Looking Back & Looking Ahead

2011 was a great year! Here are some of the highlights:

Celebrated lots of January birthdays

Met up with all my siblings at my cousin's wedding

 

The kids saw their first Texas *snow*

We watched some Santo basketball games

We did lots of camping

Found out we were expecting #3



Blakers celebrated his 1st birthday

We had some reunions

Celebrated Easter with the Tackett Crew

Got the minivan &

 visited Zion & Grand Canyon National Parks

 

Tori graduated from high school

We got our garden off to a promising start (only to have it incinerated this summer)

 
We welcomed Margaret "Maggie" Laura to the world

 Bailey learned to swim

Cars 2 came out!

We took Franny with us to Trail West

Found out that we were having a little girl

  Barely survived the HOT, HOT summer



 

Attended the McKinzie Family Reunion

I stopped working part-time as a pharmacy tech

Bailey started preschool

And with her daddy's help she learned to ride her bike without training wheels

Luke traveled to Istanbul by way of Paris to visit his college buddy Walt

 We made a family trip down to Port A with Franny & the other Mezgers

Franny's house was finished just in time for Owen & Bailey's 4th birthday party

Took Bailey to her first Texas A&M football game

Headed to the Pumpkin Patch with friends

Made another trip to Aggieland (& Houston) to see the Johnsons & celebrate their upcoming little girl

We held our 4th Annual Halloween Potluck and dressed up as Woody's Round Up Gang

Made last minute preparations for Blair's arrival:

Including my baby shower &

a few house projects

Probably the best thing to happen for us in 2011!

Had a Thanksgiving feast with the Mezgers 

 And celebrated Christmas, twice!

Looking back I can truly say that I am overwhelmed with God's blessings on our family. Seriously, what a great year! Can I just push repeat? (minus another pregnancy/baby, not that I don't want one eventually). One thing about me is that I am always looking to the future and 2012 excites me too! 


This spring I am looking forward to one-on-one time with my oldest two. Blake started preschool today and goes Mon/Wed, while Bailey goes Tues/Thurs.
 

Here's the little man all ready to go swollen eye, scratch & all. He tripped on a tree root and hit his cheek on the corner of a metal picnic table. Thankfully it wasn't worse.

Granted that the baby food stage is one of my least favorite stages because of it's messiness, I am looking forward to it this time because I will be making my own baby food with our new juicer! Until then we will enjoy all sorts of interesting fruit and veggie juice mixtures.

  Looking forward to lots of firsts this next year from this little lady.

So Happy New Year, may God OVERWHELM (in a good way) you and your family this next year!

Mezger Cousin Christmas

It was Maggie and Blair's first Christmas and we had to introduce them to a Mezger Cousin Christmas at their Nana's house. This year they just watched and observed, but I bet next year they will be right there in the mix!

Here are the two youngest a.k.a. Gen 3

Christmas at Franny's house consists of:

 This full mantle of stockings.

And the tree with all the presents,

which didn't last too long with 6 grandkids.

Fun in Franny's driveway. 

Can you guess what the Mezger cousins like to do at their Nana's house???

 

For Christmas, Nana's house got these 4 new riding toys!

A ride-on dump truck

A glider bike

A plasma car

And a tricycle.

 In addition to riding, there was some tree climbing.

And  a yummy, yummy dinner with Happy Birthday Jesus cupcakes for dessert!!! Thanks Ali!

 Oh, and if you haven't thrown out your Christmas cards yet here an idea for you:

Simply punch a hole in one corner and put a ring through it. Put it in a place where you will see it everyday and pray for one family a day. Plus it's fun for the kids to look through too!



7 Weeks

I remember when I had 7 weeks left in my pregnancy and it seemed like forever before I would get to meet Blair and now she is 7 weeks old and I am left wondering where the time went. So in the name of documentation here are 7 things about her in honor of her 7 weeks.

*As far as nicknames goes, she is known as Blair Bear, Bear (by Blake and Rebecca), and most recently Blowout Blair (she has earned this one by having at least one blowout a day).

* Sleep: She naps at the same time as Blake and Bailey (hence this blog entry). I am SO thankful for this! At night, she now sleeps one 5 hour stretch pretty consistently, nurses and sleeps one more 2-3 hour stretch. Strangely, she almost always falls asleep again in the morning once the big kids get up, which is kinda nice so that I can take care of them.

* She SMILES!!! These are the best picture I could get. I am always one second behind her.

*She LOVES bathtime, walks in the bjorn, being swaddled, and her swing. 

 *Her hair is growing in light. I can't tell if it's blond or brown just yet.

*When she finds my face and locks in, she will coo at me. It's so sweet!

*She is a much happier baby lately. I noticed it as soon as we got home from Christmas, but she is having more and more extended happy times even in the evenings, which has been the "witching hour".