Hello, 2017!

Oh my goodness, where does the time go?  We are 2 weeks into 2017 and it has been a crazy busy year thus far.  So much has happened since my last post, and I have had so little time to fill you all in... so here's a bit of a catch-up.

Christmas! Christmas came and went and it was wonderful as per usual.

December with a 3 year old was so much fun.  This year, Aaralee made her own gingerbread house, helped bake and decorate cookies for Santa, helped decorate the tree, and melted my heart as she sang in her first ever Christmas concert.  Briley of course thoroughly enjoyed the holiday season as well, but is still a bit too young to really grasp anything that's going on. The girls were graciously showered with gifts and treats but the contents didn't excite them half as much as the actual process of gift opening.  I wasn't joking when I said they'd be happy to receive empty boxes.

Ryan and I are pretty excited about our Christmas gift... we'll open it later this week.  We bought a new home! We've made so many memories in our current home, but since adding 2 kids we've longed for more space. I can't wait to finally be finished packing and to be moved into our brand new house.   

We rang in 2017 on a beautiful beach in Mexico. It was the best trip that we've been on since having kids.  Aaralee had so much fun splashing and playing in the pool and I was blown away at how brave she has gotten since our last trip.  Briley loved running around the resort, chasing the coatis and napping on me as we floated around in our donut pool float.  After months of Ryan working out of town, it was the perfect week away as a family that we needed. 

Our camera (okay, Ryan's camera that I have adopted as my own) decided to stop working on that trip, which was rather disappointing.  Not only because it meant going half of the vacation with only phone photos, but it also meant that I'd be without the camera at home. As of recently I've been trying to take more photos of other people, aside from my children.  After a busy December of taking Christmas photos, I felt like I was just getting into the swing of things. Fortunately, I still have my own camera, and though it's less fancy, it still does the trick! I have a Facebook page now, should you feel so inclined to contribute to the "Camera repair" fund. 

That's pretty much all that I've got for updates and I believe that I've now procrastinated packing long enough. I can't wait to show you our new home and tell you all about the adventures we have planned over the next few months! 

Wish me luck, as it appears that I'll be without internet for the first few weeks and I'm not sure that I'm capable of quitting cold turkey.