awesome accepting a new position at work - so it all worked out.

August - We spent a week with Nana and Grandad (minus Daddy) to start off August.  Mostly we just relaxed and went to some Summerfest events in our hometown.  The notable thing for this month...Ayden had a huge advancement and was playing with my parent's dog in the grass.  Typing out that sentence still makes me so excited as less than 6 months ago we had a difficult time doing either of those things.  We ended the month celebrating Eid with family.

September - After a very busy summer we were looking forward to a much calmer fall, but such was not the case.  School kicked off the first week and as always was a great "back to the grind" for Ayden.  Mid-month was the annual JDRF walk which we participate in especially for two of Ayden's cousins who both have Type 1 diabetes.  The night of the walk turned into yet another emergency room visit for us though, and ended with another emergency surgery to remove my appendix. 

October - We started off the month with an end-of-summer BBQ and gender reveal party.  The reveal party was a ton of fun in itself, and frequent readers know that we were able to finally tell everyone we were welcoming a baby GIRL into the family.  We continued with the fall fun with some apple picking and closed out the month with a very exciting Halloween - their little cousin came to go trick-or-treating on his first Halloween. 

November - We had some more warm weather in November and packed up the kids for one final trip to the park before the cold weather set in (little did we know that warmer weather would be hanging around for a while!).  We spent our Thanksgiving with Mr Awesome's family and came home to our first snow of the year a few days later - about 8-10 inches on the ground!

December - Our usual holiday festivities commenced the first weekend in December as usual, with the added bonus of a broken sub pump, flooded basement, and new tires for the van.  We still were able to cut the Christmas tree and get all of our shopping done as usual though!  Our sibling Christmas party happened mid-month followed by the holiday traveling to Nana & Grandad's then to Gido and Grandma's and finally our Christmas at home. 

Looking back, our year wasn't so terrible as it seems when thinking about it.  I think maybe that has to do with the fact that there were a lot of big things that kind of highlighted our year.  Two major surgeries and a car accident, a Fragile X diagnosis, as well as all the issues with this current pregnancy are scattered in with all the fun we had and seem to stand out.  Despite all that, we did spend a lot of time with family this year for which I am very grateful.  It's all of our family and friends that have been by our side through this year's ups and especially the downs and I can't even begin to explain how much that means to us.

More than anything, this year reminded me of all the reasons I love Mr Awesome.  He has been my rock and my support through so many things, but this year he really just was over and above.  He's blown through his family sick time at work taking care of me and helping me keep the house in working/running order.   As if I needed more reasons to love him - he certainly has given me more than I can count this year.

So, now the year is at an end and we are looking forward to the birth of our little girl in the next six weeks.  I certainly didn't do great with my resolutions from last year, but I plan to try again.  So...here are my resolutions for this year:

1)  Do something just for me each month.  This was part of my resolution last year, and the months I did this it helped a lot.  I spread myself very thin as a mom, and I'm still finding that balance after almost 5 years.  Maybe I'll get it this time.  :)

2)  Get back on a cleaning schedule for the house.  It's been pretty bad this year with everything going on and I need to get it under control, including the clutter!

3)  Get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. 

4)  Make some progress towards opening my own business.  This is a not-for-sure thing, but something I'm hoping to accomplish by the time baby girl is heading to school.  The idea is to get a business plan together and start building up customers so in five years it will make sense to be a "next step".

Finally...I want to wish everyone a very happy and healthy 2012!!