2012 Year In Review

Well, here we are again.  New Year's Eve.  I'm so totally not ready with any sort of resolutions post so that's not what this is about.  Maybe tomorrow, or the day after that.  We'll see.

So, 2012.  There's only about an hour left as I'm typing this.  Oh wait, there goes the ball in Times Square.  Ok, it dropped.  Back to the post.  2012.  What a year.  I don't know about you, but it was full of big events here in Drosche Land.  Ups and downs, ins and outs.  I thought it would be fun for a change to quickly revisit the year.  Maybe you'll remember some of these things, maybe you won't.  Maybe some of them you'd like to forget?  We'll see.

January 2012 - We knew we were pregnant but had decided to not find out the gender of Baby #3.  Well, we caved and boy am I glad we did.  A girl!  What a pleasant shock!  We knew right then that things would never be the same!

February 2012 - We, you dear readers and I, celebrated the 2nd anniversary of this blog!  Wow, how time flies.  February also brought a "surprise" baby shower for us as we officially began preparing for Stella's arrival!  We also celebrated Leap year!  Just 3 more years until the next one!

March 2012 - Amy and I took the boys to a Sibling Class at the hospital where we had the first glimpse of them as big brothers.  It was great fun and they learned a lot.  As it turns out they are fantastic big brothers and Stella is enamored with them both as they dote on her all the time!

April 2012 - I participated in, and completed, the A-Z Blogging Challenge.  It was tons of fun and I found several new blogs to love and follow.  It also brought new, maybe you, readers here to Drosche Land.  I really want to do it again this year and am already starting to think of a theme or topics.  It is still a long way away, so I'll probably procrastinate a bit longer!  I'll keep you posted.

May 2012 - 2 big events in May.  1 - Braeden turned 6!  Wow, 6.  He's now over halfway to 7 and I still am in amazement that he's that old!  2 - Amy was put on bed rest with Stella and we knew we were nearing the end.  Another school year wrapped up and summer began.  

June 2012 - Obviously the biggest event of the year - Stella.  She came and we have not been the same since.  She has been a blessing and joy each and every day.  It was a long and hard journey to get her, but we are thankful each and every day for her!  June was also the month when Amy accepted her new job as a 1st Grade teacher!

July 2012 - We were smack in the middle of our first summer together.  We were a family of 5 and things were going great.  I took all 3 kids to the doctor and locked my keys in the car, in the rain.  I got new glasses.  Stella was baptized!

August 2012 - A new school year began!  Braeden started 1st Grade with me!  Amy started her new job teaching 1st Grade and she has been loving it!  It has been awesome to share so many things with each other.  August was also Amy's birthday!

September 2012 - Jackson's birthday!  He turned 5!  Yep, another one of our babies was no longer a baby, but an actual kid!  Braeden got glasses and turned out to be super cute in them!

October 2012 -  The boys both joined soccer teams.  This was Braeden's second time playing soccer and Jackson's first.  They had a blast and are already looking forward to the next time they can play sports!

November 2012 - My birthday!  Election Day!  I voted, did you?  I hope so!  I also blogged about paying it forward after we had the fun experience at Starbucks.  I keep forgetting to catch up with y'all about it but I have done this (paid for the person behind me at Starbucks) twice since then and it has been so much fun!  The boys have been with me both times and we always talk about doing kind things for others.  They enjoy it too.  I think it's time for another one, maybe the next time I hit up Starbucks!

December 2012 - Stella's first Christmas!  Road trip to Kansas!  This post!  December flew by for us as I am sure it did for many of you.  But it was a great month and we have been enjoying a wonderful holiday break together as a family!

Well, that is 2012 in a nutshell.  It was fun to look back at the posts and relive and remember what happened.  I think this may have to be a yearly tradition on New Year's Eve here in Drosche Land!  I hope you have enjoyed our brief jaunt back in time.  I also hope that 2012 was great for you.  Maybe it was awesome.  Maybe it was rough.  Probably, like it was for us, it was both.  Regardless.  I hope you are able to look back at it and smile at the great memories and blessings of the year gone by!  I know I am.  HE was certainly good to the Drosches in 2012.  I can't wait to see what HE has in store for us in 2013!  Happy New Year and I hope you have an awesome one!

All is well, remembering and starting new, in Drosche Land.      

Christmas 2012

The obligatory "Bow on the Baby's Head" photo for her first Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

It's still technically the Christmas season right?  For a little longer at least.  When does the Christmas season end?  New Years?  Well, that's what I'm going with.

