I hate writing "The Christmas Letter" every year. I do! So, this year I thought I'd try just summarizing our year for friends and family on the blog. I feel like our family blog is so much more informal than "The Christmas Letter" is.
You all know what I mean.
Anyways, here we go!
Winter:
End of December, 2011: The Kirby family started the year off in Aurora, Colorado. We moved around Christmas time and, on Christmas Eve, our apartment had a small flood. Awesome. We hadn't even had enough time to settle in and unpack, and were dealing with a flood. It started in our bathroom and moved down the hallway, saturating the carpet in both Hayden and our bedrooms. We were forced to shove all of our belongings into our TINY kitchen, dining room, and living room. Our handyman was great to come and deal with the mess (when he was in the middle of plans with friends!). He cleaned everything up, fixed the toilet, and then ripped up our carpets to put large, industrial fans underneath. The fans actually worked to prevent the carpet from molding, which was great. BUT...we had to have them running for 3 days straight. That meant we slept in our crowded-with-stuff living room on our couches. It really put a damper on our holiday! There were no decorations, no Christmas trees, and there was no holiday baking. Luckily we were invited out to dinner Christmas Eve and Christmas by our friends and family (thank you for saving us, Kevin and Judy Beckstead and David and Heather Crawford!).
I just realized this is going to be the longest posting of mine, EVER. We are still in January people. Hang in there!!
January 31st, 2012:
So after my failed attempt at pinterest donuts, I decided to make cupcakes from a pinterest recipe. The night before his party. Without practicing the recipe to make sure it would work. Great idea, right?
Wrong.
All the recipe said that I had to do was mix a box of cake mix with a can of pop. That's it. Nothing else.
Didn't work. At all.
Here is the perfect picture of the pinterest example:
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand here's mine:
We ended up buying Hayden a piece of chocolate cake from the Safeway bakery.
February: Did I mention we joined a play group? Hayden got to meet lots of friends while I got to meet lots of mommy friends! Every Tuesday we would do something fun. On this occasion, we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Paul had the day off so he got to come with us, too! Hayden had fun getting to be with mom AND dad all day.
Summer! In June we got to do some camping with the Becksteads. Hayden became infatuated with STICKS. That and he followed his daddy around constantly. Our camping location of choice was Pike National Forest--it's absolutely gorgeous!
Living in Colorado was a lot of fun. There was so much to do so many places to go SHOPPING! Ha ha. In the summer, Hayden and I started walking with a friend from church who has a little boy named Kaden and is just a few months older. After every walk we would stop at the park to let the boys play--we're so missing Kaden and his mom now!
Also in Colorado we joined a date night group. This group pretty much saved our date nights! Three Fridays out of the month, Hayden would be watched by another member of the date night group. On the fourth Friday, we would watch all of the kids at our place. So pretty much, we gave up one Friday a month so that we could have three Friday nights sans Hayden. At first, Paul was not excited to join the group, but to this day he misses it! The plan is to start our own date night group here in Rexburg.
How funny is that?!?
Oh. We're naming him Taylor, but still no middle name. Suggestions?
Winter:
You all know what I mean.
Anyways, here we go!
Winter:
End of December, 2011: The Kirby family started the year off in Aurora, Colorado. We moved around Christmas time and, on Christmas Eve, our apartment had a small flood. Awesome. We hadn't even had enough time to settle in and unpack, and were dealing with a flood. It started in our bathroom and moved down the hallway, saturating the carpet in both Hayden and our bedrooms. We were forced to shove all of our belongings into our TINY kitchen, dining room, and living room. Our handyman was great to come and deal with the mess (when he was in the middle of plans with friends!). He cleaned everything up, fixed the toilet, and then ripped up our carpets to put large, industrial fans underneath. The fans actually worked to prevent the carpet from molding, which was great. BUT...we had to have them running for 3 days straight. That meant we slept in our crowded-with-stuff living room on our couches. It really put a damper on our holiday! There were no decorations, no Christmas trees, and there was no holiday baking. Luckily we were invited out to dinner Christmas Eve and Christmas by our friends and family (thank you for saving us, Kevin and Judy Beckstead and David and Heather Crawford!).
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| Hayden playing with Christmas lights for the first time! He was 11 months here. |
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| Close up! |
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| Right before leaving for Christmas Eve dinner at the Beckstead's. |
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| At the start of the year, Hayden didn't have any teeth! He didn't get his teeth until he turned 14 months!! |
For Hayden's birthday (January 31st), I was thinking about making donuts and having a donut and hot chocolate birthday party. Sounds fun, right? I decided it would be a good idea to test out the recipe I had found on pinterest before using it. Turns out it was a good idea, because they didn't actually work quite right....
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| Aren't these gorgeous? Sour cream Old Fashioned donuts with a homemade glaze. Looks yummy, right? The next picture is really going to disappoint. |
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| NAILED IT! Yeah, that mess right there? Those are my beautiful donuts with homemade glaze. Needless to say, we did not have a donut and hot chocolate birthday party for Hayden. |
January 31st, 2012:
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| Hayden's birthday morning! The first thing I had him do was try peanut butter for the first time. It was a big event. |
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| He could barely see over the t.v. stand, let alone reach what was on top of it. Yeah, that has changed! |
Wrong.
All the recipe said that I had to do was mix a box of cake mix with a can of pop. That's it. Nothing else.
Didn't work. At all.
