2013 in Review

**Geez I know this is so late. Life is crazy!!**

One of the best parts of blogging is keeping a record of what I've done. I really enjoy going back through old posts to do these recap posts at the end of the year. So lets see what 2013 held for me:

At the end of 2012 I took a break from blogging but was back in February 2013 to recap everything I'd done in between and review my weight loss strategy and success. I'm really proud of that weight loss. I'm stuck in sort of a rut right now trying to get back into it and I'm so glad I wrote that post so that I can remember how well I was doing back then.

Left is Sept 2011, Right is Oct 2012

In March 2013, I caught up on Steven's monthly posts and did months 15-21 and then announced I was pregnant again with Logan. That was an exciting announcement! Steve and I wanted to get pregnant in 2013 but we had no idea it would happen so quickly! Also in March I picked up weekly pregnancy posts again starting with 11 weeks. During my 12 week post I mentioned we started thinking about converting the spare bedroom into Steven's big boy room and Steven was doing well with potty training. That seems like SO long ago!

One of his last pics in diapers!

Clearly thrilled about the news of becoming a big brother.

In April, we celebrated Easter by dying eggs for the first time and getting sick! Boo to being sick during the holidays. Around 14 weeks pregnant the rash from hell appeared for the first time. That was miserable! At 16 weeks pregnant, my good friend, Julie had her baby boy Nicholas and we found out baby #2 was a boy! Exciting week. We thought it would be fun to have a gender reveal party this time and we had that in April.

IT's a boy!

In May, we started the transition to Steven's big boy bed. Boy was that an adventure!  Steven turned 2, we took our traditional trip to the zoo on his actual bday, and we had a birthday party for him. Also in May, we took our first vacation as a family of 3 with my parents to Gulf Shores, Alabama. That was SO much fun! And I worked on converting our spare room to Steven's big boy room with a construction theme.

Cupcake face. LOL

In June we took Steven to the Renaissance Faire, which he both loved and hated. ha ha! We also went to Circus Flora with Steve's family for Willow's bday. That was fun and memorable when Steven peed on the stairs during the show! lol Also in June I had some fun with girlfriends and we celebrated Father's day.

All the daddys on Fathers Day

In July we got a new nephew, Micah, put our house on the market (after a TON of work on it to prepare) and finished Steven's big boy room. We also had a great time celebrating the 4th of July with the Elder's. I also finally made it into the 3rd trimester and started getting the nursery ready for baby #2.

In August, Steven and I had fun on a playdate with the Elders, Steve and I had a date night and we attended Kris's baby shower in Rochester, IL. I was ready to be done being pregnant and we decided on the name Logan Garrett. We had some fun weekends at Grants Farm and the zoo and hanging with family in general. Steven got excited about the new baby by attending a big brother class and Steve and I celebrated our birthdays.

The prego cousins

Goofball cousins

Practicing to be a big brother.

In September I felt huge and complained about being pregnant in the the ridiculously hot weather. Steven was both a joy and a challenge at 2.5 years old. We hung out with family at the botanical gardens and took Steven bowling for the first time. We took Steven to Eckerts to pick apples and had a blast. At 39 weeks I was DONE being pregnant and ready to have this baby! My cousin had her baby girl, Emelia.

On October 1st I couldn't take it anymore and was induced. Logan Garrett was born at 2:13am and changed our lives forever. Steven immediately loved his little brother which was so great. Also that month I finished and revealed Logan's nursery. We also braved the unseasonable cold weather to take Steven to a pumpkin patch. We all froze but oh well.

In November I blogged about the fun stuff we did for Halloween including Boo at the Zoo, Fall Festival in Manchester, Fall Carnival at Grandma Riegerix's church, and carving pumpkins. We also went trick or treating in the pouring rain but Steven loved it. Logan turned 1 month and I tried to settle into this mother of 2 role. I also had a blast on maternity leave.

In December I blogged about our Thanksgiving celebrations and counted my blessings. I got a little behind on blogging and didn't post my Christmas update till January but that was because we were in the hospital for almost 5 days with Logan's RSV in December.

Whew! That was quite a year for us!! It's fun to look back. Hopefully 2014 will be awesome too! Happy New Year!

