'11 - A Year of Firsts

January 

The Lime celebrated his 1st birthday and had his 1st piece of carrot cake.

February

The first member of our immediate family was deployed.

March

The first time we didn't have Grandma Liz around.

 

April

The Lime's first surgery.

May

LaVor's first time to Saudi Arabia

June

The first set of twins were born into our family.

July

LaVor's first Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

August

The Lime and I went to Yosemite for the first time.

September

Our first visit to the train museum as a family.

October

The Lime's first time trick-or-treating.

November

The first time I saw Steve Martin in person.

December

My first time finishing The Book of Mormon.

2011 was filled with blessings and memories.  Both sets of parents moved; 1 locally, another out of state.  It was the first year since I was in high school, that I've felt my testimony grow tremendously.  We had many visible instances where our prayers were answered and I'm sure many hidden moments, too.  Our families were blessed with good health and many additions.  We were also reunited in different ways.  We utilized Priesthood blessings as often as we could.  We faced obstacles, were able to overcome them and grow stronger because of them.   

Our hearts are filled with gratitude as we end this chapter and begin another in our book called, "Life".

Seeing Double

On the last night of Advent, Omi walked in the door and we stopped in our steps...

Twins!  Minus the 60 year difference and color of hair (my white ones are just dyed), you could hardly tell us apart!

It's actually happened on more than one occasion.  Many people have commented on how similar we look in our wedding photos.

And I will take that as a compliment!

A "B" Christmas

After reading a friend's blog last year (thanks, Leah!), we decided to follow in her footsteps..."something to wear something to read something you want and something you need."

The Lime is infatuated with boots; Daddy's boots, Momo's boots, Mailman's boots, any boots he sees, he points out.

So for wear, we got him boots.

 

For read, I got a Curious George book that we've only read once.  Whomp, whomp, whomp. 

Since our trip to Europe 3 years ago and his recent one this Spring, LaVor has been wanting to get a balance bike for one of our kids.  The Lime lucked out, as he's our first.  It also works out that The Lime loves bikes and would ask for one every time we asked what he wanted for Christmas.

Want = bike

Last Christmas, my parents gave each grandchild a piggy bank and The Lime fell in love with his.  I don't know if it was the noise the change made as you shook it or the fun of putting money into the slot, but it was a fun toy.  Unfortunately, we tragically lost our blue pig a few months ago as he fell to his death.  The natural thing to do was provide a new piggy for Christmas this year.

Need = Piggy Bank

I loved our new method for buying gifts this year and will definitely use it in the future.  Since I had been planning to use it since last year, it made it easy to pick things (since I had 12 months to keep my eyes open) and kept us from buying extras.

And although the material gifts are fun and we loved seeing The Lime's excitement, I'm much more grateful for the blessings we've received as gifts throughout the year.

More on those later.

The Eve of Christmas

Growing up, we always had a spaghetti dinner and then immediately headed out to Fremont to look at Christmas lights.

In the last couple years, we've continued the pasta tradition but decided to switch things up for 2011.

We planned a visit to Speisekammer and were pleasantly greeted by a 3 piece brass band, welcoming us with Christmas carols.  The Lime proceeded to imitate them throughout dinner.

As soon as we sat down at our table, the old woman next to us said, "I never remember bringing you kids to dinner when Father and I went out."  Great!  And The Lime just happened to be in a crappy mood.  Thankfully the woman was at the tail end of her visit and left shortly after we got there.

The restaurant was extremely busy so the service was a bit slow but with the help of electronic devices and frequent trips outside, The Lime managed to control his moods.  The amazing french fries seemed to help, too.  And the vanilla ice cream.

Once dinner was complete, we drove around to see Christmas lights and were on the hunt for "nomen" (snowmen).

Found one!

And paper bags, glowing with lights.  Something I'm drawn to, ever since our wedding reception.

Surprisingly, The Lime was wide awake for the 30+ minute drive home.  Once we got home, we had to quickly open our 1 gift so Santa could come!

I took advantage of it being my last year where I could take him shopping for gifts and he wouldn't know.  He helped me pick these out.

LaVor grew up with Papa always reading the Christmas story from Luke.  Since we were on our own this year, he took on the role.

Everything was checked off our "To Do" list...time for bed.

Advent - Year 4 - Week 4

It's that time of year, again! Advent is over and Christmas is just around the corner! I'm not ready but yet, I feel more prepared than previous years. I'm just trying to avoid stores during peak hours, as I found I get anxious with the crazy amounts of people. And lines. I hate lines. Unless I'm at Disneyland.

It just so happens that our last evening of Advent fell on my sister's birthday. So we combined both events and had 1 big celebration.

We also found out that The Lime loves broccoli/cheddar soup. It doesn't surprise me because he loves broccoli but it's always nice to know you can add one more dinner item to the list.

My 1 failure for this week: no picture of the candles, since we only had 3 but it was week 4.

I'll have to try harder next year, to not fail each week.

Consider that my New Year's resolution.

Tally Mark 23

-Still hates Nursery...with a passion.
-Loves to sing, "Once There Was a Snowman".
-Loves looking at Christmas lights.
-Likes to have my American Girl doll sleep on the floor, next to his crib.  It's his "baby".
-Just started saying his word for "truck" rather than referring to them as "Dada".
-Knows which exit we get off at for his Doctor.
-Weighed 29 lbs last Monday.
-Still has major separation anxiety.  We're waiting for him to grow out of this.
-Now says, "yeah" rather then making a grunting noise. 
-Stayed in Sacrament Meeting for the entire time today.  First time in who knows how long!
-Wants to be a football player when he grows up.
-Shows no signs of getting his 2 year molars.
-Has to wear one of Daddy's ties to church each week.
-Sticks his tongue out while doing different tasks.
-Knows that there's 2 Papas and 2 Omis.  But then again, every number is 2.
-Often escapes if we don't lock the very top lock on our front door.
-Is our sweet boy, forever.

Family Resemblance

It's amazing how strong some genes are...

Clearly we were bored and ended up having too much fun with Photobooth.