Dear 2012,

You were a good year! 

Like a flash you were here and then you were gone. 

We had a lot of good times and celebrated a lot of new beginnings.  It was a hard year too.  Missing family is something my heart will never get use to but we are grateful for phone, text, Skype and Facebook to stay connected. 

We had stomach bugs and a lot of allergies to keep Kleenex in business but that didn't slow us down. 

We had new company cars then one car for a while but we didn't let that stop us from being on the go. 

We saw and fell in love with the most famous mouse in the entire world along with a couple dozen of his friends. 

We celebrated birthdays and lots of our little friends birthdays too. 

We got lots of new monster trucks, baby dolls and cute shoes.

We grew up a little more into new sizes and big brother got a lot of new school uniform khaki's.

We made lots of trips to the beach but discovered a walk with a red wagon with two toddlers in tow was just as fun on a Saturday to the pool.   

 

My top 10 favorites for the year 2012:

 

10.  Aaron's new job in February which gave us more "Daddy" time

 

9.  Discovering our neighborhood pool

 

8.  Annual Saturday trips to the beach

 

7.  No more pacifiers!

 

6.  Cannon's 3rd birthday

 

5.  Caroline's 2nd birthday

 

4.  First family trip to Disney World

 

3.  Two potty trained (except night-time) kids!

 

2.  Aaron's newest job after being laid off in October

 

1.  Two happy and 90% (we have allergies) healthy children!

At times it's hard to sit and be still because we are so busy.  I'm learning more and more that it's the smallest of things that bring the biggest blessings and the most joy to my heart.  I'm learning to take one day at a time because I don't ever want to look back and regret being too busy for a son that was born out of incredible odds and a baby sister born shortly after.  Their lives will go by so fast and I don't want to miss a second.  Thank you, Jesus for your incredible grace and mercy you give to all four of us on a daily basis.  That is one thing for sure I don't take for granted!







 

Christmas Season 2012

I could cry right now but I won't.  Christmas is over and I'm not happy!  Cannon and Caroline aren't too happy either.  They are at that age they are getting what Christmas is all about.  Christmas songs, Christmas lights, Christmas parties and of course....Christmas gifts.

We started out the season like we do every year with the annual Bluffton Christmas parade.  The weather was perfect and two little ones loved it.....as usual.  The highlight for me was not having to be concerned with Caroline running in front of the cars and floats as they passed.  She was kept behind the lines by her big brother this year and momma was happy for the free help!

As the month went on I found myself longing to start and/or carry on traditions.  One holiday tradition that I believe every family does is go look at Christmas lights.  We actually (on demand) go through the streets of all the neighborhoods around us almost every night on our way home from school.  There is one house on a particular street that has music with their lights and I'm instructed long before I even get to the street that I MUST turn and go see the flashing lights.  But I wanted more lights.  Bigger lights.  Traffic and lots of people.  So we packed up and went to Charleston to the Festival of Lights.  We sat in our car with two extremely patient toddlers for almost two hours before reaching the starting point and it was worth it!  The displays were big and bright and we had so much fun turning our heads to the left, then right, then left again.  Next year we will take a different route and get there in plenty time to go on the train ride.

Christmas time was also a fun time for the kids when they get home and see all the packages that have arrived from our family far away.  A lot of the boxes were delivered and hidden so "Santa" could bring them on Christmas Eve.  Some nights we would get home for the day and boxes would be half way up our door.  Thank Goodness for neighbors that keep watch over our house during the day!

There was a sad first about this Christmas and that was we didn't get to go see or have any family visit.  I'm a very sensitive person and I will admit that it was hard.  I grew up with many great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and Christmas was exhausting by the time the month was over.  Going to this house and that house, eating this meal and that meal.  It's what Christmas should be about.....family.  This year though, I learned that even if that family is made up of two people, four people or forty people, FAMILY is special and I am thankful!  My two children were old enough this year to know how Christmas worked and that was a happy first in lue of my sad first.

