Year In Review

What a year 2016 was!  Kevin had a busy year with two businesses and 2016 was his most difficult year of his career yet.  I was busy traveling a lot to Utah and other places for work.  Our favorite part of the year was seeing Molly Anne transform from a baby into the sweetest and wildest little girl!

Here is a quick summary....

January - Molly Anne's first flight!

February - Kevin and I went to Park City and Molly Anne had her first swim class!

March - First Easter!

April - I went to Boise to see my cousins and Kevin and I went to Puerto Rico!

May - I went to Vegas and Molly Anne and I went to Maryland!

June - Kevin and I went to Denver, we closed on our lot and we went to Amelia Island for Nana's birthday!

July - Molly Anne turned one and she and I went to Pawleys Island!  She also stopped formula and bottles this month!

August - we went to Ocean City, Maryland for vacation and Mills had surgery!

September - Molly Anne and I went to Maryland and she took her first steps!

October - Molly Anne was a duck for Halloween, we visited the pumpkin patch with good friends and she really started to talk a lot this month!

November - We attended a Veterans Day charity event and went to Pawleys for Thanksgiving!  Going to Charleston on Black Friday was a highlight too!

December - Molly Anne visited with Santa a few times, we did ALL of the Christmas things in town and celebrated Christmas!

Wow, looks like we traveled a ton!  We look forward to 2017 which will be an exciting year for us!

Rest of Christmas Week

This week I've really enjoyed being home from work and hanging with my parents and Molly Anne.  Unfortunately this is a really crazy week for Kevin as he is trying to meet year end goals, but he's come home early some days and took Dad to the shooting range yesterday too!  

On Monday the 26th we headed to the mall to return some things and so my Dad could get his phone fixed at the Apple store.  I had made him an appointment a couple weeks ago so he could get the battery replaced through a recall.  

Monday afternoon, we de-Christmased.  I cannot stand for decorations to be up past the day after Christmas.  I was overrrrrr it at that point.  Everything is down and put up in the attic.  Whew.  It was weird when we put them away that this will be the last time they're used in this house.  

Tuesday and Wednesday we played in the mornings then I took Molly Anne to Ms. Becky's to eat lunch and nap so Mom and I could go do some things.  Afternoons are better for Mom because it takes her awhile to get up and ready in the mornings.  So this worked out best and Molly Anne loved going to see Ms. Becky since it had been a week!  

Mom and I got to go to a few shops here and there and pick up some home decor items!  She's right that I need to start picking up things here when I see them versus getting everything when we move in.  

Had to get a few pictures of just us girls!  She and Molly Anne look so much alike it's crazy!

Her tongue is out and her finger is already pointing like she's going to be a teacher just like Nannie!

These are a few pictures of some areas we changed around in our den.  I got rid of college frames and a bunch of clutter.  Felt good to clean out!  We still have work to do to get ready for our big move in the Fall.  My goal is to clean out along the way this year so we are ready come October or so.  

That's it for today.  Ms. Becky is closed today and tomorrow so Molly Anne and I are hanging out and getting things done around the house and doing some errands too!  Tomorrow is my year in review!  Can't believe 2016 is almost over!

Christmas Day!

Molly Anne was up at 7am and we went out to the den to see what Santa brought around 7:45am!  Elmo was the first thing she spotted!  

Then the table my parents gave her then the kitchen!

My parents gave her the above Little Tikes table which is perfect for her.  She loves the benches and they're a bit safer than a table and chairs at her age.  They also gave her a music set, Bitty Baby, books and other goodies.  Santa brought the kitchen, associated pots, pans, plates and food!  We gave her a shopping cart, craft supplies, a truck, cupcake sorting game and books.

We took a break mid morning and had our usual sausage, egg and cheese casserole with cinnamon buns from the can and lots of pulp orange juice! ;)  

Mills got goodies, a stuffed animal and tennis balls in his stocking!

Mills laid like this over my Dad all morning!

After nap, she opened a few more gifts that she hadn't gotten to that morning. 

That was her reaction to seeing her "baby!"

Highlights for me were Nordstrom and J. Crew gift cards, a Patagonia jacket, my favorite candle and a Dyson dustbuster!  Kevin's highlights were a couple gun bags, some new clothes (surely he was thrilled about this!) and a couple gift cards!  

Love our little family!

Melting Poppa's heart.  She went up to him and laid on him and said Poppa Poppaaaaa.

Kevin's parents came over that evening to see Molly Anne in all of her glory!

She's a lucky little girl to have all of her grandparents!

