Today I thought I would share a little window into my personal life. I know many bloggers are fiercely protective of their personal lives, but I personally love finding out a bit about the bloggers that I follow because I feel like they are my friends. What a funny, awesome world of technology we live in. Back in the day when I was playing Oregon Trail at the speed of molasses in elementary school I never would have dreamed that I would have “friends” that I had never actually met.
So here, in no particular order (except for the top one, which is clearly our ultimate highlight) are some highlights from 2012 for our little family.
* My little drama queen, the Princess of All, was born. I can’t resist her! She entered the world as a tiny 6 pound baby who cried if she wasn’t held at all times, but she is now chubby and content, crawling around, babbling, snuggling up a storm, and making it her mission in life to eat all of the paper in the house when her mama isn’t looking.
* Our handsome little man turned three. He gets smarter and funnier every day, with obsession including cars, pirates, dragons, and vikings. When he isn’t at preschool, he wanders around all day dressed in costumes and having sword fights with invisible foes or lining cars up in elaborate patterns and lines. Or, of course, cutting up his Bapa’s to-do list. We live with my dad, and for some reason my boy has it out for Bapa’s to-do list. He always manages to find it and color on it, cut it, or cover it with a mountain of tape. If you knew my fussy, organized father you would think that was hilarious. My sister almost cried laughing when she heard about it.
* Our darling nephew’s adoption was finalized in February and he was sealed to my sister and BIL in the temple of our church for time and all eternity. His birth parents and grandparents came out to support and witness the event, and it was a truly miraculous and wonderful weekend. He is so stinking cute, and we are so blessed to have him in our family!
* This summer my youngest sister came to live with us while she waited for her handsome hubby to get home from a deployment in Afghanistan. It was SOOOO FUN to have her here! She is a bubbly little ball of happiness and energy. As I mentioned, we are living with my dad, and our other sister and her family live nearby, as well as our grandparents, so we had an awesome summer of family fun! Most importantly, her man made it home safe and sound to her!
* My husband and I took our kids to Disneyland on the week of my beloved Halloween so that I could see Mickey Mouse pumpkins and our booy could see Cars Land. He has been wildly obsessed with the movie Cars for years. Literally. It was the first trip in 8 years of marriage that we have every taken that wasn’t traveling with or going to visit family. Just. Us. It was HEAVEN. (Exhausting and chaotic, but Heaven nonetheless.) My MIL made my son a Peter Pan costume last year for Halloween, and he requested that he be Peter Pan again and his daddy be Captain Hook. Oh, and he very specifically requested that I be Mr. Smee, not Wendy. The Captain Hook at the park kept patting me on the head and hugging me when we met him. Haha. My MIL made Captain Hook’s coat and I made the rest of our costumes. Peter Pan and Captain Hook made quite a splash walking through the park hand in hand, that’s for sure! My husband was such a trooper to walk around all day in that hot outfit and wig, all for the joy of his little boy. What a man!
*My husband finished the intern year of his General Surgery Residency and started the second year. This is why we are living with my dad. My dad is a widower, as you know from my posts, and has a big, empty house. We have a scary amount of student debt, so we are living him while my husband chips away at his years and years and YEARS of training. My husband is happy to be slowly moving up the totem pole. He’s a very hands on dad and a great hubby, even though he isn’t around much. He’s a keeper.
* My husband and I both turned 30. My SIL got married the weekend of my 30th, but I couldn’t go to the wedding because I was much too pregnant, so I stayed behind. My sister knew I would be sad about being left behind on my birthday, so she put a little bug in my dad’s ear and he flew out my other sister and one of my ultimate BFFs as a huge surprise for me. It was a glorious, kid free weekend of girl talk, food, and fun!
* We got to see plenty of my in-laws this year as well, much to our son’s ultimate delight. That kid is OBSESSED with his Grandpa. They couldn’t stay away from their brand new granddaughter, after all! They came to help after the baby was born, for her Blessing at our church, and for fun visits. We also went to Jackson Hole with them for a fun trip where my son and I both saw our first rodeo. He took to it a bit more than I did. Shocker. One SIL got hitched and the other got engaged, so it was a big year all around for the McKenna clan!
* Last, but not least, Courtney talked me into becoming a contributor on this blog. I am so grateful that she, Chris, and Heather allowed me to be a part of this endeavor! It has been a blessing to me. At times it is extremely time consuming and stressful, but it has gotten me to start CRAFTING again. I had been missing this creative side of myself, and I didn’t even realize it! I originally agreed rather hesitantly to be a contributor in that I would find easy jewelry tutorials from around the web and share them. Then I asked if I could post original tutorials. Of course Courtney said, “YES!” and it all spiraled from there. It has been very therapeutic for me to be creating and forcing myself to make time to do the things that I love as I have battled postpartum depression, which, unfortunately, is something that has hit me with extremely serious force after each of my pregnancies. I lost my desire to create jewelry after my daughter’s birth, and I made the difficult decision to take a year off of my holiday sales and shows. I fear that I may have lost some clientele and momentum as a result of that decision, but, as they say, you can’t force art, and the stress simply wasn’t worth it to me. I needed a break. My online shop still made steady sales over the holiday season, and I was able to concentrate on projects for my kiddos and those that I love. The instant I made the decision to let me in-person sales and shows fall by the wayside I felt a weight being lifted from my heavy, stressed out mind, but I look forward to hopefully doing both jewelry design and blogging next year!
To the few of you who read this all the way through, thank you for your support. I am blessed to be a part of your lives through this little blog ‘o mine. Cheesy, I know. But it’s true! Here’s to a fabulous, fun, productive, and creative 2013! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Rachel says
Cute post!! Your kids are the very cutest!!
Amalia J says
Thank you for posting this. Tonight I’m browsing your jewelry tutorials. I enjoyed your blog, reading now & then & I love learning about the lady-mama behind all this. I enjoy your writing. You have a beautiful, obviously love-filled family. 🙂
Sarah Westover McKenna says
Thank you, Amalia! 🙂