A Look Back on 2018

2018 was a great year for our family as our babies continue to grow, learn, and have new adventures. I know that I'll look back as these years with little kids as some of the best days of my life. Here's a look back on our year.

January
- Matt traveled for work, and I tried to be intentional and let each of the kids have a special night with Mommy
- Nathan had his first basketball game and loved it!
- We took the kids to the children's museum for a fun morning

February
- We surprised the kids with circus tickets and had a fun night
- We celebrated Valentine's Day with class parties and our family fondue and scavenger hunt
- I turned 33 and Matt planned the best day celebrating with my family
- Matt traveled more for work (that was a theme for the first half of 2018)

March
- Samuel turned FIVE and we had a fun Bounce U birthday party with all his sweet Pre-K friends
- Nathan finished his first basketball season
- We took a mini Spring Break vacation to Branson and had the best time at Silver Dollar City and Grand Country water park

April
- Oklahoma teachers protested with a 11 day walk out, so Nathan got to have a fun break from school. He especially enjoyed the days when Samuel and Elisabeth were in school and he got special Mommy time
- Samuel started playing soccer for the second season
- I went on a women's retreat at Falls Creek
- We celebrated Easter with our family

May
- Nathan turned SEVEN and had a fun Bounce U birthday party to celebrate
- Elisabeth had her first dance recital and soaked up all the girly fun
- Nathan and Samuel had special Mother's Day celebrations at their school for me
- Elisabeth and I celebrated the end of the year (and our girls' days) with manicures and pedicures
- Samuel finished Pre-K. He had the best year (even though he ended up sick on the day of his graduation)
- Matt and I celebrated TWELVE years of marriage
- Nathan finished first grade and was reading like a champ
- We took a family vacation to the beach and had so much fun!

June
- We stayed the week in Weatherford with Granny and Grandaddy to attend Vacation Bible School
- Nathan attended a 1st and 2nd grade day camp at church
- We swam at our pool a lot and packed our summer days with lots of play dates and time with friends
- We had a fun boys and girls sleepover with the Shondelmyers
- The kids started swimming lessons and were great swimmers when they finished
- Katherine started crawling
- We took the kids to Frontier City for a fun day of riding rides

July
- We hosted a fun 4th of July party at our pool/backyard
- The kids finished swimming lessons
- I went on an annual girls' weekend with Erica and Mindy, and Matt and the kids spent the weekend in Weatherford
- We stood in line for hours to get cheap build a bear bears
- More playdates at the aquarium, zoo and children's museum and swimming fun

August
- Elisabeth turned FOUR and had a fun mermaid party with her best friends. 
- Samuel started Kindergarten
- Nathan started second grade
- Samuel and Elisabeth started back at gymnastics
- Nathan accepted Christ as his Savior and Lord

September
- We spent Labor Day weekend at the Jasmine Moran Children's museum and the OKC zoo with friends
- Elisabeth started Pre-K
- Katherine turned ONE and started walking the same week
- Nathan started karate

October
- Matt and I spent a week at Universal Orlando celebrating our 12th anniversary (a few months late)
- We attended a baby dedication for Katherine at our church
- We had a fun Fall break with friends in Branson- Silver Dollar City, Grand Country Water park, bike riding at Dogwood canyon and lots of playing and visiting
- Elisabeth had her first school field trip at Livesay Orchards
- The kids dressed as Mario Brothers characters and we had a fun Halloween with friends
- We visited the Gathering Place for the first time as a family

November
- Nathan was baptized at our church
- Elisabeth had a special pre-k Thanksgiving feast
- We celebrated Thanksgiving with family

December
- Elisabeth was a Wiseman in her pre-k Christmas program
- Our month was full of Christmas parties and activities
- We celebrated Christmas morning with presents and waffles
- We traveled to Weatherford and Edmond to celebrate with family
- We had a fun New Year's Eve sleepover with friends

Christmas Day

We told the kids they couldn't come downstairs until 6:00 on Christmas morning, and they ended up making it until almost 6:30. Matt and I got up early and got everything ready.

We made them wait on the stairs while we woke up Katherine.

She didn't understand why everyone was up so early.

We got the kids a joint gift of two bungee chairs for extra seating in the play room- They've been used as obstacles and trampolines more than chairs though (we're not surprised)

After they saw the chairs, they took off after their stockings.

I always like shopping for stocking stuffers. The kids ask for little toys/books/things all year, and most of the time we tell them no, so it's fun to spoil them at Christmas- and make the practical things like toothbrushes, underwear, gloves, chap stick,  and bandaids seem more fun.

After stockings they took turns opening their gifts under the tree.

I tried to limit them to three major gifts, but I think they each ended up with another one or two smaller things (like a book or cd).

