2011 in Review

This has been a year of change for us.

John left Home Depot in March and stayed home with the kids for a few months before getting a job in the IT department at a Catholic high school here in Plano. It’s nice that he now works normal hours, including being home on weekends and holidays. He also went back to kung fu after his knee healed and recently received his yellow belt.

I am still a technical writer with Tyler Technologies, but I will be taking on the editor role when I return from my Christmas break. I am in my second year of helping lead Mara’s Girl Scout troop and am a first-year Girl Scout cookie mom. I have also become more involved with the PTA and Mara’s school, serving as a room mom, directory editor, and yearbook photographer/editor.

Mara is now 6½ and in first grade. She still loves art and sea animals (especially killer whales), and our recent trip to SeaWorld made her want to become a whale trainer even more.

Jack finally started walking a few months ago, and now he’s on the go non-stop. He is a total boy, getting into and onto everything.

It's nice to be able to spend more time together as a family. It works out well since John's work schedule is more inline with the school schedule, and I have five weeks of vacation since I've been at Tyler for more than 11 years.

So, that's a brief review of our year. We're really looking forward to the new year and excited to see what it will bring.

Enjoying the Break

Tuesday, December 27

Eggnog is one of Mara's favorite things about this time of year.

Wednesday, December 28

We received caterpillars a few weeks ago, and today we finally have butterflies.

Thursday, December 29

We met up with my dad, Mikey, and Lani to see the Adventures of Tin-Tin today. While we were there, we saw a preview for The Lorax, which the kids are excited to see when it comes out.

Friday, December 30

The kids visited the dentist today. Mara did great, but Jack didn't appreciate being woken up to someone looking at his mouth.

Caterpillars to Butterflies

Last month, we bought Mara a butterfly house, and we finally got her caterpillars last Monday. I was concerned how well they would grow since we keep our house fairly cool. I think it's safe to say that they are doing well.

Monday, December 5
We received the caterpillars today. They were much smaller than I was expecting them to be.

Sunday, December 11
Here they are only six days later. I think they're roughly 5 times the size they were when we got them.

Friday, December 16

We took them with us on our trip to San Antonio because they were due to go into their chrysalis state at any time. Here they are before we left.

Saturday, December 17

We're glad we took them because the caterpillars are definitely getting ready to form their chrysalids. Two of them are already in theirs, and the other three are now hanging out at the top of the container.

Sunday, December 18

Here's what they looked like when we woke up..

Saturday, December 24

We finally transferred them to the butterfly garden to await their emergence, and not too soon. A couple of them started to move when we were transporting them, so we may have butterflies sooner rather than later. However, the movement also caught Pixie's attention, and she knocked the garden off the wetbar before we had a chance to hang it up. So, now all five of the chrysalids are on the bottom of the garden instead of just the one that was at the bottom of the jar.

Wednesday, December 28

We have butterflies! Just yesterday, we were wondering if Pixie really did kill them, but I guess at least two survived. At least one of them came out a little messier than we thought because there's what looks like blood on the side of the garden.

Thursday, December 29

The last of our butterflies came out of their chrysalids today, so we now have five butterflies living in our bathroom. The kids are both enraptured with the butterflies.

Spending Christmas with Family

After all of the presents at our house were unwrapped, we packed up and went to Mike & Myra's house to celebrate Christmas with my family.

We spent the day after Christmas celebrating with John's family.

All in all, it was a great Christmas, and the kids had a lot of fun. We are very thankful for everything our families blessed us with, but most of all, we are thankful for the time we were able to spend with them.

Christmas Morning

Santa was good to the kids this year. Probably better than he should have been. ;) But overall, the kids deserved everything they got.

Mara's big presents were a laptop and a cupcake maker (and accessories). Jack got a play grill as well as a Chuck the Dump Truck and Star Wars Galactic Heroes. Mara was also excited to find out that we bought a family present as well – a new Xbox with Kinect along with a few video games, including Skylanders.