My Annual Recap of the Year!

2015 Recap

Happy New Year!

1.     What did you do in 2015 that you've never done before?

(In no particular order...)

~Taught Ombudsman Basic Training several times
~Put down a cat that only I had owned
~Became a Mom to 3 kids
~Turned 30
~Was named the National Education & Patriotism Chairman for NWCA

2. Did you keep your New Years Resolutions & will you make any this year?

For 2015, my goals were:

1.     Blog more often! I really sucked at this until this fall, so I'll say it was accomplished, though late in the year.

2.     Use my iPhone less when my kids are around! FAILED miserably!

3.     Be open to the changes that will be occurring in our life in 2015 (this is a life changing year for us. I will divulge more as it happens.) I didn't do it with the most grace at times, but I did accomplish this one!

2016's goals are:

1. Use the iPhone/iPad less when my kids are around. I am keeping this one to try again.
2. Potty train Julia
3. Continue the blogging, because I've found it makes me happy.
4. Yell less.
5. Slow down & don't rush all the time.
6. Push past discomfort.
7. Don't put things off w/o good reason.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Well I gave birth and I am pretty darn close to myself. I also had some friends give birth too.

4. Did anyone close to you pass away?

My sweet Gracie cat passed away in July. Several other friends lost pets this year as well...it was a hard year for pets it seems. 

5. What countries did you visit?

No outside countries again this year. Avery and I have decided we're going to Canada in 2016 though.

6. What would you like to have in 2016 that you didn't have in 2015?

Last year I said a house we own. It unfortunately didn't happen, so I am saying a house again. We'd really like to own our own place.

7. What date from 2015 will be etched in your mind & why?

I've got several this year after having none last year.
January 5, 2015- Finding out I was pregnant with Benjamin
July 10, 2015- Gracie passing away
August 25, 2015- Benjamin was born
October 19- Avery started his civilian job. I was so unbelievably relieved that day!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Not sure I had one. Obviously adding another child for sure....also weathering through some very significant life changes.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I don't think I had anything I feel was really a failure.

10. Did you suffer injury or illness? 

Extremely uncontrolled asthma during my pregnancy and an emergency c-section. 

11.  What was the best thing you bought?

Another Erin Condren Life Planner to start 2016 off right!

12.  Whose behavior is worthy of celebration?

Last year I said the Pope and again I give him the honors! Fantastic world leader who is not just talking the talk, but actually taking action.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled?

I can't just narrow it down to one this year. So here's my list:

1. Politicians not willing to work together for our greater good.
2. ISIS...for obvious reasons.
3. Hillary Clinton for her email scandal. Completely inappropriate to violate OPSEC that way.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Rent/moving/changing houses

15. What did you get really, really, excited about? 

Benjamin, new Ombudsman & new Navy spouses getting it right, and planners!

16. What songs will always remind you of 2015?

"Forever and Ever, Amen" Randy Travis
"Hope in Front of Me" Danny Gokey
"Dangerous (feat. Sam Martin)" David Guetta
"Your Love Never Fails" Newsboys

17. Compared to 2014 were you ___________ in 2015

a. Happier or sadder? I hate to say this, but because of stress/hormones etc I was often sadder.

b. Thinner or fatter?  Fatter technically b/c of pregnancy & still working to get that weight off.

c. Richer or poorer?   Poorer

18. What do you wish you would've done more of? 

Blog sooner in the year. I didn't blog about my pregnancy really at all. 

19. What do you wish you would've done less of? 

Yelling

20. How did you spend Christmas? 

I took my babies to Mass on Christmas Eve, then we ate pizza at home as a family. On Christmas Day, we woke up and opened gifts. Then drove down to Portland.

21. What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you this past year?

I can't think of anything. 

22.  Did you fall in love in 2015?

I stayed in love with my husband and fell in love with our littlest boy.

23.  What was your favorite restaurant?  

 Oak Table (I only went once, but I loved it! Can you tell I don't get out much? Haha!)

24. What was your favorite TV program?

I didn't have one. We cancelled tv service in May. 

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate in 2015?

 Not that I can recall.

26. What was the best book that you read?

1. "All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
2. "The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship" by Jeffrey Zaslow

27.  What was your greatest musical discovery?

I didn't have one.