So, dear readers, how was your Christmas?  I hope well.  Ours was fantastic.  The biggest part about it, obviously, was that it was Stella's first Christmas.  First Christmases are so much fun.  More so for parents, but still.  Next Christmas will be tons of fun for Stella as she will understand it better.  I think I mentioned that in a previous post.  Oh well.

Another fun thing about this Christmas was the fact that it was the first one Amy celebrated as a First Grade teacher!  This means that we both, finally, had the whole Christmas vacation off together, as a family.  This is something that we were very much looking forward to and have been enjoying every second of.  

The celebrations began last Friday, Amy's last day of school before break.  We were headed out of town to Kansas to see Amy's family the next day so we had the kids open some of their presents that night.  To kick off the Christmas spirit, and to give them some much-needed cold weather clothing for the impending trip.  It was fun and gave us a preview to Stella's enjoyment of Christmas and opening presents.  Her favorite part by far was trying to eat the wrapping paper, or bows, or ribbon, or tissue paper.  Basically any form of wrapping that she could get ahold of went into her mouth.  Yes folks, we're fully into that stage!

Jackson and his new pillow pet (much needed and appreciated during our road trip!)

I love this shot of Stella!

Amy and the gift the kids and I made for her, it was a success!

I can't remember what this was, but Braeden sure did love it!

Jack and his new hat!

Another favorite of Stella!

Stella in her new hat (it has matching mittens)

So, after opening presents and cleaning up, it was straight to bed so we could wake up at a ridiculous hour and begin our road trip to Kansas!  I love a good road trip, but 10ish hours is long.  But I can't really complain because Stella is an amazing car traveller.  She slept a good chunk of the way and can now hold her own bottles so feeding wasn't an issue.  She only fussed a bit toward the very end so that was awesome!  The boys did really well too though, thanks to toys and the iPad!  We had originally hoped to see some snow in Kansas but the front was delayed.  That didn't mean that it wasn't crazy cold though starting off in the low 30's when we first got there and in the low 20's when we left.  We Texans were bundled up.  We did learn that Stella does NOT like cold weather at all.  She prefers a balmy temperature so I guess we'll have to work in some fun travels for this summer.

One of the days there we ventured out in search of leftover snow from the storm that occurred a few days prior to our arrival.  Luckily we found some (although it was pretty hard-packed and closer to ice than fresh snow) and the boys had a blast!  I got one shot of Stella and Amy bundled up before they spent their time in the car.  I stayed with the boys and tried to warm up my camera to get some good shots of them!

My girls all bundled up!

Amy and I! 

Jack running around in the snow!

Braeden with a snowball!

My Boys!

They invented a game where they threw snow over this wall.  I think they could have done it all day long!

We spent a few fun days in Kansas visiting with Amy's family and it was great.  Stella charmed everyone and the boys became enamored with their teenage cousins!  We left early Christmas morning, after seeing that Santa had brought their stockings and filled them, and headed home.  The weather wasn't too bad on the drive home and we made great time.  Sadly though the snow came in right behind us.  Oh well, maybe next time!  We drove straight to my parents' house to celebrate Christmas with them and that was a lot of fun.  More presents, more family, more food, and more fun!  We were tired and car lagged from our travels but had a great time!

Braeden opening gifts!

Another shot of Stella with a bow!

Jack and his much asked for Scooby Doo toys!

My mom with Jackson and his monster feet!

Love this one of my mom and the kids!

After coming home from my parents' house we had just enough energy to unload our traveling stuff from the car (we got the presents from Mom & Dad the next day) and head to bed.  I think we all slept soundly that night.  Although we'd had a great time traveling, it was great to be home.  I'm sure you know what that's like.  The next morning we let the kids open the rest of their presents at home before heading to Amy's Mom's house to celebrate with her family.  Again, more presents, more family, more food, and more fun!

Braeden has been asking for Monopoly Jr. for a while!

I love this shot of the boys helping Stella open her gifts!

Stella testing out her toys!

Braeden and his much-loved new Saints jersey!

Jack has been asking for Hulk hands for a while.  Now he can smash!

Braeden at Amy's Mom's.

Jackson has the best faces when opening presents!

Stella "opening" her gifts! 

Presents!

Madden '13!   Oh happy day!

