Last Quarter of 2010

Here's a brief recap of the last 3 months of 2010.

So, as many of you guessed: I turned 30. :)
It still feels a little weird, but I sure am blessed. If you had asked me at 20 what my life would look like at 30, I never would have guessed any of this!

I had a lovely day and ended with meeting friends for a dinner out.

8 days later Elizabeth celebrated her 7th birthday. It is somewhat hart to believe, but she is so grown up these days that it isn't hard either. We celebrated with a birthday lunch of her choosing (McDonald's), then afternoon cake, and off to trick or treat with our buddy Linus and his grandma. This year Elizabeth was a ballerina, Caleb was a cowboy, and for his first Halloween ever Evan was Batman! They looked cute, had a good time, and tried not to freeze. :) Here is a picture of her ballerina cake. (Apparently she's a european ballerina who dies her hair blonde...)

The next day Caleb turned 4. We had a birthday dinner of his choosing (Wendy's- for the frosty, of course), and had cake as a family. The next weekend we did cake again with buddies and my parents. He enjoyed it. Here is a picture of his shark cake:

My parents came for their 2nd trip to PA. The last time they came my mom spent time with me, and then took care of the rest of us after Evan was born. My Dad flew in for a few days, loved on everybody and helped around the house. This trip we decided we would show them a little more of our part of the world. So along with spending lots of time playing, hanging out together and shopping we took an overnight trip to Gettysburg. I think my parents really enjoyed the trip (I know my Dad could have stayed there the whole week, but...), and other than Elizabeth getting car sick on the way there we all really did too. It was nice to let them enjoy some of the historical areas around our part of the world. It was a great visit.

We spent Thanksgiving here in Pittsburgh. We went over to our friends' (and fellow resident) house and had a really nice meal and a great time. We all brought part of the meal and shared the leftovers around. I really think that has to be the way to prepare a meal!

In December we found a puppy on Craigslist that needed a home and adopted him. His name is Swisher and we think he is beagle boxer. The kids adore him, and I can't say he's been without his trials and adjustments, but he's been a good addition to our family. This is a picture of when we first got him. He's grown a little, but not too much.

Then Tim and Cathy (Justin's parents) came for another great visit and to help us celebrate Evan's first birthday. His birthday was on a Tuesday, but I wanted to make sure his daddy would be around for his party, so we invited a few friends over on the Sunday before his birthday. We played a traditional Bulgarian game, where on their first birthday you put out several objects representing occupations and whatever they walk/crawl to and select tells you what they will be when they grow up. Well, there was no competition for Evan he went for the camera as fast as he could. I guess we will just have to see if he turns out to be a photographer. :)

He had a good time at the party until he decided to put out the flame on his candle with his fingers. :( I was right there, but just didn't see it coming. :( He was afraid of his cake and wouldn't touch it from that point on. So Justin ended up feeding it to him on a spoon and he ate quite a bit.

To celebrate Evan's actual birthday his mommy decided she really loves him and wanted to celebrate with a trip to the doctor... YEAH! ;) He is still a really big boy. In the 92 percentile for height and 75th for weight. We had another cupcake that night and he started crying as soon as we started singing to him. I think he was worried about the candle coming back to bite him again.

We stayed in Pittsburgh for Christmas as well. Justin worked hard all week, but was lucky enough not to even have to go in and round on Christmas day! We spent Christmas eve with my two best friend's families and had a great time and wonderful dinner. We spent Christmas day just lounging around the house as a family. We played games watched movies, and had a lasagna dinner we will never forget! (The lasagna burned Justin, fell out of his hands and all over the hot oven door and the floor. It was a giant mess, but we tag teamed and cleaned it up and still had plenty to eat.) We also got to skype with both sides of our families, which was wonderful! Justin had the next week off and we spent it relaxing, and spending quality time together.

For new years eve we got together again with our friends families, had burgers, played wii, talked about what a crazy year it had been, and all this year had to bring.

All together it was a wonderful couple of months. At times I felt like a bounced from one big activity to the next, but we made great memories and love the chaos that is our life.