top 42 of 2012!?!

This time last year I posted my top 21 pictures of 2011.  I enjoyed doing it and hopefully all two of you that read my blog enjoyed reliving the highlights of our year in photos.  So here is 2012 in pictures.  And yes, I doubled the number of photos this year.  Hey, it was an eventful and exciting year for us.  And it's my blog so I can post as many pictures as I like.  Top Ten's are boring :)  Here's my top 42 pictures in no particular order [or at least that I can figure, you'll have to ask picasa and blogger if it bothers you]. 

our family of five in Washington DC, Nov2012
 

love this picture! NP mall, Jan2012

Chloe Marie!!  Aug7th, 2012

sweet sisters

Our family!!

daffodils, Feb2012

Happy Valentine's Day

swinging! ponytails!

Abby's new turtle

Ryan the soccer player with Assistant Coach Daddy

Things One and Thing Two :) 

biking with Cousin Maxim

beautiful Baby Girl on Easter

silly!!

the petting farm for Abby's 2nd birthday

heading out for a weekend alone to celebrate Coleson's 30th!

strawberry picking, April2012

we LOVE summer!

climbing trees is fun

Destin with our best friends!

my kids have a thing for goofy glasses

baby belly

summer fun

Happy 4th of July!

Cow Appreciation day is becoming a family tradition

fun with my baby belly and photoshop!

love these crazy kids!

girls!

we have three kids

my babies

eight kids,  love it!

go Georgia Bulldawgs

swimming, swimming, swimming

apple picking as a family of five

sweet Chloe Marie

woo-hoo!  big ole' family photo on Ryan's birthday

smiles!

Mommy's girl

meeting Great- Grandma

chillin' with Cuz Maxim on Thanksgiving

laugh!

Happy 5th birthday Buddy!  How'd you get so big so fast?!

how to shed unwanted baby weight

the flu, or at least flu-like symptoms, suck.  [to actually know if you have the flu, you'd have to go to the doctor.  but i'm the mom.  i don't have time for such silly inconveniences.  and i like to think i'm tough.  some say stubborn, but i prefer tough.  i am mom of three.  i am woman.]  a lingering cough for the past two weeks is no fun.  but none of it compares to the joy of being beaten over and over again in the chest by a baseball bat.  no wait, that's not what the doctor called it.  i think she said something more official, she called it pneumonia with a cartilage tear.  easy to say when you're on the other side of that xray table.  but in layman's terms, in plain english, what she meant to say was beaten over and over again in the chest by a baseball bat.  except of course when you cough, then they switch the baseball bat out for one of those cavemen clubs with spikes on it.  and yes, to get the doctor's diagnosis you do have to go see a doctor.  but if your stubborn, i mean tough, like me, you wait until you can barely move or breathe, and you end up in the e.r. on christmas day.  pretty rotten way to spend christmas.  but a great diet plan.  how many people can say they lost weight over the holidays?  trust me though, eating christmas dinner, even if it means gaining an extra pound or two, is much better than not remembering christmas with your babies.  so at the risk of being belated, but they do say better late then never, merry christmas to all! 

Merry Christmas 2012!!

Christmas cards

Last weekend we put together our Christmas cards.  I'm so happy with the way they turned out.  I took literally hundreds of pictures of the kids and Coleson put them all together with his mad photoshop skills.  Ryan helped us assemble the final product and we had a pretty good team going.  I'd fold the letters, Coleson put them and a picture in each envelope, and then Ryan put the stamps on.  Apparently Ryan had such a good time helping with the family Christmas cards that he asked if he could do cards for his classmates.  He knows how to write most of his friends' names, but I got him out the class list just to be sure.  He also knew how to spell Merry and then he found Christmas on a card, so he copied that.  And he can do From and Ryan as well.  So Little Man sat at the kitchen table for probably an hour writing his classmates' names on the envelopes [ten other kids plus two teachers].  Inside each card he wrote "Merry Christmas from Ryan."  He did an amazing job, especially considering he did it all by himself!  Proud Mommy here :) 

 

PS: I was helping Abby with her cards - she'd scribble on them and I'd write her friends' names and whatnot.  So as I'm writing I say outloud, "To Ms Vickie."  Abby interrupts me, "No, no two Ms Vickie's, there's only one!" 

