The Year Ahead

I'm probably like everyone else, but I can't believe that another year has already gone by. It seems like a lot of stuff happens in not a lot of time. To finish off last year, we had a good December with the holidays and seeing family and friends. Colby's brother and his wife came in from Kansas and it was nice to catch up with them. On the 16th, my brother got married and let's just say, Colby and I didn't exactly enjoy the day. Not anything to do with the actual wedding, but because we had both kids with us. The ceremony was right in the middle of Korina's nap. So the night before, we thought we would keep her up late and she would sleep in longer than normal. Nope! She got up her usual time and then wasn't able to take a nap and basically turned into an emotional nightmare! I mostly wanted the kids to be at the wedding so they could be in the pictures and they ended up not being in them anyway. Colby wasn't even there because he was driving them around in the car hoping they would fall asleep. We should have just left them with Colby's parents after all. And then Mason was super tired, but for some reason would NOT fall asleep, so he was cranky also. What a day that was! They sure did look cute though. I bought a dress for Korina, and made a sash to match the wedding colors, and Colby and Mason had matching ties. So handsome!


This Christmas was the first time we had attempted a gingerbread house. It definitely wasn't something you would see in the Martha Stewart magazine, but Korina had a lot of fun decorating/eating the house.

Korina really enjoyed Christmas this year since she had a better idea of what to expect. She was very excited for Santa to come to our house and she loved ripping the paper off of her presents. And it's nice to threaten that Santa won't come unless she is on her best behavior. I think it kind of worked! The Woody doll was one of her favorite presents, she just loves "the cowboy movie" right now!

Here is Mason with the cutest little hat!

As you know, we had a better Thanksgiving than years past, but now our New Year's Eve didn't work out since Korina had the croup and we didn't want to spread it. So that night didn't go as planned (sorry Ben and Jackie), but now we are on the tail end of being sick so hopefully we can finish out the winter season without any more illnesses.
As for this year, we are hoping to potty train Korina in the upcoming week or so. Hopefully she is ready and understands enough that it will be successful. That would sure be nice for Colby and I if she can get the hang of it. I can't wait to see how Korina will change throughout the year. She already seems so much older and she constantly cracks me up with some of the things she says. I don't know where she comes up with half of it! She is quite the clown!

By the way, her eyes are closed in about 80% of the pictures we take. I don't know how she manages to do that!
Mason had his 4 month checkup and he is keeping up his pace of weight gain. He came in at 17 lbs. 12 oz and stayed around the 95%. His height was 24 3/4" and that keeps him at the 50% mark for height. His head used to be in the 25% range, but it moved up the 50% mark so I am happy for that. We fed him his first serving of rice cereal and he didn't seem to think it was too great. I'm sure he will love once we give him some more variety and texture. He does love to eat! I know this will be a year where Mason will change a lot. Obviously, he will continue to get bigger, but it's hard to imagine he will be walking before the year is over. It's so fun to see him develop and start to interact with Korina and become more interested in his surroundings. It's fun to see the differences and similarities between him and Korina when she was his age.

As for Colby and I, we are hoping to continue to get out of debt while still having some fun once in a while. We are thinking to plan a vacation for next January so we will have something to look forward to. Our other goal is to try and get into a house as soon as possible. We really enjoy looking at different places, but this time we will be extra picky since this will be the house that we stay in for the next 20 years or so. We are excited for what this year brings, but mostly I think we know to enjoy each day since it will probably go by just as fast as last year did. We hope you all have a great upcoming year!