28.  What did you want & get in 2015? 

Things to turn out alright with all the life changes we had and they did. 

29. What did you want & not get in 2015? 

A house we own, but it's okay. We'll do it in 2016

30. What was your favorite movie of 2015?

Did I see any movies this year?? You all know I never see movies. I saw "Woman in Gold" at the theatre. It was interesting. 

31. What did you do for your birthday & how old did you turn?

I turned 30.  I spent time with my husband, newborn baby, the big kids and my Mom at home. It was a really fantastic day as I recall.

32. What's one thing that would've made 2015 more satisfying? 

Probably nothing! It really ended up being a good year.

33. How would you describe your fashion in 2015? 

I'll go with preppy again. I didn't change my style.

34.  What kept you sane? 

God, my friends, my Mom, doula and a fantastic team of doctors during my pregnancy.

35. What celebrity/public figure did you admire the most?  

I loved Bindi Irwin...what a neat gal! Russell Wilson is up there too.

36. What political issue fired you up the most? 

I'd rather not say to avoid any upset with friends. I don't really get political. I keep it very private.

37. Who did you miss? 

Friends that moved thanks to the military,

38. Who was the best new person you met?  

I can only think of people I'd already met, but got closer to. 

39.  Tell us a lesson 2015 taught you:

It taught me patience above all else.
I also thought we weren't prepared to get out of the Navy and I was so pleasantly surprised to see that we did things the right way, had our ducks all in a row etc. Our experience/transition was much much easier because we were ready.

Catching Up! December delivers!

Sorry, sorry, sorry! We traveled on Christmas day and I just couldn't get back here until now! How was your Christmas? Ours was very, very nice!!
Christmas Eve we did our usual go to Mass thing (where I didn't get a picture this year...😟) and home to eat pizza. It was awesome! We got up leisurely the next morning, I made cinnamon rolls and we ate breakfast in between opening presents. Then we cleaned up the house, packed up the car and headed to my Mom's in Portland, Oregon. Where we then opened more presents and had a lovely ham dinner! (Have I mentioned I LOVE a good honey baked ham at the holidays? I asked my Mom and she delivered. Thanks Mom!)

Day 25: Morning! 

Gifts galore! Benjamin loved the mayhem!

Day 26: Grateful

I'm grateful for God the Father and his son Jesus Christ.

Day 27: Nightime 

I am ready for bed, my kids are all asleep in their beds and the house is quiet!

Day 28: Words

A craft project I did several months ago. It's maps of all the places we've lived together and where we each grew up spliced together on canvas. I adore this one.

Day 29: Sky View

I don't have a picture for this one. It's grey winter in WA. The sky view from my house is not pretty.

Day 30: Your Winter Wonderland 

It snowed on Sunday. Our first of the winter and possibly only of the winter here. Of course I took no pictures, oops!!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!!

Day 24: Favorite Part of Christmas Eve

I love Mass at our church. This year we are all set with plans to meet Benjamin's Godparents (and all of our kiddos adoptive Grandparents) and sit together. Avery will drop us at the door and we'll go in.

They aren't very cooperative with pictures at Mass. We'll give it another go this year.

Then we come home, eat pizza, put cookies out for Santa and get ready for bed.

It's only noon here as I write this post and I know the kids are very excited already. The Mail Carrier dropped off a box and they were so thrilled to get one on Christmas Eve!

All About Me: Christmas Edition!

Image found here!

So I told my Planner Buddy Pamela to do this holiday survey that I found on Skinny Meg and then I didn't do it when I said I would and now she's done it so I have to do it. Whew...how'd you like that sentence?!? Good thing no one scores/grades my blog!

Have you started your Christmas shopping? Yes, it's all done, wrapped and stashed in my craft room under a sheet.

When do you put up your tree? Usually the first week in December. I wasn't motivated to do the tree this year so I believe I stalled into week 2 of the month,

Are you a Black Friday shopper? YES Ma'am! I love it! I am not insane like some of the people on the news, but I do go and shop. I find it fun...it's not for the deals, it's for the fun of being with loved ones. This year since I was sick so I scaled back and didn't really enjoy it honestly.

