Our Most Memorable Moments of 2011

 "We are excited and looking forward to 2011, as there is much more change to come! I dedicate 2011 to finding our way. What happens this year can set the road for the rest of our lives."

This is a quote from last years post about the new year. The best thing about blogging is having everything written down, so you can go back to a moment in time and read exact how you felt.  
Wow, did our lives change from that moment. We are finding our way and what happened this year did set the road for the rest of our lives. Little did we know the big changes that were about to take place. Here is our year in review!

January

January 30th, we celebrated Ethan's birthday. Little man turned two and celebrated with two Toy Story Extravaganzas, one in Colorado and one in Wisconsin.

What we didn't know is that while we were home, the Midwest would get the biggest winter blizzard leaving us stuck in WI for a few extra days.

Look at all that snow!


February

In February, we made our biggest photography purchase when we bought the Canon 7D. Photography has been my passion and I love this camera :) Here's one of the first photos I took with my new camera!

They are much more precious when they are sleeping ;)


March

March 25th, we celebrated my 23rd birthday, along with the 2nd anniversary of Shane's return from Iraq. Also as we remember it by, the day Shane met Ethan for the first time!
 

In March, I got the privilege of photographing my beautiful friend Lindsay. You can check out more photos here.


Along with the cutest little boy in town and his momma. More photos here.



April
April, we moved from the tiny town of Sugar City to Pueblo, CO. To be closer to my husbands work.

Good-bye country life and baby goats


May

In May, I graduated from OJC with my Associate Degree. After 5 years of school (on and off) and 5 different colleges, I was able to see a little step of accomplishment.

I didn't end up going to graduation, so no picture. But I did get to spend my whole summer, no text books or studying, with my little man :)


June

June marked a full year of running with my Nike+. In which I recorded over 410 miles.

Not too bad for a beginner!


July

In July, Lindsay asked me if I would do a family photo shoot for her. This is the largest group of people I've ever taken photos for before. Everything that could go wrong, did! It was dark, rainy, and windy but I learned so much about photography this day.



The end of July is when we made the decision to move back to Wisconsin. We made the decision after Nana and Papa's visit to Colorado and my Dad's health scare. At this time our hearts were just telling us it was time to go home. We saw our futures in WI and we wanted our families to be apart of Ethan's life.

August

In August, we said good bye to our good friends in Colorado. 

Ethan still misses his best friend Cooper



And his good friend B.

 

September
In September we made our last trip to the Mountains. 

Part of my heart will always be there


September

On September 16, 2011 we packed up our trailer and cars and officially made our move from Colorado to Wisconsin. It was hard to give up everything to move back, but we took a leap of faith. Looking back, it was one of the best decisions we've made.

& we made it back to WI just in time to celebrate Shane's Grandparents 50th wedding anniversary.

Being married for 50 years is a huge accomplishment!


October

In October, after all the big changes, I decided to start up blogging again. I made the commitment to blog for at least a whole year. I am so glad I did because I have met the most amazing people so far!

We also celebrated Halloween in style!

 November
In November, my husband was offered a temporary job, so we moved to Tomah, WI. This time we were only 2 hours away from family, as oppose to 18.

This was our beautiful view!  
Why can't it always be fall


December

In December, we celebrated our first Christmas back in WI with family.

And that was our 2011! What a whirlwind this year has been! Looking back at the beginning of the year, I definitely didn't think we would be where we are now. It's been a crazy journey, but it seems to only be the start for us. I foresee many great changes for 2012. It's going to be a good year!

***

Now I'm off to ring in the New Year with these silly boys.

I wonder which one will make it to midnight...
my moneys on Ethan.

Happy New Year's Eve!

Three Days of Christmas

We are finally recovered from the Christmas madness!

This year we had three days of celebration which added up to lots of family time, lots of food, and lots of presents. It was a great way to spend our first Christmas back in WI.

Our 1st day of Christmas, was Christmas Eve at GG's house. After church service, we indulged in some delicious food and waited for Santa's arrival. The best part was watching Ethan's face when Santa came in the door. There was nothing but pure joy and excitement on his face.

