The Year in Review

My husband writes on this blog once a year. Well, more like he writes on facebook and I copy and paste it into the blog. Anyhow, here is his list of the things he learned in 2012.

1. My wife is so smart.

2. When building a house, the most important thing above all else to is make sure you know what hobbies your building inspector likes to participate in. Several friendly conversations about rabbit hunting can go a long way towards a completed house!

3. I had no clue that the septic tank business was such a dirty business. Not dirty like sewage, but dirty like allegations of bribery, backstabbing, and corruption - all for the sake of putting a sewage bucket in the backyard!

4. I still don't know and can't follow all of the carpool rules.

5. Wiring a 4-sq-ft dollhouse is much quicker and more fun than wiring a real house. And apparently I can't estimate how long it takes me to wire houses.

6. Shanes Rib Shack received way too much of my business during March, April, and May. That's their reward for being the closest reasonable restaurant to our new house.

7. The best way to get a two-year-old to nap is to go ahead and embrace a full, late afternoon screamin' fit. Once she's mostly over with the fit, she'll be exhausted and go right to sleep, just like a baby.

8. If you lose the feeling in your hand, it might be because your neck is twisted. Who knew?!

9. The pink flamingo that someone placed in our porto-potty was a great gesture that made us feel welcome.... until we received the HOA covenant violation letters that made us feel unwelcome.

10. My brother and sister-in-law live in a real safari. We can prove this because the Kilimanjaro Safari at Animal Kingdom had poopin hippos that looked just like the ones they videod in Kenya.

11. When building a house, pay careful attention to mirror placement. Yes, it is possible to see into the shower in my bathroom all the way from the kitchen - all because of a mirror.

12. I highly recommend building a house in 8 months, not 5.

13. Amazingly, nothing was stolen while our house was under construction. That just proves that our neighbors don't like what we have.

14. In my first full year as a doctor, fortunately no surgeries were required for our family. Probably won't be the case for the coming weeks, so I need to keep learning via google.

Finishing out 2012

We celebrated Christmas with my family on the 26th.

I think she received 12 chapter books for Christmas. As of January 1st she has completed 9 of those books.  This girl likes to read! Last night we told her lights out at 9:00.  When we went to check on them before we went to bed at 10:00 she was still reading.  Little stinker! 

Instead of exchanging gifts with the cousins we took the kids to an indoor play ground. They had a great time running, jumping, swinging, and sliding around.

Everyone in town at the same time.  I only happens once a year.

We enjoyed making some donuts with Macy's new donut maker.  The girls had a lot of fun making and decorating them.

Nini gave the girls a fort kit.  You can design different shape forts and drape a sheet over the top. They have really enjoyed playing in here, and Kayla is great at designing new ideas. Brooke is a little destructive, but then again she is only two years old. She will learn how to be careful with it soon enough.

Christmas Day

We enjoyed a nice morning at home on Christmas Day, and then my mom, aunt, and grandmother came over for a visit and stayed for lunch.

Squinkies.  I told Marc I would never by them. This Christmas I ate my words so I could see my 5 year old light up with excitement. 

 

Macy got a donut maker.  She was a little shocked. 

And an electric blanket for Kayla.  Her response was "I thought I had to be older to get one of these!". Don't worry, we have rules about the temperature settings and we always check and make sure it is on low or off overnight.

Kayla and Macy wanted to give Brooke a doll like theirs.

And obviously she was thrilled!

After lunch we headed over to Grammie and Grampie's house to celebrate.  They had a big surprise for the girls.  A new dollhouse that they made.

Marc has decided that since he successfully wired our house that he can run electrical on a dollhouse.  I didn't even know they made materials for that, but the girls are excited to have lights that work, and I think Marc is secretly itching for another "home-improvement" project.  Hopefully this will satisfy the craving for a while. :)

Christmas Eve

We had our annual Christmas Eve brunch again this year. We did a lot of prep work and cooking the night before.  As we were wrapping things up I started to have another gall bladder attack.  I went to lay down while Marc finished things up.  Apparently he forgot how much the cinnamon roll dough rises.  We opened the fridge a little while later to this mess.

