Goodbye 2012

2012 was a good year, but definitely one we are ready to move on from. At times I feel like we lived at the hospital or therapy, but then at times I feel like we lived at the pool so it had to be pretty good. We had family pics taken back in October and as usual Nikki did amazing and I LOVE them! The boys were not good sports especially little man. I was sweating up a storm by the time we finished. I sure do love this family of mine and I am so blessed to be able to call them mine. Life is great with them a part of it. 

Here are some highlights of the year for us....

 Trav getting a new job in the industry that he is passionate about.

 Our two week summer vacation to Santa Rosa and Seattle. Definitely a favorite for us all. 

 Completing my first half marathon. 

 Carter checked off 11 surgeries! Way too many and hopefully he wont ever have to repeat a year like last year again. 

 Swimming and Summer equaled being outside, healthy, more freedom, and spending time together. 

 Carter finally becoming mobile. 

 Going on a weekend getaway with this handsome guy. Wish we could do it more. 

 Watching these guys develop such a fun relationship.

 Boston loving every second of preschool.

 Spending time with our family. We are lucky to have grandparents that we get to see so often. 

2012 we felt like we were supposed to learn patience. I wish we could say that we have, but unfortunately Trav and I and the boys for that matter aren't very patient people. We have been so blessed and have seen the hand of our Savior so evident in our life. We have been on the receiving end of so many miracles and so many prayers. We are forever grateful for all that we have and all that we are learning. 

Here's to 2013. I have a feeling it's going to be a good year. (fingers crossed)

After Christmas Hoopla

We had a lot of fun the days follow Christmas, but you would never know by the amount of picture I took. 

Trav spent about 6 hours putting together Boston's marble track. I think he was about to throw it out the window by the end. Good thing both boys love it or he would be pretty darn upset. 

 We went to eat at one of Mom Wilson's favorite restaurants Fudruckers. Clearly we took our best pictures while there. Carter however balanced alone for the first time for a few seconds until he realized what I had tricked him into doing. Then he threw a huge fit and cried his eyes out. He is one STUBBORN boy I tell ya. He can do more than he thinks he can he just wont!

 We did a little shopping and Boston made sure to ask Grandpa if he wanted to by these pink boxer briefs in front of a crowd. He thought is was SO funny. He is really into boxer briefs these days and could not believe that a boy would actually wear pink underwear. 

Carter lasted about 15 minutes in the stroller before he wanted to walk everywhere. Why do we bring the stroller again?

The most fun thing we did was go to Jump Street. The kids were in Heaven! I think Boston spent about 99% of the time on the rope swing into the foam pit. Carter spent his time climbing up and down the stairs over and over again. He was in heaven!

I love this picture! Carter was on a big time Grandma kick while she was here. Poor Grandpa got the raw end of the deal. He pretty much didn't want anything to do with him except an occasional high five or fist bump.

And just because I love this picture too. Boston sure knows how to trick Grandma D into helping him eat. Sneaky boy!

We also went to see Les Mis which was INCREDIBLE! I had never seen it before and didn't know the story line. Holy smokes I am in love!

Christmas Day

Boston's Christmas wish came true! We had a white Christmas! We got dumped on all Christmas day. It was so much fun. Too bad we aren't equipped at all for snow and resort to rain boots, and Mom and Dad's old winter gloves. 

 After getting the kids as bundled as we could they enjoyed about twenty minutes outside before they nearly froze to death. Such a fun memory to have a white Christmas in Texas. 

 After presents and playing in the snow we headed over to Ed and Xela's for dinner. Carter was a big fan of Ivie's new toys. They played with that ball together forever it was so cute. 

 The kids table. I was shocked to go over and see that Boston had actually eaten his dinner. Did we feed him during the day? 

 The adult table getting ready to chow down on Papo's melt in your mouth prime rib. I'm not kidding it was out of this world delicious. I think Kyle went into a food coma after. Meat is his favorite and pretty sure Papo is his favorite chef. 

 Walking, walking, walking! That is all we do with Carter these days. Not sure how he doesn't get bored of walking the same circle over and over again. Lucky for me though we had lots of willing walking companions. 

Dear, Carter just use your walker you really will love it. Love, Mom.

