2012

It was fun to re-live 2012 by going through pictures. I tried, at first, to limit each month to one picture, but I obviously failed at that. It was an overall good year. Much to be thankful for!

January: Tyler came to visit! 

February: Valentine's Day. Shane brought home flowers for Elsa and me. I made him a red velvet cheese cake with oreo crust, and we grilled out. We all felt loved. 

March: My dad and sister ran the Tobacco Half Marathon, so David, Shane, Elsa, and I went to cheer them on!

April: Shane surprised me with a trip to Wilmington for a weekend to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. Elsa saw the beach for the first time.

We also celebrated our friend's Sara and Scotty's wedding. While we were there, Shane's parent's and brother watched Elsa. 

May: We bought Elsa an early birthday gift and started taking family bike rides around town. It was nice to have something new to do on the weekends and evenings. Also, our newest nephew Noah was born!

And took a trip to Monroe. 

June: Elsa turned one. We had a little party at my parent's house. 

We celebrated my cousin, Lauren, and Shane's friend, Tim's, wedding at Ocean Isle beach. My parents rented a beach house for our family to enjoy all week. 

And met in Asheboro one evening to meet Noah!

July: Took a trip to Monroe. Elsa hung out with Mason for a bit one afternoon. 

Took a ride on the mower with Daddy. 

And we took our first trip to the zoo with friends of mine from college and their little ones. 

Oh, and ate a LOT of peaches. 

August: We celebrated Daddy's birthday!

September: Celebrated Ashley and Dustin's big day. I had the honor of being in the wedding, so it was a fun weekend. 

I also started nannying a little girl from our church. Elsa and her have really enjoyed each other!

October: We went to a little pumpkin patch. Elsa wanted to pick up every pumpkin there. She also picked up an apple out of a basket and took a nice big bite out of it, so we bought it. Thankfully she bit into a juicy honey crisp, my favorite!

And then we went home and carved a big pumpkin that Grannie gave Elsa. 

November: We went to Monroe for Thanksgiving. The elves enjoyed each other. 

December: The first weekend of December we went to the downtown Apex Christmas festivities Friday night. 

Then we went to the Apex Parade Saturday night. 

The girls had a shoot off at the K's. 

We celebrated Eli coming home safe and sound from Afganistan. 

and celebrated Christmas at my parent's house. 

It was a great year. Many blessings, lots of fun, great family time, and lessons learned. I'm sure 2013 will bring joy as well. Happy new year!

Christmas

This was a Christmas to remember. Lots of little ones opening gifts at the Puffer home and lots of good eats, shooting guns, and celebrating at the K's. 

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Pain too deep

http://blog.portcitychurch.org/archives/5680

I have no words. I will never forget 12/15/12. Praying for families and friends of victims.

18 month stats

Length- 31.75 in. (52%)
Weight- 22 lbs 12.5 oz. (28%)

Doc says she right on track. Praising God for a healthy Elsa!

a year and a half already...

I thought today would be a good day to update the blog since Elsa moved up to the Bumble Bee room at the YMCA. That is the room where the 18 month-3 year olds go. She looked so little next to all of those kids, but found a dump truck when we walked in and was content after that. The workers told me she loved music time and was off and on happy after that. I cannot get over how sweet all of the childcare is at the Y. They are all so patient and loving. They give each parent an update when they come to pick up their child (or maybe it's just me, who knows). I have been very thankful for this time. I am finally getting out of the house a little bit in the mornings now that I have a gym to workout in. Running around the lake everyday was starting to get a little boring, and chilly with the season change.

A couple months ago I started to watch a little girl at our house. Her family goes to our church. She is a few months older than Elsa and very sweet, so Elsa and I have enjoyed having her. They are slowly learning to share toys, be gentle towards one another, and communicate with each other in their own language. We've had a couple rough weeks here and there, but for the most part it has been good. Elsa asks for her most mornings when she wakes up. It's sweet.

Elsa comforting Ainsley after her mommy left for work. 

In October, my dad, brother and Shane went to a YL men's retreat together. While they were gone my mom and I took Elsa to a couple different parks in the area to try them out. Some great, some alright. It's good to have more options now though. She loves swinging, sliding, and sand boxes.

Grandma and Elsa

One of my close friends got married in September and I had the honor of being in her wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and a fun weekend. We haven't been able to get together with her and her husband as much as we would like, but it will happen more often soon.

the beautiful bride!

Griff and Scotty with us at Ash's wedding

at the wedding

high school buddies. 3 multiplied to 6!

Shane put in a paver patio at a friend's house a month or so ago as well. It looked like a lot of hard work. I helped him for a few hours one day, but not enough to get an idea of how exhausting it must have been.

big project...

halfway finished. 

Elsa's vocabulary continues to multiply. It is unbelievable how much she can understand and/or say. And the way she says some things is, of course, very cute.

blue eyes

We are still very thankful to be able to get together with my friend and her daughter weekly despite both of us recently changing jobs. It is good for the soul and good for the girls. We love that time together.

sharing a water bottle and a chair like champs

I wanted to go to a pumpkin patch to get some pictures this year since we never made it to one last year...last year may have been better. It's hard to get a 16 month old to sit still.

Our strong Saints cheerleader!

Elsa bit into an apple before we could grab her, so we bought it and moved away from the apples...good apple though!

Mommy and Elsa at the pumpkin patch

Elsa loves sharing smoothies with daddy. It's an afternoon snack a couple times a week as long as daddy is home before she wakes up, because he makes them the best.

Snack time with daddy.

We didn't do much for halloween this year. We went over to my mom's for dinner and intended on handing out candy, but there were not that many trick or treaters. Thankfully Elsa was able to fit into her 6-9 month cow costume from last year....even cuter this year than last!

Our little cow with pink hooves

We spent Thanksgiving in Monroe this year with Shane's parents, his sister, and our nephew.  It was a nice, quiet relaxing Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for and it was great to spend it and celebrate with family. Friday afternoon we left and came back to Apex and ate our second thanksgiving feast with my family. It was a week of good eats for sure.

Elsa and "Nono"

I hope everyone is enjoying this weather as much as I am! I was so ready for it to get a little chilly, though it is in the 60's today, which isn't really cold. If every day could be in the 60's, it would be a perfect world, but we don't live in a perfect world, so we have days in the 100's and 30's.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Best friends!