Do you travel at Christmas or stay home? I'm going to be honest here and say I hate traveling at Christmas. I do when it's necessary, but I don't do it very positively. (Sorry Mom!) To answer the question: I have traveled at Christmas and I will be traveling this year. 

What is your funniest Christmas memory? Does the obnoxious trip home from St. Louis to Hawaii in 2009 count?? Oh wait...that wasn't funny, it was a damn nightmare. Okay..funny you say.....I can't narrow that down to just one, but my funniest memories at Christmas were when I was in my early teens and my much younger cousins would sometimes fly into Chicago from Portland. I loved playing with them. There's a picture of me getting a super cool stereo for Christmas and my cousin Ethan is holding up a Pikachu bath toy I'd gotten him that he was excited about. I love this for a few reasons, but mainly I love that he photobombed me with a simple gift that I got him. 

What is your favorite Christmas movie of all time? White Christmas. There's no contest!

Do you do your own Christmas baking, what's your favorite treat? Hahaha!!! Umm...that'd be a big, fat N O! Which is sad because my Mom and my Oma always did cookies.

Fake or Real Tree? I grew up with real, but then when I got older my Mom got a fake tree and then we lived in Hawaii and there was no way I was dragging one of those bug laden trees into my house. (Disclaimer: I don't know for sure if the real trees shipped onto the island had bugs. I just assumed.) So yes we've got a fake tree.

What day (as a mom) does the actual panic set in to get it all done? Mom of 3 under age 4 and so far I haven't panicked ever during Christmas. In fact the kiddos asked me what we're doing tomorrow and I said I had no idea b/c everything is done.

Are you still wrapping presents on Christmas Eve? No, but last year I did put their kitchen together on Christmas Eve...that was not much fun. This year I was more on the ball or rather they got smaller gifts from Santa.

What is your favorite family fun time at Christmas? Opening presents. I love seeing the kiddos faces.

What Christmas craft do you like the best? This year I seemed to not like any of them, because Benjamin was not the most cooperative dude which made doing his hand print ornament & his footprint ornament pretty difficult! 

Christmas music? LOVE it!

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Not a big egg nog fan. I like hot chocolate though.

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? I didn't really have a plan for this, but last year I started not wrapping the Santa gifts and think I'll continue that. 

Colored lights on the tree/house or white? I don't have a preference.

Do you hang mistletoe? Nope!

What is your favorite holiday dish? Cookies (not made by me obviously...hahaha!!!)

Favorite holiday memory as a child? I don't have one that I can distinctly think of....is that terrible? 

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? I never did until a family at church did so my Mom let me do it, likely to silence the child complaints. I haven't let me kids do it yet. Last year I did the Christmas pajamas for them, but they weren't all that into it. This year St. Nick brought them the pajamas so they could enjoy them all month. 

How to you decorate your Christmas tree? Quickly! This year I had Julia's help and that was just pure hilarity! 

Snow? Love it? Dread it? Love it! I learned to drive in it and just think it's fun. That said people in WA make it a bit stressful since they aren't good at driving in it.

Can you ice skate? I haven't in YEARS! 

Do you remember your favorite gift? I've got 3 gifts that I remember as my favorite. One was when I was a kid and I got my barbie camper. I LOVED that toy! Another was my big stereo system. And last year getting that Erin Condren planner. I don't know what it is about that planner, but I haven't been that excited about a Christmas gift in ages.  Another one I just thought of is baby Benjamin...I was pregnant with him last Christmas and didn't know it. He is my gift though. God knew I needed that baby boy. 

What's the most important thing about the holidays to you? Being with family. My Mom has never missed a Christmas with me and I am beyond grateful! I am also one of the few military spouses in the world whose husband has never been deployed on Christmas. He's missed more anniversaries than I can count, but Christmas he's always been here. I don't forget how lucky I am for that.
Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Let's be honest, everyone loves receiving something. But truly I love to see people's faces when they open a gift from me and they are excited by it. I am dying for the kiddos to see what they got this year. As the kids get older, it's more & more fun for me. This year they (Matthew & Julia) both really understand.

