2013 Review

So here I am, back on Blogger...it's been over 2 years! WOW! Time really does fly when you are having fun. I can't believe I thought I was busy before I had kids because clearly I did not know what BUSY actually meant! I am posting a few of my favorite pictures from each month of 2012 and 2013 so that I can catch up. I think I am going to get back to blogging, at least for a little while. We'll see how it goes....

So here we go....2013 in review!

January 2013 - We started the year celebrating mom's new job.

happy little Fifi!

February 2013 - Angelica and her "hamma" (Grandma)

Angelica and Daddy going to the daddy/daughter dance

February 2013 - Lido Beach, FL Den and I got to get away for 5 days to Florida! We spent the first 2 days in Sarasota, Lido Key, Siesta Key and then headed to Tampa where we met up with my sister. We were in FL for the wedding of my oldest friend, Kim.

Me and my sister in Ybor City district of Tampa  at an outdoor bar after the rehearsal dinner

Lisa, Nikki, Kim and Julie. We have been friends for 28 years! That is a long time! Kim was a beautiful bride!

March 2013 - sledding!

St Patrick's Day 2013 - Irish Fiona

Angelica is all decked out for St. Patty's Day!

April 2013 - Easter!

Angelica and her best friend having fun at Bellaboos

I drove the girls and my grandma down to Kentucky the first weekend of April so we could attend my cousin's baby shower. It wasn't an easy trip, but we had a great time!

April 2013 - The following pictures are from our fairy photo shoot. I couldn't pick just one. It was hard narrowing it down to these! We had these printed and gave them as Mother's Day gifts

April 2012 - Fiona is 18 months old

Fairy sisters

Fiona moves up to a big girl bed!

May 2013 - Our first trip to Disney World! Our flight left around 7:30am but we had been up since about 3am. Let's just say that the flight was "memorable" haha. Our trip to Disney couldn't be described as another else than MAGICAL. Everyone was happy the ENTIRE time we were there for a whole week! Seriously, I couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces if I tried. The girls were in awe of the princesses and had so much fun playing with the other characters and riding the rides, seeing the sights, watching the shows, etc. It was the best vacation ever.

Mother's Day 2013. Literally the day after we came home from Disney World we hosted our 4th annual Mother's Day Brunch for all of the grandmas in our family.

May 2012 - What do you do on a rainy day? Set up the tents, have an indoor campfire and play!

June 2013 - Our BIG Summer party! I think that altogether we had about 80 people here. Just a few nights before this party we had a HUGE flood in our basement...what a mess! The weather was very rainy for days but luckily the day of our party it was absolutely perfect! We had lots of fun with out friends and even had my friend Mike Reeb perform live music in the early evening.

At the end of June we flew out to Colorado to see our friends Adam and Anna get married! Angelica was thrilled to see a real wedding live and in person and she thought Anna was the most beautiful bride in the world! While we were in the area we got to do some exploring as well. It was really pretty there and we had a great time.

Watching the 4th of July parade at our friends house in Beecher!

Annual 4th of July Fireworks with the Raloffs!

Fiona's 1st White Sox game! She had a blast!

The beginning of our LOOOOONG drive to Canada. The first day we made it to London, Ontario. We spent the night there and the next day made it the rest of the way to Marmora. It was a big fun family trip with my dad, stepmom, sister,. and my stepmom's entire family. We had a great time on the lake, enjoying campfires and playing outside.

The girls with the twin boys! How cute! Fiona is only 3 months older than the boys!

Add Beautiful Crowe Lake sunset

Blueberry picking with their buddy Cheyenne!

August 2012 - Angelica's first day of 3 year old preschool!

Angelica and her teacher

Angelica begins taking dance classes!

Fiona's 2nd Birthday party! It was at the Goodenow Grove Nature Center.

It's hard to believe she is already 2!

A cold day at Bengston's Pumpkin Farm on October 30th

Me and my girls!

Halloween 2013 - Angelica is Cinderella and Fiona is an owl.

Our fall family photos. November 2012. Angelica's 4 year and Fiona's 2 year photos

And just for fun we did this "dress up" photo shoot too.

November 2012 - Usually once a year a bunch of us from high school get together and we try to smoosh all the kiddos on a couch and take their picture...this is that time for 2013 LOL

Thanksgiving party at school!

Mommy the pilgrim is thankful for Angelica the Indian!

Thanksgiving 2013 - We decided to go out of town this year and spend Thanksgiving at Timber Ridge Lodge and Water Park! It was all decked out for Christmas. The girls didn't know we were going so they were very surprised when we got there! It was a fun weekend away with a delicious Thanksgiving buffet dinner!

Making gingerbread houses with my mom's group!

Happy 4th Birthday Angelica!

We celebrated Angelica's 4th birthday with a little party with her friends where she takes swimming lessons. She had a Little Mermaid theme.

On Angelica's actual birthday we invited her grandparents over for dinner and birthday cake. She told me she wanted a sparkley butterfly cake. I spent all day on this 4 layer cake. It was chocolate filled with fresh strawberries and covered in homemade icing! YUM!

Angelica's classmates to a trip to a local nursing home to sing Christmas songs and pass out cookies to the residents. They brought smiles to a lot of faces!

Angelica with her classmates

Santa came to the Christmas party at school!

December 21 2012 - We hosted a big Christmas party at our house with my mom's side of the family. It was so nice for us to all be together!

Angelica with her Sunday School group

Den and I try to do a date night on Dec 22 or 23 every year. This year we went to Eataly in the city and then did a lot of walking around! I finally saw the Bean in person!

Christmas 2013 - We had a fun morning with just the 4 of us while opening presents from Santa.

New Years Eve 2013 - Another NYE spent with the Raloffs. The kids played and watched movies while the adults played a LOT of dominos. Angelica made it until midnight and rang in the New Year with us. Happy New Year! Hello to 2014!

Me and my loyal pal Rusty, still ringing in the new year together after all these years...hard to believe Rusty is almost 11 years old!