I truly adore photo greeting cards. They all get the royal treatment by hanging on the refrigerator for as long as possible. I did notice this year, however, that the percentage of cards without a letter to go with it made me kind of sad. I can't complain since I didn't write a Christmas letter either... until now.January began with the blessing of Danny J. here at home. I love our ward/congregation. There are so many neat people that I was happy to share the special event with. With the close proximity to our traveling for Christmas I forgot to send out invitations. I suppose our middle child might already be used to this kind of forgetfulness.
By February I was finally willing to announce our pregnancy with Michelle online with the only good pregnant belly picture we took. Now that everything has turned out okay I have to laugh because it might be difficult to convince Michelle she isn't adopted.
In March the big day arrived. I woke up on a Saturday morning at the usual time feeling strange. Half an hour later I realized I was having contractions & began tracking them with an iPhone app. After getting Kaelah & Danny breakfast I woke Dan up with the phone. I wrote a blog post about Danny being 9 months old while Dan got the children ready to go to the R. family home while we went to the hospital. The doula arrived "just in case" & sent us straight to the hospital. Much to my OB's surprise this first timer was already at 7cm. About three hours after arriving at the hospital around noon our baby girl was born all natural. I am so grateful that my (possibly) one & only chance at child birth went so well. I did have to stay in the hospital an extra day & receive a couple pints of blood, but that part doesn't seem so bad as I write about it 9 months later.
In April Danny & Michelle celebrated their 1st Easter together. In May they celebrated their 1st Mother's Day together. I honestly don't remember much from those 2 months other than that. Can I just say that bottle babies are way easier on mommy for the first little while?
Summer began just right as we took Danny to the zoo for his birthday & Michelle was blessed. I am grateful some of Dan's family made the trip to be around. This was also the 1st time we met Danny's birth aunt.
July taught me an important lesson. For Kaelah's birthday I decided the family should go to the Butterfly Pavilion. My brand new 3-year-old was depressed for weeks we didn't go to the zoo like we did for Danny's birthday. 2011 will see very similar celebrations for those two.
In August I turned the big 3-0! Quite a scary thought because I can remember clearly when I was in high school & believed people that age were old. Funny part was I was the mother of 3 children already. What a surprise. And we had a wonderful trip to San Diego with Dan's family to boot!
September marked Michelle's half birthday & Danny turned 15 months old... and life getting easier. Kaelah & Danny became good playmates & Michelle was already a pro at sitting up. Plus, Kaelah began attending preschool on Monday mornings. She has learned many great things from the older ones (like you don't have to be scared to poop on the potty). I am grateful Kaelah is so much happier. Next school year she will attend 2 days per week.
Halloween is certainly Kaelah's favorite holiday! I think it is wonderful for children to love something so tremendously but I also finally understand why a lot of parents hate Halloween. Dan's parents returned from their mission in Argentina & were nice enough to visit us in October. They helped us get a lot of things done around the house during the week Dan took off between jobs. Yes, after 6.5 years Dan got bored with his work & luckily switched to something not only more interesting but only 5 minutes away from home instead of 25. The children & I love having him come home for lunch on a daily basis!
In November we spent Thanksgiving in Utah in preparation to stay home for Christmas for the 1st time ever. It might have been grand if the stomach flu hadn't have hit.
"I'll be Home for Christmas" was my favorite song this year. There is something so wonderful about waking up in your own bed on Christmas morning feeling surrounding by love & getting to walk downstairs to your own tree that your family decorated with your ornaments. I could go on & on.
As I look back, there are so many things to be grateful for in my life. As I look forward, I'm a bit scared of all that has already been expected of me in 2011. Last night I had to give up on one of my major hopes for the year, but at the same time I was so impressed with other things that happened earlier in the day I don't know why I lost so much sleep over it. Here's to another year!
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