Scarves and cookies

Drum roll please....it's DAY 23! The theme is scarf. So I've gotta be honest here. I like buying scarves, but then I rarely wear them. Obviously growing up in the Midwest, it was cold & snowy in the winter, so I wore them. Then I never wore them in Hawaii. Now that we're in WA, I don't wear them that often either. BUT back when we first arrived I just KNEW I'd wear scarves again. So on Black Friday 2012, I saw a fleece houndstooth scarf in the Target ad and I HAD to have it. It's a lovely scarf that normally sits nicely rolled up in my coat closet.

I unrolled it just for you!

Today the kiddos and I spent time decorating sugar cookie Christmas trees. I cheated, b/c baking is not really my thing, and bought a cute cookie kit from the Commissary last night. It was perfect as it included cookies, 2 colors of frosting and sprinkles. Easy done!

I am so excited for Christmas. I'm dying for the kids to open their gifts already.

Peace on Earth & Pizza!

I had my photo for yesterday uploaded and then I don't know what happened. Oh wait I know...I tried to go to Hallmark the week of Christmas and got stuck in the horrendous traffic! 

Day 21: Peace

This is a Christmas card I am giving to a sweet little old lady who attends our church. She's been gone for several weeks b/c she broke her pelvis. We've missed her and can't wait to give this card to her on Christmas Eve.

Day 22, today: Tradition....

On Christmas Eve our tradition is Mass and then we get Take 'N" Bake pizza from Papa Murphy's for dinner. Probably not the most exciting thing, but with kids and needing to get them to bed it works. 

Tree Topper: Star of Wonder

I had a great day! How was your day? I went to Mass, saw most of my favorite fellow Catholics and Benjamin escorted me to a Christmas party. 

Day 20: Tree Topper! Growing up we always had a star as a tree topper, so imagine my upset when I first got married and couldn't find a star tree topper in Hawaii. I made do with an angel until finally finding our star here in Washington after Christmas in 2012.

Please forgive the atrocious picture. The star is leaning on the tree and refuses to stay fixed. 

Candy Canes

Day 19: Candy Canes. 

When it comes to candy canes...I have liked them my whole life. This year I was feeling cheap and bought the 99 cent ones from the commissary. Unfortunately they are not that tasty, though Julia likes them. That's what I get for just grabbing the cheapest box. 

The Christmas I was pregnant with Julia I ate an enormous amount of candy canes. Then this past winter while pregnant with Benjamin I ate our leftover candy canes plus my Mom's leftover candy canes. Something about peppermint was what I needed with both of their pregnancies. My desire for them this year has waned considerably and probably more so since the ones in my house taste awful.

I like candy cane decor as well. Maybe when we buy our forever home, we can get these outdoor decorations. They always look festive to me. 

The Stockings Were Hung....

Day 18: Stockings! I love our stockings. They are all embroidered by my Mom. My stocking is actually the one I've had since I was a little girl. My Mom was gracious enough to embroider the rest of the family stockings so they'd coordinate. The little stockings you see are stockings my Grandma makes for all the new babies in the family at their 1st Christmas. I have one somewhere (I think at my Dad's house) and so do my cousins. I was so excited when Benjamin's arrived last week. This is the first house that Avery & I have lived in together that had a fire place. I bought those awesome stocking holders at Target on Black Friday. The lighting is bad, but they spell out PEACE.
[Blackie the cat has his stocking to the side.] 

PRESENTS ARE AWESOME!

Good Evening all or maybe I should say Night since it's nearly 9pm here on the Pacific Coast? Regardless...wherever you're joining me from....hello! How was your day? My day consisted of getting everything done I didn't do yesterday. SOO...after paying bills and grading a million high school essays I loaded the troops into the car, got Matthew from preschool (by the way, am I crazy for being sad it's Christmas break from school?!?), we delivered our fancy aero bed to my friend, hit the post office, went to Joann's, Michael's (only because the people at Joann's had no clue what I was talking about...grr!!), Costco and the library! Whew!! Oh and traffic was a nightmare everywhere. Isn't it too early for nightmare traffic in the middle of the day around here?? Christmas is next week...not this week.

Now that you've thought to yourselves "Liz is nuts" let's get on with the prompt!  

