2013 & Parks turns 5 years old!!

I've got to be honest, I have desperately been trying to catch up on my blogging...i was 8 months behind...apparently I went on blogging strike! I regret it tho and now only have 5 months of catching up to do..yay! My memory is shockingly horrible and i'm only 29 years old but for the life of me I cant remember what we did on New Year's Eve, i'm pretty sure Grace and I were really sick and I fell asleep at 10pm...Matt was working his night shift??? Not a big deal clearly:) BIGGER news my precious little baby boy turned 5 years old!!! I keep telling him to stop growing up, but nobody ever listens to me:(  SO i threw him the party of all parties...haha We invited way too many kids and kept them way too long (3 hours but parents came early cuz they knew I was crazy!).  There were 11 in total, and I do have to say #1 I'm sooooo glad Matt was off work and home and #2 they were all super awesome kids that played so well with each other.  We kept them busy with pizza and chips at first than  did the good old fashion games that were a huge hit!...pin the tail, hot potatoe, musical chairs, walking thru the laser force field and than jumping off beds and doing flips and tricks for the camera:)  We fit present opening and cake in there too!  Parks is such a sweet boy that has made lots of great friends from starting school and going to church.  We think the world of him and his funny little personality, he is always up for learning and loves to talk talk talk!  We are so proud of our son and grateful that he is in our family.  Grace is a very lucky sister to have a big brother who takes pride in protecting her and playing with her whenever he's home.  Its so heartwarming to see these two as best friends.

Looking Back at 2012!

This is something I try and do each year, it helps us look back and be reminded of all the fun and see just how blessed we are...

-Parks turned 4 years old! (Learned how to draw our stick family for the 1st time)

-Grace at 19 months old, started POTTY training!! (good at #1s not #2s)

-Early in the year is when the kids really started 'playing' with each other instead of 'fighting' with each other.

-Parks finished up his 2 playgroup classes (had no problem being away from Mom for 2 hours twice a week).

-In March, we went to UTAH for Matts 2 week holidays.  I got trained in Eyelash Extensions and we bought Boat #1 of the year! (sadly the trip ended with Mama getting strep throat and double ear infections...and than Grace with the same)

-Watched General Conference with Rob, Tammy and kids at Grant and Sue's

-Celebrated Mum's 65 Birthday with an adults only Restaurant night out.

-Went to Tammy's Sister's Wedding in Lethbridge

-Parks started writing his name at 4 1/2 years old!! (and finally not needing naps)

-End of April Nana flew out for a visit! (We got Grace's ears pierced with Nana for her Birthday!)

-Early May Grace still taking 1-2 bottles of milk and was starting to do #2s in the potty!!

-After only 2 months since my Eyelash Training, I made all the money I put in back!!! 

-May long weekend was our 1st time back to the Lake this year (the whole family was there)

-End of May Grace started sleeping in a BIG GIRL bed, only 1 hour naps, no more bottles and officially POTTY TRAINED! (1 week before her birthday)

-Gracie turned 2 years old!!! (Had 13 kids at her party w a balloon twister)

-In June, I received a new Church calling as the Mia Maids Advisor

-Flew out to Ottawa mid June for 2 weeks (Matt had to leave 5 days earlier for work)
-Boat #1,2 and 3 SOLD!
-Got a FREE trampoline frame, so we bought a new mat and pads...we love it!
-Matt and I went to the Calgary Stampede 2 times this year
-Had fun on our boats at Little Bow and Chestemere Lakes with friends
-Hill Family Reunion week was fun (we were up at the lake for a week and half)
-Boat #4 SOLD (the last one)
-Out of DEBT for awhile;)
-End of August we stayed home for 3 weeks straight (gardening, putting up fence in backyard and watching Rob in the Waterskiing Nationals Competition).
-We did our traditional once a year ZOO trip:)
-In September Ammo had ear cleaning procedure done
-Parks started Pre Kindergarden in September!!!
-Matt had his Birthday end of September turning 28!!
-October we hiked in the Kananaskis
-Nana visited for a week (brought her thru the Calgary Temple Open House)
-I had my BIRTHDAY and turned 29!!
-Halloween the kids built their 1st SNOWMAN of the year:(
-Grace was a Mermaid for Halloween and Parks was Transformers Bumblebee
-Hunting was a SUCCESS for Matt this year, shot another Bull Moose (4th year in a row) and shot Alberta's Largest Mule deer Buck in 2012!!!
-We had our 1st Family Photo shoot for Christmas time
-Christmas was real as ever this year for the kids (meeting Santa was fun)
-Started our 1st year with the 'Advent Chain' (Definitely be our family tradition)
-Also had sweet little Snowflake enter our family this Christmas (new tradition now)
-Parks learned to skate on ice!!!
-This was the Hill Family Christmas Year (everyone was together at Grant and Sue's, even Cam (Matt's Foster brother who we all havent seen in years) it was really busy and fun)
-Ended the year by going to the Calgary Temple with our good friends for our first Session there!