2011 Recap

Here's a run through of 2011, you might see a few repeats but I'll try and get all the important occasions that I missed documenting throughout the year. Okay, so I only got through September, but after more than a month of this post sitting unfinished I thought I should just post what I have and finish later when the rest of the years photos are uploaded to the computer.

January

Ben turned 1 and John turned 30 and pretty much we were covered in snow for the whole month and I felt like Aiden had more snow days than he did school days. It's amazing that we haven't seen any snow at all yet this season, hopefully I didn't just jinx it.
February

So there wasn't a single post in February, that's because nothing really happened. I did decorate a wedding cake with my friend Emilee and the only pictures John took that whole month was of Abby on Valentines day.Here's the wedding cake

March

Well I think life was just happening in March because I don't have a single photo taken in March, as I was being a blog slacker, John was being a photo slacker (or just busy being a dental student:).

April

I found all kinds of treasures in the April 2011 picture file, here's a few.

Weird, I know, it's just a picture of a couple eggs right? It was actually one egg with two yokes. It surprised me so much that I had to take a picture of it.
We put new flooring down in the kitchen. The kids loved to "help".
Ben trying to be just like Dad.
Can't believe how much they've grown since this was taken. Love them!
First family trip to the ER. Never thought it would be Abby. We were watching Napolean Dynamite and she was dancing right along with Napolean when a spin ended badly. Her face hit the tv stand. She is such a tough girl. She slept the whole way to the hospital and chatted with the nurse about her best friend Sophie while the Dr. stitched her up. If I remember correctly, this was the day after.
Easter egg hunt. The fairway was totally covered.

May

Abby turned 4.

I got to go to NYC with some awesome girls and had a GREAT time!
I also made a prom dress early in the month for a girl in the ward. It was quite a challenge but I love completing a challenging project and seeing how much the client loves it. She is a beautiful girl and I think she looked stunning.

They bought this dress (to be returned when I was done with it), she wanted her dress to be just like this one but without the flower detail and with wide tapered straps. She also wanted it more fitted, which the dress she bought was, unlike this photo where it kind of hangs a little.
So I bought a pattern that I thought would be a good starting point (and that's all it was, I really created the whole pattern on my own), and after several fabric swatches ordered, she chose a nice royal blue that looks awesome with her red hair. Here's a couple of shots of Eliza in her dress.

June

I was bit by a tick behind my right knee and 10 days later a bulls-eye rash appeared on the same leg. I went to the Dr. and was immediately put on antibiotics for lyme disease, luckily at that early stage it's completely treatable. Sorry if the picture grosses you out, but the Dr. I saw said that it was so textbook that he had to show the nurse too who said it was awesome. At it's worst it was about 5 inches across and had about 4 rings!

This was taken in June, aren't they beautiful?
I single handedly tore the carpet out of the dining room, filled the nail holes and put down new thresholds. It's so much better.

Before
After

Abby had her first ever dance recital.

My sisters Jen and Trish arrived at the end of the month and I didn't take a single picture. Jen was the photographer for their visit. We took an overnighter down to Newport RI where we ate a lot of food, did a lot of walking, toured the Breakers mansion, treated ourselves to manicures and pedicures and took a sunset cruise tour of surrounding lighthouses. I did a little touring of Boston with them and they did a lot more without me. They were also here for the 4th of July celebrations. I loved every minute they were here!

I stole this picture of Trish and I on our way to RI from Jen's blog.

For more documentation of their trip you can check out Jen's blog here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Yes that's nine posts, but what can I say, she's a much more organized blogger than I and would never put the whole trip in one post.

July

We started the month with Jen and Trish still here and another fantastic 4th of July Spectacular in Boston.

Hanging out, waiting for the fireworks show to begin (for several hours).

It was hot that month. Luckily there is an amazing family in our ward that gave us an open invitation to use their pool whenever we wanted or needed to.

Ben mostly just preferred a shady car ride.

Abbs got her haircut.

August

Playing in the backyard?
A small portion of the fruits of our labors (okay, more like the fruits of John's labors:)

I turned 31, in which we have no photo documentation of but I was spoiled. John took me to dinner and a movie and gave me tickets to see the So You Think You Can Dance tour when they came to Boston in September. We also celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. John and I love planning and cooking a nice meal together for special occasions and that's exactly what we did. This year we made a delicious salad with orange, candied walnuts and goat cheese, fresh roasted cherry tomatoes (from our garden, I was picking more than a hundred a day), seared scallops and lobster risotto.
To finish the month off we went on our annual family campout. This year we stayed close to home and just went to northern Mass. The weather was amazing and we had a great time. The only downside was that I sprayed myself everywhere that I had exposed skin with bug spray but forgot my feet the first night as did John, the next day I counted 99 bites just on one foot, YIKES! We also made a day trip into New Hampshire to Canobie Lake Park, the kids LOVED it.

The ferris wheel where John wouldn't let the kids move a muscle because the movement so far up pretty much immobilized him, did you know he hates heights?

September

Aiden started 2nd grade and Abby started pre-school.

Aiden turned 7! He chose to have a Harry Potter themed party.

Platform 9 3/4

The Invites. I was so proud of my homemade wax seal made from a carrot. Why on earth would I spend money on a stamp that I will never use again?

I made wands for everyone, this is maybe a third of what I made. They're actually made from paper.

The golden snitch pinata, unfortunately we didn't get a picture before it was half destroyed. That would be because John was pre occupied preparing for potions class.

We played a little game of quidditch.
The cake (small cake for Aiden and lots of cupcakes).
Good times means one very happy boy. (Don't you just love the missing teeth?)
Grandma was here for his birthday again and got to visit Aiden's class where Aiden got to share something special and Grandma got to read a couple of Aiden's favorite stories to the class. (Swimmy and Inch by Inch, both by Leo Lioni)

We have several grape vines in our backyard and they became ripe in September. We made grape juice and grape jelly.

Finally, John and I went to So You Think You Can Dance and it was amazing. We didn't feel like lugging the camera along but a couple of friends from dental school were at the same show and Melissa documented it on her blog (along with a couple pictures of us).