2012: A Photographic Review

2012 was an amazing year! At the end of every year I always seem to catch myself wishing we could have done more. I feel like I missed a lot of stuff this year because I was pretty sick for 3 months (even though it doesn't appear that way). Then, I do a post like this and realize we really do a lot, even on the years we don't do a lot. I love my life and I really can't wait to see what 2013 brings us!

January

We were still in the Greensboro area of NC at the beginning of the year. The weather was nice and mild for winter *LOVE* Travis had been working in VA all of December and finally decided he had had enough. Quit his job up in VA and made the decision to transfer his union card from 110 in VA to 421 which is based in Charleston, SC and covers all of NC and SC. For all of January Travis was home with us, unemployed.

February

February took Travis away from us once again. He was offered a job about 3 hours southwest of us in the Charlotte, NC area. We had our first (and only) snowfall in February, a couple days later we were back to wearing t-shirts outside. One good snowfall a year is all we need in this house! Charlotte learned how to tie her shoes in February, she was so proud of herself! Not to mention how proud I was of her, especially since it made getting ready to go places so much easier only having to tie one pair of shoes!

March

The lovely Miss Charlotte took it upon herself to give her sweet sister a haircut. See her bangs!? What a hack job, luckily her bangs kinda blended in with the rest of her hair so I didn't have to do anything drastic to make it even. Charlotte also cut her own hair, she wasn't as lucky as Lexi, I had to take her to a salon to get her hair cut. It turned out really cute, but all those beautiful curls at the ends of her hair were cut off and haven't been back. Since Travis left in February the girls and I spent a lot of our time hiking and going to parks together, just keeping ourselves busy.

April

April brought nightly evening walks in the wagon and daily visits to the park. We were lucky enough to find a gem of a park that had just recently been opened. It was a multimillion dollar project specifically designed to be accessible to handicapped children with multiple sensory stations for children with special needs. The sad part about the project is that the park was ALWAYS empty, they built it kinda out in the boonies, it took us about 20 minutes to get there but it was worth the drive, we usually packed a picnic lunch and could stay there for several hours at a time. Granddad came down to visit us in April and we enjoyed a trip to the zoo to see dinosaurs! NC has a very nice zoo but it is right in the middle of the state making it a day trip. The zoo is one thing I miss about VA, it was so nice to be able to go to the zoo everyday. Easter was also in April and Travis had fun hiding eggs everywhere for hunting, it was cute to see the girls working together to get the eggs.

May

Travis's job was going great down in the Charlotte area with several other jobs popping up in the area we decided to make the move down to the Queen City. What a beautiful city it is! We absolutely love it here and plan on staying as long as Travis has work here. He goes where the work is and we follow him. Currently there is plenty of work around for him to stay for a few years. There is a mountain practically in our backyard, the hikes we've done up to the peak have been great. The views are amazing. I feel very fortunate to be able to enjoy it together as a family.

June

June brought more hiking and more exploring the area around us. We went to a food festival in Charlotte. Ugh, so much good food. I can't wait to go again in 2013. Charlotte was chosen by a street performer to be his assistant, she did an amazing job. She wasn't shy once and really blossomed when the crowd cheered for her. She's a little performer at heart.

July

We actually got to watch fireworks this year!! Last year we moved the first week of July so we missed the fireworks. We started the 4th by going to Charlotte for a parade, we watched fireworks in our local downtown and the girls got to use sparklers for the first time. They really liked them. I love and hate that fireworks are legal to buy in NC. The neighborhood shows are great but fireworks all night, not so much. July wouldn't have been complete without more hiking. We ended up at a state park about an hour north of us. Best. Park. Ever. We love it and went several times in July. At the end of July the girls had completed their very first summer reading program at the library. The prize was their own book totes to fill up at the library every week. Well earned!