For dinner that night we had vegetable crab soup!  Delish, healthy and easy!  We are big sticklers on not leaving our house on Christmas Day.  Kevin and I think it's important to let Molly Anne be in her home and enjoy playing with all of her new toys!  It was sooo nice not having to rush out of here!

Christmas was very magical with Miss Molly Anne this year!

Late that night at the end of it all.  A wonderful Christmas for sure!

Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve recap -- here it is!

We really didn't do a bunch on Christmas Eve.  We went out that morning and did some last minute shopping.  It's tradition for Dad and I to do Mom's stocking on Christmas Eve.  Molly Anne joined us this year.  Kevin and Mom went on a couple errands while we did that!

Chat books...why I Instagram everything!  By the way, who doesn't need a sand bucket to play with in December?

That afternoon we watched the Panthers play and got wings from Hawthornes for an early dinner.  May be our new tradition.  Then we all drove around to look at lights.  

TWINS!!!!  I mean isn't that crazy?!  My Mom and Molly Anne!

Kevin kept with tradition and read Twas the Night Before Christmas to her.

Then Dad and I got to work on the KidKraft kitchen.

Two engineers and some help from Kevin when I took a break to put gifts under the tree.

It took us 2 hours and 50 minutes.  It's definitely a three hour project!

Santa came!

Next up, Christmas Day!

Christmas Catch Up including Christmas #2

Alrighty here's a quick update on our chaotic week.  Honestly I just want to kinda post a bunch of pictures and feel up to date prior to Christmas Eve.  Here we go.

Celebrated Christmas with my work girls on Tuesday at CO!  

Tuesday afternoon was Molly Anne's class party!  There were other children there that Ms. Becky has kept in the past.  It was super sweet and Ms. Becky spoiled them all!  Instead of exchanging with everyone, each child brings in a book and you get to bring home a new book.  How perfect is that?  Molly Anne got "The Story of Christmas" from Abby!

Ornament that Ms. Becky made for us!  You can see last years in the background!

Well Tuesday night didn't go well.  She was fine when I put her to bed.  At 10pm I heard her up wrestling around which is unusual.  She sounded awful and raspy.  I put her in steamy bathroom and she seemed better so I put her back to bed.  I set my alarm to check on her at 1am and she was okay and asleep with no fever.  2am I heard her again and I went in there and I did not think she was breathing well.  It was incredibly scary.  I called for Kevin and he agreed that she needed to go to the ER.  I suspected croup but she didn't have a terrible cough, it was more just awful breathing.  Anyway we went to the ER near our house versus driving to uptown Charlotte which I was going to do (it's the real children's hospital in town and I really had no clue what was wrong with my child).  It seemed she was better after being in the cool air and we knew there wouldn't be a wait at the ER near our house so we did that.  Croup it was.  They gave her an oral steroid and motrin for her 101.8 fever.  Bless her little heart.  She was a trooper and didn't cry once.  They were SO good to her as well.  The only thing we could do was fever control and she would eventually get better in 3-5 days.  We returned home at 4am and she went back to sleep for a few hours.  Wednesday we laid very low and did nothing.  Wednesday night she slept through the night even though evidently the 2nd night is the worst night of croup.  Thank you steroid for making it okay!  (Sorry typing all of this out so I remember if it happens again)

Wednesday night she slept through the night and was a new little girl.  We did a couple little errands on Thursday morning but stayed pretty low key.  A four hour nap happened then my brother and his family and my parents arrived late afternoon to do Christmas!

Molly Anne got a bigger baby duck, a toothbrush that sings and felt food from her cousins, Aunt and Uncle!

Three golden hounds!

Today started early.  Molly Anne was up coughing at 4:45am so we were out on the back steps breathing in the cool air.  That helped but she never went back to sleep!  

Dad and I took my brother's girls to Discovery Place this morning.  We also went to see the bears and to see the gingerbread house at the Ritz.  My SIL kept Molly Anne.  Dad and I felt like we were on vacation because he didn't have Mom and I didn't have Molly Anne haha!!  Too funny!  It was really fun having my Dad see how the girls enjoyed all of the science and cool things at Discovery Place.  Truly these are the best memories of family get togethers!  A morning we won't forget any time soon!

My brother, his three girls and two bubbas left this afternoon to go home.  Tonight we did a good dinner with my parents.  The steaks were awesome filets that a work friend sent to me.  Dad grilled them to perfection!  We used my friend Ashley's green bean recipe - steamed green beans with butter, toasted almonds and craisins.  

Molly Anne's dinner! ;)

Okay I feel better, all caught up!  

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and we have a kitchen to put together tomorrow night!