Our Year in Review

This year I got lazy with our Christmas cards and omitted our annual holiday letter where I brag about how great my kids are and all the fun things we do all year long. Lucky you, I am going to post it here instead. To save trees. Or maybe I just didn't have the time or energy this year. But let's say it was the tree thing, okay?

Where has this year gone? We really didn't even do that many exciting things but I feel like our life was jam-packed busy! We are definitely lucky and blessed to be parents to the two most adorable and lovely and sweetest little people on the planet. Everything else is secondary. But all the secondary stuff has been great too. Love, health, family, friends, travel, fun, it's all been there for us and we are a happy group this year!

We kicked off our year with Brian's 4th birthday in January. He wanted a bouncy house party again and had a blast with his friends. He is the sweetest big brother in the world. He loves his sister so much and takes on the role of teacher, friend, and playmate with her daily. He has lots of patience for her and is very rarely jealous or mean to her. We really hit the lottery in the big brother department! He is also a super active boy, playing t-ball in the spring and soccer in the fall this year. He had a blast playing team sports and was a great teammate. He started his last year of preschool in the fall and likes going to school. He has become more interested in crafty things at school and now enjoys drawing stick figures of the family. He's a smart little guy and his teachers have never complained about anything except that he is loud. Not disruptive. Just lacks volume control. But we knew that and we love him anyways! He's a super fun little guy and growing up way too fast, I can't believe in January he will be turning 5 and heading to Kindergarten in the fall! Yikes!

Emily celebrated her first birthday in April. We celebrated with a small party at the park and she dug right into her birthday cake. Emily is very very very talkative and is a little parrot. She is already speaking in small sentences and tell us what she wants/needs on a regular basis. She knows the name of all her snacks and will tell you exactly what she wants, like "cookies," or "crackers," or "bumblebee nummies" (honey nut cherrios). She loves her big brother and wants to play with him and his toys all day long. She freely gives kisses and hugs and cuddles. When she is not cuddling, she is running everywhere and climbing everything. Actually, I was told today that she is "very active" but both our kids always have been so I don't really know any different. She does have her moments of assertive independence (mini tantrums) if she doesn't get her way but they usually pass quickly and she is back to her normal self. She is fun and sweet and wearing me out most days!! I can't believe she turns two in 4 months!

This year we took a few small trips: Tombstone, Tucson, Flagstaff, and California several times. Plus one big trip to Virginia to see Steve's family there and Steve and his Dad took a few days in South Carolina to fix up our house there for new tenants. The kids enjoy running around on the farm and seeing the cows. Brian loved playing in the water at the "Big Rock."

In November, Brian took his first trip without Mom and Dad to Colorado for his cousin Grace's 4th Birthday. My mom met us at the Phoenix airport and scooped him up and away for the weekend. He had a blast playing with Grace and going to Santa's Village. He still talks about it all the time and he didn't even miss us!

This is our last year in Arizona as we should be moving in the summer or fall of 2012. Steve found out recently that he is an alternate for ACSC, an Air Force school that is equivalent to a civilian Master's Degree. ACSC is about 10 months long and there are 5 or so different school locations, all starting in the summertime. So, we could be moving to school this year. Or not. But we dodn't have any idea when we will know. It could be very last minute. This Air Force thing is always keeping us on our toes! If he doesn't get school, then we are up for a new assignment anyways at some point this year. So, stay tuned to the blog for updates!

All in all, a great, laid back year for the Hurt household. Lots of good fun times on trips and watching Brian play sports and enjoy school and watching Emily grow and turn into a busy little person.

We are looking forward to a visit from Steve's parents and sister right before Christmas and then we are spending Christmas right here in our own house. Nice and relaxing with no travel involved! We are also looking forward to celebrating our 10th Wedding Anniversary in January and a trip to Hawaii in February!

If you want to get completely caught up, check out the blog achives on the right sidebar. Oh and also, I'm back to sewing the purses, check out my new website for that, www.flightsuitglam.com.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We hope this finds everyone happy and healthy!

Holiday Shenanigans

The Hurt family has been very busy with lots of holiday happenings. Christmas parties, kids Christmas parties, Christmas school sing-songy things, cookie making, tree decorating. Oh and I've been sewing and sewing and sewing. Lots of last minute purse requests from those sweet husbands out there! I'm mish-mashing our holiday festivities pictures into one picture heavy post. Here ya go....
Ducks kids Christmas party. Santa flies down from the Pole in an F16 to meet the kiddos and had out both large amounts of excitement and overwhelming bouts of character-suit fear.

Brian was soooo excited to see Santa again.

This was the best picture I got of our kids "sitting on Santa's lap." Several things are happening here. I forgot to turn the flash on. Brian forgot to calm down and stand still. Emily forgot that Santa is the one that brings the toys and she broke out every self-defense move she has to get as far as she could from the big red guy. Last year Brian wouldn't be seen in the same room as Santa so at least we have improvement on that front.