August

Auntie E came to visit us in August!!! We did SO much stuff! Botanical gardens, amusement parks, museums, etc. It was such a fun visit. We were so happy to see her and sad to see her go. We went back to our favorite state park and brought Oreo with us, she had a blast. She is crazy about water. We had a hard time getting her out of the water so we could go home. We took the girls canoeing for the first time. We've been kayaking with them before but with two kayaks, we were able to use one canoe and took a nice tour around a small lake in our area. After a bit of instruction the girls were able to paddle us around by themselves! In mid August we found out we are expecting an addition to the family. I had to snap a picture right when I found out, behold the 4 week bump.

September

In September we went to Travis's aunt and uncle's house for Labor Day. It was a fantastic visit like always, so nice to lounge by the pool and enjoy great company. The girls really love seeing their cousins, not sure how much the cousins enjoy it since they are in the preteen/teen age but if they were annoyed by a 4 and 2 year old they did a great job hiding it! This year we started off Charlotte's first year of official homeschool. It's not official through the state yet (not until 7) but I'm still keeping records. Alexis turned three! AHH! We had a huge dead tree cut down in our backyard, woodpile heaven. The guy never came back to finish the job so we still have tons of wood in our yard. Can't decide what to do with it, especially now that the cutest little chipmunks have taken up residence in the piles. They are adorable to watch running back and forth between piles. We found a great homeschooling group in our area and enjoyed park dates and field trips including one to a small zoological park with several exotic (and some farm) animals.

October

Somehow after our trip to Travis's uncle's house I misplaced my camera charger so October was seriously lacking in pictures. Especially some pictures that I'd really love to have. Our local natural history museum had a free day so the girls and I went to that, they got to ride horses and see dinosaur bones, two happy girls. We went on a field trip to an apple orchard in Hendersonville, they had the most amazing apple cider doughnuts. I'm not even going to tell you how many I ate (more than one). We picked several pounds of apples and used apples in everything, mini apple pies, applesauce, apple muffins, etc. After being on a waiting list for a few months I got an email saying Charlotte was accepted into a Girl Scout troop. It's a small group but is growing week by week. She really really adores the Girl Scouts and I'm so happy to get to be part of it with her. Also in October we found out that trick or treating is very scarce around here. By the end of the night we discovered the secret. About 20 minutes away there is a street called Elm St. where everyone goes. It's a huge street that they shut down complete with police officers and road closed signs. One pass down that street will get you enough candy to last a year, now we know for 2013.

November

November started out with huge leaf piles in our front yard, luckily we have mild weather in November! The girls were out there in the leaves everyday! Charlotte turned five! Half a decade, yikes! We stayed home for the first time in at least 10 years for Thanksgiving. Travis had been working a lot of overtime so we ended up having a belated dinner but it was still delicious! On Thanksgiving day we went to a parade in Charlotte, it was fun to watch but a bit long, over two hours. Thank goodness they were selling funnel cakes (because that's what everyone needs at 9:00 am) or I wouldn't have lasted through the whole thing.

December

My birthday is in early December and I got the best present ever. We found out we are expecting a baby boy. What an exciting thing to find out on a birthday! We added a new addition to our family. A sweet little Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mix that we named Cocoa. She was meant to be part of our family I think. After searching several shelters we decided to check Craigslist and there she was needing a home. The whole family loves her, especially Oreo! We did several Christmas crafts, made cookies, went to a homeschool Christmas party, went to a Girl Scout Christmas service project and also a Girl Scout Christmas party. Finally, we took a break long enough to head up to Grandma's for an early Christmas. Travis ended up getting sick with what we think was the flu(?) so he didn't come with us to Grandma's. Just me, two girls, and two dogs traveling 5-6 hours in the snow and through the mountains. I think I'd rather fly next time...We made it home from Grandma's on Christmas Eve with just enough time to send the girls to bed and set out the presents. Granddad surprised us by being there when we got home so we were able to spend Christmas Day with him. 2012 ended with me being 24 weeks pregnant, we can't wait to meet our little guy in 2013!

