Our little slice of Happily Ever After...

...winter time fun...

2013 has started like the last few years...with a bang...and like my sister-in-law, www.thebalderachs.com, I have been lacking a little bit of blogging inspiration, the camera has been put away and the pictures are few...but not the memories...

...Daddy had a second international trip in the last few months scheduled for the first week in January so we knew we needed to soak up all the family time at the end of the holidays...and we made plans to get in a gym class with our little Princess, so each baby got a Mommy/Daddy gym day before break was over...and she was just as pleased as us to be there...although she is so much more independent than her brother...

...and we finally got the chance to take Daddy to the Museum of Transportation...since we had all been before but we really wanted Daddy to see the Trains and Airplanes too...

...and a few more snuggles from Daddy and it was time for him to hit the road and the rest of us to get back on schedule with school, work, and the daily routine...

...but the daily routine around here always means a new adventure or a new skill...and add that to the list of things I am loving about life right now...because as much as no one loves change...I love all these new memories and experiences and that each day brings something different...

...like the first toe painting for my little Princess...and even Chase helped me do the painting...

...and a trip to the zoo...on a lovely 65 degree weather day, with some friends we hadn't seen in a while...or after dinner snacks when the clothes were already so soiled, we shed them knowing bath was minutes away...

...and did I mention that I picked up my new car while Daddy was gone...

...I am such a sentimental person...I shed a tear when we got rid of Kirk's truck...it was the car that we brought home our babies in from the hospital...the same car we bought two states away and drove home together in a snowstorm as newlyweds...and the car with countless memories of road trips and killing the battery listening to music outside just a little too long...

...but since my car was 10 years old and over 150,000 miles...but more importantly, shaking and rattling with every turn of a wheel...I thought I would be just fine letting her go...but then I started thinking about all the memories in her also...like the morning after our wedding night when my parents let us drive it home since it was their 'good car'...and I got sad again...I just hate to let things go...I've never been too good with goodbye's...

...but right before Kirk left, we found this beauty on a showroom floor and it seemed like the right car for us...so I went to pick it up and Chase has told me multiple times that I can't have the car in this picture...Because Mommy, you can't drive on the floooor and this car is on the floooor....

...but this thing has a sunroof in the front seats and one in the back...so the kids can spot airplanes and stars right above their heads...so I was just told that even though Daddy's car is cool, Mommy's is much cooler...

...and speaking of hating goodbye's, my little girl is just like Mommy...she hates to see anyone leave...even if she doesn't know you, she will cry and protest when you go (while she waves bye bye)...and she doesn't want to go from where ever she is...my Mom is smiling as she reads this because it is me...and on this day after a great trip to the zoo...my little girl couldn't say goodbye to 'Jake and the Neverland Pirates' and hanging out in the living room with her brother, even when it was clearly time for nap...

...we had a good time while Daddy was away...and Mommy enjoyed all the one on one time with her babies...

...and we did our fair share of sending Daddy email messages and one day doing FaceTime with him to stay in touch...Chase recognized the special ring on my phone for FaceTime and said, 'Mommy, who are we going to talk to on FaceTime?'...things sure have changed since I was a child..

...and while I won't do it justice...I have to recount the situation during FaceTime...Daddy was talking to us from a phone perched on the table...and we were all gathered around to talk, trying to get a word in, everyone with their own story to tell Daddy... when the doorbell suddenly rang, which always makes Ava scream, and Marley bark like crazy, so I took off for the front door...and I hear Chase in a very matter of fact tone tell Daddy, 'Don't worry Daddy, I will stay here and talk to you'...

...and with that, Daddy was on his way home...

...this screen showed him exactly where they were on the way home...which is especially cool when you are crossing the ocean...and Chase couldn't wait to see if Daddy brought him any surprises 'while he was at France, since I have been such a good boy while he was gone'...

...this is the view over the ocean aboard the jumbo jet...and I think it is a picture of what is to come for our family in 2013...a big year, with new challenges, new escapades and inevitably lots more fun...