Today's prompt is PRESENTS!!! I LOVE presents; giving & receiving them. Santa (aka Avery aka my amazing husband) already brought me one of my gifts. Avery got me an iPad air. I was SOOO surprised, which is amazing for 2 reasons: 1. It's hard to surprise me. 2. I have been asking/bugging/annoying everyone about an iPad for like 2 or 3 years.  Apparently my husband caved, either that or he was bored of buying me purses for Christmas which I also annoyingly always ask for as well.  

This thing rocks!

Speaking of presents, today Matthew came home with loads of cute stuff from preschool. They made St. Nicholas ornaments, stockings and even some wrapped gifts. He wanted us to open everything tonight, but I told him we needed to wait so he loved putting them under the Christmas tree.

Matthew is really fun when it comes to gifts. 

Alright peeps...I've gotta go. I need to add up the scoring on those million papers I scored. 

Fa la la la la....a day to be lazy!

It's a stay home & veg out day at our house today. The kiddos and I are getting over colds (again!!!) and Matthew was up coughing a lot last night. So instead of our exciting Costco trip, I've decided we should stay home, do laundry, watch tv and eat snacks.  (Okay so the tv watching is the kids, I am still scoring papers for work.) Costco will have to wait until tomorrow...plus this will give me time to read this month's edition of Stuff I didn't Know I Needed.. Until I went to Costco  GO READ it. It's hilarious and really true!

Today's topic is Outside Christmas Lights. Soo here's the issue...we don't have any outside Christmas lights. We've always said we'd wait to do that kind of thing when we buy our "forever house."   This always worked out splendidly in military housing, but here in a civilian neighborhood we stick out like sore thumbs! In fact the HOA in this neighborhood hosts a contest for best lights. Clearly we aren't winning. BUT that has made for a lot of nice lights to look at in our own neighborhood.  One of our neighbors has some really pretty ribbon with big ornaments & lights all together. Such a nice looking house. If I can get a picture without looking like a stalker, I'll share with you.

Do you decorate the house with outside lights?

Pat-A-Pan

Day 15: Favorite Holiday Song.  This one is TOO hard. I LOVE Christmas songs. I can't possible pick just one. Today I was listening to the US Navy Band and they sang at least 3 songs I adore. One song I really love though that I currently have in my brain is: Pat-A-Pan.

I just found the version below & love it too!

https://youtu.be/Gm_jWNjFUrI

Playing Catch up!

Eeks!! I got behind. This past weekend was a really busy one for me. I had Wreaths Across America, a meeting, a play date with our former neighbor, church, a party and so many other little goings on!

Anyway...I am back. 

Day 12: A Beautiful Sight...

This was my first ultrasound with Benjamin. I didn't blog really at all about my pregnancy with him, so this wasn't shared with you all. I got my BFP with Benjamin January 5th and it was confirmed 12 hours later. About 3 weeks into knowing I was pregnant with him I started experiencing an extreme amount of pain. I could hardly sit. They thought I might have an ectopic pregnancy, so I had an unplanned u/s.  Seeing the baby was right where he was supposed to be was a beautiful sight. I was so relieved, I cried.

Day 13: Family

Matthew & Julia seeing Benjamin when he was about 18 hours old. They'd actually met him the night before but due to the craziness of his birth, we didn't have the photographer do any pictures,

Day 14: Christmas Tree

I tried to take a picture of our Christmas tree this year and they all look terrible. Instead I've decided to use this picture. It was taken during my very busy weekend at a local restaurant. Several of my local NWCA sister members and I went to lunch. The restaurant tree is gorgeous!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Day 11- Green!! As in the green of the tree below and the green on Matthew's shirt. These are my children's Santa pictures for the year.   Julia was shy & scared. Matthew was like "whatever...been there/done this."  And Benjamin just wanted to chew on his hand.

It was hilarious and I'll treasure these photos forever!

Wrapping Paper!

Day 10: Wrapping Paper!

I usually buy wrapping paper on sale after Christmas. Except apparently I didn't do this after last Christmas so this year when I went to get out the Christmas wrapping paper I was dismayed to see I needed wrapping paper. So I bought a roll over at Ross to help me get through the wrapping this Christmas season. This year I am hitting up Target to wrapping paper for next year after the holidays.