Clive

This year we have a special elf staying with us.  Clive is here to keep an eye on us and report back to Santa each night.  When he returns in the morning from his visit to the North Pole, he lands somewhere different each time.  We have had lots of fun looking for Clive in the morning and seeing who can find his silly spot first! 

Chloe's four month b-day

 

Chess

Ryan got a no-stress-learn-to-play chess game for his birthday.  We've been playing multiple times every day since we returned from our roadtrip last week.  It doesn't come as much of a surprise to me that Ryan is really, really good at it.  But so is Abby!  At two years old, she can set up the board correctly.  And she can name all the pieces too.  Or at least I thought she could.  She named the rook, bishop, king, queen, and then cow.  Well there went that thought.  But then I realized that when she said cow she was holding the knight.  Which is a horse.  And while she can set up a chess board, Abby still doesn't correctly differentiate cows and horses.  So in Abby-world, she did correctly identify the knight  :) 

While we [myself against Ryan, with Abby "helping" me] were playing earlier tonight, Ryan captured one of my knights.  Without missing a beat, Abby looked at me and said "you're okay. you have another one."  So cute!!  And so smart too.  She knew without having to look and think about it, that there are two knights and that I still had my other knight out on the board, I was impressed.

We all know Ryan is super smart.  And Abby is a free spirit.  But I'm realizing more and more, that I need to be careful about the so-called boxes that we put them in.  I have a feeling Abby is going to be just as brilliant as her brother.  She may not be as "intellectual" or as detailed-oriented, but it's definitely there. 

the girls

Chloe and Abby have been sharing a room for the last week or so.  They've done wonderfully at night.  Abby hasn't napped much recently, and honestly I rarely even lay her down anymore.  Having her run around her room for an hour or two and then having to clean up her messes just isn't all it's cracked up to be.  But I am happy to report that today she actually asked to go to sleep.  And thus both girls are asleep at the same time in the same room during the day!  I'm very excited this sharing rooms thing seems to be working so well!  For now at least, Abby loves having Chloe in there, hopefully it will last forever [or at least another 18yrs or so!]. 
And I loooove having two sleeping girls  :) 

Sisters

Abby has a new roommate!  Chloe finally moved in on Thursday night.  Tonight was the big test though.  We put them in at the same time, both awake.  And they fell asleep, yay!  We weren't sure what to expect, but they did just fine.  Abby has been very excited about having Chloe share her room and hopefully that will continue.  She's been cute saying things like "I share my old crib with Chloe."  Abby is a great big sister! 

And ps, yes, Chloe does sleep through the night!  She started doing so at maybe two months old, but then she got a little off schedule when she was at Scottish Rite and then again last week on our trip to Massachusetts.  But on average she sleeps about 9pm until maybe 8am.  It's wonderful!! 

Conversations with Abby

Abby continues to amaze me with her speech and conversation skills and development.  I have to remind myself sometimes that's she's just barely two and a half!  I suppose it's that combination of being a girl and a second born.  She speaks full sentences and can hold her own in any conversation.  It's an interesting combination : her speech is so advanced, yet she still doesn't know all her colors and has only recently started counting [she makes it to six in correct order, then messes up seven & eight, before counting nine to twelve].  With Ryan we could see the wheels turning, but he couldn't get the words out; Abby gets carried away and talks up a storm, guess it's a female thing :)  I can't keep up with all the funny things she says, but here are a few recent ones that I scribbled down:

A while back we were driving and she took her socks off.  When we got home, she picked them up, and asked me: "You help me remember we can wash these?"  Yes, Sweet Abs, don't I always wash your dirty clothes?!

A week or two ago we were eating apple slices when Abby excitedly announced "there's apple juice in here!"

And perhaps my favorite Abby moment was last week when I went to free her from yet another failed nap attempt:  She was standing at her door, rocking her baby, and singing "You're going to miss these days"  over and over.  My heart melted.  For those of you that don't know, while not exactly the right words, that's a lyric from the Trace Adkins song that I used to sing to Ryan when he was a baby.  Ryan and Abby love it when I sing it to them now, especially if it involves picking them up and dancing crazily around the room!