In January we saw our first big snowfall, and we had a LOT of fun sled riding down my little buddies' grandparents driveway.
February wasn't too interesting. That is it wasn't interesting until the last day. On February 28, a F2 tornado tore through our neighborhood. Luckily it was on the other side and we had no damage, but it was certainly a scary night. Instead of uploading some depressing photos of the damage, I will upload a picture of our Lab/German Shepherd mix, Buster.
Alex is on the left, and Connor is on the right.
In April we made our long-awaited trip to visit Jodi, Nathaniel, and Will in Arlington, VA. Brady and I spent two days in Washington D.C. seeing the sights and spending time with the Rivers. It was a great week. (Here is the link to the first day.) We also celebrated Easter with our families!
May was pretty eventful. I first watched my nephew and godson, Trevor, make his First Holy Communion. I cannot describe how proud I was of him. We also celebrated Kara's bachelorette party! (However, no photos of that event were posted. You're welcome, girls.) One of the coolest things we have ever gotten to do also happened in May. We went to the Sugarland and Little Big Town show on May 5 as guests of Little Big Town. It was pretty fun, and I don't think we'll ever forget it! We also remembered Dean as May 6 would have been his 38th birthday. And as if that wasn't enough excitement for one month, we attended the Chalk Walk. It is one of my favorite events that the Jasper Arts Commission puts on, and I love seeing all of the art created on the sidewalks!
June was also full of excitement. On June 3, Miss Kendall turned six and my Dad turned sixty-five! We celebrated with a party for our favorite little princess! June 4th saw my cousin Maurey marry a wonderful gal (and a great friend), Lori! We had so much fun at the wedding that I wished we could have another reception for them a few months later. However, the next Saturday, we witnessed the marriage of Brady's cousin, Kara marry a great guy, Matt. We all stayed at the hotel, so we all had a blast. I'm so glad we got to be a part of both of these marriages!
In July I did something I never thought I would do...twice. I went camping over the Fourth of July with Brady, Autumn, and Nick and then again a few weeks later with Brady, my cousin, and her family. Much to my surprise, I had a great time! :)
We had our second, and this time all-day, adoption meeting in August. It was very interesting, and I'm glad it is required by the state. You can read a recap here. We also celebrated Denise's birthday (I won't post how old she turned. You're welcome.) with a trip to Chicago's Pizza in French Lick and then we went to the West Baden Dome to take some pictures. It was a lot of fun. I did not do a post about it, so here is a photo from that day that pretty much sums it up:
September brought a day that sometimes I would just like to skip over. September 4th was the eight year anniversary of my brother Dean's accident that claimed his life. I remembered him here. I kind of took an unintentional blogging break because we were preparing for our home study! We had a scrapbook to make, paperwork to fill out, cleaning to do (thanks for helping, Mom!), and nerves to settle. We were nervous, but it turns out we were nervous for nothing. It went great! Oh, and how could I forget going to see Disney on Ice with Brady, Denise, Tony, and my little buddies. It was a blast.
I skipped blogging in October because, honestly, we didn't do anything all that exciting. We just sort of relaxed since we did nothing but paperwork in the month of September. But that wasn't saying there wasn't anything exciting happening! On October 10, I started my new job at National Office Furniture as a Sales Coordinator. That same week, on October 13, we were officially 'shelved' by the adoption agency, and that means birth mothers can see our book and, hopefully, pick us to parent their child! As if that wasn't enough excitement, my little buddy Trevor turned nine. Seriously. Where did those nine years go?
I returned to blogging (well, I tried at least) in November. We visited Jodi, Nathaniel, and Will in St. Louis, and we had a blast. I recapped it here and here. It was so much fun exploring the city and spending time with family. The rest of November was spent preparing for Thanksgiving and Fischer family photos.
We had a blast playing games at Mert and Kenny's house after our Thanksgiving dinner. It is always fun getting together with the family!
December came along too quickly! We started the month off by riding the Polar Express in French Lick. It was so much fun, and the kids had a blast!
I highly suggest riding the Polar Express if you ever have a chance. I cannot express how much fun it was.
Since December came along so fast, it flew by as well. The month was spent finishing Christmas shopping and spending time with family and friends. I won't post a lot of photos from Christmas, but I will post my family photo from Christmas at my parent's house.
It's still not the same without Dean, Hope, and Ben, but we make the best of it and we still have fun. After all - it is what they would want us to do!
Well, that's 2011 in a nutshell. I'll try to do better with blogging in 2012. My New Year's resolution was to make a weekly menu and stick to it, and in the second week of the year, so far so good! (Ask me again in March if I am still doing that good!)