Nathan's main gifts this year were a K'nex ferris wheel set, a Lego gadget book, and motors for his legos.

Samuel's main gifts were Mario party 8 with extra controllers, tinker toys, and a spirograph and craft kit.

Elisabeth's main gifts were a Calico critters house/van set and accessories, a Barbie styling head and a karaoke machine.

Katherine got an ice cream cart and a Tickle Me Elmo.

Matt and I both ended up getting big gifts for each other earlier in the month (a new phone and a new laptop), but had a smaller gift to open on Christmas morning too.

After we opened gifts, it was time to play!!!

Sweet baby girl was so cuddly all morning. I think she was tired from getting woken up so early

Nathan had a hard time deciding what to play first. I think he started and stopped playing with all his gifts that morning. He was too excited to stick with one I guess.

Elisabeth's number one gift request for Christmas was this Calico Critters van. She's had the figures and some houses since her birthday and always needed a car whenever she played with them.

This was my view as I was cooking breakfast. I think it's the best view in the world. I'm so grateful for such happy, precious Christmas memories with my family. Goodness, we're so blessed to have these four wonderful kids who make Christmas magical.

We had our traditional waffles and bacon for breakfast.

As soon as breakfast was over, it was back to playing.

Christmas morning is one of my favorite days of the year, and I told Matt that what I've realized is that what I love about it is that we take a whole day off- no chores or work or places to go, and we just relax, spend time together as a family, and play! I love that. I think I usually feel scattered with a million things to do and even when I'm playing with my kids, I'm still thinking about what I need to get done, but on Christmas everything stops, and it's such a joy to be able to spend quality time playing with my family- all those new toys help too!

I also told Matt we should schedule another day and pretend it's Christmas (without all the presents), and just stay home, ignore all the work and chores, and  play. I think I'll make that a goal this year!

Around 11:00 we drove over to my parents' house to celebrate with them.

The kids couldn't wait to open more presents

They made out pretty good. We ate a late lunch and spent the afternoon playing. I played Let's Go Pikachu with Samuel, played Calico critters/My Life doll with Elisabeth and helped Nathan figure out his laptop, and Matt beat me at a few rounds of Mario Kart. It was a relaxing, fun day.

Christmas Eve

We had a really nice Christmas Eve. The kids stayed in their jammies for most of the day. I bought a Gingerbread decorating kit several weeks ago, but we never got around to decorating them, so we spent some time in the morning decorating our village.

I love seeing their creativity!

After lunch we started a new tradition of a sibling gift exchange. We took the kids shopping at Dollar Tree to buy gifts for their siblings and for me and Matt. Since I didn't want those thoughtful gifts to get overlooked on Christmas morning, we sat down and exchanged them on Christmas Eve. I was impressed with the kids' thoughtfulness for each gift they picked out. It was such a sweet time of giving and sharing with the ones we love the most.

Katherine was big fan of her gifts.

Even after all the presents Samuel got for Christmas, he still names this Firefighter army man set as one of his top favorites. Nathan knows him well

Elisabeth was excited about her stick on nails.

Matt and I also let the kids open a joint gift on Christmas Eve. I always get them a new game and let them open it on Christmas Eve and then we all play it. This year they got Sleeping Queens.

Finally about 3:00 that afternoon, we changed out of our jammies and got dressed up to go to the Christmas Eve service at our church.

Earlier in the month I had read an article that stuck with me about how many times the magical, precious memories of Christmas don't feel like that at the time. It talked about how the First Christmas when Jesus was born probably didn't feel that wonderful, awe inspiring and magical like it does today. In reality Mary and Joseph were  alone, tired and dirty and exhausted from giving birth. But now, we look back on that Christmas as the most wonderful night in history. It shared how when we're raising young families, Christmas time might be full of melt downs, chaos, and unmet expectations, but years from now, we'll probably look back on these Christmases with such fond, sweet memories.

So during our Christmas Eve service when I was holding a lit candle in one hand and a bag of goldfish in the other hand trying to keep my active toddler still and quiet, I tried to remember that although it's stressful now, I'm going to cherish these sweet moments with my little family.

After the service, we grabbed a pizza for dinner and then met my parents at the Philbrook museum for some Christmas Eve fun.

Santa was busy on Christmas Eve, so Hornsby filled in and my kids were thrilled. Katherine was even a big fan (from a distance, ha)

The kids rode a train too.

Their favorite part was a craft area where they made lanterns.

They worked SO hard on those lanterns. I bet we were there for almost an hour. All three of them were so detail oriented in their creations. We were a little underwhelmed with the Christmas Philbrook activities until we reached the craft station. That made it all worth it, ha!

We came home and put the very excited kids straight to bed with orders that they couldn't come down for Christmas morning until 6:00 the next morning.