Each of the young ones got to open presents on Santa's lap.

Ethan couldn't wait for his turn, but once it was time to get on Santa's lap and open up his present, he got real serious.

Santa must have received Ethan's letter, cause he got him two monster truck tow trucks ;)

That night Santa made a special return with presents to the Anderson household.

On our 2nd day of Christmas, Christmas morning, Ethan slept in until after 9! As soon as he was up and saw the presents, he got to unwrapping them real fast.

Even Chase got in on the excitement.

Once Ethan unwrapped a present and got every single piece of tape and paper off (serious OCD here) he would hand it over to Papa to open. Then when Papa couldn't open it (child proof is right), it was off to Daddy to get open and set up.

After presents were opened, we had our traditional Christmas waffles with whip cream and sprinkles.

My favorite tradition :)

Christmas morning breakfast.

We spent Christmas night at my parents house.

Family photo and Christmas kisses for Ethan before we left.

At my parents we had another turkey dinner (I'm not complaining, I LOVE me some turkey) then opened some more presents.

Ethan has the best time with my dad (must be their maturity levels ;) just kidddding, dad...kinda)

The best present we gave this year was this card, letting everyone know that they helped us donate to Toys for Tots. If you read this post, you know we donated over 13+ gifts. One thing I didn't tell is that we used half our budget of family gifts to donate these toys. So everyone in our immediate family helped us donate too. I was very pleased to see everyone's reaction and how happy they were to help!

On our 3rd day of Christmas, the day after Christmas we went down to Chicago to visit Great Papa Anderson. Here's Ethan with his Nana and Papa before leaving.

If you don't watch football, or live under a rock, you wouldn't know that Packer fans and Bear fans are complete rivals. They played on Christmas night, and I guess the Bears were on the naughty list this year cause Packers kicked their butts :)

Ethan insisted on wearing his Packer hat to Chicago. He almost got us kicked out of the restaurant haha just kidding, they said he would just have to wait outside...

We made sure to take a four generation photo. I've never seen four guys look more alike in my life!

Well that's it folks! This was the busiest Christmas we've ever had. Ethan was completely wiped out and recuperated with 14 hours of sleep the night we got home. It was a lot of fun though! Nice to spend time with our families.
We look forward to next years Christmastime :)

So what was your highlight from Christmas?
Leave me a comment, I would love to know!

What I Wore

Anyone else feel like Christmastime went by way to fast? 

Okay... me either.. 

Although I love Christmastime, new traditions, Christmas music, Christmas trees and decor, it can also be exhausting! Guess it's a good thing it's only once a year ;) 

I am a little sad it's all over, I have a hard time adjusting to change, but I am ready for the New Year!

Ethan's birthday is right around the corner and I will soon be busy getting ready for that. Can't believe this will be his 3rd birthday :( 

Anyways, lets get to What I Wore Wednesday. 

I have just one outfit to share this week. It was a last minute put something together outfit, and surprisingly those seem to always be my favorite ones!

Sweater: Kohl's. Scarf: Christmas Gift (Target, thanks GG :). White tee, belt, & jeans: AE. Boots: JcPenney.

It was nice to get a break from blogging, but I kinda missed it too! Crazy how blogging becomes part of your life :) Hopefully I will have our Christmas recap up and ready to share with you tomorrow. I love seeing how everyone spent their Christmas!

Tell me, what was your most favorite memory this Christmas?

Have a Very Merry Christmas

It truly is the best time of the year! 

We are very blessed to be able to spend this Christmas with all of our family this year. 

I hope we all take a little time to remember what the true spirit of Christmas is all about.

Enjoy your time with your family & friends.

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Cheer

 

This week has been a busy one filled with lot of holiday cheer! It consisted of Santa hats, gingerbread choo-choos, chocolate covered pretzels, snow, cookie baking, Christmas music, gift wrapping and tags made from little bitty fingerprints, surprise presents, and an awkward Santa visit at story time.

Tonight we will be heading home to spend Christmas with our family, as I'm sure many of you are.

I hope everyone has safe travels!