Yes, I’ve been on a blog hiatus. I can’t promise it’s going to get much better, but for my own sake I need to play a quick little game of catch up. I don’t really know where to start though. I’ve pretty much been behind since I had Ray and that’s been almost a year. CRAZY! So…I’m going to steal my sweet friend Lindsay’s idea and make a post of the top 12 of 2012. Thanks Linds for being so brilliant!
And these are in absolutely no particular order, well except for maybe somewhat chronological…
#12 – Sweet Baby Ray entered our world on April 24, 2012.
The labor happened so quickly. I delivered Ray just over an hour after I got to the hospital. And we were in and out of the hospital in less than 24 hours. It was great! We were anxious to get home and introduce Harper to her new little brother. She was smitten with him from the beginning and has been such a big helper girl.
#11 – My parents came to visit!
Since we only see them about once a year, this is always a highlight. It is so fun to spend time with them. They took Harper to the park and were such a great help with her. Harper absolutely loved the constant attention. And this trip they got to meet Ray for the first time. We also blessed Ray on May 20th while they were here. We had so many supportive family and friends come and Ryan did a great job with the blessing! It was a beautiful day.
#10 – We bought a house. And renovated the crap out of it. We thought it would only take a few weeks. But 6 months later we finally moved in. So in 2012, we bought and renovated. In 2013, we moved in. We are so glad to finally be moved in and have so much space. It’s a BEAUTIFUL home and I love everything about it…except for the spiders! I need to do a full post on all of the changes we made (with more updated pictures) but here’s a little glimpse of it.
The dining room:
The nursery:
The kitchen (don’t worry, there’s a countertop on the island now 
#9 – As mentioned in the previous post, we went to San Diego for my lil bro’s wedding. It wasn’t under the best circumstances but it was great to be with family. We did a lot in just a couple days and were totally exhausted by the time we got home but it was so worth it! We played in the pool, went to the beautiful wedding and reception, went to Old Town San Diego and the Mormon Battalion Historic Site, went to the beach, and played at the hotel. Here’s another little picture collage for your viewing pleasure:
#8 – SURPRISE! We discovered we were expecting baby #3. Can I just say WOWZA!?! I mean, I had a 5 month old when I found out. The thought of having 3 kids in 2.5 years was a little much for my postpartum emotions. But I am so excited! Although there’s plenty of AHHH!! moments, I just love my sweet, adorable angel babies and the thought of adding another to the mix is great. They’re going to have so much fun together (and get into so much trouble together!).
#7 – We went to the local pumpkin patch which has become an annual favorite family fall activity. We took a little hay ride, walked through the corn maze and picked out some pumpkins. The kids loved it!
#6 – Harper turned 2! I can not believe my baby girl is 2. The day of her birthday was kind of crazy so we opened a few gifts, sang happy birthday and ate a giant cupcake. We had a party a few days later with family. Harper requested pizza and pink cake and loved every second of her party!
#5 – Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. And although it rarely changes from one year to the next it is always such a blast! We do Christmas Eve at Grandma Bedke’s house and have homemade asian dinner and then slush and cookies for dessert. It’s pretty much amazing! Christmas morning this year we did Santa presents at home and then did the rest at Ryan’s parent’s house. Harper was the perfect age this year and loved everything about it. Ray on the other hand was way more interested in eating the wrapping paper, but was cute nonetheless. We had the best time just being with family! And of course we were all spoiled rotten.
We also sent my parents the cutest christmas gift ever (yes, I’m a little biased and totally proud of all of the cuteness busting out of it). We put these pictures in a 3-opening vertical frame. Isn’t it adorable?
#4 – Harper quickly went from being my baby girl to my big helper girl when I had Ray. She stepped into the role perfectly and has been such an angel. Here are a few things she was doing in 2012:
- Talking, talking, talking – In August she could say quite a few words, but by December she could say just about everything. {Now she’s our little chatterbox and will talk your ear off in complete sentences}
- She says her prayers by herself with just a little coaching
- At 20 months (Aug) she loved to: take her temperature, be outside, give hugs & kisses to Ray, give kisses to everyone, watch TV {especially Curious George and Blue’s Clues}, take naps, throw things in the trash, clean up while saying “keen-a, keen-a”, eat jelly beans, pick and eat peas straight out of the garden, play with the kittens
- She used the potty (and #2 at that) for the first time at 20 months and would sporadically use it the rest of the year when she felt like it. Silly girl!
- She’s a dancing fool! She LOVES to dance and busts out the best moves ever.
#3 – Ray was the sweetest baby – most of the time. When he was first born he barely cried. But after the first month, he would occasionally go into random screaming fits and could not be soothed. Luckily it wasn’t too often but it did make us all want to go a little crazy! Overall he has been such a happy boy. He has the brightest blue eyes and the most contagious smile. Here are a few Ray facts of 2012:
- he is TOTAL boy!
- he is into everything. in fact, i’m pretty sure he purposely gets into things he shouldn’t just to get to you. and he’ll even flash you this look like “i’m not supposed to be doing this, but watch me”. little stinker!
- loves to play rough. ry play wrestles with him and he thinks it’s hilarious - maybe he’s just immune from Harper mauling him to death since he was a baby.
- loves food
- loves Harper and thinks she’s hilarious
- doing the army crawl since 4 months; crawling by 6 months
#2 – We grew our first garden!
Our new house came with a beautiful garden which we totally took advantage of even though we weren’t quite living there yet. The previous owner planted tomatoes, peas, asparagus and cantaloupe. Ryan and Harper planted yellow squash, zucchini, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, and beets. There are also grapevines and blackberry bushes on the property. So yummy! We have pear, peach, apple and walnut trees as well – however they didn’t really produce a whole lot last year. But we are expecting a full comeback of the fruit trees this year. Woot woot! And Harper is VERY excited to plant a garden with daddy again this year. She frequently talks about it and can list off all of the vegetables they are planning on planting.
I learned how to can this year and canned tomato sauce, salsa and pickles. We also froze beets, zucchini, and corn (from Ryan’s parent’s garden). It’s a lot of fun to eat the things that you grew throughout the winter. We’re expecting to do a whole lot more of it this year.
{Me with all of our beets after we finished putting them up}
#1 – We got a puppy!
Meet Roscoe. He is Ryan’s right hand man, or shall I say – dog. He works with Ryan everyday. And he LOVES being at the ranch and being able to run free, eat/chew whatever he wants and roll in any poop he can find. I mean, isn’t that every dogs dream?
He’s also great with the kids. Harper and Roscoe are buds. In fact, Harper loves to hug and kiss Roscoe, although we’ve had to put a halt to the kissing because of the aforementioned rolling in turds. Ray also gets very excited to see Roscoe and will sit and watch him through the back door of the ranch.
Well, that’s all folks. If you made it to the end – Congratulations! I wish I had a prize to offer you, but I don’t. Maybe getting a tiny glimpse into our lives is prize enough?!?
Until next time {and hopefully that’s not next year}…