So, you can see we had an amazing 2012 and really couldn't ask for anything more. 2013 is going to be even better!

Hope you all had a great 2012 and wish you a healthy prosperous 2013!

Curious about 2010 and 2011's review?

 Find them here

2010

2011

August: 2012 Goals Review

For a while I was updating you all on how I was doing with my resolutions for 2012. I fell off the blogging wagon and now I'm back on, ready to update you again and make some changes.

So how have I been doing?

Visit more state parks: This one is in the easy section for a reason, because it's freakin' easy! We have been frequenting a few state parks but none on the list because we moved. Now we only live close enough to Lake Norman and Morrow Mountain and I'm pretty sure we'll make it to those by the end of the year. The other parks on the list are now obsolete so I'm replacing them with:

*Chimney Rock

*Gorges State Park

*Grandfather Mountain

*Lake James

*Mount Mitchell

All of these parks are within 2 hours of us, so nice easy drives and plenty of time to enjoy the parks. I just love living in North Carolina!

Get Charlotte involved in some sort of social setting: Char is on a waiting list for a Girl Scout troop this fall, we've joined a homeschool co-op that has a lot of children her age, and dance class is planned for fall. I think this one is covered for the year!

Explore more of Greensboro: This one is not going to happen now that we've moved so let's just change it to "Explore more of Charlotte"

Improve my photography: This one I've completely failed at, so far. I haven't read any books, done any photo shoots lately, I've gotten really lazy. *sigh*

Expand Dilly-Dali Art: I'm excited about this one. I'm in the process of creating a series for homeschoolers, planning on teaching a co-op class, and possibly being a contributor for a larger blog.

Set aside time for activities: I've already posted about our schedule spinner, it's been working wonders! We are a little less strict with it since it's summer but once school starts in September it will be doing its job perfectly once more! 

Maintaining a proper diet: For this goal we decided to watch our carb intake. It's really been working great for us. Reading food labels has really been eye opening as far as added sugar. There is sugar in everything!!! Now that we've been on the low carb diet for awhile it's hard to cheat, mostly because you feel absolutely horrible when you do, bloated, lethargic, and gross.

Eliminate internet distractions: Urm, this one is a work in progress...

So there you have it! I think I've been doing great so far!! I'm on track to finishing quite a few of my resolutions for 2012!

January: 2012 Goals Review

This is a post I've been meaning to write for some time, well...since the end of January at least.
I think writing an end of the month review of how much I've accomplished on my goals will help me to reach them better by looking at what has been working and what hasn't been working and making the appropriate adjustments.

In order to write this review, I will be referring back to my goals list and going through each goal one by one.

Visit more state parks: We haven't done much of this yet because though the weather has been mild, it hasn't been consistent, and there is nothing worse than getting to a state park and having the weather turn on you! We'll start heading out more once the weather starts staying nice for longer periods of time (which should be soon!)

Get Charlotte involved in something social: We haven't done this yet either, we have been taking her and Alexis to a new storytime so hopefully that will hold her over until the new semesters for classes begin or we find a more suitable social group for her.

Explore more of Greensboro: We have done this to some extent. We've discovered a few libraries in that area we really love. When we first moved down here we were heading in the opposite direction (Burlington) to go to the library but didn't feel like it was a good fit. The Greensboro library has been perfect. The storytime we found is wonderfully interactive, filled with lots of kids (the librarian knows all their names!), lots of stories, movement, singing, and even at the end they do a craft that goes along with the theme of the stories that were read. The girls just sat there on the ground while everyone was singing and dancing at first but they are slowly becoming more and more comfortable.

Improve my photography: I haven't taken the time to focus on this yet, but I have been doing the 365 project daily (even though I find it hard to post daily). Hopefully, now that we've found a new library we're happy with, I'll be able to explore the world of Adult Nonfiction.


