Goodbye 2011…..

It was a good year!! I can’t believe how much the kids have changed in one year. Harper was a BABY last January and now she is 2 going on 16 (don’t believe me? spend 10 minutes with her).

In honor of the year that was 2011, I have compiled a recap of pictures from our biggest events. Mainly because I have no life, so this is how I spent my Saturday and also because……..welp can’t think of another reason, basically I have no life, that’s all.

{The words in red have a link to that blog post.}

JANUARY-First snow!! ~ First day of school!! ~ Harper is 13 months and gets hair!!! (ok peach fuzz, whatevs).

 

FEBRUARY- Valentines Day!! ~ Trip to Kansas City’s Union Station!!

 

MARCH- Went to Manhattan, saw Bailey for the last time, she passed away 2 days after we left. So glad we had that last visit with her ~ Starting to warm up, yeah for getting outside!! ~ Trip to the zoo.

APRIL- Papa Hall retires ~ Josh and I go to Vegas with our good friends DJ and Leslie ~ Easter ~ Sarah’s bachelorette party (how did I NOT do a post on this? It was such a great time!!!)

 

MAY- Sarah and Derek get married (top 3 pics are all from wedding) ~ Mothers Day ~ Memorial Day/ Sarah’s birthday celebration at our house!!

 

JUNE- Annual Long family trip to Milford, where the kids enjoyed sunbathing in the lake and chowing down on s’mores (I never did a post on that!!) ~ Pax starts t-ball ~I got mono ~ My 29th birthday ~ 5 year wedding anniversary.

JULY- Paxton’s bible school show ~ 4th of July ~ Paxton’s first plane ride to Denver ~ Paxton’s first time seeing the mountains ~ Meeting Baby Jackson ~ Started half marathon training.

 

 

AUGUST- I took a photography class ~ 1st day of school ~ Butler and K-State football starts!

SEPTEMBER- I got nothin’ for this month. Basically I was runnin’ runnin’ and runnin’ runnin’. So here is just a random post from that month.

OCTOBER- Derek’s 30th Birthday party ~ K-State game with Josh (same day) ~ Annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch ~ HALF MARATHON!! ~ Halloween

 

NOVEMBER- Paxton turns 4! ~ Dino Dig Birthday Party ~ Thanksgiving ~ First visit to Auntie Sarah’s and Uncle Derek’s new house.

 

DECEMBER- Harper turns 2, Aiden turns 3 ~ Breakfast with Santa ~ Christmas!

Holy shiznipp that post took all freakin’ day to do!! Note to self: never do a year in review post again. Ridunkulous!

I would give you my New Years resolutions but I don’t have them yet. Lose weight and run another half marathon. That’s probably it. That and don’t sell my kids on e-bay, think that may be illegal anyway.

Happy New Year everyone!!! Here’s hopin’ 2012 is as good as 2011……………..and that the world doesn’t end like they say it will on December 21st…………yes I worry about that kind of stuff (read, obsess) don’t you? Oh.

Christmas….Part Deux

I think there are only 2 reasons Paxton would get up on his OWN before 7:30…..the house is on fire or Santa came. Sure as shiznipp he was up at 7:20 a.m. Christmas morning. We made him wait until 7:30 before we all went out to the living room together. Poor Harper, I had to wake her up, she was so confused. Once she figured out she had a crap ton of toys under the tree, she got over it.

 

Check out that bed head on Harper, bahahahaha!! Cracks me up!!

Pax got a barn and tractor set (just like Papa Hall), Transformers (duh), game cartridge for his V-Tech reader, giant dinosaur, slippers and a superhero cape and mask.

Harper got a Little People dollhouse, game cartridge for V-Tech, baby dolls, bracelets and her own superhero cape and mask.

Their stockings had practical stuff in them like toothbrushes, hand soap, band-aids, etc.

After checking out the Santa presents, they opened up their gifts from Josh and I……. more Transformers, more dolls, shocker.

 

 

 

 

 

And there are only 2 reasons why my living room would ever look like this; we were robbed, or it was Christmas morning.

Somehow we got everything cleaned up, everyone dressed, car packed up and were on the road by 11:30 (all with no fights, BONUS!)

The rest of the day consisted of food, more food, family and even more food. And presents, lots more presents. And a tearful “congratulations on your engagement” to my brother and Tara by yours truly. We had brought some champagne and my sisters were both like “no way I can’t do a toast, I will cry” and I was all like “pshaw, wussies, I got this shit!” and then 2 seconds into the speech I was all like “blubbering blubbering love you blubbering blubbering (loooooooooooong pause to try to stop blubbering) so happy, blubbering blubbering, cheers.” Yeah should have just stuck with CHEERS or CONGRATULATIONS. The Long girls are all a bunch of emotional cry-babies when it comes to that kind of stuff. His poor fiance probably thinks we are this close to having to be committed. Wait till you see us at the wedding girlfriend, it won’t be pretty.

We got to spend the day with my Dad’s side of the family, which was great. It’s hard for all of us to get together, now that my siblings and I all have families/husbands/fiances of our own now. So it was nice that it worked out and were were able to spend Christmas with them too!

Harper is ob-ses-sed with the dogs!! She is in “dog heaven” (ha ha, good one Amy) when we go to Dad or Sarah’s house.

She played in this closet (a closet!! wha-at!!) forever that day. I think she was probably just trying to hide from the 2 crazy boys who went around the house calling each other “poop heads” all day. Guess what Harper calls everyone now? Yup, poop head, awesome.

Have I ever mentioned my love for my Dad’s house? I freakin’ love that place!! Can you see why? What is there not to love?

The kids (and the dogs) FINALLY fell asleep and the adults had “adult time” and played poker until (ahem) 4 a.m.!!!! That’s just crazy talk!

And now, a little funny face photo montage. Sorry family, I couldn’t resist. I got a kick out of them and thought others would too. Who am I to deprive other people of laughter and joy?

Amber, you knew these would come out to haunt you right? She found this old Starter jacket in a closet at my Dad’s and was joking that she was going to wear it to the Cotton Bowl next week (that’s a separate post coming soon to a blog near you).

And now I have probably been dis-owned by my family. Love you guys!!! (Sarah, you got lucky, couldn’t find any funny ones of you).

We had an awesome Christmas, the older I get, the more meaningful it becomes.

Happy New Years everyone!!! 2011 was a great year and here’s hoping 2012 is even better.