Emily did allow Santa to give her a small presento but she was very wary and had that look in her eyes that means "you get any closer and I will punch you in the mouth!"

For Brian's school fundraiser, our family purchased 12 tubs of cookie dough (that's 36 dozen cookies!) and we made them for our base airmen cookie drive. It took me 2 days to make them all and I even gave 3 tubs to a friend who offered to help! Brian helped-ish. He was better help eating them than making them but he tried. Thanks to everyone who helped us buy cookie dough!

We tossed our fake tree last year. It was old, like first generation fake tree with no lights! It had served us well for 9 Christmases but the lead was beginning to break down and burn my arms as I assembled it, so out to the trash it went and we had to come up with a new plan. So we decided to go live this year and scored an awesome FREE tree from base. It's a 7-ish footer and it very nice and full. We are pleased, especially because it cost nothing and my arms aren't on fire. Brian was a big help this year putting up ornaments and Emy approves of our work.

My vintage Santa light

The kids reading a Christmas story

Emy giving gentle kisses to my vintage "Hanta"

Steve dressed in his ugly duckling Christmas sweater for our adult Ducks holiday party

I decided to forgo the ugly Christmas sweater dress code and just look normal. As normal as I can look that is ;)

Major Trouble

Emily has recently taken up a new game called "when Daddy walks through the door, I steal the hat he keeps in his flight suit leg pocket and run around the house with it squealing!" Her favorite part is getting caught and tickled. Her punishment is that Daddy then heads upstairs without her to change out of uniform and she hates nothing more than when her Daddy wanders off without her.

"Who, me?!"

Big Brother is credited with the invention of this game when he was 1.

My "Trash" Desk Featured!

Remember this desk that my MIL and I found roadside and fixed up? It got featured on this great blog called Roadkill Rescue. People submit pictures of their free or found furniture and other things that they repurpose or fix up into something useful. Click HERE to see my featured Roadkill Rescue!

Happy Turkey Day

We just got home last night from our turkey week on California. It was great to see our family and friends and enjoy a delicious turkey and fixings made by my parents. We had lots of plans in our head but most of them didn't work out because Emily's gastrointestinal issues from last month came back. She started last weekend off as we were getting out of the car for Brian's last soccer game by vomiting all over Steve. It was bad. I quickly drove them home, during which she proceeded to fill her car seat. She spent the next 4 hours first in Steve's arms, then mine, alternating with being held over the sink. By saturday she seemed fine during the day but then I was up all night with her sunday. After about 4 hours of sleep for both of us, she seemed fine in the morning, so we loaded up the car and headed to CA anyways. Maybe not the best idea as she vomited in a Wendy's/Truckstop and then again in the car. And then again monday evening on my Mom and then in her portable bed. You get the idea, this pretty much went on all week, including yesterday morning as we were packing to come home. We even took her to Children's Hospital Los Angeles but because she was not dehydrated, they gave her some medicine to stop the vomiting (worked for a few days) and sent us on our way. I've decided this is not a virus. She has no fever, is totally fine once the bouts of vomiting stop, no one else in the family has contracted this "virus." We finally got a referral to a gastroenteralogist to go through last week and I will be up bright and early tomorrow on the phone trying to get an appointment immediately. Mean Mama Bear might be coming out tomorrow since I'm sick of hearing that this is just a virus. It's been going on too long (6 weeks now) and it's time to look into some other possibilities. So, other than worrying about Emy all week, we managed to have a night out with Laura and Allan and our friends Katie and Mark to eat and see Breaking Dawn. And my mom and I squeezed in some time in the Garment District in LA to buy lots and lots of fabric for purse linings. I'm hoping this next week is the beginning of finding some answers for Emily and her nonstop "virus."

Brian and cousin Grace at the kids table

Soccer

Brian played his last game of the season last night. He loved playing and was always really excited about practice and the games. I don't think we have a future pro soccer player on our hands, he should really stick to baseball but it was great to see him get out there and play. Many of the other 4-year-old boys on his team would lose interest about halfway through the game so we were pleased that Brian was so into playing, regardless of skill level. He probably could have gotten MVP of Cheering His Friends On and being empathetic when some of the teams' go-getters got a rouge kick to the face. He's definitely a great team player and supportve friend. And his sister Emily loved cheering his on. She learned "Go!Go!Go!" and now applies it to all her sports TV watching moments.

The Hurt Cheer Squad

So excited about his new trophy!

Brian's Big Adventure Part 2

Day 3 of Brian's adventure in Colorado included a trip to a magical place called Santa's village...

There are rides.....

and more rides.....

and the real Santa Claus!

And reindeer signs to attack!

And yet more rides!

And then there are last night of the trip cousin sleepovers in Grandma's hotel room. Brian had an absolute blast and was exhausted after his weekend of fun. we are glad to have him back!