2012 January Part 2

1/17

2 things.

1. No surgery for Caleb this year. Come back next year for re-evaluation!! This is only possible through prayer and faith!
2. I must be on the right track. I made a recipe yesterday that I had only ever made once before and that was a long time ago. While eating the one leftover bowl for lunch today, my husband asked if I planned to make a double batch for dinner today. In 15 years together, he has never asked me to make something again the next day.

 

1/4

Garrett began making plans for our annual Easter egg hunt and his bday party (both are in April).

2012 January

Haven't done this since last March, but figured I may as well give it a shot since it's a new year. I am not remotely ashamed of letting this go from my to do list last April. Raising 3 boys is hard enough when we're not busy, but last April was a game changer. Besides being soccer season, we had 3 other big events. First, Garrett turned 5 years old, so he wanted a party...a Mario party. We had a great time with friends. I made a star cake and cupcakes. The kids loved getting to decorate their own cupcakes. We played our own version of several Mario party mini games and Garrett was blessed with many wonderful gifts. The next weekend we hosted our annual Easter potluck and egg hunt. As always we had a fantastic time. The 3rd big event was something we hadn't planned on. On April 27, 2011, 5 tornadoes touched down in Bradley county. One of them came through our neighborhood. Amazingly, even though our house wasn't touched, our lives are still being affected by the tornadoes. I should probably write a whole separate article on it; there's just too much to tell here.

May saw a lot more soccer when Caleb (and then Sam) started practicing for a traveling team in addition to their rec team and the soccer club Caleb was doing at school. Because of the tornadoes Sam's end of the school year field trip to Dollywood that Dewayne had planned to chaperone had to be rescheduled. It just happened to be moved to the day of Caleb's field trip to Dollywood, so they all got to go together. Sam rode his first roller coaster, but I don't think he's interested in doing it again any time soon. Garrett started a new daycare in May because the roof had been blown off of his. Even though we had been without power for 6 days earlier in the month, we still chose to go camping for Memorial Day weekend and had a great time like always.

The boys had their first soccer tournament the first weekend in June. We drove back and forth to Crossville for that. Boy was it hot! The rest of the month we had break from soccer. At Garrett's Shriner's appointment they told us he didn't have to come back for a year. What a relief after 4 surgeries and many more visits in 5 years. The boys went to youth camp together. Sam participated in splash camp and Caleb was a volunteer.

Soccer started back up around the middle of Julyfor Caleb and Sam. Caleb turned 13!! He had a few boys over for a sleepover. I made a chocolate cake with chocolate icing surrounded by kit kats and topped with Reese's pieces. We also had an ice cream sundae bar. One boy commented that we had "exceeded awesomeness." They all had a great time. At the end of the month we headed to Texas. Of course it was the hottest summer in 30 years!!! We had fun hanging out with family, shooting at uncle Don's and Aunt Lori's, and going out with Dalena and our new brother-in-law Trent. We played what must be the best game of Quelf ever. We went to the Splash park and pool a couple of times. Dewayne had the honor of speaking at his family's church.

School started the first week of August which meant we had 2 middle schoolers and a kindergartner.