where has the time gone??!

i'm almost embarrassed to get back on this and write a post since it's been eleven months since i last posted! :( i thought i was doing bad before writing regularly! it's all relative i suppose??

in my defense, if i may, it's been a CRAZY eleven months...in a nutshell, we've moved into a new house and are now a family of FIVE!! (and the fifth is not of the four-legged variety!)

where to start?? thinking back to the beginning of the year is actually not as easy as it may sound...in some regards, eleven months doesn't sound like it was that long ago, but in others, it sure feels a long time ago! let's attempt to recreate it month by month...

february

i was feeling extremely sluggish and wasn't quite myself for several weeks needing to nap often on the weekends (if you didn't know, i am not a napper so was very atypical) it didn't even cross my mind, but jason questioned whether i thought i may be pregnant. my immediate reaction was no way, and i just wrote it off not really thinking twice about it. but...i couldn't quite get the possibility out of my head without proving it to myself. so i picked up a pregnancy test at target and came home to pee on a stick and what do you know...it wasn't clear what the result was...one line was very clean and dark, but if you held the stick up to the light, you could see a very faint line making up the "+" sign. jason and i studied it for quite some time, and perhaps it was denial looking back, but i did the second test (it was a 2-pack) and it yielded the same result. what to do?? i just didn't think there was any way i was pregnant, but needed to get an answer, so i called to make an appointment with my OB. that was the only way i was going to get a definitive answer.

it was almost two weeks later that i had the appointment, and i though i was going in for a yes you are a no you're not, but it was as if they already knew. there wasn't a moment where she told me yes...there's a baby, it was more, "okay...let's have a look and see how far along you are!" so surprise, surprise...out i came with a due date of september 26th!

besides our big surprise in february, my friend cindy came for her now annual trip down south and we had a fabulous time doing a whole lot of nothing but catching up and eating! :) we had just found out our news before she came, and because it would be very hard to avoid drinking the three days she was with us, we had to divulge our news but swore her to secrecy until we were through the first trimester!! :)

march

we took the twins to the houston rodeo for the first time and it was good fun seeing them take it all in. zoe was a little more open to riding the donkey and the petting zoo, but they both had a great time!

april

mandy, our nanny since november, gave us her notice because she needed to go take care of her mother back in china, so we were scrambling for a new one in april. tammy started with us and i really liked her, but she almost made me blow a gasket when she decided on her own to give zoe her first haircut! who does that??! i had waited this long to give her her first haircut and i know she needed one, but still! i was furious so my mom and jason had to handle it or else we would have been searching frantically for another nanny! she was extremely sorry for it and if i know one thing for sure, she will never put a pair of scissors to my child's hair again!

the other big thing that happened in april is we temporarily moved out of our house and in with jason's parents so that we could get our house on the market. we'd been going back and forth about looking for a new house in a better school district and so now that we have a third on the way, we thought this was the time. and because the kids stay home all day with the nanny, it would be too hard to keep a clean house and have showings living in the house, so fortunately jason's parents agreed to put us up! :)

the great news was that the house was on the market for one day only and we came within $2k of our asking price, but the bad news was that the house did not appraise for that amount, so we had to come down a little from the agreed upon price. the other miraculous thing was that the buyer did not ask for a penny post inspection...we were fully prepared to fork over quite a bit given the age of the house, but nada!! that in itself was huge!!

may

we went to toronto for memorial day weekend to visit my brother and his family and meet the newest addition to the family...kaitlyn!! she was born january 9th, one day before the twins but obviously two years later. we had a great time seeing old friends, visiting with family over great food and drink and watching the kids play!

june

even though the house was on the market for only a day, it was quite some time before we could close. given all that happened with banks last year, there was so much up in the air regarding timing. we finally were able to close that first week in june, but the hard part was that we got back from toronto sunday and we had a week to get everything out. poor jason did it all and in serious heat!! what a guy...it was quite a job! had we had more time, we would have purged a lot before moving, but of course it didn't work out that way so we just packed it all up and sent it all to storage.

we finally made the trip to baton rouge to visit jason's sister's family. they'd been there a year and half and we always talked about going, but never made it till now! the cousins had a great time and the adults actually had a nice night out as well! i miss baton rouge but did get my beignet and juban's fix!! :)

july

we took a family trip to spokane, washington over the 4th of july for a family reunion with jason's family. the twins had a fabulous time at the brandle house with a million things to play with and gorgeous weather. it was lovely eating outside every meal as cleanup was a breeze given how messy an eater our zachary grant is!

august

we finally closed on our new house at the end of the month, so were gearing up for the big move as well as preparing for the upcoming new addition to the family with one month to go! the twins visited the dentist for the very first time this month as well. i can't say they were the biggest fans, but did okay considering.

september

although we closed on the house in august, we decided to go forward with some remodelling before moving in which took a couple of weeks. we went back and forth on whether or not to do it but finally decided it was best to get it done before we moved three children in. although you wouldn't know it to come to the house, we did a lot of small things (i.e. all the paint, redid the kitchen backsplash and countertops, hardwoods in the master, replaced the dated crown moulding and wainscoting, and removed a lot of built-in shelves to make the baby's room more usable).

and the biggest news for september was the arrival of our newest baby girl...keira noelle. the movers moved our stuff in on tuesday, september 20th, and we went into the hospital the night of the 22nd and she arrived at 4:20 a.m. september 23rd. talk about cutting it close!! thankfully my mom came that same week and helped tremendously with cleaning and getting the new house in order to move in.

october

i was on house arrest with my mom here taking great care of me and adjusting to our little one.

much like the twins, it is chinese tradition that you rest as much as possible and have your mom take care of you (for thirty days) so that you can build strength and recover to take care of your baby. it was much harder this time around with two 2-year olds, but so nice having mom take care of me. after my thirty days were up, you better believe i was up and about everywhere trying to catch up on unpacking the house and everything else! for halloween, we had a cowboy, a cowgirl and a chili pepper this year. this was the first time the twins went trick-or-treating as well and couldn't get enough! it is much different in out new neighborhood than our old one to say the least!! (much nicer!)

november

since i am on mat leave and mom was here, we took advantage of having this time together doing a lot of shopping, lunching, coffee, sweets, etc since we may never have an extended opportunity to do this again once i get back to work. it was wonderful spending all that time with mom and also gearing up for the holidays. thanksgiving was nice with jason's family and we started preparing for christmas!

december

here we are, the last day in december and it is my goal to have this posted before the new year!

this month was full of watching my baby grow like a weed, trying to spend as much time as possible with the twins, shopping galore and plenty of eating and drinking! my mom was here until the 27th and my brother and his family were here the 22nd through the 29th. he was sick though, so that was quite the bummer. and now it seems that jason and zoe have caught it so not a great way to ring in the new year! :(

as i reflect on this past year, it blows my mind just how quickly time goes by. keira was conceived right at the beginning of the year and when i think back to all that happened this past year it's nuts! we found out we were expecting, sold a house bought a house, did renos on the house, had a baby....it's crazy!!

i am so thankful and grateful for all that i have and pray that we all stay in good health as we watch our babies grow. i am actually able to enjoy and cherish keira as an infant since it was chaotic with the twins at this age. it just makes me sad how quickly they grow up.

the other thing i did in december was enroll the twins in a montessori school. the only caveat to that is they both need to be potty trained before they can attend. oddly enough, the week after i put the deposit down, zoe decided she was ready and has done wonderfully with few accidents. one down, one to go!

here's to 2012 and all it has to bring!!