So, all in all it was a wonderful Christmas.  Full of, as I've mentioned before, family, food, and fun.  Stella had a blast for her first Christmas, truly seeming to enjoy everything going on.  Jackson also gave us another favorite part by stating, after every gift he opened, "I've been wanting this!".  He is always so genuinely excited by gifts.  It was a busy week we've had.  Wow, has it really all only been a week?!  But as busy as it has been, it has also been relaxing and soothing in a way.  Being together as a family.  Celebrating Christmas and Jesus' birth.  Spending quality time with family members.  Eating great food.  I hope that your Christmas was as good as the one we had here in Drosche Land.  The next few days have tamer plans as we rest, relax, and clean up from the holidays.  New Years in Drosche Land is gearing up to be a simple night at home, but that's a post for another day.  It's late and this has gotten long.  But an update was needed and I wanted to share the pictures and the joy!

All is well, still in the Christmas spirit, in Drosche Land.  

  

Merry Christmas

Hey there! Well I obviously didn't get around to scheduling posts for when we were out of town. Oh well. We had a wonderful time though. Sadly we didn't see it snow, but the kids did get to play around in some snow we found on the ground. It was definitely a highlight for them.

But more on all that later. I just wanted to quickly wish you dear readers a very Merry Christmas. Below you can see that I did finish our Christmas cards this year and yes, they were all delivered! Woo hoo! More Christmas themed posts and pictures later!

All is well, at Christmas, in Drosche Land.

Teeth

From the picture above I think it's probably clear as to whose teeth this post is referring to. Yep. That's right. Another milestone in Stella's life has come. Well, truth be told it came a week or so ago. She'd been teething for a few weeks and it was slow going. Still, we can't complain because her first teething experience was far smoother than either of the boys' was. Sure there was fussiness and crying, but nothing compared to what we'd been through before.

So, there she was teething for what seemed an eternity. Then one morning she woke up and bam: teeth! I've been trying since then to get a good picture of them but she's not always cooperative. The fact that they're on the bottom doesn't help either. But yesterday during snack time I was finally able to get a big enough grin/laugh out of her to capture them!

I can't believe she's got teeth. I mean we're at 6 1/2 months here and each and every day continues to bring something new! She's sitting up on her own nearly 98% of the time and is grabbing anything within her reach to put in her mouth. She still hasn't rolled over, much to our dismay. We know she can do it, but she seems content to just not roll over. Oh well, it'll probably be that she's crawling before we get to officially see her roll over.

I addition to the bottom two teeth we think she's already hard at work on the top ones. That's how Braeden did it. He went from toothless to toothy in a few weeks. We'll see if she follows in his footsteps.

So just wanted to stop and share another life event with you dear readers. That and I needed a break from the cleaning/laundry/packing whirlwind that's going on right now in Drosche Land as we prepare to head to Kansas. I wanted to try and schedule some posts before we left in case I didn't get to blog during our travels but we will see how that goes. Well, back to work now I guess!

All is well, with one more toothy grin, in Drosche Land.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

It's Here!

Christmas Break that is.  Well, at least for the kids and I.  Amy still has tomorrow and a half day on Friday.  But after that, it's vacation time.  Although, as is typically the case, we won't see much down time with the traveling that will be going on.  This year we will be heading up to Kansas to have Christmas with Amy's family.  Then it's back to our house for Christmas with my parents and New Year's.  Then it's back to school on the 2nd for the kids and I.  Sounds relaxing huh?  :)

It actually will be nice to have a break though.  Plus, we've been checking the forecast for Kansas and it looks quite possible that we will be having a white Christmas while there!  If so, I see some great snowy Sunday Snapshots in my future (fingers crossed)!

This past weekend we had my extended family over to our house for Christmas and it was fun hosting a party.  You'll recall that we always hosted the Christmas party for Amy's workers and we looked forward to it a lot.  Well, obviously with the job change that was no longer a plan.  Luckily the opportunity for us to host popped up and we took it.  As crazy as it is to host a bunch of people over for the holidays, it is a lot of fun.  It's always exhausting but I always say we should do it more often.  Who knows?  Maybe we will.

Well, I think I'm about to have to head off here.  Sorry for the short post, but I've got to run.  I'm still at school as Braeden has his Christmas Program/Advent Service tonight which I obviously have to be at also as a teacher.  Amy picked up Jackson and Stella and headed home with them since it was going to be a late night.  That leaves just the two of us.  It's time now to head out to dinner and then back to school for the service.  I'll be sure to post more later though.  I have some cute pictures from this past weekend of the kids opening presents.  I just wanted to stop in and say hey!  Hey!  See you in a bit!

All is well, on vacation, in Drosche Land.  