Expand Dilly-Dali Art: I have launched a few new series on the blog that people are really responding to which is great, my FB page "likes" have jumped quite a bit which is also great. Still, I'm looking for more of a local community reach, which I am hesitant to get started on building. Mostly because I don't plan on staying in this area long so all my efforts would be wasted if we moved halfway through the year (which I'm hoping to) I did find a few new tips on helping to start an art group that I will definitely keep in mind when we do get settled in a new area.

Set aside specific times for activities: I'm surprised at how quickly we were able to adjust to this new goal. At first I was having trouble with keeping track of the time, I finally sat down and wrote a schedule for pretty much every hour the girls are awake (8-8). I made a "clock" that the girls can see so they help keep me on track, there are different colors for each type of activity so that it's easier for them to read. Of course, I'm not crazy strict with it and don't force the girls stick to it 100%, a couple of times we replaced a few of the morning activities with outdoor time and just did the morning things in the evening. Easy peasy! I will post more about how I made the "clock" in another post.

Maintaining a proper diet: Like I said in the original goals post, this is mainly Travis's goal because he has issues with putting on weight easily if he strays from the path. He was able to meet with a fitness nutritionist in the beginning of the year that told him pretty much everything he already knew, but felt like he had to hear it from a professional. That being said, he's done pretty well on the diet thing, and he's been keeping up with his daily working out. I, on the other hand, haven't ran in what feels like forever. I'm starting to feel doughy, so I guess I better get my butt on the treadmill!

Eliminate internet distractions: So this one has been pretty much a fail for me. It's so hard to keep off the internet during the day when I'm trying to build a fairly successful fan base on the Dilly-Dali Art page. I mostly only get on for networking with other bloggers, I haven't been on my personal page much. When I am on my personal page most of the stuff is posted automatically from other sources. All of my photos are posted automatically and links are easily shared when posted on another FB page. This goal will take more work than I thought!

So there you have it! I think I'm doing fairly well goal wise, especially considering there are still 10 months and some odd days left!

2011: A Photographic Review

Last year I really enjoyed picking out pictures for a photographic review of 2010. I knew I had to do it again and again every year. It's amazing looking through the pictures of all that we did within such a short span of time. One year really isn't that long in the grand scheme of things. 

How I managed to only pick 1-2 pictures for each month last year is beyond me. I had the hardest time keeping the amount of pictures for each month below 10 it seems, 2011 was such a wonderful busy year! I hope you have fun reflecting with me.

January
The beginning of 2011 was when Lexi's big personality just blossomed. She started the year at 16 months, that's when things really start to get fun! Char and Lexi started to enjoy each other's company, playing together all the time. Whatever Charlotte did, Lexi did. I had a successful surgery to remove a cyst from my neck/throat area.

Riding a roller coaster

February
February brought warmer weather which meant more outside time. Charlotte started getting in touch with her inner artist and Lexi started taking charge of her independence, insisting on doing everything herself.

March
Lexi turned 18 months old in March, such a big girl! She's a climber and a jumper and an "I can do it!" type of girl. Charlotte is my sensitive soul. I catch her staring off into space all of the time, just contemplating. I started a blog/art group for toddlers in March called Dilly-Dali Art. When I announced it on Facebook, the group filled up within 24 hours. I was so pleased to be able to offer a space for kids to get messy and creative. We also visited Travis down in North Carolina for the first time. We had a really great visit, North Carolina is beautiful!

April
April is when the weather really starts getting warm and staying warm. That means lots of trips to the beach! We put our membership to the aquarium to good use and dug our toes in the sand. We spent a lot of time at parks and walking one of our favorite trails. The girls also love to spend time in the kitchen with me, especially Charlotte.

May
Here's something that won't be surprising, more outdoors in May! More pictures of Lexi loving life and flashing that huge grin of hers and more pictures of Char off in a distant land. Oh and of course more pictures of the beach! May is when the art group's spring semester ended and I scheduled groups for the summer, then Travis and I made the huge decision to move our family down to NC so we could all be together.