I'm looking forward to more family traditions being made at Christmas time.  Ones that will be passed down throughout our children's generations.  Ones that are Christ focused and full of fun gifts delivered from Santa!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Delivered Early

Christmas came a little early for Caroline.   

 

 

She got to have a big girl bed like her big brother.

 

Right now we have the kids sharing a bedroom until they get a little older (and we get a bigger house) so I wanted Cannon to ultimately have two twin beds.  Caroline's big girl bed will eventually be Cannon's second bed and she will then get another "bigger" bed when she moves into her own bedroom one day.

 

Our crazy monkeys didn't stop jumping on the bed when mommy asked and so glad one didn't fall off and bump their head.  I didn't have to call the doctor but I sent them both to time out instead!

 

 

Sayings of the Season

"Mommy, is it Christmas yet?"

                   ~Caroline, age 2½


"If you don't listen to me, I'm going to wrap you up like a present!"
                   ~Cannon, age 3½

One Hundred Percent!

Potty trained AND paci free!!!!

I can't take all the credit, really not sure if I should take any but I'll take what I have and that is a sweet 2½ year-old daughter that LOVES her big girl underwear and not diapers!!!  The extra icing on the cake is that Caroline doesn't want her paci anymore.  per Caroline...."Paci's are for babies"

How did I score with two HUGE milestone happening literally within the same week.  It was back in October that Caroline's teacher instructed me to bring in big girl underwear and a lot of extra clothes because she wanted to start daytime potty training.  Well, lets just say that October wasn't the best month to start.  Caroline had TWO rounds of a stomach bug which sometimes lasted longer than the normal 24 hours and I made an executive decision to keep pull ups on her bottom for a little longer. 

While we "talked up" big girl underwear, daddy was on her to give up her paci.  I on the other hand was telling her a completely different story.  I was perfectly content with doing these milestones at separate times, even separate years if that's what it took.  After all, Caroline didn't leave the house with the paci unless she was sleeping at a different residence for the night so I wasn't concerned that we would be packing it along with her other items to take off to college.  However, Daddy thought she would be that girl at college with her paci so you can see where we had some "conflict" in our house. Ha!

Fast forward to our Thanksgiving trip to Charlotte, NC.  Caroline did very good in the car without a pull up and we only had to stop for one potty break.  While visiting our friends, Caroline walked around the house with her paci at times and again conversation would come up about how she needed to ditch the paci.  Literally as we were leaving to come home, Chris looked at Caroline and asked for her paci.  She gave it to him and the rest is history!  Really?  That easy?  I could have sworn with as stubborn as my "sweet" Caroline is that giving up her paci would take a while....a long while.

So our Thanksgiving for 2012 included giving a little more thanks to Chris Robusto who was the hero in proving that by just asking to give up her paci, it can be done.  We never actually thought that would work so it had never been part of the plan.  Thank you, Chris!!!

And thank you to all the Robusto's for again having us as part of your family Thanksgiving.  Y'all have always made room for us at such a special time of year and for that we are so grateful!

Caroline's last night to ever sleep with a paci! 

 

Can I get an A-M-E-N!!??!!

Middle Names

Within the last couple of days, Cannon has had this obsession with having to know people's middle names.  Here are a couple of examples......

Me:           Cannon, look there is Ronald McDonald at the new McDonald's restaurant.

Cannon:    Mommy, what is Old McDonald's middle name?

Me:           Cannon, look there is a policeman.

Cannon:    Is the policeman getting the bad guys and what is that policeman's middle name?

Cannon:    Daddy, what is your middle name?

Daddy:      My middle name is Thomas.

Cannon:    Daddy, your not a train!!! 

 

 

THE BEST BELLY LAUGH I'VE HAD IN A LONG TIME!!!!

