Goodness me!! I vaguely remember attempting to load these photos into a post and then clicking the wrong button and then my time was up. I suppose I never returned to the task. So, here we are at the end of April and I need to play major catch-up, while also trying to remember details from months ago (all with my not-so-helpful pregnancy brain, no less). Wish me luck!
Compared to December, our January was fairly slow and quiet.
I don't think we took our Christmas tree down until at least halfway through January. Jim wanted it to be a standard feature in our home. It really was the perfect tree and added so much green and warmth, but it was time for it to go and for us to have a fresh start. Don't ask me if I've put the Christmas decorations away.... they're still waiting for me in a pile in the basement. Eeeek :(
One of my favorite things about January is the fresh start, the new possibilities of a brand spanking new year. But I am also so nostalgic and need to take some looks back. 2017 was a HUGE year for our family! Monumental in so many ways. Jim graduated residency, we bought our first home, we moved to New Hampshire, we got pregnant with our third baby, and we experienced so much growth, excitement, joy, and growing pains during that dynamic year. Here are a few of my favorite snapshots of 2017.
New Hampshire's winter taught us a whole lot, starting in January. The pipes to our rental apartment froze and that ended up being quite the debacle. Fortunately, no one was living there at the time and it was all resolved before our new tenant moved in.
Our motto of "There's no bad weather, only bad gear" rang true! Finding and wearing the right gear helped us to get outside in all temperatures with the boys. And these boys proved to be true troopers through it all.
We learned, again and again, the importance of making forts and other new forms of play inside. This sight was a common occurrence all through the winter :)
We made as much delicious food as possible. Perhaps our family's new favorite cake is now the Beet Bundt Cake with Dark Ginger Ganache. Ian came down from quiet time just in time to help me with the finishing touches.
In January was when we realized the importance of me getting some regular "Mama's night out" time and we've tried to make them happen fairly often ever since. With life changing in May/June with the new baby, this time was important for both of us to ensure we were being intentional with our time. I went to the movies with some friends after baking that cake.
One weekend we took a trip to the LL Bean flagship in Freeport, Maine. After driving all of the way up to Maine (Bar Harbor) from Virginia during one of our medical school summers, it blows our minds to live less than two hours away from this store! A fun family day trip.
Owen enjoyed the snow, but sometimes it was just a bit too deep for him. This particular time cracked me up because he didn't want to be outside with us, but wanted to sit in the window and smile and blow kisses to us each time we glanced his way. So sweet! I ran back and forth checking on each boy, definitely getting my workout in for the day :)
We had our 20 week ultrasound in January! Baby #3 was healthy and active. Funny story- I wanted to find out the gender of this baby to prepare the boys and to just know what it felt like to know the gender through a pregnancy, since we've never found out before. Jim wanted to wait and keep it a surprise, which I understood because he's caught each of our boys and that was a special moment for him to find out and announce the gender to me. BUT, when we got to the waiting room before the ultrasound, he turned to me and said, "If you want to find out, we can. It's up to you!" WHAT?!? After months of discussion about this, he springs it on me in the waiting room!!! Well, this mama's heart wasn't prepared to make the decision and I didn't want to regret finding out. So, we told the tech we didn't want to know. Afterward, I did want to find out and Jim gave me the "OK" to do so.... but it wasn't anywhere in any of the records because we'd specified that we didn't want to find out! So, the baby's gender is still unknown, even though I ask each time :)
Regardless, look at that sweet little darling!!! Oh, dear baby, we love you SO much!
Owen finds the baby at the library every time we are there and likes to carry it around. SO SWEET! It gives me hope that this boy who deeply loves and needs his mama time will be interested in the baby, too.
Owen and I have some time together every Tuesday and Friday mornings, while Ian's at preschool. It's amazing to me how he relishes in the quiet house. Sometimes we'll barely interact for a couple of hours while he busies himself with toys, books, and his own activities, checking in occasionally, and returning to his important work (AKA play).
We had a crazy Saturday of driving to Massachusetts and test-driving multiple vans, transferring carseats, sitting in traffic, late naps, you name it, it was long. BUT we found a van and came home to try out a new burger and beer place within walking distance from our house. We are BIG fans! And we had to cheers our family's survival of such a day, without anyone having a major meltdown (adults included!).
In January, Ian's interest in complicated puzzles greatly expanded! He loved doing this Noah's Ark puzzle from my childhood and did it daily, even multiple times each day for about a month. It was so fun to watch him navigate the puzzle and become so familiar with the complexity of it.
In that month I also branched into baking bread!! I'm slightly embarrassed that I've never tried it before, but I really enjoy it. And it's so much cheaper than buying bread each week.
Love these boys!! So grateful to spend my days with them.
Home, sweet home!
20.5 weeks! Halfway through this pregnancy.
Always my baby, love this boy.
Visiting the Children's Museum with this boy and he may have stopped to eat some of this brown snow, before I could stop him! Yikes. He LOVES eating snow!
Finally brought our new ride home! It's life-changing. We never thought of ourselves as mini-van people, but we both really love the space, the sliding doors, how it drives. It's been wonderful for our family of four, and hope it will be for our family of five!!
Silly goof, wearing Papa's boots :)
Taking care of his baby at the library :)
A nice chilly stroll around our trail!
This is how our driveway looked for a good long while. A nice ice rink!
Jim and I went for a date night to a great tapas restaurant in Portsmouth! It was so much fun. We have started a babysitting swap with some of our good friends and it's been such a blessing.
Saturday morning vibes and sun! <3
These boys LOVE the beach! It doesn't matter the weather, they are interested, active, and ready to splash and play in the sand.
See those two outlined bodies on top of the rocks? Those are the oldest guys in the fam, always exploring just a little farther.
All-terrain trike!
Ian and I had a special Mama and Son date to the playground. His future elementary school has THE most amazing playground and we love to frequent it.
Seacoast Science Center is another favorite place. I felt like I was watching these future brothers out fishing together today.... one day I have a feeling this will be happening :)
More bread to break together.
January, you were good to us.
We had our 20 week ultrasound in January! Baby #3 was healthy and active. Funny story- I wanted to find out the gender of this baby to prepare the boys and to just know what it felt like to know the gender through a pregnancy, since we've never found out before. Jim wanted to wait and keep it a surprise, which I understood because he's caught each of our boys and that was a special moment for him to find out and announce the gender to me. BUT, when we got to the waiting room before the ultrasound, he turned to me and said, "If you want to find out, we can. It's up to you!" WHAT?!? After months of discussion about this, he springs it on me in the waiting room!!! Well, this mama's heart wasn't prepared to make the decision and I didn't want to regret finding out. So, we told the tech we didn't want to know. Afterward, I did want to find out and Jim gave me the "OK" to do so.... but it wasn't anywhere in any of the records because we'd specified that we didn't want to find out! So, the baby's gender is still unknown, even though I ask each time :)
No comments:
Post a Comment