Sunday Snapshot - Christmas Portraits

Hey there!

I don't know about you and yours, but the holiday season is in full swing here in Drosche Land.  As if it hadn't already been that way for a few weeks already!  And that means our usually somewhat busy schedule has morphed into a full-blown, mind-bending blur of decorations, presents, food, and general holiday craziness.  But it's all in good fun.  

I'll admit though that last week I had a minor panic attack.  There it was, the first week of December, and I hadn't even begun to mentally plan out our Christmas cards much less take and edit the pictures.  Eek!

Now, you may remember that last year they just didn't get done.  The season got the best of me and I waved my white flag.  Opting instead for New Year's cards.  Good idea right?  Except that things didn't slow down much for us after Christmas and, although I did get the cards done, they didn't all get delivered.  Oops!  So we were/are left with an inordinate number of "Happy 2012" cards.

This year though, I was bound and determined not to be taken down once more.  So, my loving wife lovingly issued me the ultimatum agreement that I had one more chance to get the cards finished and delivered (all of them of course) or no more cards.  Gasp!  So, of course I lovingly accepted the challenge agreement to do so.  

I promise this post is not only getting to a point, but also the remainder of the pictures.

So this past weekend we headed out to take our Christmas portraits.  We went with Amy's sister to also take some of all of the cousins together.  Now, not to toot my own horn (woo woo) but they turned out great, in my humble opinion.  After about 2 hours with 6 kids from ages 10 -6 months we got 424 pictures.  Another hour or so (later that night) I had painstakingly whittled them down to 165 of the best shots.  Then came the editing of them all and special edits of the cream of the crop photos.  The final result?  188 awesome pictures to treasure forever.  Not too shabby.

So, here are some of my favorites to share with you.  Just in time to make the Sunday Snapshot linky, even if it's 2 days late.  Oh, and the cards you ask?  Well, thanks to Sam's Club, they'll be ready for pick-up tomorrow and delivery beginning on Thursday!  HA!  Take that busy Christmas season!  I win 2012!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

My beautiful daughter.  You know I love me some black & white!

One of Amy's favorites.  She loves the antiqued look!

My kids!

My Jack Jack!

My Braeden!

I'm addicted to high contrast black & white lately!

Here's more!

Stella! 

My boys!

All is well, picture perfect, in Drosche Land.

Sunday Snapshot - 6 Months

It's back!  Sunday Snapshot!  Oh, how I've missed thee!  November was brutally busy with birthdays and sicknesses and soccer (oh my!).  I completely missed Stella's 5 Month pictures.  I believe I've mentioned that before.  But it's a new month and I'm back at it!

  

We decorated our trees last weekend (and the weekend before if truth be told) and I didn't get any shots of that this year, busy.  But I've been planning today for a while.  My return to Stella's monthly photos.  Worry not though, I hope to have a great Christmas photo shoot with the kids soon as I am currently planning our 2012 Christmas card.  Maybe next week's Sunday Snapshot will be a result of that!

But this week it's back to Stella.  Finally well she is back to herself.  I can't believe she is 6 months old (tomorrow) already.  She laughs, a lot.  She's discovered her feet.  She's teething!  There's at least one bottom front tooth she's been working on for about a week!  She adores her big brothers and easily acquires their attention whenever they're nearby.  She "talks", a lot.  She screeches.  Yes, screeches.  Happy screeches.  Mad screeches.  You name it, she's loud.  

She loves, and I mean loves, to eat.  Her favorite foods are bananas, carrots, and berries; although not all together!  She's also slowly working on Cheerios.  Today we introduced yogurt, soy of course with the milk allergy still an issue, and that went over very well too!  Other than green beans we haven't found anything she won't eat!  Avocados are next on our list of foods to have her try.  

She's still working on sitting up unassisted.  Her roundness makes that somewhat difficult.  We know she can roll over, she's done it at school, but she has yet to repeat that feat at home.  However, when on her tummy, she does begin to show the beginning of crawling movement.  This month will be her first Christmas.  That has always been one of my favorite parts of being a parent, the first Christmas.  It's always so much fun.  Although, the second Christmas is probably more fun for them because by that time they understand it so much more.

So, half a year has passed in the blink of an eye. Before you know it, I'll be posting about her first birthday!  But, such is life with kids and that's part of the fun of it all.  She, like her brothers, never ceases to amaze me on a daily basis.  She truly has us all wrapped around her chubby little fingers.  And I don't think any of us would have it any other way.

All is well, picture perfect, in Drosche Land.