2012 Year in Review - Picture Style

Well, it's been nearly a year since I had time to update the blog so there's no way I'd have to the time to sit and do a year in review in words.  However, I can post pictures from throughout 2012!

Libby and Ensley - January 2012

Libby and Ensley - February 2012 in Tennessee on a ski trip

Libby and Ensley - March 2012

Libby - April 2012

Libby and Ensley - April 2012

April 2012 - Easter

Ensley - May 2012.  Spending the day at Grandma's reading one of the books Daddy read when he was little!

May 2012 0- Libby and friends on a field trip

May 2012 - Della graduated high school as the class salutatorian

June 2012 - Elizabeth and Della came to Florida for a visit.  Both of my nieces are now in college!  Ack!!!!

June 2012 - our anniversary!

2012 June - Libby's last day of 4th grade!

2012 August - Libby's first day of 5th grade.  She's a middle schooler!



2012 September - Libby in her volleyball uniform.  Go Panthers!

2012 September - Ensley's first birthday party

2012 October - Libby

2012 October - Libby and Ensley at the pumpkin patch

2012 October - Libby

2012 October - Ensley checking out her pumpkin

2012 October - Libby

2012 October - Libby at the Coon Hollo corn maze

2012 October, Halloween - Ensley is a cute little kitty cat

2012 October, Halloween - Libby as Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games

2012 October, Halloween - Libby as Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games

2012 November - Libby and Ensley

2012 November - Libby

2012 November - Ensley

2012 December - Christmas Ornament Exchange party (we forgott to take the picture before another friend left)

2012 December - Libby and Maddy - Christmas at Coon Hollo

2012 December - Libby and Maddy - Christmas at Coon Hollo - the horse-drawn sleigh ride!

2012 December - Libby and Maddy - Christmas at Coon Hollo - in front of the "ice slide" sledding area

2012 December - Libby and Maddy - Christmas at Coon Hollo

Happy New Year!

Well, I left off last time with mid-December so it's about time I added more updates! Every year it seems to me that the Christmas season flies by faster and faster! I was happy to have the ornament exchange/ladies lunch in December...I've always wanted to have a Christmas party like that with my friends and while I did enjoy it I'd like to have another one next year and really do some party planning! I felt like I basically threw that party together last minute without being able to have a lot of time to put into all the details that I love so much when I'm hosting a party.

The same day as the ornament exchange/ladies lunch Ryan and I had a wedding to go to that evening of two of our friends who were getting married. Here we are at the wedding:











The evening that we went to see the Christmas lights it was funny that as we were walking around looking at lights Ensley was more interested in looking at the leaves on the trees!:-)

We had a wonderful Christmas! We went to the Christmas Eve candlelight service. It was a beautiful service and Ensley was absolutely perfect - she hardly made a peep! After church we went to Ryan's parents' house for dinner and opened presents.

Christmas day was nice - we opened presents (I got an iPad!!)and relaxed and that evening it was my turn to host dinner. I cooked a turkey and several side dishes and Ryan's parents and his brother came over for dinner.

Our New Years Eve was low-key so that the kiddos could be involved. We put out some snacks (including these cute cookie pops that Libby and I made!) and some friends came over.

And now here we are...two days before Libby's TENTH birthday!! Wow, how did she get so old so fast??

Updates

Wowza, it's been two months since I last had time to post! That sweet little baby of ours is keeping me busy! I'll do a very quick recap of the last two months...

Halloween weekend was lots of fun. A few days before Halloween I took Libby and her best friend Maddy to the corn maze and they both got their faces painted like scarecrows. For trick-or-treating Libby dressed as one of her favorite characters from Monster High and I took her trick-or-treating with her best friend and they got LOTS of candy. For Halloween we also went to Ryan's parents' church for their fall festival and we took Libby's best friend with us and the two girls had such a great time. Ensley even got in on the Halloween fun in her pumpkin costume and tiny pumpkin bag for candy. :-)





In November our little Ensley turned two months old! Here are pictures of me with Ensley and also Libby with Ensley the day she turned 2 months old. Also during November was of course Thanksgiving. We went about three hours away to Ryan's aunt and uncle's house where we had Thanksgiving lunch with Ryan's parents, his brother, his aunt and uncle, one of his cousins, her husband, and their four children. The other cousin, her husband, and their three children took the opportunity to go home to Indiana this Thanksgiving so we missed out on seeing them. Of course, Ensley was the hit of the day! :-)



And now we are in December so here are two pictures from this month including one from the ladies lunch that was at our house on Saturday. Libby and her best friend Maddy were at the lunch, too, but Libby was the one behind the lens taking the group picture and Maddy was right over her shoulder acting as her assistant. :-)

Libby's updates

In addition to being a wonderful big sister to her baby sister Ensley Libby has been busy receiving awards and keeping busy with things going on at school.

On Friday, September 16th Libby had an awards breakfast and ceremony at school for participating in the summer reading program. Ryan and I were both able to go and have breakfast with her and see her receive her award.
On Friday, October 7th Libby received another reading award. The award was for being one of the top AR (Accelerated Reading) points in the school. The big goal for the year is for the children to get 100 points by the end of the school year and they get to go on a special field trip. By the end of September Libby already had 75 points! They presented the awards at halftime of the high school football game. Libby was very excited as we got closer to the date of the award presentation. That evening we picked up her best friend Maddy and we went and got dinner and then we went to the football game (Ryan stayed home with Ensley). Once we got to the game Libby saw how many people were there and she got very nervous but she went out there and received her award anyway. We are VERY proud of that girl!
This past Tuesday Libby's best friend Maddy came home from school with us and the girls made chocolate covered apples and could hardly wait to eat them!
This past Thursday on October 13th her school had a fall picnic where the parents are invited to have lunch with the children and everyone has a picnic outside on blankets. Well, it rained Thursday morning so eating outside was no longer an option so they cleared the tables out of the cafeteria and everyone just found a spot and put down their picnic blankets and ate in the cafeteria and some people spilled out into the hallways. It wasn't quite as relaxing as the picnics where we eat outside but it was still nice for Ryan and I to have the chance to have lunch with Libby and her friends. I love the fact that everyone in Libby's little group of seven friends are all Safety Patrols! :-)