2012

How in the world did 2012 go by so fast?  Well it did and I did very bad at keeping up in here.  My three excuses are:

1. Blogger wasn't super user friendly for the not computer savvy people like myself, which always delayed posts.  Blogger did fix this and I discovered their iPhone app, which is super easy to use and makes it so I can do blogging on the go.  Unfortunately, once I get behind I then feel a little overwhelmed and it doesn't get done.
2. We did a really bad job at keeping up our photo collection and because they were never uploaded to Picasa and I didn't know how to do that it never got done, so I didn't have any pictures to share, which is the most important part of this blog, right?  Well, good news Christopher showed me how to upload the photos and get them transferred to our online gallery so now I know how to do it.  I also spent about a lot of days uploading and organizing about 3,000 pictures!!!!  A big job that is all done!
3. I was just too busy! 

Now that the first two issues are resolved I am determined to keep up more in this blog.  I also used to journal, but once I had Anderson I quit doing that, so I have no record of our lives besides this blog and I want to be able to keep up in it so that we have something to look back on and remind us what happened in that year.  I just have to hope that excuse #3 doesn't get in the way!

Here is a short recap of 2012!

• Both boys did swim lessons and that was in this post.  Nathan continued swimming through the summer and fall.  He does really well, but he likes to swim with his head above water which makes it look like he is treading water more than swimming.  I guess this is good prep for water polo :).  
• We took a trip to Chicago and I blogged about that.
• Nathan turned 4!  And here is his yearly birthday interview starting in 2012

• In June we adopted a 5 1/2 year old sweet beagle named Gracie.  She has been such a good dog and we are so happy to have her in our family.  Her and Lucy get along great!

• In July we went to Napa to run the Napa2Sonoma 1/2 marathon.  I finished and did a PR, but really messed up my knees because the roads were slanted (there's a better word that I can't think of right now).  Christopher got a really bad cramp and dropped out around mile two.  My parents came and watched the boys and we rented a house, which was so nice!
• After Napa we went up to Nana and Papa's house to hang out for two weeks.  We had a lot of fun doing  many community activities.  Papa took Nathan fishing for the first time and this has to be one of my favorite photos.  Christopher went 4-Wheeling with his brother on the Rubicon trail with his new-used Jeep.

• During the summer the boys went bowling for the first time.  We did a lot of beach days and I hope to do that many days again or more this year since we are so close to the beach.  Nathan did lots of swimming and we got a new underwater camera, which is pretty cool.  Nathan went to summer school at his preschool.  Christopher friend Jim visited us and the last time we saw him was when Nathan was an infant.  Aunt Karen and Natalie also visited us.

• For Halloween Nathan decided that he wanted to be a shark.  I have no idea where this idea came from because we don't talk about sharks.  Since he was being a shark I decided that Anderson should be an Octopus.  I also got Gracie a shark costume.  I would have gotten one for Lucy, but they were out of her size.

• Anderson turned 2!!!  How he can be two I have no idea.  Just like 2012 flew-by, so did his two years.  We had a very low key birthday, but he enjoyed it!  He also got a major hair-cut, much shorter than I expected, but he was wriggling around too much and she kept cutting more and more off.

• For Thanksgiving we went up to Grandma Hope's house in Sacramento and Christopher's boss let us borrow his Winnebago.  The boys were so excited to stay in the "Camping Trailer."  We plan to use this to take more trips this year!

• For Christmas we went to my parent's house.  Unfortunately, my brother and his family wasn't able to make it this year.  Oh, speaking of them they had a baby girl in September so the boys have a new cousin.  Also, my great friend Crystal had a baby girl in September, so I feel like I became an Aunt two times in September!  Anyway, the trip up to my parent's was a 14 hour drive because there was snow over the Donner Pass and lots of traffic.  The boys did great.  There was a lot of snow this year...well, a lot of snow compared to the last four years we've been up there.  It was nice and relaxing.  The boys were very happy with the gifts that Santa brought them.

At the end of the year we were all sick with colds and that carried over to the New Year (the same as last year).  We also got the stomach flu a couple of times in 2012, but I am determined that 2013 will be a much better year health-wise!  Anyway, like I mentioned about I spent a LONG time putting all of our pictures on Picasa.  If you would like to see our lives in pictures please let me know and I will message you the links!

Have a Happy 2013 and I really really really hope that I can keep up in this better!

-Heather