We had a full house this year and I absolutely loved it. I am so thankful that we have a home to open up to friends and family.

Kayla wrote a Christmas song and sang it for everyone.  Unfortunately our video recorder battery was dead and we didn't think to pull our cameras out.  We are hoping to record her singing it again soon and I will post it and the words. Such a sweet song and it brought me to tears. I love that girl and her sweet, sweet spirit.

After a little rest we headed to church for the Christmas Eve service.

And then we went to my mom's for our usual Christmas Eve gumbo. Unfortunately gall bladder attack #4 started on our way over there, so I spent the entire evening curled up on the guest bed with a heating pad. I hated to miss the festivities, but I am glad the girls had an enjoyable evening. 

Enjoying the Season

Both girls had a field trip scheduled to visit Back to Bethlehem at a local church.  Macy's class went during her dance class, so we visited with Kayla's class.  Macy has a few friends in her class that have siblings in Kayla's class so it worked out well.

Listening to the Christmas story.

The girls had Christmas concerts at school.

And we decorated gingerbread houses.  This year I purchased three pre-assembled houses for them to decorate. They loved having their own house to design the way they wanted.

And it wouldn't be a complete Christmas season if we didn't do some Christmas baking.  We decided to take some goodies to our neighbors and the girls wanted to go caroling too. They were so sweet singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" to all our neighbors, and I'd have to say that every house we stopped at was  thrilled to hear them.  I am so proud of them for wanting to do that, practicing the songs, and for having the courage to sing to people we have never met.

 

My Babies

Oh, how I love these girls!

Opening their Christmas pajamas and new ornament for their trees.

Cooking in the fire. Nutella sandwiches were the favorite.

Disney Wrap Up

After our day at the Magic Kingdom we headed back to the resort for dinner.  We surprised the kids and took the dinner out to the pool area to eat.  After dinner we let them splash around in the water.  They had been begging to go swimming all week, but I didn't pack swimsuits.  I didn't know the pool was heated. Oh well, they had a great time splashing around.

And then Brooke toppled over.  She loves the bath.  She loves the pool.  But she does NOT love being wet in her regular clothes.  When she fell she was not happy. 

She came over to where I was sitting with my mom and went into the sob story about being wet. It was the most pitiful thing but it was sooooo funny.  Mom and I tried so hard not to straight up laugh at her. So we took the wet shirt off and zipped her fleece jacket on her. She wanted nothing to do with the pool after that.  She just wanted to go back to the room and get her pajamas on. 

Disney Food

I think I mentioned in a previous post that we received a free dining plan when we booked our vacation.  This includes a quick service meal (walk up, place an order, and walk away with a tray of food), a table service meal (buffet or order off a menu), and a snack every day that you are there. Oh my goodness at the amount of food that includes.  We took advantage of the table service meals that can be used for character dining.  That is the only reason we ate with the characters so much.  For our group of 6 it would have cost $100-150 for each of those meals.  Unreal! I think we even left our vacation with some snacks vouchers still left on our cards.  Also, every quick service and table service meal comes with a dessert.  Now don't get me wrong, I love some desserts, but two times a day every day is a bit much.  And they were not small little things.  Some were HUGE.

At the Rainforest Cafe we opted for the volcano dessert for the group rather than 5 individual ones. Now that was some good stuff.

And I had to add in a few pictures of our resort and Nemo suite.  We really enjoyed the Art of Animation resort.  It's brand new and while we didn't get to explore too much, we were quite impressed.

A pull down bed was hidden behind that cabinet and the girls thought that was the coolest thing.

I didn't take any pictures of the resort until the morning we were headed home.  The sun was bright in the sky, so I couldn't really get any good ones of the Nemo section.  We did explore the Lion King section a little before we left.

And to use up our last meal we headed to the Grand Floridian to dine with Mary Poppins and Alice.

We all had such a wonderful vacation. I don't know when we will be going again, but I am thankful for the memories we made.  The girls were at such a great age to enjoy everything, and it's an added bonus that Brooke was completely free since she was still 2 years old. And until next time (if and whenever that might be) we have a ton of pictures to look back on and reminisce.