June
June was a huge, HUGE month for us. Charlotte had her long awaited dance recital (she ended up breaking down and crying on stage). After Char's recital we decided we wanted to move by the end of June/beginning of July. Before leaving we made sure we spent time with our friends before leaving. We had a super fun time at the Botanical Gardens, checked out the new children's museum with Granddad,  enjoyed a reading carnival at the library and got to read books to bunnies at the library as well
Finally, right before we left Virginia we were graced with the most gorgeous orange sunset. I had never seen anything like it before so, I had to go out and take pictures of it. There is an amazing story to go along with the sunset too. About a week before, a young lady was killed by a drunk driver in a head-on collision, she had just graduated from high school. The bright orange sunset happened exactly when her memorial service was taking place, her favorite color was orange. 
I don't think it was a coincidence at all.

  

July
We made it down to our new home in NC the first week of July. It's exactly where we needed to be. The girls were and still are so happy to be with their Daddy.
There are tons of things to explore in NC, new parks, new bugs, new people, new everything!
Grandma and Poppa Joel were the first guests we had at our new home.

Waiting for Daddy to come home for lunch

August
August sent us on a trip to visit Travis's Uncle and Aunt who also live in NC. The girls had a blast in their pool and Charlotte even learned how to fish! She got her own Spiderman fishing pole as soon as we got back home. 
Also in August, Uncle Mikie returned to the USA for good after being stationed in Japan for almost 4 years! 

September
NC offers some of the prettiest sunsets I've seen. I'm always outside taking pictures of the sunsets. We went to our first apple festival in September, experienced a few chilly days. Miss Alexis turned 2 years old! TWO!! She had an apple pie cake for her birthday and a trip to the zoo that was rained out, but the girls were still able to enjoy themselves.

October
Uncle Mikie visited us in October. We made the most out of the mild weather, getting as much outside time as we could before the weather gets cold! The girls love taking our evening walks, exploring every little thing, in October snails took over our sidewalks! It was like walking in a mine field! We took the girls to go see Yo Gabba Gabba for their combined birthday present (it was fantastic!) For Halloween we headed up North to Grandma's to do some trick or treating. Charlotte (who was obsessed with Spiderman) got a suit to wear while saving people.  For Halloween Charlotte told me she had an amazing idea, to wear her princess (recital) dress for Halloween. Okay by me! Charlotte was a trick or treating master, she ran nonstop from house to house. I toddled along with Lexi while Travis ran ahead trying to catch Charlotte.

November
November means Charlotte's birthday. Four years flew by. She's such a little adult now! She picked out the most delicious Chocolate-Wasted cupcakes for her birthday. We saw our first Christmas parade in NC, did a mini family photo shoot using the tripod (I think it went well!) and made a trip up to visit family in Virginia for Thanksgiving.

December
Charlotte wrote her first letter ever to Santa, I can't wait to show it to her when she's my age. We added a new addition to our family, a border collie named Oreo Cookie Pie. She's adorable, playful and full of energy. Perfect for wearing the kids out while wearing herself out at the same time. I'm so looking forward to taking her with us on all our hiking journeys in 2012 and beyond. Travis was called away once more to work out of town, but we'll see him again soon. December brought along with it visitors for Christmas. Uncle Mikie, Granddad, Grandpa T, all came during some point in December and we were thrilled to have them here. Christmas was perfect as always, we were able to spend it all together and that's the best gift of all.

We had an amazing 2011 and I really feel like I'm missing telling you tons of things. I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us and what adventures we'll go on, I wouldn't be surprised if we moved again! What we've learned in 2011 is to just sit back and let life take you on a ride and to make the best out of anything thrown your way. I'll be working on my list of resolutions for 2012 and hope to have them posted soon!

Happy New Year to all!