Joy in the Moment

As a mom, I am always making sure I find joy in every moment of every day with my children. Good or bad, I try to stop and soak in all the experiences they are having as children. Most of the memories that my mind remembers are the ones that bring laughter and smiles but today was a moment of sickness and exhaustion.

At 5:00am I was awoken by a sound coming through the monitor that sounded like a child trying to cough.  Then about 15 seconds later, that child came running into my room throwing up.  That child was Caroline.  Again!  Again I was putting her back in the bathtub so she could throw up.  This just happened to her less than a month ago and she was out for four days with an intestinal virus.  Not fun…for her or her momma!!

This violent act of sickness attacked Caroline hard.  Within 30 minutes we were back and forth from bed to the bathroom three times.  By this time we were wiped out so I sat her on my lap and we waited out the next episode in the bathroom together.  There were FOUR more rounds of sickness.  Each and every time, I would put her on my lap she would fall asleep in my arms until she was awoken again.  My heart was completely broken having my sick child sit helplessly in my arms.  I hurt for her as much as her little belly was hurting her.  But the hour I sat in the bathroom with my little (sick) girl in my arms was a joyful moment for me.  After all as a parent, I want to be the one there to care for my child……….even through their sickness.

Our Labor Day Fun

Yeah, a three day weekend!!  An extra day to spend with the kiddos.  I wanted to soak up all the time I could having fun and enjoying the last weeks of the summer.

The extra day was hard for me not to take Saturday to myself, stay in bed and not make contact with the world.  I was coming off of a week of being sick with bronchis AND a bad haircut!  Nothing like a bad haircut to ruin your entire day, week and month!  I brushed off  my sadness (and sickness) and got up bright and early for a pedicure on Saturday.  Just what this momma needed to start the weekend off right.  Once home, we packed up the wagon and headed to the pool.  Of course, we are usually there earlier in the day and can enjoy the pool to ourselves but this day we enjoyed the pool with a couple of dozen other neighbors.  Cannon and Caroline love watching the big kids.  Cannon made me watch as he told me he knew how to dive so with his floating firmly attached to his arms and around his chest, he jumped up out of the water and came back down only to put his face in the water and say, see mommy, I can dive now.  His accomplishment made me proud.  Ha!

After the pool, we headed home for showers and naps.  I could tell Cannon didn't get enough (dive) time at the pool so I knew napping was going to be a battle.  What do we do when that happens....put him in the car and start driving.  Yep, works everytime!  I had to go to the island and so I loaded Cannon up and he was asleep before we got out of the neighborhood.  Now, your thinking this made me happy, which it did, but there was just one thing I was scared of.  To convince him to go with me, I had to bribe him with a trip to Target to buy a new monster truck.  And yes, that works everytime too except when your son sleeps the entire time you need to be gone and wakes up the second you pull back into the garage.  ERRR!  Cannon literally opened his eyes and said, "are we at Target?"  So back out of the garage I drove and headed to Target.

Once back from an unplanned (but always needed) trip to Target, we regrouped and went bowling.  I have feared this outing for sometime.  Our sweet but extreme energetic, Caroline is the person I couldn't see having the attention span of bowling.  Well, I was right.  She thought every turn was hers and every ball was hers too.  This kind of determination from a two year-old doesn't work well when her brother has the same intentions.  So our bowling adventure proved that we need to wait a little bit longer before attempting the outing again..........or just take one child at a time.

On Sunday we headed to the island for some Labor Day fun at Lawton Stables.  Cannon was brave and actually rode a pony for the first time.  As proud as I was of Cannon, I did have a freak out moment when he (and Caroline) had to wear the safety helmets that had been worn by about a thousand sweaty kids.  YES, I'm "that" mom!   The weather was gorgeous and we soaked up a lot of fun before loading back into the car for some much needed cool air.

Monday was our lazy day around the house.  We never get tired of our lazy days.  Of course, you can't be too lazy with a two and three year-old!