Logan at 3 Months

Three months old already, little man! This past month with you has been so much fun! You're little personality has started to show all the time and it's so sweet. You are just the cuddliest, happiest boy lately! You give big smiles and big belly laughs now! You prefer to be held and love it when someone picks you up. You cuddle right into them and it's super sweet. You prefer to be held upright though and you usually make that known!

You've started really interacting with your environment this month and it is so much fun to see you developing those skills. You will follow mommy around the room with your head and eyes if I set you down. I've even caught you doing that with big brother too! Watching him run around like a crazy man can make your head spin!

You've started smiling like crazy! You do it all the time now and your favorite place is on the diaper changing table. You always smile big up at me when I set down you there. You love to be silly with me while I change your diaper and you give me some big smiles in anticipation of the silliness. This month I found out you are super ticklish under your chin and armpits and that is SO cute. You will give a big belly laugh or giggle when I tickle you there. It's adorable!



Silly goose!

This month you have really stepped up your cooing and making other noises. We can sit and have "conversations" where I coo back at you and you return it with another noise. We can go on like that for several minutes. You have also started blowing bubbles and making gurgly noises, all of which are language development so I think you'll be a talker like your bro and mom!

That face! So sweet.

When I set you down in your swing or bouncer you have started batting at the toys hanging or grabbing at the things within your reach there. It is awesome to see you developing these skills. You still hate tummy time but we are trying to do it so your neck can get strong. It's pretty strong already and you hold your head up all the time. You started pushing up with your legs this month and you are pretty strong there too!

We had your first Christmas this month and it was so fun! You were pretty sick (more on that later) but it was really sweet to have you here for Christmas. I can't wait to see you and your brother next year when you are able to enjoy it more.


Sweet boy

 

This month we had your first major sickness when you got RSV. Your brother brought it home and we all got it. It was super sad to hear you coughing and gagging, especially at night. Yuck! We ended up in the hospital because you weren't breathing correctly, stopped eating well and got a fever. Scared your mommy! That was not a fun 4 days at St. Lukes but you got great care and I'm so glad we were there. After we went home we still had some sleepless nights and some nights of sleeping on and off holding you up right but you are mostly better now. That is a good thing because I did not like to see you feeling so bad and I'm sure you didn't like feeling that way either.



Such a cute patient.

So you are 3 months old now, little man. You are getting stronger every day and paying more attention to the world around you. We had your first Christmas and hopefully will have a much healthier one next year!

Twinkies!

We just love you so much, Logan!

December Happenings

Happy December! I'm usually a big fan of decorating for Christmas but with planning to move and trying to keep the house clean I wasn't sure if I would even get out decorations this year. But when we drove around and started seeing Christmas lights and decorations and Steven was SUPER into it I had to get ours out! Steven was so cute this year ohhing and ahhing at the lights and decorations we would see places. One night we pulled up to our house in the dark and he said, "Why my house has no lights?" ha! Busted! So momma had to decorate.

He actually wanted to help me decorate the tree this year and he was helpful for a few minutes. Then he got bored with it and we played mommy puts on the ornaments while Steven takes them off for a while. So that was fun! ha ha! But really he was very interested in the ornaments this year. He asked about a few of them and wanted to examine them while the tree was up.

The end result. Not too shabby.

The morning after we put the tree up something cute happened. On the weekends, usually Steve wakes up early with Steven and Logan and I get to snooze a bit more. Steve usually takes Steven downstairs so they can make noise and not wake us up. Well Steve said Steven wanted to be by "his Christmas tree" and wouldn't go downstairs. Isn't that cute?

We've actually had a really mild winter so far. We had some warmish days (50s, 60s) too, which is so weird for St. Louis winter. We finally did get our first snow of the year in December though and it was chilly that day!

My boys snuggling on a chilly day

Steven and I really enjoyed playing in the snow together. It is not daddy's thing to play in the snow so he stayed inside with Logan. It was great snow man making snow but all Steven wanted to do was knock down any snow man attempts I made. Oh well, we still had fun.

I guess play houses are fun to climb in the snow?

Another thing we did in December was go to Breakfast with Santa in Manchester with my parents. That was really fun. Steven started to notice Santa a lot more this year and was really excited to see him. That was a big improvement over last year when Steven was interested but terrified of Santa. He didn't even cry when he was on Santa's lap! I could tell he was a bit freaked out but he held it together. I was proud of my brave boy.


