Goodbye 2013....my personal year in review.

Steph's year in review at the end of this post ;)

Taken during our RunDisney vacation this past Nov.

I have never been one of those people that is super excited to ring in the New Year.

To me, January 1 has always been just another day, same stuff, and lots of fake people making resolutions they will never keep past the end of January. Ever been to the gym in January? Ugh give it til Feb folks, it'll clear back out!

However, I have never been happier to see 2013 go.

This year was the most difficult I have ever had. Many things I do not make public and many major issues I have you will never know about unless you have been in my inner circle. I do not air my dirty laundry on Facebook and I do not post things to beg for attention.

However there were major life events that were public that have stressed me out to the max this year such as moving to Houston and leaving my friends, (a horrible thing to have to do when you're moving to a new town where you know NOBODY and your husband works crazy doctor's hours!)

leaving my job,  (you may think staying home would be fun, but guess what...with 2 little boys it's more work than any bad day in Chemistry, I can't wait til we find out where we're going after Houston so I can get back to work!!!)

and trying to transport my photography business (which I cannot seem to get off the ground in Texas, and it's very painful). I have tried advertising, giving away free sessions, etc, and as you can all see...no business. It's killing me.)

To top it off while I was on my Disney cruise my Dad had a major heart attack, and during treatment, they found cancer as well. Stage 4. 

Have you ever been trapped on a cruise ship while you thought your dad was going to die before you could get off? I will never wish that on ANYBODY, not even my worst enemy.

So, I have been in NY since the day I got off the cruise ship, and now that Dad is somewhat stable and being taken care of by his twin sister I will be heading back to TX Saturday to finally get to see my hubby!! Including the cruise, I will have been away from my TX home for 4 weeks by the time I get home.

I am thankful to have been able to spend some time with my Dad, but it's time to go home and get 2014 started...because it can only go up from here, right?

I am however thankful for a few things in 2013 as well.

 I am not completely ungrateful. After all, it wasn't the entire year that sucked....just major parts of it.

 I am thankful that in PA I did have an amazing client base and ran a photography business that kept me busy and doing what I loved. I am thankful that I had a job as a Medical Technologist that I loved, and miss it dearly. I am thankful that in 2013 I have such amazing friends that we still talk and keep in touch even though we're so very, very, far apart now. I am thankful that in Houston I have Brittany (her husband is in Ryan's Fellowship) and that we can have coffee dates and zoo dates that help keep us sane!  I am thankful that in 2013 Ryan and I have grown closer than ever, and that he's still never told me "No" to a Disney vacation; and I am thankful to have 2 beautiful, smart, funny, healthy little monsters boys. And finally, I am thankful for my family, whether it be blood, or the family I gained when I married Ryan. Without all of my family I never would have survived this year.

 

"Beckwith" girl cousins at Christmas- first time we've all been together for a holiday in so long I can't remember how long it's actually been!! 

2013- Steph's Year in Review

In February, Mason was diagnosed with a Peanut allergy...forever changing our lives. He also has an allergy to milk, eggs & soy.

Also in February, we went on an extended Family Vacation to Disney World!

 

 Upon arriving home from our Disney Vacation, we bought into the Disney Vacation Club!

For Easter we went to NJ to Ryan's Aunt Charlie's house and got to have an Easter egg hunt with cousin Korey!

 In March we got to play in the rain.........

 

.....and then 2 days later we had a major snowstorm and got our last hurrah in the snow before the big move to Texas!

 

In April I got to attend a Mother's celebration at Aidan's preschool, where I got a rose and Aidan made a poster all about me!

 

We also made a trip home in April so I could take my cousin's engagement photos, and Aidan got to help Nani plant her Gladiolas that would later take a blue ribbon in the Herkimer County Fair!

 

In May, Aidan finished up his first year of Preschool with a cute concert, and I had my wisdom teeth out :(

 LOTS of things happened in June:

I threw one final joint Cowboy-themed birthday party for the boys with their friend.s

 

... we started saying goodbye to friends in PA

 We headed back to NY to stay with Nani & Poppy for a bit while our belongings were shipped to TX....and we had another family birthday gathering for the boys on Mason's actual 2nd Birthday on June 24.

 

We headed back to PA for Ryan's Residency Graduation from Lehigh Valley Hospital. Officially a General Surgeon!! Woooooo!!!!!!

Ryan, Sean, & Adam drove our cars to TX and Char and I flew with the boys. When we arrived we had to go buy cowboy boots!

 

In July, Aidan turned 4 and we celebrated with 2 other couples from Ryan's Fellowship.

 

Aidan also started attending his new preschool!

We got a chance to meet up with my Cousin Erin who lives in TX, and the kids had a blast!

 

In September, I decided to sign Mason up for the 2 yr old room at Aidan's Preschool

 

We also walked in the FARE Houston walk. FARE is a food allergy awareness/education foundation. We raised a decent amount of money too!

 

We decided to take a road trip to PA/NY in September as well! Coincidentally Mason had a bad allergy reaction while we were in NY and we used that Epi pen and had an ambulance ride to the hospital to be checked out. He was fine, and you can read about that whole experience in this blog post here.

While in PA we got to stay with Lisa, visit Michelle and her boys, and we got to spend some time with the Easlers too! We even got to go to the pumpkin patch with the A Team.

In NY, we visited the Cider Mill with Nani & Uncle Ama, and we even went digging for diamonds in Herkimer!

