Well, here we are again. The final
few days of a year…of 2015. I seriously cannot believe how fast this year has
gone. Nothing much has changed with me (well, other than this surprise
pregnancy I find myself in, of course)…same job, same home, same wonderful
little family. I’d say the biggest change for me has been changes in personal
friendships. I’ve had some struggles this year – I’ve had to reconsider some
friendships, and how much those people actual care/value our relationships. Few
have grown/resurrected and flourished, while some have taken a pretty big hit,
and people have shown some true colors. Christian’s life has overall remained
the same…with the exception of his promotion at work and the shift adjustment.
Our family has had so many
wonderful, fun experiences this year…birthday parties, baby showers, a vacation
to Duluth, two week-long visits from the Steveson’s, the State Fair, the Apple
Orchard, a day at Sever’s, celebrating Holidays…Easter, the 4th of
July, Halloween, and Christmas, Game Day/Family Reunion with my dad’s family,
trips to the zoo, Valleyfair and carnivals. We gardened and spent a lot of time
in the pool again. Just tons of family time, which I could never possibly get
enough of. Of course, like most cases, the girls’ lives are the ones that
really grow and change by leaps and bounds.
Olivia turned 6 in January. She’s
continued swimming, advancing to Intermediate 1 with the big kids. She played
her first season of “real” softball, and another season of soccer (this year
with goalies and REAL goals), and started gymnastics. She’s such an “athlete”,
she really excels at most things she puts her mind to. She’s started losing baby
teeth, which has been exciting, but has also required a couple of fillings this
year…not so exciting. She finished kindergarten in the spring, started 1st
grade in the fall, and is doing AMAZING in school. We’re so proud of our beautiful
first born.
Amelia also continued swimming,
advancing to Beginner 2 with the big kids. She played her first season of
“baseball” (we don’t have t-ball), and another season of soccer (more
involved), and started gymnastics. This coming year, she’ll play softball and
soccer with Olivia, same team, and that’s going to be such a huge relief. And I
think really help her come out of her shell. She so far seems to be much more
of an “independent sport” kind of girl, so while I see swimming and especially
gymnastics sticking with her, I’m not sure how long she’ll have an interest in
team sports. She graduated from Pre-K in the spring, and started Kindergarten
in the fall. She’s still adjusting to the world of school, but she’s so smart
and trying so hard, especially with her speech issues. And, of course she
turned 5 in July…our middle child, the one that keeps us on our toes!
Eliza hasn’t had as many exciting
experiences, but she had a big year of growing and learning – and man is that
girl smart! She turned 1 in May, and spent the rest of the year learning to
walk, learning to use a cup and feed herself, and talking more and more with
each passing day. It will be a while before she gets to be in any fun
activities like the other girls, but she did move up to the “toddler room” at
daycare in the summer, and she’s ruled the roost ever since! She has
personality for days, and I can’t imagine our family without this character in
it. It’s still hard to believe she’s not REALLY going to be the baby of the
family – I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to stop treating her like it.
As for these final few days of 2015…we
spent them with the Steveson’s, who were in town staying with us all week.
Monday was a pretty low key day. We
spent a lot of time around the house. Christian had to sleep for a while, to
prepare to head into work for the night. The rest of us hung out, watched some
TV, relaxed for a while. The boys went on a trip to Toys R Us, Eliza took a
nap, and eventually Dawn, the big girls and I were off to Target to get some
groceries for the next few days. I also let the girls use their Christmas
Target Gift Cards, which was kind of a nightmare. They don’t really understand
money, so having to repeat over and over how much they had, and what they could
get, was seriously exhausting! The big snow storm started up as we were leaving
Target, and man did it come down like crazy – all evening, and all overnight! We
had some dinner, and Christian was off to work pretty much as soon as we
finished up. Dawn made me do some “adult coloring” with her, but eventually,
Eliza was not interested in letting me do anything, so I had to sit with her
for a while until she was ready for bed, so Dawn had to finish our project on
her own. Eliza, such a diva. Tim, Spencer and the girls all fell asleep pretty
early, so Dawn, (little) Christian and I started watching “Making a Murderer”
on Netflix. I’ve been hearing everybody rave about it, so I figured we should check
it out while I have a buddy to binge with. We could all barely stay awake...but,
we made it through two episodes. We were all pulled in, so we knew we’d be
finishing it out before they left.