Erin Condren, my super favorite planning company, came out with a gift wrap book this year. I was SOO tempted to buy it but alas resisted. Still I recommend it, because it's gorgeous! I might still indulge after the holidays if there's any left.

Get it here!

What I am reading now......

Day 9....Something you're reading!

All these papers for the school district I work super part time for. I am a Common Core Assessor. I score papers for a high school. I am working my way through that stack. It's very interesting honestly. I need to finish though since I'd like them to get back to the students before their Winter Break.

And I just finished this book last night. Sorry I can't turn the picture, but I am really bad at technology stuff. Anyway....it was a book I picked up randomly at the library one rainy evening recently.  It was actually really good. I dare say it was one of my favorite Jodi Picoult books. She had me completely surprised at the end. Check it out!

Bright lights & ornaments

I skipped yesterday, because I wasn't all that inspired and I was CRAZY busy. I went to the commissary for the first time in months yesterday (I'd been going to civilian grocery stores.) I went around lunch time and the kids & I had a great time getting drenched walking in from the parking lot and then chatting with all the older folks. I love the older Vets. They are such fun. They wear their hats and just look distinguished in my eyes.  Then we had to do Costco and stuff at the house. Seriously nutty day. Anyway....on to Day 8: Ornaments.

My favorite ornaments are the ones for the kids. Each of my kids has a set of baby booties that has their name & birth details. Benjamin's are the middle pair and obviously new to the tree this year.

Shopping!!! I love Shopping!

Day 6: SHOPPING!! I love shopping. It's fun and a great hobby. Haha!!

Except grocery shopping. That is just not fun like it used to be. True story: a friend in high school gave me a gift card to Dominick's for Christmas one year b/c I loved grocery shopping. My Mom gave up grocery shopping as soon as I had a driver's license. I did it all for her and LOVED it. I couponed and checked store circulars. It was fun for me. Then we had 3 kids and grocery shopping is just one of those "hurry and get it done as fast as possible" things.
Literally every time I grocery shop these days people have to stop me & comment on how many children I have. It's truly the most annoying thing! Yes, we have 3 kids and yes we love them and can take care of them. End story.

Sometimes when Matthew is at preschool though, I can take just Julia and Benjamin to Target and we have a grand ole time. Matthew sometimes get jealous though and asks us not to go without him.

Weatherman says Rain!

Day 5: Today's temperature! See below. It's in the mid-40s and raining here. A cold, very wet rain. Also known as completely normal for this time of year here. Apparently Farmer's Almanac says we're in for some heavy snow this winter. We shall see I suppose!

Today was the Children's party for my husband's job. He unfortunately wasn't able to come for longer than a second to say hello since he's doing his drill weekend with the Reserves. Santa is there, they can decorate cookies & cupcakes, play games, jump in bouncy houses and run around. It's wild! The kids had a great time though. In fact they had so much fun that we didn't make it to another party we were supposed to attend! Oops!

As far as the Santa experience, Matthew was excited, Julia got scared/shy and Benjamin was fine. He was especially happy since my friend Martha was there and he LOVES being held by "Auntie" Martha.

What a Joyous Day!

Day 4: Joyous! I have this really neat post card that I believe I got in my MOPS International Packet this year. I have it up on my desk, because I love the sentiment. With joy, you have peace.

This picture is also joyous to me. Benjamin is such a joy to have in our lives! He's cuddly and such a special little guy. He's also a guy who took a full nap in his crib today. Yay!!

Randomly I had a dream last night that we found a house to buy that was perfect...big enough and really nice. Thinking about it has me very joyful today. We WILL find a house and I WILL love it. 

Red

Day 3: RED!  It's no secret that I LOVE the color red. My kitchen theme is the color red. Red towels, red rug, red small appliances, dishes etc etc etc.  I have red shirts in my closet that I wear all the time. It's bright, cheery and makes me happy! 

Not my finest picture, but this is my favorite red tea kettle next to my amazing red toaster and my red lady bug timer is sneaking in behind it. My kitchen currently has dirty dishes in the sink so I just couldn't take a big picture. My apologies....I'll do those dishes pronto!