After dinner Porter and Hyrum put on a little skit for us that was SO cute. Them we watched the nativity. Such a great way to end a great day. It was so fun to spend the day with the Wilson fam and my Mom and Kyle. 

I am so grateful for my Savior and the gift he has given me. Life is great because of him.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was So much fun! I was so worried how the boys would act and did alot of praying that all our talk about gratitude would pay off. I was so worried that they wouldn't care and act spoiled. I think the key is to take it slow with kids. They get so much and are SO over stimulated and excited and not to mention tired that it can go bad quick. We did stockings, Santa presents, and a couple more and took a break for breakfast. It was perfect. 

Carter was SO tired that come 9:30 he was ready to go back to bed. He missed a majority of the present opening, but had fun doing it later on in the day. I think Santa chose well. Carter LOVED his car especially when Boston would push him around for a ride. 

Carter with all his loot. He was one happy boy and has so much fun with all his new cars, puzzles, and blocks. 

Boston was SO great with all his gifts. He was very grateful and made sure to inspect every gift he was given. He was in no rush to open his presents. We heard "let me take a good look at this", "check this out", and "this is beyond awesome" after almost every present it was so cute. 

I am SO glad my father in-law caught this moment. He was SO excited about his new razor from Mom and Dad. I'm sure you can only imagine how excited he was when we actually put it together.

Boston with ALL his loot. I swear between us and grandparents these kids get WAY too much. He was one very happy boy and has been loving all his gifts including the much talked about and long time coming marble track from Santa. 

 Trav and I were pretty spoiled too. I finally gave Trav something for Christmas that he likes and most important is KEEPING!!! It's a miracle! Trav is the king of "don't get me anything" He is SO hard to shop for and usually returns a majority of his gifts and gets nothing. Super annoying! Not sure it will happen again so I along with my Mom and Mother in-law are enjoying this year. I don't think he returned anything!!! Can ya tell I'm super proud. 

 It was such a fun morning. I could have watched these kids open presents all morning. It was fun to see them so excited about the gifts they gave to other people. We are very blessed.

Christmas Eve Photo Booth

I had the grand idea to do a last minute photo booth on Christmas Eve. The pictures are super cute so I am happy we did it, but boy was it a struggle to get a pic of my family. My boys are not very cooperative when it comes to pictures. As I said though I love the pics and wether my family likes it or not I'm pretty sure this will be a new tradition. HA!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is always such a crazy day. Everyone trying to finish last minute preparations for Christmas Day and prepping for the night. After the days craziness we all gathered at our house to enjoy yummy food and Games. 

In the Wilson family they do "White Elephant" gifts the night before. They are anything but white elephant gifts. Pretty much its another Christmas in the form of gift cards, random house things, and maybe a few funny gifts hiding in the mix. We always let the kids do a small one together before the adult game so they don't feel left out. 

We had a fun time putting together our own Nativity. Joseph wasn't a hot ticket this year and somehow I ended up playing the part. It definitely wasn't as reverent as you would hope, but when is it ever. 

 After the kids game and nativity we put them back in our room to watch a movie while the adults played our game. I wish I would have taken more pics we had some great laughs. For some reason Trav's Dad always picks the presents that are a little naughty. It is absolutely hilarious and gave us all some REALLY good laughs. 

We opened our Christmas jammies and set out Cookies, milk, and carrots and put the kids to bed. Another tradition if the Wilson family is to do secret Santa to a family. Definitely my favorite tradition and really helps bring the Christmas spirit to our family. Boston didn't totally get what we were doing, but he was happy to use his own money that he earned to buy a gift for one of the little kids. It's not easy for someone who gets way too much to totally understand that lots of people don't get anything, but we tried. 

We had my in-laws, Brandon, Emily, and the girls staying at our place Christmas night. It was a full house, but SO much fun. I'm sure Trav is hoping that Santa delivers his gifts already assembled next year. 

Cousin Time

I think one of the saddest parts about getting older is not being able to see your family as much. I don't get to see many of my cousins very often anymore. Lucky for me though my cousin Clark and his wife Stephanie live a couple hours away on a military base. Even luckier though is that they had their whole family come to town for Christmas. It was so fun to spend the afternoon with them and enjoy lunch and the mall together.