The end of 2013!

2013 was good to our household! This year was so much fun, and finally a year without any major events - no babies born, no houses moved, no jobs changed. Only one big thing changed this year, and that came cruising in at the very end (the week before Christmas, to be exact)...and that is a new car. We traded in the trusty ol' Sienna for a sleek gray 4Runner, woohoo! I have dreamed about owning this car for years (probably since the days of my first drivers license, crazy!) and now we have one! Our main reason for trading in the Sienna was simply because we wanted all 3 kiddos to be in the same row, versus having to climb back through the captains chairs to unbuckle Logan. Plus, we all know the 4Runner is better for mountains and trails, where we someday hope to live! :) Or at least travel to, lol.

Highlights of 2013:
*Blake turned 1! Chocolate cake all around :)
*lots and lots of playtime! After Blake was about 18 months old, the boys started playing together more and it has been tons of fun! Lots of fights of course, but that's what brothers are for ;)
*Vacation to Puerto Rico! We all had so much fun and can't wait to go back again.
*Our mini-getaway to Miami for a Magic/Heat game and night at a swanky hotel!
*Visiting friends!!
*My first, second, and third 5ks! It's been a lot of fun running and working out with the group this year, can't wait to really get back into after baby#3 arrives. Hopefully get around to that half marathon one of these days!
*Logan started going to preschool three days a week and loves it.
*Finding out that we are expecting baby boy#3 in May 2014!!
*Hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year with all the fam.
*Not a highlight, but we had a nice service remembering the life of my grandfather, Papa Jake. He is missed! I'm glad the boys were able to spend as much time as they did with him.
*Celebrating Logan's 4th birthday with his friends!
*Christmas both at home and with family to finish off the year!
*Reorganizing the entire house: cleaning out our garage so we can park the car, redoing our master bath, decluttering the kitchen, and organizing the closets! Whew!!

That last part has been an in-progress thing since October (we really got motivated after we found out that we were introducing a new family member in May...we can't live in chaos with 3 children!!) but we've really been working on it a lot this past month and finished up the last parts this week. All that is left now is to have a garage sale and get rid of some of our extra junk!

I'm looking forward to this upcoming year...2014 looks pretty promising so far! In just the next couple of weeks we will be celebrating Blake's 2nd birthday (where does the time go!? I feel like he was just born!) and gearing up for baby#3's arrival. We have a wedding in Clearwater to go to in three weeks, and we just bought plane tickets to go to Albuquerque at the very end of January...I'm super excited for our first us-only trip since our 1st anniversary road trip to Charleston!

Happy New Years Eve!

Exhausted

I am exhausted! Christmas this year has turned into one big whirlwind...and there's still about a week to go. I know it's become quite the tradition, but I really hate how consumerist Christmas has become. It makes it difficult to focus on the real reason of Christmas with massive to-do lists and shopping carts swamped with gifts to buy. Not to mention the stress of trying to hit up everyone's house for some sort of Christmas celebration!! Or maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, lol...

Maybe I'm feeling more grinch-like this year since we are entirely undecorated this year. Okay, not entirely, we do have a tree...but that about sums it up. There's a bow on the top, and a few ornaments the kids made, but no lights and no tree skirt and no nativity scene this year. I know it's just a season of life, but I miss being able to decorate without having it all torn down and destroyed the day after! Maybe next year?! I'll keep my hopes up!

Happy Holidays!

And since Christmas is almost here...Merry Christmas too! I can't believe how quickly the holidays snuck up on us. Seems like we are barely done with Thanksgiving and all of the sudden it's go, go, go!

Thanksgiving was tons of fun - my family visited first, then the Silva crew. We hosted both at our house this year, and everything turned out great (despite our ham mishap)! In the words of Daniel, "you WILL have fun." ;)

Soon after we made the trek up to Jacksonville to visit the Moores, Poyntons, and Zeccardis...and that was a blast as always! Love visiting all of them!!

We've been back home for the rest of December so far but not without lots of visitors again! :) My parents came down for a few days to spend time with us and help watch the kiddos while Daniel and I went to my 19 week ultrasound. It's official...Boy #3!!! We couldn't be more excited!!! Somehow I think I was always destined to be a boy mama!

Daniel's parents arrived a few hours after mine left to help us prep for Logan's birthday party and of course celebrate with us! Logan had a dinosaur theme (surprise surprise, lol) with a bunch of his buddies at the park and he was over the moon. This year he was really into his party and all of the planning that went with it! He picked out the colors (red and orange plates, cups, etc) and the theme (he actually wanted a dinosaur/dragon theme, but I kind of pared it down to just dinosaur!) and the activity (he wanted a craft, so I picked painting dinosaur salt dough ornaments). His 4th birthday isn't officially until Wednesday, so we've got some more celebrating to do - donuts at school with his classmates and we're taking him out to eat on his birthday! Gotta love those week long birthday celebrations, lol.

