Year in Review 2011

We experienced our 1st snow of the year shortly after Christmas

 to be followed up by an 80 degree day in January

 and another BIG snow storm the 1st of February.

 We re-did your nursery and gave you a big girl room.

 And watched you grow into a Toddler.

We went camping  

 and Potty-Trained.

 We celebrated Easter

 and got you a big girl bed.

We experienced the tornado at the lake

 and celebrated Mother's Day with family.

 We went to North Dakota for Mommy's work

 and went camping again.

 We went to Branson with Grandma Ann and your cousins

 and celebrated you turning 3!!

 We really enjoyed 4th of July

 and camped some more.

 We went to the "swim-park" in Chanute

 and got Merle.

 More camping... 

 and then you started school.

We made it to the lake for the 1st and last time this summer on Labor Day

 and made our annual trip to the fair.

 We went to the pumpkin patch with your cousins

 and took some Halloween photos.

We went camping for Poppy's 80th birthday

and had a very low-key Thanksgiving (without any pictures.)

We started off the Christmas season with a trip to the Christmas Tree Farm

and ended it with lot of family time and even more toys.

What a wonderful year.

Christmas 2011

*I am sorry I am still blogging about Christmas but I love to go back and look at what we did. One more recap and then I'm done. (And the OCD in me will go change all the dates to get the blogs in the order they actually happened.)

Whew! What a whirlwind! I am actually relieved that it is all over. Is that sad to say? I hate that I feel that way because I love Christmas. Love it. But it just kept going and going and going! I don't think we could've squeezed one more thing into 2 days. Thank goodness that I took Tuesday off work to unpack, re-group, and relax a little. I was able to manuever everything this year so that Christmas morning at home was Tylee's 1st Christmas of the season. I'm not sure if that made things better or worse. If she would've gotten the mountains of toys before our Christmas at home, she wouldn't have cared one bit about what we bought for her. In hindsight though, arranging it that way left everything else to be crammed into Sunday afternoon and Monday, which made for a long couple of days. Oh well. Opening that many presents in that short of time is every kids dream. And I guess the fact that Tylee had fun was all that really matttered.

With Christmas being over, I am looking forward to Spring and camping again. Thank god we live in Kansas and have all 4 seasons. I need the change. The tree is down, all the decor is put away, the totes are hidden in the shed, and we even got the lights down over New Years. The only remants of Christmas left in the house is all the new toys. And I know 3 people that are perfectly fine with that.

Finley Family Christmas

After a loooong day on Christmas, we got up bright and early on Monday and went back to Chanute to have Christmas with Papa and Janis. I left my camera in the car but the highlight of that Christmas was that Tylee got an Easy Bake Oven! I just couldn't wait for Tylee to reach the 8+ age limit that it recommends. In hindsight, the "baking process" is a lot of waiting for a 3-year old but she does enjoy it and asks to bake something almost every day. Those cakes and cookies sure aren't what I remembered...they are TINY. And gross!

After we left my Dad's, we headed to the Pavilion for Christmas with my Grandma Katy and the Finley family. It was/is just as crazy as my Mom's but with way, way, way more room. I was really looking forward to the Finley Christmas this year because we haven't gotten to see my Aunts, Uncles and cousins like we normally do because of the tornado at the lake.

My Dad got a remote-control helicopter and had a lot of fun flying it around. The kids loved chasing it.

That wrapped up our big Christmas' for the year and I couldn't have been happier. Tj's Dad and girlfriend came out for one last low-key celebration and brought Tylee some more presents (just what she needed!) but I was happy to see the Christmas celebrations come to an end. I hate that I felt that way but cramming 7 Christmas' into 2 days was a tad much. Even Tylee was tired!