A look back at 2012

2012 is about ready to come to an end.  I can truly say it has been a good year!  God blessed us this year with good  health, bills paid, fun times, and love from wonderful family and friends.

2012 saw many celebrations.  We celebrated various days of the week with our "Today is..." board.  That was fun and we will continue that tradition into the new year.  We celebrated Valentine's Day with a bunch of love, St. Patrick's Day with a parade and a leprechaun showering our living room with Gold Chocolate Coins, Easter with church, baskets, and eggs, we celebrated the 100 years of Girl Scouting with many scouting activities, Mother's Day with a trip to play miniature golf, Father's Day, Halloween with the Phantom of the Opera, Princess Peach from Mario Kart, and Olivia the Pig.  Thanksgiving we were thankful for spending the holiday with our families, and Christmas was a special time as always.

We celebrated an 8th birthday with a Flower Power party, a 41st birthday with a present finding scavenger hunt, a 5th birthday with an Olivia party, a 10th birthday with ICarly, and a 40th birthday which brought tickets to see Wicked! And we even celebrated Charlie the cat's birthday where he turned 17 years old.

We celebrated everyday life by swimming in the summer, playing in the rain, game nights and movie nights, catching fireflies, trips to the library, VBS, sleepovers with friends, bonfires in the fall, and just yesterday snowball fights and snowman building in the winter.

We celebrated many school activities:  both girls trying out for and making the school choir and extra celebration for Megan getting two solos.  We celebrated Wendy's piano playing at a spring recital where she did awesome! We had a fun time at the school parade and picnic to finish off the school year in May.  Then in August we celebrated a 4th grader, a 3rd grader, and my baby a Kindergartener going off to their first day of school.  We celebrated Ellie getting a Do The Right Thing award at school for being responsible.  And of course, we celebrated Christmas with their Christmas programs at school.

We celebrated daddy being home with us on the weekends this year.  We celebrated Harry's first 5K run at Cornerstone Christian Church and then a second 5K run at Cahokia Mounds where he earned a 3rd  place medal in his age group.

We celebrated mommy's 30lb weight loss, but looking forward to celebrating a bigger number loss in 2013.

We visited many places this year!  We went to Fort deCharters, the St. Louis Zoo, the St. Louis Science Center, Shaw's Garden, Cahokia Mounds, Illinois State Fair, Lincoln's New Salem, and Lincoln's Tomb.  We also visited the new American Girl Store in St. Louis as well as the Air Show at Scott AFB.  We went strawberry, apple, and pumpkin picking.  And during the Christmas season we went on the Gingerbread Walk and drove through the Way of Lights at the Shrine.

We celebrated my dad's surgery and recovery that went very well.  His radiation was not a problem and we enjoyed him staying with us during those few months of recovery.

I am praying that 2013 will continue to bless us with health, wealth, happiness, and love.  Praying that the New Year will also be a blessed one for all my family and friends, too!