Here is the perfect picture of the pinterest example:
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| Soda Can Cupcakes from Cookies and Cups Blog (link) |
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand here's mine:
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| Hmmmm... |
We ended up buying Hayden a piece of chocolate cake from the Safeway bakery.
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| As you can see, Hayden certainly enjoyed the cake! |
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| Aaaaaaaaaaaaand the sugar crash :) |
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| Apparently Paul lost his razor that day! But look how Hayden's face would just disappear when he smiled! CUTE. |
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| Here's Hayden and I looking at some animals. He was actually a little afraid of the displays. The reptile room with the snakes scared him the most--they had live snakes and the room was dark. I think he was nervous about the whole thing, but Paul and I thought it was pretty cool! |
Spring!
This picture was taken late March. Hayden would help me spring clean by moving chairs so that I could sweep and mop. It became his new favorite activity. And, if you look closely at his mouth, you can see his new teeth! It took 14 months, but once it started happening, he all of a sudden had 6 teeth!
This picture was taken late March. Hayden would help me spring clean by moving chairs so that I could sweep and mop. It became his new favorite activity. And, if you look closely at his mouth, you can see his new teeth! It took 14 months, but once it started happening, he all of a sudden had 6 teeth!
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| And just look at his chubby baby face! |
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| Miss Mary and I--it was really cold that morning! I wish I had been as bundled up as she was! (That's our orange tent in the background. It was a wedding present we got ourselves.) |
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| Two buds! Aren't they cute?!? |
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| Hayden reading a book and Isabelle watching a show during date night. |
I got to meet new friends through our date night group and hope we all keep in touch! They were too fun. Plus, every woman in our group announced that they were expecting! One had her baby in September, the next is due around Christmas time, then there's me on February 17th, and then the last is due in March.
How funny is that?!?
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| This is our peanut at 20 weeks, 2 days. This was the appointment we found out we are having a boy! |
Hopefully by now if you're reading this you know that I'm pregnant with our second baby. He is due February 17 so that makes me...32 weeks? Something like that. Hayden was due February 12 and we had him January 31, so we're *hoping* this little guy comes early as well. Cross your fingers everybody!!
Oh. We're naming him Taylor, but still no middle name. Suggestions?
I promise, the year is almost over! We're getting close :)
Fall!
Fall is gorgeous in Colorado. Well, mainly I forgot what a regular Fall was supposed to look like! We had been in Rexburg so long that you just get used to miserable snow and ice. Ha. Fall is about a week long in Rexburg. In Colorado, it's an actual season!
For Halloween I made Hayden's costume. He was the cutest little rain cloud I've ever seen :)
The very last day of November we moved back to Idaho. It was sad but exciting all at the same time. I have been missing my friends, my ward, and how everything there was so close. I had a Walgreens across the street. Here, it's a 15 minute drive. But this is where we're supposed to be right now. Paul is going back to school to finish his degree and we both know that he needs it! We're glad to be back in our home and that Dr. Evans will be delivering our second baby (he delivered the Hayden as well). We have friends and family here and it's nice to see them again.
Oh, our move? Paul drove the moving truck with his Tacoma hitched onto the back while I drove the Highlander. That's right, I'm a big girl now! Previously, I had only driven about two hours straight before getting a migraine and having to stop. This time, I drove the whole way from Aurora to Rexburg. It helped that the weather was PERFECT (excusing a little rain when we got into Pocatello, and wind crossing through Wyoming). The drive was 13 hours long, and, being pregnant and travelling with a 1 year old, we thought it would be a good idea to stop at a hotel for the night. This is where Hayden had his FIRST swimming experience!
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| Hayden didn't really like the water. I think it was too cold for him. |
It was actually kinda fun! So anyways, we're back in our house and loving it. When we had been in Colorado, I bought a Christmas tree for Hayden's room and I finally got to set it up! Here's a video of him looking at it.
That brings us to today. Currently Paul is putting in a fireplace, book shelves, canned lights, and a surround sound system into our living room. It's still a work in progress, but it's looking so good! The new wall has been built, painted, and tiled.
It's a shame that this picture doesn't do it justice! The tile is a glass tile and it really is just gorgeous with the paint colors and wood tiles. Oh yeah, the hearth down there is made of ceramic wood tiles! It really looks amazing. Paul will be putting a mantle in that big space between the fireplace and t.v. eventually. I can't wait for it! He'll also be building some custom book shelves to go on either side of the fireplace that will be painted white. They will house all the sound equipment (which is currently on the floor).
Paul wanted to be sure to include this picture:
You can clearly see the canned lights (there are actually 6 of them in the living room) that he installed. I love them! Before, that side of the room had no light--just a single floor lamp. It was NOT working for us!The main reason Paul wanted me to include this picture was so that you could see the in-wall speakers he installed to created a 7.1 surround sound system. Whatever that means! It's important to him. Anyways, there are 4 speakers in the sealing. Can you see them?
Aaaaaaand the most exciting news of all.......Hayden got an early birthday present from my family. He did NOT like it at first! I've had it out so that he can choose to play with it if he wants, and yesterday was the day!
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| Hayden happily plopped on his car and started scooting around! Too bad that a few minutes later, Hayden would take a spill on the bike that would result in a little bruise going across his cheek :( |
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| Paul, Hayden, and Allison Kirby (4 months pregnant with baby Taylor!) |
Well that was our year in review! We hope all of our friends and family are happy and healthy and enjoying the special Christmas spirit of December. Merry Christmas!!
