Year in Review 2016

Holy cow it has been a while! Now that it is 2017 and things are slow with work, I am finally able to take a minute and step back and visit this wonderful blog of mine! I have really missed being able to write, and share life with everyone so I have got a good blog for everyone today! Since it has been so long and a life lately post just won't do justice to how insanely crazy it has been since last October I thought I would do a Year in Review for 2016! This is a long post so grab your coffee, tea, or whatever you would like to keep comfy and cozy and sit back and enjoy the ride!

January

We started out the new year in style... all piled up in Mom and Dad's bed watching football

While Riley napped, us girls had some quality time together and painted our toenails! 

This little guy looked handsome and cute and tiny and eek. I just cannot put into words how absolutely adorable he is

Ollie got to visit the doctor for his regular visits 

And we took our first family road trip as a family of four plus the puppy dog!

We also went to the beach for Riley's first time, he was so tiny and cute 

Charlotte fed the alligators at a local restaurant

When we finally returned back up north to the apartment we went to Zoo Atlanta as a family

And Charlotte loved every second of it! 

February

We took lots of good naps this month

Played with all of the stickers

Valentine's day I was completely spoiled by my husband, including getting my wedding rings cleaned

We did lots of playing on playgrounds, especially at a really cool new playground we discovered

We ate all the food

And played on playgrounds in a new neighborhood after looking at homes which meant we ended the month out of town

March

March was a big month for us!

We had lots of smiles

We went to the beach with our favorite Aunt Kayli and her boyfriend 

and took some really awesome naps on Mama

We celebrated our baby girl turning 2

and this little guy was introduced to the swing! 

Charlotte started throwing herself out of her crib, so she got a new bed. She was at a sleepover with Mimi and she came home and had a brand new bed and she absolutely loved it and sleeps in it wonderfully. 

We went to get pictures with the Easter bunny early this year since Mimi who has been to all pictures so far was going out of town and we were moving.

Moving! We took three weekends and took everything out little by little and put it in storage closer to our new home

We got all the play time we could at this playground

We had to take a quick(even though 5 hrs is not quick) trip down to do some signing for the house and then we headed back to the apartment 

 to take Riley's 6 month pictures, with Charlotte in them of course!

We celebrated Easter in an almost empty house, and the kiddos were so excited,  Riley was like uh what is going on, but he enjoyed his toys

and just like that we moved out of our apartment on Easter Sunday. This was incredibly hard for me. This was our first apartment but it was also where we brought our babies home. I had newborns in this apartment, and got to experience firsts and experience hardships. It was my home for so long, but I was ready for the next adventure for our family.

April

We lived in a hotel room for three weeks so dinner looked a lot like this. Here we were sitting at Sonic and eating our dinner picnic style. (He was not making this face when I put him back in his car seat) 

The last night in the hotel

We did lots of swinging at  the park

and we closed on our brand new home!

We moved our stuff in from storage, and enjoyed having green grass to explore and play in

We took a road trip and went to G-day, and the kiddos went to Mimi's

We finally got to set up a birthday present she got and she was so excited

And we bought a water table and loved splashing and chewing on all the toys

Hubby got a housewarming gift, and he was so excited. Can anyone spot the little girl running around in her bathing suit in the picture?? 

 

We discovered the best shopping carts ever are at Sam's club! 

We also couldn't help but play outside all the time

May

May always starts out rough for me, and this year my husband once again took the day off so I could have him for my moments where I just could not handle the emotions.

We went to the beach to reflect and let the kiddos enjoy the sand and sun

Charlotte did not want to leave

We went to a festival

and this boy and I enjoyed strolling through the marsh

Sometimes we fell asleep at dinner time

We played in the water all day, everyday

The rain was crazy in the afternoons

and my flowers from my mom bloomed

At the end of the month we picked up two other members of the family to stay for the summer

June

We started June out eating sand

and running into the waves

getting scared by a snake on our front porch.

 Scott and I celebrated our three year anniversary

And Charlotte enjoyed some one on one time with her Daddy

 

We spent a lot of time outdoors whether we were at the park

or playing with chalk

Charlotte got her very first library card

And we went to the beach as a family

We visited the zoo

And this chunky monkey was checked out at a new doctor's office and is healthy and happy, and wearing a diaper I might add( some people did not know because it is completely covered by my arm) 

Charlotte got over her fears, and rode a pony by herself at a local farmers market 

July

July started out with haircuts, where I cut off a lot of hair

and had to get used to it, because it was so short

We watched Fireworks

and stayed in for the Fourth of July, but still wore our awesome outfits

We went on lots of family walks once the rain ended

and played on all the playgrounds

 and ended our summer with a splash

August

August started out rough. We had two people starting school since they were now staying, and Riley was just not ready to be up early in the morning, so we were playing in the playroom one minute and the next he was asleep on the floor.

