12 Takes from 2016: Part I

The year of Our Lord 2016 consisted of many ups and downs.  For myself, my family, and it seems, for many other too.  But every year is like that, right?  Life will never be perfect, and as the saints tell us, we should receive the good and bad as coming from the hands of Jesus and Mary, and be grateful and joyous in every circumstance!  MUCH easier said than done!  My husband and I like to review every month of our year on New Years’ Eve anyway, so I thought I would capture our memories on the blog this year.   (Going through the pictures, I realized I couldn’t limit myself to one a month!)

January

Snow Cave!  Naturally created when the weight of the snow bent over this bush!

The Big Snow! We got three feet of snow in Virginia and my husband had seven snow days!

February

Waiting for baby to be born. And we spent St. Valentine’s Day at hospital visiting Bobby’s grandfather.  (He’s 95 and has been in and out of the ICU this year.  But he keeps pulling through!)

March

Cecilia Anne was born on March 4!  Her pregnancy was rough, but her birth by scheduled c-section went smoothly, and she has been the most wonderful baby!  She had brought so much joy to our lives, and is bouncy, happy, and laughs more than either of the other girls.

April

Adorned with hair bows and dancing.  This captures Gracie at age 4.

Apparently it was a warm April!

Ceciilia’s Baptism.

 

In April we started spending lots of time outside in the gorgeous spring weather.  Cecilia was baptized and we bought another 12 baby chicks to add to our flock.

May

Gala at Bobby’s school.

One of my favorite pictures of Theresa.

So. Much. Attitude.

May was a busy month!  I was working a lot, and so the kids were usually playing outside while I worked on the patio and the baby slept in her seat.  Bobby, Cecilia and I had a wonderful evening at the Gala for Bobby’s school (I wrote about that here).  Bobby planned a special Mothers’ Day outing for us, which included a buffet breakfast and feeding ducks.

June

Cecilia is unimpressed by her first visit to the beach.

These girls loved the boat ride!

In June we celebrated Fathers’ Day for the second year in a row at the a local beer fest.  We enjoy the micro-brews and there were great activities for the kids too. At the end of June we had our only weekend at the beach this year.  Friends of ours graciously host us at their beautiful beach house in Virginia Beach, and we had a fun and relaxing weekend.  The girls especially enjoyed the indoor pool and hot tub at the house, as well as our ride in our friend’s new boat (we cruised the back waterway, not on the ocean).