Kind of a goofy Santa but oh well.

Logan, of course, had a blast.





Halfway decent family shot while waiting in line for Santa.

Thank you grandma!



Steven and Grandma

My boys with Santa! Their first Santa picture together. So sweet. Although Santa looks like he might be napping but I'll take it.

 

We meant to do other Christmasy stuff this month but it got chilly during the weekends and time just got away from us! We wanted to hit up the Wild Lights at the Zoo but it wasn't open on the warmer days. We did take a ride down to South City to see the lights at Candy Cane Lane and got Ted Drewes after. That was fun!

 

Hope everyone had a good Christmas season!

Christmas 2013

Merry (belated) Christmas to everyone! This year's Christmas was a strange one. We had planned several family get-togethers and lots of fun things but almost all of them had to be either canceled or postponed due to being in the hospital with Logan's RSV. We were admitted the day after Christmas (Thursday) and didn't get out till the next Monday! So sadly we missed a lot of family time this year. It was a bummer but what can you do? Hopefully next year will be more normal (and healthy).

New tree this year!

We did get to celebrate on Christmas day at home and later with my parents. So at least we had that. Logan was pretty out of it all day though and slept on and off the entire time. Steven was much better this year though. The last 2 years he has hated Christmas with a passion! He hated opening presents and the schedule being thrown off and he just cried the entire time. This year he really started to understand the concept of Christmas and definitely enjoys getting presents now!

 

My mom made Logan his own stocking this year. That must have taken FOREVER. But isn't it gorgeous!? I love that she made mine when I was little and continues to make them for my boys now. So sweet!

 

Steve surprised me this year with something homemade! I was super impressed! He made this stepping stone and had each boy's footprint in it. Can you believe my husband did a craft for me?! I love it of course!

I got this gift Christmas eve because a certain 2 year old was
super excited to give it to me!

 

Here are the boys on Christmas morning. You can tell Logan is less than thrilled. LOL Steven about lost it when he woke up and saw all the presents! He was like OMGGGGG! ha ha! Super cute side story, Steven woke up the morning after Christmas and asked if we could open presents again. ha ha!

My boys <3 td="">

Steven did a really great job opening presents this year. He actually unwrapped them and noticed what they were and said "Thank you" for the most part. I was very impressed with him. This construction play-dough set has been a big hit so far.

Logan and I on Christmas morning. I'm pretty sure he's distracted by big brother's antics. It's so cute to watch Logan follow Steven around the room with his eyes.

 

Steven was really excited about this truck. He asked Daddy to open it right away! He played with it for a bit after too and took a break from opening presents. Yay!

Helping daddy free the truck. It was screwed into
 the packaging! Geez!

More present opening.

This silly little thing from Steven's stocking was one of his favorites. He loves the giant board like this at the Magic House so when we saw this little version (at Target of course) we thought he might like it. Boy does he ever! Sometimes its the stupid little things they like the best, of course, right?!

Silly

Me and my boys! Hard to get a decent picture of these crazy kids!

We got Logan a few "baby" toys which he can't use right now but he will be able to within the next year. So of course Steven claims them for himself and plays with them all the time. They are for like age 6-12 months. Crazy kid.

Daddy and Logan

We got Steven a tool set that came with a hard hat. It was a big hit!

Here he is hoarding all his "stuff". "I need my stuff mommy." ha!

Later that day my parents came over for presents and Christmas lunch/dinner. It was really fun to have them over. Steven loves them so much and they spoiled our boys of course. Probably Steven's favorite present overall was this pop gun my parents got him. The cork it shoots out is attached so its cool with me. No mess = great present!

bang bang!

My parents also got him this cool Mickey Mouse book that changes the story based on your voice and what you pick. Pretty neat.

He's helping Grandpa open his gifts. And stealing Grandpa's tie...

Grandma and Logan. Poor Logan was not feeling well and slept or cried most of the day. :(

Grandma and both boys! Yay a decent picture!

Family picture, but no Steven. At this point he was so excited about the gifts he was way too hyped up to pose for pictures. Oh well!

 

This year we had a great Christmas day. It's too bad we had to miss out on the rest of the celebrations being in the hospital but what can you do? We hope everyone else had a great (and healthy!)Christmas this year.