We went to the grocery store a lot

and this girl was sad when I would not let her go to school with everyone

The babies enjoyed some one on one time out with Mama and Daddy

We celebrated Daddy's birthday

and purchased some new shoes

 The girls painted our toenails

and we went to all the parks to play and look at the ducks

September

I got a new washer and dryer set and helped my husband build the stand for it, in other words he did most of the work, and I only helped a little

 

Morning coffee/ a little bit of alone time before being bombarded by kids time

Hubby got handy with the garage and built storage so it was all off the floor and put away neatly

We went out and played in the splash pad with Daddy

Continued our afternoon walks

and got soaking wet from the rain just trying to go from the car to the garage

We went to the park 

and hubby and I got a date night in and watched a movie together!

We also celebrated our little boy turning one with not one, but two parties

Mimi made Riley's smash cake and cake for the party at her house and I made the cake for our house and the girls iced and decorated it

October

We started out October with cake for my birthday

and then having to evacuate for Hurricane Matthew 

We got to play at our favorite playground

and visit the pumpkin patch/corn maze we went to when these two were itty bitty.

We hopped in the sandbox as soon as we got home, because being away from our home for a week was rough

and we broke out the matching Halloween pjs.

We tackled potty training, and while the first day was rough, rough rough, we are still going strong today and she has very little accidents

I finally put out my Halloween decorations

and fixed up the mantle

and hubby and I cut the wood, and spray painted all of our decorations for our front yard. There is a blow up dragon back there, but he was only turned on at night. Plus the orange lights around the front door, and caution tape on the pillars, which apparently I didn't take a picture of! 

And my little Tiger ran around the house before the fall festival 

Our little doctor stopped for a picture with the minions for a break from walking through all the crowds to get candy

and a few days later we were ready to trick or treat for the first time in our neighborhood

November

With it being South Georgia, it is still in the 70s well into December so we still got to check out new playgrounds and run around

we laughed and played with all of our toys

We went to a birthday party with all of our friends

I decorated the mantle for Thanksgiving

and these two were able to go with Mommy and Daddy to vote

I made a Christmas wreath 

decorated the mantle for downstairs

Bought the kids a little tree of their own that they got to decorate

and finally we set up our big tree after some re-configuring of the furniture. It is tradition to put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving, but that did not happen, with Scott having to work so much but it did happen before December began so I will take it :) 

December

December was very busy and fast paced. We did not stop once the month started until New Years' Eve. It was crazy and full of all the holiday things

We went to a Christmas festival where one of the girls was performing in chorus

We saw church transform and oh was the tree beautiful

We had a cookie making/decorating party with our friends

and went to a community concert where both girls performed in the chorus from their schools

We broke out the matching Christmas pj's

and we also got a new toy, that the kids just absolutely loved playing with and learning about

We bought a mini van, because taking two cars everywhere we wanted to go as a family was just wearing me too thin so Merry Christmas to me, a week early! 

 We went to see the Christmas lights and Christmas trees at our local botanical gardens and it was just magical, even if I was wearing a tank top and jeans because it was 77 degrees outside

and then this girl came down with a nasty sickness that floored her for three days and then floored momma for two. Fevers of 102, coughing, aching body, all the works

We got pictures with Santa, where my usual boy that doesn't mind was petrified

and my baby girl who is normally petrified, was just fine with the whole process! When did she get so big?! 

We made a gingerbread house out of rice krispies  treats

By Christmas Eve we were all much better than the Monday before so we loaded up early for brunch at Mimi's and then dinner with the rest of the family

After brunch and before dinner this boy was wiped out, since they didn't sleep on the drive up, nor did they take a nap! 

We drove home overnight to be home for Christmas morning where it was a wonderful relaxed day of movies, presents and family time

and let us reflect on Christmas 2015 where these two were so little and now they are so big

After Christmas we did lots of working, cleaning, playing with all of our new toys, picking the girls up from the airport, they went back to see their Mom for Christmas, and then went to our neighbor's for a New Years Eve party! 

Bringing in the New Year with this man is my favorite thing. We put the kids to bed and the girls enjoyed sitting at home watching Netflix while we were next door running back and forth making sure all was good with the world. I wouldn't want to bring in the New Year any other way!

2016 was filled with a lot of stuff. We bought our new home, Riley started crawling, and sitting up and walking and now running, we went to the beach, the park, and everywhere else, we added two new members to our house and all within a year! It's been an adventure and very busy but 2016 was good to us, and now we are looking to make 2017 even better!

If you made it this far yay! That was a long one. Thanks for stopping by and checking out the blog after so long of a break! This year I am already working on things for the blog so let us hope I can stick with it. Life with four kids and a hubby that acts like one is crazy busy but fun. Here is to 2017, already 25 days in and so far so good.

If you want to check out my past Year in Review posts you can see 

 2015  here. 

2014 here.

Have a great day!