On Tuesday, we had a long, quiet
day at home. We ended up getting about 8” of snow in the storm – our area was
hardest hit in the cities. Nothing too terrible, but enough to not want to
venture out in it. Christian ended up working really late, things are so crazy
at his work right now, then had to battle traffic home – THEN had to snowplow
the driveway. He was seriously exhausted, and PASSED OUT, by the time he made
his way to bed. Which was good, because the rest of us had no interest in
leaving the house, so it was going to be pretty chaotic around the house most
of the day. He’s been developing a pretty bad cold, so that had him up a couple
times, so I told him he should just stay at his parents after work tonight. The
kids played most of the day – upstairs, downstairs – with just about every toy
that we own I’m pretty sure. When Eliza went down for a nap, the rest of the
kids managed to keep it quiet for a little while, watched some videos and just
hung out downstairs. The rest of us ended up binging “Making a Murder”, and
finished it up. Such an interesting documentary, so crazy. Dawn had some dinner
cooking in the crockpot for us all day, so we ate up, and really didn’t do
anything else. It was a lazy day for sure, but much needed. And nice to just
hang out with each other, instead of running around like crazy.
On Wednesday, Christian did indeed
go to his parents’ house after work, and slept there. He was still feeling
pretty sick, just seems to be getting worse, so hopefully a quiet day of sleep
will help. Meanwhile, the rest of us were up and getting ready or the day, one
by one. After our super lazy day yesterday, we were off to the Mall of America
for the day. The kids went on a million rides – I even got a few points for
Eliza so she could go on some rides. She rode the carousel and the train,
seemed to LOVE those, and then the trucks and the Blues Clues “flying dog” ride
– which she wasn’t as big of a fan of. It was so fun watching her on them though,
checking out this whole new world. The other kids of course went on just about
everything – Amelia even went on her first “big ride” (well, other than the log chute), and rode
the power tower type ride. She is a little dare-devil! We ate lunch mid-ride
extravaganza, and hit up a couple of stores before leaving for the night. After
about 9 hours, we were SOOOOO done. We grabbed some drive-thru on the way home
for a late dinner, and the kids were right off to bed. It ended up being a
pretty early night for all of us.
Thursday brought us the final day
of 2015. It was New Year’s Eve!! Christian arrived home from work, and went to
bed to get some sleep before our little New Year’s celebration tonight. The
rest of us hung out around the house, got up and ready…Dawn and I got the kids
breakfast, and later lunch, and then were off to the Mall for a couple of hours
once Eliza was down. She had to exchange something, I had some Children’s Place
cash to use, so we popped in a couple of stores, had some food court lunch. We
stopped at Target for some dinner supplies, and settled in at home. Christian fried
up some taquitos so we had a big, delicious dinner, and spent the night
watching New Year’s Even shows and playing with the kids. Eliza, Amelia and
Brooklyn all passed out before midnight, so they were off to bed, while the
rest of us rang in the new year with some sparkling cider and “fireworks” at
midnight. One by one, the rest of the house started to fall asleep, and made
our way to bed. I couldn’t believe 2015 is really, officially over. I know it
can be so annoying when people talk about how fast the time goes, but I don’t
care – I think it’s CRAZY!
Looking forward to 2016, we
definitely have some big adjustments coming up. While the girls will turn 7, 2
and 6, most of our changes will surround welcoming our newest addition in July.
I can’t even imagine the tailspin it’s going to send us on…I’ll be off of work unpaid
for my leave, the big girls will start school mid-leave, we’ll be adding the
baby to daycare, and (most likely) changing the big girls’ before-school care
and starting over in the newborn phase is something I never thought I’d do again.
But, as time goes on, with each passing day, as we adjust to the idea and get
some initial planning out of the way, the excitement has started to settle in. Even
though unpaid, I’ll have a few months off of work that I’m really looking
forward to, but watching everything else fall into place should make for quite
an adventure!
Until "Next Year"!