Today was the Jingle Bell 5k and I'm proud to say...Mr. Baby #3 now has two 5ks under his belt! ;) and at such a young age! hehe. No PR of course, but it was still super fun dressing up in festive gear with my Moms Fit 4 Fun girls. I love love love that we're having #3, but man I can't wait to get back to my normal running pace and not worry about anything!

Only TEN more days until Christmas, and my to do list is still miles long...not sure it's all gonna happen this year. We've been trying to make it to pictures with Santa for so long now - first it was a scratched up nose, then a runny nose, now we're battling a stye on Logan's eyelid. Yeesh. One of these days it will happen (hopefully before the 21st or it just isn't happening this year!). Our week is jam packed and then it's off to my cousin's wedding & Christmas celebrations with the fam! Wish us luck! :)

October

I've been a  little MIA lately for the month of October! And for good reason...

we're expecting #3 to join our family in May!

So basically that means that for the past 14 weeks, I have barely cleaned my house (cleaning products make me feel nauseous), I've barely cooked (food makes me nauseous), and I've been passing out around 9 pm every night (nausea and exhaustion don't mix well). Sense a theme here? lol. FINALLY over the past week or so the nausea has let up (hallelujah!) and I'm starting to feel semi-normal again. But I still pass out on the couch around 9ish every night ;)

Despite feeling crappy, October was such a fun month! I've always been a fan of fall activities, probably because that's the only way we would even know that it's fall around these parts. The temps were still nice and high, but we visited about a billion pumpkin patches since Blake is obsessed with pumpkins, we went on a tractor ride, did the downtown WPB green market, went to three Halloween parties, and trick or treated with the neighbors!  We got some good use out of our costumes this year - and they were the cutest dinosaur and Mike Wazowski ever if I say so myself! Daniel and I also got away for a dinner by ourselves to Maggiano's in Boca to celebrate my birthday. There is nothing better than not having to cook or clean up after a yummy dinner!! We stuffed ourselves to the max with calamari, chopped salad, and eggplant parmesan for me (and three cheese ravioli for him). And of course we topped it all off with strawberry cheesecake!!!

Now that October is over and November is here, we've been working on thankfulness. We've started a thankfulness tree and each day we add leaves. It started out with a bunch of things that Logan is thankful for (car, monster trucks, Daddy's truck, etc) and is finally starting to round out with people (cousins, friends, grandparents). I don't know if its because he's starting to enter age 4 or what, but his behavior has really been improving the last month or so! Hurray! I feel like we've kind of turned a corner on tantrums and the talking back (which I'm sure will come back just as quickly as they left, but for now I'm going to appreciate the break). So, I'm really thankful for being able to really enjoy this stage that Logan is at!

I'm really looking forward to the holidays this year. Logan is at the age where he's really starting to "get" what the holidays mean, and Blake is just so excited about everything that it's hard not to be excited for him. Speaking of Blake, he's now 22 months old and the kid is seriously a whiz at everything! He is so smart. He can count to 7, can point out and name about half of the ABCs, knows a few colors, and talks all the time! So crazy. It's funny because it has really inspired Logan to get into his alphabet (Blake can identify a few letters that Logan has trouble with) so he has been busy learning, learning, learning lately too! The downside though is that although Blake is a whiz at letters, he's also a whiz at climbing...already figured out how to climb out of his crib and get into pretty much anything he wants. Yikes! :)

Life!

What we have been up to lately:

Blake and I have gotten to lots of one-on-one hang out time lately thanks to L's preschool! And I'm pretty sure he's loving the extra attention. :)

Even though we're not hitting up the pool quite as often as we were now that school's in session, we've still been trying to make it for some afternoon swims every once in awhile! 

Jen and I went to a Publix Cooking School a couple of weekends ago, and let me just say - the food (and wine) was amazing!! Makes me wish I was a better cook. Most nights I feel accomplished if I can just manage to throw something edible on the table by 5:30.

The Moores came to visit for Labor Day weekend and we had so much fun! Sadly the picture of me and Melissa didn't turn out (that's what I get for hanging the camera over to Daniel ;)) but we got some good ones of the kiddos!

I absolutely LOVE Playalinda beach, and if was so perfect that afternoon - low tide and breezy!

We even got a chance to relive my lobster dinner from last year at Dixie Crossroads. This one was sadly less eventful - or I suppose I should say thankfully for my tablemates ;)

Another beautiful beach day at Playalinda!

Fun afternoon catching frogs with his buddies :)

Jen and I both ran in the Jeff Annas 5k.

My Moms Fit 4 Fun girls representing in our all pink&black gear for the 5k! These girls are some of the fastest runners I know!