If I’d written a Christmas letter this year, this it what it would say

Also known as, our year in review…

The year started off colder than usual for Louisiana and in January I made a trip with the baby to meet up with Lisa in Houston. We ate cupcakes and shared some great “friend” time. It was a lovely little trip.

In February we experienced our first Louisiana Mardi Gras parade before leaving for a week long trip to Texas. It was Katie’s first trip there and many friends and family got to meet her for the first time, including her Great Grandmother Carolyn (see photo of their hands below).

During Spring Break my brother Larry and his wife Kelley came to visit with their family and became Katie’s Godparents. Her baptism was small and intimate and we were blessed that my parents joined us as well.

In early Spring we met many of our neighbors for the first time, including some new ones on the next block that are now some of ours and the kids’ best buds. We became closer with many other friends too and now feel more at home at our church and in Lafayette in general. (as a side note, we were even a little shell-shocked at how big the Dallas area REALLY is when we were back visiting at Thanksgiving!)

In April we celebrated Katie’s “half birthday” and Ben’s 6th birthday within a day of each other.

Later that month I took a trip to the hill country of Texas to hang out with some really special ladies who were training for a half marathon. Good friends, good laughs, good walk/run, good food. It was a much needed getaway for all of us. And I got see and meet some friends and the lovely Christy was our fabulous hostess.

Gavin’s 3rd birthday came and went in May and in that month I decided it was time to change my ways (in the eating and exercise department anyway) and I started the South Beach diet and exercising regularly again, losing 9 lbs. in the first 2 weeks of the “strict” phase.

In June we traveled to Florida with our good friends, The Clarks, and enjoyed the area of Seagrove Beach for the second time with them as our “roomies”.

July brought a trip to Texas for my parents’ 50th Wedding anniversary celebration and what ended up being somewhat of a family reunion for me, since I hadn’t seen many of my aunts, uncles and cousins in a long time. I’m so thankful they had such a lovely party that brought us all together.

On Labor Day weekend we finally “met” NOLA (also known as New Orleans, Louisiana). We’d never been before and we really enjoyed our couple of days sight-seeing and getting to know the lay of the land (especially since an adult only trip was in the works for the next month…)

On October 1st, it was hard to believe, but Miss Katie was already a year old! We celebrated with friends during a party at the house and enjoyed watching her toddle around in her tutu. 🙂

In the middle of October we took our Big Kids Only trip to NOLA with our neighbor friends and surprised our friend for a milestone birthday. We also celebrated mine and Tim’s 11th Wedding anniversary a little early (it was on November 6th). It was a wonderful, fun-filled weekend and we are so thankful to Tim’s mom and his brother for staying with the children so we could go.

The very next weekend I headed to Austin to go to Bloggy Boot Camp and had a great time at this one day blogging conference. Plus I was able to see my parents and some great blogging friends from Texas.

On November 13th I ran my first 10K after getting back into running during the Summer. I hope to do another 10K in the near future and really enjoy running as a great way to keep the weight off and a good stress-reliever. I have lost 27-ish pounds since mid-May.

Ben enjoyed playing soccer this Fall season and seemed to be more “into” the game as he continued to play. His team even won the tournament they played at the end of the season and he was extremely proud of his soccer “medal”! He does well in the 1st grade, especially with reading, and recently moved up another level and brought home a second-grade level reading book. He does excellent on all of his Tuesday tests at school and his teacher has nothing but compliments for him.

Gavin can be a challenge some days but is a very loving child and likes to snuggle in our bed in the mornings lately. He attends “day school” 3 days a week and loves arts and crafts and anything that Ben does. 😉 He likes to do most things for himself (also known as he’s pretty stubborn) but enjoys for Ben to read to him and I know he is desperate to play sports, which he shows talent for already.

Katelyn is full-on toddler all the sudden and is into anything and everything including the trash bin and all her brothers’ things. She’s very dependent on her pacifier (as are we, I guess) and has yet to give up drinking out of a bottle. She’s pretty good at communicating despite her limited vocabulary and the other day when I asked her in the morning where her pacifier was she found it for me under her doll. I think she’s kinda smart. She certainly keeps us on our toes and tends to charm strangers anywhere we go!

Tim continues to work really hard, especially this time of year, for the logistics company we moved here with. He joined me in the weight loss and took off some pounds himself with the low-carb diet and exercise! In the little free time that he has he dabbles in some computer games, watches a few movies here and there and spends time with us! Not to mention during football season he LOVES to watch “his” Cowboys and is doing the best he can to make the boys fans too, even here in Saints country. He’s a great father and the master of bath or shower time for the kids. Plus, he’s great about letting me have time with my mom friends and even blogging friends and much needed breaks from the kiddos.

We traveled back to Arlington for Thanksgiving this year and had a lovely time seeing friends and giving thanks with Tim’s side of our family.

This Christmas we plan to spend as a family of five, here in Lafayette, and expect a visit from my parents the week after.

We wish everyone a VERY Merry Christmas and wish you all the best for 2011!