2012 Recap

2012 was a year filled with some great times, some bad times and some crazy times.

January - We rang in the new year low key. Our friends came over for snacks, drinks and some fun. Dominic turned TEN, the 2 digit age milestone! He had a lego themed birthday party with friends and another with family. We finished up our living room redo by buying our finishing touches. I am in love with the neutral decor and warm inviting colors. Just a few more things to finish up in the future to have the room exactly the way we want it!

February - We decided to adopt a boarder collie for the kids. On the 2nd, we went to the breeder and Dominic picked his favorite. Libby instantly became the perfect addition to our family! Party planning was in full swing for Charlie's upcoming first birthday. Charlie under went tube surgery for her ears and all those infections. My Dad would have turned 60. I ended up buying a new SUV.

March - We booked our beach house for the first week in June. We were so excited, our first family of 5 vacation!  We took our first trip of the year to the Zoo. My mommy group took a much needed night out. We ate and ended up talking outside the restaurant for hours! We visited the History museum for the first time and the kids had a blast!

April - We celebrated Easter at my Moms. The kids were spoiled with candy and gifts from the entire family. Our sweet baby girl turned one. We had a blast at her birthday party in our local libraries party room. We bought the boys all new furniture and moved Logan into Dominic's room. The kids loved their new bunk beds.

May - We celebrated Cinco De Mayo with a huge party here at our house. This day is very special to Gary and I for numerous reasons. We got the never ending flu bug and it was awful.

June - We went to the beach with my family. We also went to DC on the way home. It was a great vacation, exhausting but good. We celebrated fathers day with a nice dinner. Then Gary and I also took a trip to NYC with friends. It was a much needed trip away. We do not get to do that enough! We started weekly play dates with my mommy group - going to the zoo and the spray park. We also started to go swimming weekly at our friends house. We had a cookout here with our group and introduced our husbands to the fun and chaos of all these toddler girls. What a great month it was!

July - We continued with our weekly play dates and our weekly swimming. We went to our friend's parents house for the Forth of July and the annual town parade. It was SO HOT but we had a blast. We then hosted my families annual picnic here for the first time. We attended our first member night at the Zoo and the kids had a blast. We mostly played instead of visiting the animals and it was not crowded at all. Gary worked on the bathroom remodel and I took the kids to my Aunts camp. It was such a fun weekend away as we went to The Deer Park, The Spillway, watched fireworks and went swimming at the beach lake.

August - We again continued with our weekly play dates and swimming with friends. I am so glad that we got to do so much with our friends, these memories will last a life time. We celebrated Garys birthday with a dinner cookout. My mommy group headed to the Farm for one of our play dates and the kids had a blast playing in all the houses. We had our last horrah of summer at Conneaut Lake park with my family. It is a pretty run down park but the kids still had fun. We went to the Spillway again and the kids loved it once more. And just like that, summer was over and Dominic started 5th grade.

September - Life went back to a normal routine with school. Charlie continued to get ear infections each month and this month she ended up with a Staph infection on her bum. Logan had a rough couple days with hurting his lip, including his first bee sting.

October - We started out the month with me being diagnosed with a mass in my finger, previously thought to be a cyst. Logan turned three and we celebrated with having a Halloween birthday party. I had my birthday and an MRI to determine what the mass was and unfortunately it was a tumor that needed removed. We went to the pumpkin patch and had a blast at the farm. We attended a Halloween party with my moms group. Charlie turned a year and half, seriously, a year and a half! Super storm Sandy hit and our trick or treating was held off.

November - We could not attend our local trick or treating because we went to the greatest show on earth, the circus! I had my tumor removed and took a week off of work. I returned to work still wearing a cast for a bit and it was awful. Even after the cast came off it was hard to work with the stitches. We had Thanksgiving day dinner here and then I went black Friday shopping. Then we had my families Thanksgiving that following Saturday. We changed Charlie's bed into a toddler bed.

December - We had our annual Christmas party with friends and even went to our local parade prior. We love this tradition with our close friends. I hosted my moms group Christmas party/cookie exchange and had a blast watching the girls run around the house. We attempted to go see Santa but the toddlers had melt downs at the diner and we ended up leaving before even ordering dinner. *that is a first in this family* So we did not get to see Santa this year except at the parade. We went to my Aunts for Christmas Eve. We had our Christmas morning, went to my Moms for the afternoon and dinner, then our final stop was at Granddads for dessert. I started physical therapy for my hand, ouch. Having your nerves come back to life is pretty painful, it even wakes me up at night. We ended the year with our close friends house at a pajama New Years Eve party!

And that my friends is one heck of a year. We started off pretty boring and with a surgery. Had an awesome fun filled summer. Ended with more surgery and lots of parties. All in all not too bad of a year for the most part.