2015 in Review

2015 was a tough year.  There were lots of struggles and sadness and many BIG changes!

Bruiser turned 8 in January!

Tater turned 10 in February!

Double digits...how is that possible???? 

There was LOTS of snow and even MORE on top of that...ugh!

At least one of us was happy to shovel! 

Bubba turned 2 in April! 

And we celebrated the baptism of my littlest nephew 

and treasured being able to share it with my mom. 

And May brought the return of beach days...even if sweatshirts are required in New England! 

June was the girls' dance recital and Bubba had to pose too! 

This month also brought the end of a 15-year teaching career for Mommy and the start of me being able to focus on just being a mommy!

July brought a visit back to PA and to our favorite amusement park.

We will try to forget that the visit ended with a night in the hospital for one curious little boy who decided to sample some of his great-grandmother's medicine! 

To celebrate Mommy's "retirement", we took our family vacation to the shore in September and enjoyed relaxing days with family.

And that vacation to my mom's favorite place, ended with us saying a final good-bye to her on September 18th.  She suffered so much in the past few years with various sicknesses, but we wish we could have kept her longer.  We miss her more each day and with each new thing - big or small - that we experience.  We are working hard to keep her memory alive! 

Sassy turned 7 in October! 

We started celebrating the holidays in November. 

And December was all about Christmas!!!! 

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!  We are enjoying a quiet day with just the 6 of us and I wouldn't have it any other way 😍.  Papa arrives tomorrow for Christmas #2 and will be with us through the new year and we are soooo excited!  We are missing Mimi big time and each tradition seems bitter sweet.  But that's why this quiet holiday is extra special being just our little family.  

The picture on our card this year was taken the morning of Mimi's last day on Earth...and at her favorite spot too...so even more special as we share our holiday wishes with you!

Secret Santa Book Exchange!

Thanks to Elizabeth, Courtney and Ashley for arranging and hosting the Secret Santa Mommy&Me Book Exchange!

I was paired with Jamie and Reese at Cocktails & Carseats!  I love the books they sent us!

There is a family joke about flamingos in our house.  My father (Papa) once made the mistake of saying how ugly they were...and he now has a massive collection of everything flamingo!  It's an unspoken challenge to try to find the ugliest one ever.  So my kids are fascinated by "Papa's birds" and we try to collect all books that involve flamingos...so this is PERFECT!

On the recommendation of another blog (which I've since forgotten!) I had ordered Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children earlier this year.  I finally read it this September on our beach vacation.  Not my typical genre of books but I couldn't put it down!  So I was thrilled to see that Jamie had sent me the sequel and can't wait to snuggle up on the couch this winter and continue the story!

Thank you, Jamie, for sending us a fabulous treat in the mail!

And I was partnered with Whitney and you can visit her blog here to see what we sent her!