Monday, December 26, 2016

12 in 2016 (a photo year in review)

Howdy! I'm glad you're here.  
This post probably contains run-on sentences, sentence fragments, 
affiliate links, and unnecessary ellipses.  If none of that bothers you, let's be friends.

There's this meme that says something like "people ask me what my hobbies are.  I'm a mom.  I like to go to the bathroom in peace." I mean it's TRUE.  Don't get me wrong.  I really do love not hollering through the door so as to assist someone in finding the other, no not that one, the one with the dark blue on the package, preferred variety of deli meat the very second I determine I need to use the facilities.  But when I saw that, I also felt nostalgic for the days when I would take pretty pictures and write my words and, you know, do my thang.

 So here I am, at the end of the year with the fewest posts evahr, with a (hopefully not too wordy) recap and a plan to jump start this place back to life.  Plus I'm sick of all the spam comments on old posts, which really doesn't happen as much if you actually, you know, post things. (bee tee dubs, who trains these spammers?  Who tells them what to name themselves? They should be fired.)

That was sweet Helen in there, one of the last belly pics I took before she made her unexpected, early debut.  I've since stopped using the mantel as a glorified junk drawer.  Go me!

This year we also realized that the pond on our property, being made primarily of water, can actually be used for skating during the winter.  Science!  It was actually this charming book that gave us the idea in the first place, so thanks slash darn you Alice and Martin Provensen.
 
And then Henny Penny charged into the world 8 weeks early and oh boy.  Just.  That was a lot.  You can see lots of pics of that adventure, and beyond, over on Instagram using the hashtag #HelenMargaretB.

Helen came home after a 21 day NICU stay!  When she was released, she would have only been 35 weeks gestation, but she was nursing like a champ by that point  and had met all the other requirements so they were like "uh, okay so I guess you don't need to be here anymore....?"  It.  Was.  Glorious.  But look how tiny she was!  For reference, John Charles was still 1 year old in this pic.  El oh el.

Baptism time for mah tiny bebeh.  And I swear, I'm really not a very short person.  Apparently I just spend a lot of time around tall people or something?  Anyway, Lizzy caught the actual moment of her baptism on video (it's literally 11 seconds long, tops) and you can ogle it here if you like.

Tommy's eldest sister came to visit in June.  She's with the Daughters of St. Paul and is just an absolute joy to have around.  Katy made received the Sacrament of Confirmation later in the year and was able to have her as her sponsor.  It was just...excellent, the whole everything.  I mean, just look at these two.  This is exactly them.

For Nicholas' birthday, we had our picnic at the cemetery as usual and as usual the weather was amazing.  I don't know what else to say except that we're so lucky that he is part of our family.  St. Nicholas, pray for us!

The weather this summer was totally incredible.  Camping in August with nary a mosquito in sight?  Yes plz.  And by "camping" I mean "backyard camping" and by "backyard camping" I mean "I sleep in the house, thank you very much."  The s'mores, the bonfire, the breakfast cooked over the open flame....yes, yes, yes.  The sleeping in a moist, sticky, smelly tent with crying toddlers and angry 6 year olds?  Nooooooo thaaaaaaaaaaaaanks.  Hashtag I'm crazy but I'm not that crazy.

Paul grew this pumpkin all by himself!

Michigan is not ugly in October, you guys.

Zomg, this chicken coop and run project.  It took probably eleven-teen weekends to finish, I kid you not.  But the finished product is glorious.  No more chickens scratching up our mulch or digging up the foundation around the house, or pecking at newly planted seeds or dust bathing under our porch before pooping directly upon said porch.  And they actually started producing more eggs once we got them a little more contained and all I can think is either we weren't finding all the eggs before or the stress of gallivanting around all day was taking away from their egg-makin' units.  Whichever it was, this system is way mo' bettah.

This last minute St. Lucy day celebration was so excellent.  I mean how absolutely adorable is she?  I had planned things to read and activity sheets to do, which is fine and all, but the kids took matters into their own hands with this last minute "costume" and those delicious (truly delicious) baked goods and all was right with the world.

And now it's Christmas!  Jing jing a ling, ring ling a ding, eight people ringing, nine people singing, songs of a cheer, Christmas is here....merrymerrymerrymerryChristmas, merrymerrymerrymerryChristmas

Bobbi at Revolution of Love is hosting the link-up this year, so hop on over.


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15 comments :

  1. Yay! Yay. YAY!!! You are BACK!!! It's like a little Christmas miracle. Please tell me this will be a link up too. Because it's my favorite link up and I look forward to it every year. It's what got me started blogging 4 years ago. Regardless I'm happy you are writing.

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  2. Glad everyone is doing well! That looks like quite the chicken run...

    The one thing you're missing is an up-to-date picture of Helen. It's amazing how much babies grow that first year!

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  3. Merry Christmas to meeeee! Go glad to see you here!

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  4. I'm not going to host the link-up but I thiiiiiink that Bobbi at Revolution of Love is going do it and I will link up with her when it's ready. So glad you started blogging because of it!

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  5. welcome "home"! we've missed you but have understood why you've been away!

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  6. What a fun post! Merry Christmas and happy new year to you!

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  7. I love this! Missed you - so glad you're back!

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  8. Such a sweet year! Welcome back to blogging!

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  9. It's so good to "hear" your voice again!

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  10. Yay, Dwija blogged! :) I love these recaps. Maybe...just maybe, I can get with it myself and post some end-of-year pics. I'm beginning to think we all need a new format to replace/help blogs for busy moms. Something we can type 1 handed ideally, like zero formatting nonsense, and make it as easy to upload pics as it is to upload them on instagram. Because sheesh, I started writing a blog post the other day and it was 25% done after half an hour and then my free time was over and so was my short-lived attempt at a blog post. It's still 25% done. ::sigh::

    Anyway, I agree about needing updated Helen pics! And that coop looks awesome, almost rivals Cari Donaldson's chickens' Coop Mahal. Oh, and I <3 the pic of Katy with her Aunt/Sister/Sponsor for Confirmation :)

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  11. Enjoyed catching up with what's been going down with you and yours. Merry Christmas!

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  12. Welcome back, Dwija! But it's like you've never been gone since I see you on Instagram. ;) Loved the recap.

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  13. Love to see that you're blogging again! I want to write/blog - but I also want to spend less time on the internets. It's a conundrum.

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