Ringing in a New Year {2016}

As has become our tradition, we ring in the New Year at home in our pajamas with some sparkling beverages.  We also celebrate the New Year earlier than midnight Eastern Standard Time.  We like to celebrate at 9:00 p.m. our time with Rio de Janiero.  

We reused our old hats this year, and I made the little sparkly year banner to use for Mattox's weekly pictures. 

Mattox was not pleased with this little photo session.  Picture taking has gotten a lot more difficult since he is very mobile and hates sitting still.  

Big brother Evan tried to hold him but that was a losing battle. 

Celebrating with Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janiero, Brazil.

Watching the New Year's fireworks. 

Mattox loves computers and cords. 

Brody loved his sparkling beverage. 

This little guy just thinks he is grown now.  Sigh. 

Toasting in the New Year.  Cheers!

"What??? No sparkly drink for me???"

Brothers toasting. 

2015 Highlights

It has become a little "tradition" of mine to recap the highlights of my year.  I do this for a couple of reasons.  When we spend the majority of our days doing the seemingly mundane, less glamorous, and repetitive tasks of day-to-day life, we often feel like we haven't really accomplished much with our lives.  In this day and age when we look at the "perfect" social media lives of our friends and associates and think how great their lives are while we are folding another pile of laundry, changing another dirty diaper, or fixing meals for these little people in our lives, we often forget that we are only seeing the "highlights" of other people's lives.  People aren't as apt to post pictures or write comments about their mundane lives.  Similarly, when I get to the end of a year, I would be more apt to see the sum total of my year as a never ending cycle of days spent performing the everyday tasks that are so quickly forgotten.  The great memories made during each year would be lost to the depths of my computer hard drive or to some dusty old photo albums on a shelf.  That is one of the reasons I love this blog.  I can look back over my year and see the great memories we made each month.  When I rely on just my memory to catalog our year, I would mostly see the many days of exhaustion and remember feelings of "unaccomplishment".  However, when I start preparing my list of the highlights from the year, I feel uplifted and accomplished when I remember all the good memories we made together.  Those are the feelings of hope I want to carry into a new year.  I bet you could make a similar list of the great highlights from your year too.  I challenge you to look at all of the great memories you have made and all that you accomplished this past year and hold onto those feelings of accomplishment when you find yourself feeling "unaccomplished" or "unworthy" of the glorified lives out there on social media.


January

We rang in the New Year. 

Got a peek at Mattox at 30 Weeks.

Brody and I embarked on our journey of preschool at home. 

We celebrated our favorite daddy's birthday. 

February

We celebrated a special Valentine's Day. 

We got our first snow/ice storm of winter. 

And another little snow day. 

Evan attended his first Blue and Gold Banquet and was awarded his Wolf badge.  Sadly, this was one of his last events with his old Charlotte troop. 

And made it to the final week of pregnancy with Mattox. 

March

Mattox arrived!

We moved!

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with these little Leprechauns! 

Brody started his very first season of T-ball. 

One of the highlights of the year was definitely meeting this dear blog friend.  I just hope we can return the visit very soon.  

Moving to a new town and not having friends around to help him celebrate his birthday was hard, but he was so happy to share his celebration with his new Canadian pal, Sam.  

April

Mattox celebrated his first whole month on the outside. 

We celebrated our first Easter together as a family of six. 

I was tickled pink to have this little Easter bunny this year. 

We took our annual Spring family pictures. 

Brody had a fabulous day celebrating his 4th birthday. 

May

We took Brody to Discovery Place Kids Rockingham for a late birthday treat. 

This little rainbow turned 2 months old. 

We enjoyed hanging out with Great-Grandpa and the Hudson clan for a fun family day. 

I loved celebrating Mother's Day with all of my babies. 

I felt pretty accomplished when I finally finished Mattox's nursery before he was 3 months old.  Still my favorite room in the house. 

We all enjoyed going to a Carolina Mudcats baseball game with Evan's Cub Scout troop, and Daddy enjoyed camping out with the boys that night. 

Going to the Air Show was probably the highest point of Evan's year. 

Evan also enjoyed going to Boot Camp with his neighbor friend, Ryan. 

We had a fun weekend celebrating Memorial Day and Grandma's birthday. 

June

Evan ended his first year of Cub Scouts and enjoyed lots of fun events with his new troop.

We enjoyed exploring Bass Lake Park in our new town. 

Mattox turned 3 months. 

Evan finished up the second grade.

Evan finished another great season of baseball. 

And Brody progressed so much in his skills in t-ball. 

We explored Historic New Bern, NC. 

We discovered Tryon Palace. 

We explored the beautiful Outer Banks of NC.

We celebrated our 12th anniversary and Father's Day at Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. 

We learned all about forestry at the Cradle of Forestry in the Pisgah National Forest. 

We celebrated Mattie's 2nd birthday. 

July

Mattox turned 4 months. 

We celebrated our nation's birthday at a good ol' American baseball game. 

Evan started 3rd grade after a very short summer break. 

We explored more in our new town. 

August

Mattox turned 5 months. 

We met the Pack! 

We tried out a new splash pad in our area. 

We took Mattox's 6 month portraits. 

September

Brody and I made his 4th year of preschool official even if he will continue to be taught by mommy at home. 

Mattox turned 6 months. 

I celebrated my birthday with my sweet boys. 

We explored Historic Marion, NC. 

And the Historic Carson House. 

And explored inside a mountain. 

Brody played his second season of soccer. 

And Evan had another impressive year of soccer. 

October

Mattox turned 7 months. 

We enjoyed a later than usual trip to our beloved Myrtle Beach. 

And finally got our annual beach family pictures. 

Evan jumped back into Cub Scouts as a Bear. 

Our family enjoyed going to the State Fair. 

We had a really fun Halloween in our new town. 

November

Mattox turned 8 months. 

We celebrated cousin Grady's 3rd birthday. 

We had a great family Thanksgiving. 

December

Mattox turned 9 months. 

We kicked off the Christmas season. 

We decorated for Christmas. 

We visited Santa. 

We took our Christmas card pictures. 

We started some new traditions in our new town. 

We had a wonderful Christmas at home. 

Mattie celebrated her 3rd Christmas in heaven.