Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2013 at a Glance

I think it's safe to say that 2013 has been my favorite year EVER. A beautiful baby girl. Watching my "big" baby girl grow up and becoming more and more of a beautiful young lady every day. A marriage that gets stronger as time goes on. A new place to call home. A new car. A 16-year friendship that has never been more solid. Celebrating my one year anniversary at my job. God has been good to my family this year, that's for sure!

So here it is, my favorite photos from this year (I was going to do one per month, but who am I kidding?!):


January

January was spent getting ready for Addison, celebrating my birthday, and just enjoying the last few weeks of being a family of 3!




February
February brought the sweetest little Valentine I've ever laid eyes on. I can not believe I was so nervous about not loving Addison as much as I love Aubrey. I just did not think it was possible. But the second I heard that little cry (that turned into a 45 minute sob fest that the nurses thought was hilarious), my heart grew two sizes. Addie has been such a blessing. She is the perfect addition to our family!

I was lucky enough to have a friend getting her photography business off the ground and she offered to do hospital and family portraits for free, and she did an amazing job! While going through photos to add to this post, I realized that I haven't shared our family photos with anybody! There are a few that I used as my cover/profile photo on Facebook, but there are so many gems that nobody has seen. I'll be posting those for sure!



March
March brought us a new place to call home and a couple first holidays for Addie! I was amazed that Aubrey's 6-9 month "My First St Patrick's Day" onesie fit my little chunker. Easter was a lot of fun. Aubrey had a blast finding all of her Easter eggs, as well as Addison's! 





April
April was Team KRJ's second annual March for Babies walk. We went with a Red Sox theme for the shirts and I love how they came out! I can't wait for the third annual, which is coming up soooon!


I also couldn't resist throwing in this gorgeous picture of Aubrey. When did my baby get so grown up?



May
May brought lots of nice weather and trips to the park! It also brought my first Mother's Day as a mother of two, and the annual Memorial Day Parade that goes right by Rachel's house







June 
June was a big month for my girls! Aubrey had her first dance recital and Addie Grace got baptized (and of course they both happened on the same weekend! Talk about busy!) We also celebrated Keith's first Father's Day as a father of 2 :)







July
July was another huge month. Aubrey turned 4, which was celebrated with a trip to the New England Aquarium in Boston and a Littlest Pet Shop birthday party! I also had an amazing week-long vacation in which we went to the beach, I went to Warped Tour with Rachel and had a blast, and Addie had her first tries of solid food!









August
August was a pretty low-key month. We celebrated Madden's 7th birthday and Aubrey got her first hair cut! I also took a day trip with Rachel and another friend up to York Beach in Maine. It was our first time up there and we decided that it definitely wouldn't be our last! We are hoping for an annual trip every summer. We stopped at a local seafood restaurant in Kittery and had the most amazing lunch. Definitely a great bonding day!




September
September was so much fun! The start of the Patriots season, seeing TWO amazing bands live, and a trip to the biggest fair in New England! Aubrey & I were on the hunt for a farmer's market the Sunday of the first Pats game. We found one that offered free cupcakes and face painting! Score. Keith & I went and saw Yellowcard play an acoustic set of their Ocean Avenue album and it was amazing. Rachel & I saw Young London (a local band) for the third time and we had way too much fun singing and dancing along in the front row, and before the show we had dinner at the cutest pub ever. I went with Keith's family to the fair (Keith had to work) and we spent all day there and had SO much fun (minus the little incident where Aubrey disappeared for a couple of minutes in a sea of thousands of people - holy shit those were the worst 2 minutes of my life)








October
October was another busy month! We had a freakishly warm day that we took advantage of by going to the park with NO jackets, decorated pumpkins, and the 4 of us went apple picking with Rachel and Mackenzie. Aubrey WON a coloring contest that our local grocery store puts on every year and got herself a sweet gift card to Toys R Us. For Halloween we toted around a beautiful Smurfette and a plump little strawberry :) And the most exciting part? A new car!















November
November apparently involved a lot of shopping (because I have a ton of "girls in the shopping cart" photos, and a lot of Aubrey not wanting her picture taken! We celebrated Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time with family! November also marks the beginning of Addie's Olivia the Pig obsession!






December
December was such a blur. Between Christmas shopping, cookie decorating, and trying to take approximately 566452 pictures of the girls in front of the tree for a nice Christmas card.







This year is going to be hard to top, but I have high hopes for 2014. Two BIG DEAL birthdays (1 and 5!), a BIG DEAL wedding anniversary (5!), starting to save for our first BIG TRIP (Disney World 2016!) and finally hanging printing out pictures and decorating the place we have called home for the last 9 months (yes this is a big deal. It has been at the top of my to-do list forever!)

I'll post my 2014 Bucket List tomorrow, but for now I'm going to soak up the last few hours of 2013. Happy New Year, friends!


Saturday, December 28, 2013

Christmas 2013

...and just like that, the day that we spend planning for has come and gone!



{the morning of our Polar Express breakfast at a local movie theatre!}

Our Christmas was amazing. Out of the 26 Christmases I have had, this had been my favorite, hands down. Not because of the material things.. in fact, Keith & I only got each other one gift each and didn't spend more than $30. Watching the magic of Christmas through both of my girls' eyes was just the most amazing feeling ever.

 



This was the first year that Aubrey really, REALLY "got it". Nonstop talk about Santa, making her own list (and not just things that I wanted for her or knew she would like), getting starstruck when meeting Santa, decorating homemade cookies with friends, doing a Christmas countdown on a chalkboard, helping Addie open her presents, and seeing her eyes light up at every Christmas display put so much joy in my heart.







Addison enjoyed her first Christmas as much as a 10-month-old could. She loved looking at the tree and her favorite activity day in and day out was dragging the tree skirt around the house.

{womp womp}



This was also our first year with a real tree! We took our artificial one out and I spent an hour organizing the branches just right, only to plug it in and have two consecutive rows of lights not work! I just wanted to lay down right there under the tree and cry. We tried switching bulbs, tightening them, loosening them, nothing worked. So off we went to pick a real one! Vacuuming around the tree every day was a pain but I loved being greeted by the scent of pine whenever I walked in the door.







Seeing both of our families on Christmas Eve was amazing. We were blessed with the most amazing people in our lives!

I'm not going to sit here and list everything we got for gifts but I do want to note our favorites so we can look back and remember!




Aubrey loves her LeapPad 2 and My Little Pony Tent. Especially sleeping in it.






Addison can't stop playing with her Olivia the Pig lovey and Fisher Price barn (okay, so they both love that).



Keith looking mighty fine in his Adam Levine hat




I'm obsessed with the Alex and Ani bracelet that Keith got me, as well as this adorable apron that Rachel made for me and the Chocolate Bible I can't wait to make some recipes from!




I was excited to do our Christmas traditions, and even start a new one this year with the reindeer food that Jingle brought for us!

This weekend will consist of taking down the Christmas decorations, organizing a play area for the girls in our living room and doing some much-needed cleaning!

{ho ho ho! bubble beards!}


I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!