Dusting Off the Old Blog...

Happy New Year!!!

I felt compelled by the comforting and encouraging feeling the first day of this new year has left me with to finally dive back into blogging again.

My last post was about Halloween and boy has life changed since that post.  Most of you know about Nathan's illness by now.  I will eventually write a post about it so that you can all have a better understanding of what happened, but I am still not feeling up to reliving/rehashing it in my mind just yet.  It's still evokes so much raw emotion and turns my stomach to think about some of the things that occurred.  So, once I have had a chance to deal with that and some other feelings that linger from our experience, I will post about it.  Until then you'll just have to enjoy posts about how we are living our lives now and using the positive things we have learned through out our ordeal.

There were lots of good times in 2013, but with it ending on a bit of a sour note, we were all very excited to get a new year started!!!

We did "Taco Tuesday" for dinner.

Dylan came to the table with his safety goggles on and told his dad that he just wanted to be sure he didn't get any food in his eyes.  While making guacamole earlier in the evening, I lectured the kids on not touching jalapenos and what happens if you get them in you eyes.  I guess I must have scared the living daylights out of poor Dylan.

Next up....cookie cake!!!

There's no rhyme or reason to the cookie cake.  I just happened to see one while I was out grocery shopping that day and thought it would be a fun dessert for New Year's Eve.  As you can tell by the picture my three little stooges agreed!

Then we spent the rest of the night just snuggling and enjoying each others company.

Mommy "covered in kids" as my kiddos like to say.

At 9:45pm Grant came stumbling over to me and said, "Mommy, sleepy go nap?"  while rubbing his sweet little sleep filled eyes and tightly grasping his beloved green blankie.  So, off to bed he went with nary a peep.

Now we were down to two and Leah was fading fast.

 She had been to a sleep over the night before, so I had doubts she would make it to midnight.  At 10:30pm she could keep those beautiful blue eyes open no more and snuggled up in bed.  I'm pretty sure she was snoozing before I left the room.

Then there is Dylan....

 Our one and only child left standing at Midnight.

He was "rewarded" by getting to use a "big person" glass to toast the new year with his sparkling apple cider.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! 

2014

Poor guy was struggling with the whole concept of time.  He kept asking if he was going to get to stay up until morning.  "Is midnight morning? Can I stay up until it's time to wake up?"  He then proceeded to throw a HUGE fit when I made him go to bed after our midnight celebration.  He must have inherited mine and Great Grandma Miller's body clock.  Likes staying up late and sleeping in.  He slept until 10:30am this morning, by the way.  

Snuggled up with my babies last night thinking about all of the milestones we already know are going to come to pass, certainly made me tear up a bit.  Leah will turn 7 and start 2nd grade this year.  Dylan will turn 5 and start Kindergarten in the fall...say it ain't so.  Grant will turn 2 and get to go to "school" (Mother's Day Out) in the fall.  In February they will all FINALLY get to meet a new baby cousin!  Of course there will be lots more memories made and good and, inevitably, not so great times to be had.  We will all trudge through together and just enjoy our blessings we have been given in this life. From our family to yours Happy New Year and may you all be richly blessed in 2014!!!