We started the year off with lots of time outside. Dave went hunting, we spent many afternoons at the park and the days that were too cold we spent inside playing with Christmas presents. We got to watch some of our besties on Live TV (so cool!!!), I recapped a day in the life and Luke performed on Nursery Rhyme Day. February was FILLED with love :) Dave threw me a big surprise 30th birthday party with all of my friends and we celebrated Valentines Day at home and school. We played with friends, visited the dentist for Luke's dental week at school and Mason discovered his love of cheetohs. We celebrated Dave's Grandma's 92nd birthday and Luke was taken down by strep. March means Spring Trips (I traveled to NASA with the 8th grade) and Spring Break! We celebrated St. Paddys with a decorated table and special cupcakes and spent lots of time working in the yard. Haha joined us at the Perot, we brunched with one of our favorite girls and Mason and I enjoyed our first "Mason-Mommy Day".
Luke perfected his pose, Griffin got cuter by the day and we had our "turning point dinner".... the one where the kids all sat, ate and behaved and we were complimented by an elderly couple on how well-mannered our kids were. I think it was that dinner where we started to feel like we kind of knew what we were doing :) hahaha Birthday month was NUTS as we celebrated Luke turning 6, Mason turning 3 and Griffin turning 1 with a "Monster of a Party" and the 6th Annual Luke McAnally Birthday Pancake Breakfast :) Griffin got to have her pictures taken by Miss Narci, I hosted girls night at my house and the kids and I coordinated for Easter. There were decorative eggs ALL over my house, candy filled eggs all over the boys room and all of the kids were OVER their well checks :) As school wound down, our schedules ramped up. Griffin posed for Julie Klaasmeyer at her photography school in Dallas, we spent lots of time outside in the new sandbox and on long walks and the super talented Kelly Walsh took our family pictures.
I planned the Middle School semi-formal, Griffin perfected her walking and we celebrated Mother's Day at Chipotle. We were honored to be a part of Dave's moms retirement party, I took Luke and his bestie, Lincoln, on a special trip to Dallas and we had the cutest horse fly EVER in the bug day parade. My desk got "wrapped" in foil as an end of the year prank, Luke had field day and I got to go hug on my former middle-schoolers before they walked the stage at graduation. June brought our annual breakfast with Woody and Jessie, golf camp for Luke and swim lessons for the boys. Luke gained a TON of confidence in the water and mastered the diving board later in the month and we spent lots of time with friends... including a day at the Perot that ended in Shay holding Mason's hand as he walked pantless down the streets of Dallas (don't worry - he was wearing a diaper.... wait, does that make it better????) hahaha We stayed cool at the mall, where Sheaffer bestowed fashion knowledge to the next generation and we capped off Father's Day with the most epic picture ever :)
Griffin caught "herpangina" (EWWWW!), the boys attended VBS and I drove the "party van" to and from dinner with my girlfriends (what happens in the minivan, stays in the minivan). The summer wrapped up for us in July and we savored the last few weeks off with Camp McAnally, snow cone nights and bringing our obnoxiously large pool floats to our friends house :) We got our red, white and blue on with lots of decorating, crafting, patriotic playdating, parade watching and firework playing (I say playing, since none of our kids actually watched fireworks. hahaha). We visited a nursing home, Mason flirted his way to shaved ice at the pool bar and Shay and I hosted our Kindergarten Kickoff Dinner. Kensington came over to "babysit", I spent a week at AP Math training (and drank WAY too much Starbucks!!!) and Griffin and I wore matching headwraps as often as possible :) Inservice started and we wrapped up our summer fun with nights riding around the golf course on a cart, a few last pool trips and an end-of-summer pool party with our Sunday School class.
Dave turned 31 and we celebrated with brunch, I got my classroom back in order and after a "second lap" of Pre-K Luke was AMPED and ready to start Kindergarten. The school year started off rough for me - and I ended up with pink eye, bronchitis, laryngitis and several other ailments. Mason had his first dentist appointment, I got to meet a blogging friend in real life and G and I were FIRMLY part of Team Pink at Baby Griffin's gender reveal party. When I think back on September I think about crazy weather. Luke started soccer and on Saturday morning games we were either sweating or freezing (but G was happy to be there either way. hahaha). Scooter spent some time at our house, Luke and I spent a GLORIOUS Luke-Mommy day together and we spent some time on Stephen's motorcycle after his birthday celebration. Griffin broke out some of her fall wardrobe, my girlfriends and I broke out the scarves at our annual exchange and Erika and I broke out with a case of the crazies when we decided to order pizza and let our kids run amuck at my house on a Friday night :)
October was a huge month. We spent lots of time at Pumpkinville (visiting and volunteering), bats took over our house and Griffin struck a MAJOR pose :) We wore our costumes at every chance we got - including a nursing home visit, sunday school party, trick or treating and to the babysitters house. When Griffin wasn't in costume she was in a festive outfit and Luke's favorite day was getting to wear pjs to school for the pajama parade. Mason's ear swelled to twice it's normal size, I made it through another Homecoming week and my amazing group of friends got to surprise Manda with some pictures that we will all treasure forever.Rough, I tell you! It started off well enough with Luke's last soccer game (they won!!!), but quickly went downhill when GG contracted Hand, Foot and Mouth and then, just as she was recovering - the stomach bug hit our house HARD and took us down (except for Super Dave) one by one. Thankfully, we were able to sprinkle some memorable moments in including Luke's Thanksgiving Feast and Grandparent's Day at school, walks in the woods, family pictures, Luke's Jog-A-Thon and a trip to the Perot.