On the drive back to TX we stopped in Louisiana to hold the baby gators. Neither of the boys would hold her, but Aidan at least posed for a pic (the gator is on the counter behind him)

In October, we visited Old MacDonald's farm with Brittany and baby Ethan to pick some pumpkins.

 

The Easler's visited TX for Halloween, and the A-team was reunited for another Halloween adventure!

 

In November I ran the Bad Prom 5k in Dallas with Jess, then a week later ran the Jingle Jungle 5k at Disney World with Krysta...while Ryan ran the Wine & Dine Half Marathon!  It turned out to be our best Disney vacation EVER!!!!!

 

We had the pleasure of enjoying the EPCOT international food & wine festival while we were at Disney. It was Amazing!

 

Also in November we had a "Friendsgiving" dinner with Brittany & James and also had a Turkey dinner for just the 4 of us on Thanksgiving day. 

We also ran the Houston Turkey Trot 5k the morning of Thanksgiving with the boys in the jogging stroller. It turned out to be a fun little family outing. Cold (36 degrees in Houston that am), but fun.

For the month of December Ryan had to work some crazy hours so we decided to head out on a Christmas-themed Disney Cruise with just me, my mom, and the boys. 

I even ran the "unofficial " RunDisney event, the Castaway Cay 5k which was held on Disney's private island in the bahamas the morning we docked there! (It turned out to be my worst time ever because it was so hot, and there was no bag drop so I had to run with my backpack loaded with all my things for the beach for the day. Grrrr)

then of course I got the news about my Dad so I headed right to NY and spent Christmas here

Adios, 2013!! I look forward to what 2014 can bring!!!!

XOXO!

Turkey Trot

While watching TV the week before Thanksgiving I saw an ad for the Houston Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. I mentioned how cool I thought that was and Ryan pointed out he was off that day so we decided to sign up. Even though we both would have liked to run the 10k we knew we'd have to push the boys with us so we decided to keep it at the 5k, just as something fun to do ;)

The days leading up to the race were cold here in Houston….like upper 30's/low 40's. It was a cold front, because the average temps are in the 70's this time of year! (Hell it was in the 80's yesterday and it's December!)

The morning of the race it was 36 degrees. We were very chilly, and my toes were numb before we even started!

I took this pic after we finished and were getting some water. We had noticed around mile 2 that Mason was sleeping, lol.

Ryan had forgotten when we signed up for the race that he had to work night shift on Wednesday night, so after we ran the race, we went home, had some breakfast and Ryan headed to bed. I still can't believe he was able to run a race after working all night!

Since I had already made a full turkey dinner on Sunday when Brittany & James came over we decide to do it again on a slightly smaller scale just for us on Thursday. I got a turkey breast, and most of the basic fixins, but bought a pie this time, lol.

Once Ryan got up we started face timing people and got to see the entire family/crew at Adam & Don's house, the Schoenly Family, my Brother and even Krysta too!

I love technology!

So it turns out the turkey breast was way better than any other whole turkey I've ever cooked! It was super tasty because I was able to get all the seasoning under the skin (which I've always had trouble with a whole bird since the skin is attached all over). We had white meat out the wazoo, which is nice because I'm not particularly fond of dark meat anyway, and the leftover dark meat in our house always goes to waste :/

Even though we couldn't be home with our family, we had a great day packed with talking to them and spending time together as our little family of four.

Miss you all!!

That damn Elf is back...

Last year I decided to do an Elf on the Shelf for the boys. 

Well mainly Aidan, because Mason was too young to understand.

Basically I just wanted to make the elf do funny shit and post it for all you guys to chuckle about. It backfired however.

It started out with Aidan being a complete nonbeliever. Every morning when he found Peanut Butter (the elf's name), he would ask if I had posed him that way. He was absolutely convinced each morning that I had something to do with it. I continued on with some more fun ideas but I lost my steam halfway through the month because Aidan just wasn't in to it. From that point on I just moved him from shelf to shelf in our house so he could keep "watching" to report to Santa, but he didn't get into much mischief after that.

ARGH!!! All my hard work and scouring the web for ideas was going to waste. I mean seriously, I even "hacked my elf" by cutting him open, shoving wire inside his limbs so he would be bendy, and sewing small bits of velcro onto his hands! I went all out! I'm sure my mom and Char remember sitting at the kitchen table with me last year in PA after the kids went to bed on Thanksgiving, drinking wine and laughing at me while I "hacked" the damn elf.

Anyway, fast forward to Christmas 2013.

Peanut Butter arrives, bearing some small gifts and a note. He even stopped at Nani's house to pick up these cool Elf on the Shelf jammies for them.

he got the boys some light up mickey necklaces because he heard we were going on a  Disney cruise the next week

Night 2 found him hanging out

Our elf got "sick" after Mason touched him. You see he surrounded himself with his favorite elf foods? Maple syrup, chocolate syrup, candy?

We had an incident on day 3 where Mason touched the elf and if you know anything about the elves, they lose their magic when you touch them.

Mason was completely panicked and sobbing about the elf being "dead" so I again, scoured the internet and found a solution for an Elf Magic renewal Kit.

 What a pain in the ass.

The next day they found him in his sick bed with instructions for how to restore his magic.

The morning after, he arrived with some magic beans (tic tacs) they were told to plant in a bowl of sugar for a surprise the following morning. He said they were a thank you for making him feel better.

Then they woke to find their magic beans had grown into candy canes!!!!

Thanks to the idea from Nani, the boys grew some candy canes!

gratuitous baby crack shot!

I have plenty more ideas for this damn elf, but let's see how ambitious I actually get this year!