January
On January 10, we had more snow than we have had in Alabama in a long time. I remember the day because it was the day of the college football National Championship game, and I had signed up to work 8 hours that day so I could get home in time to see the game. The roads were horrible! It normally takes me about 25 minutes to get to work. It took me at least an hour to get to work that day because I had to drive so slow. Luckily, when there is inclement weather, they don't count you tardy at the hospital. They are just happy if you show up. We had 18 nurses call out in the ER alone! Lots of nurses who had to work multiple days in a row ended up just spending the night at the hospital so they wouldn't have to drive back and forth. These pictures were taken the next day when I was at home and could actually get out and play in the snow with everyone.
As you can see, Bella loved the snow!
Jared was very happy that Auburn won the National Championship.
Jared built a track through the snow so he could pull the girls around in the yard. He is such a good daddy!
After a few days of snow, the kids being out of school, and being cooped up in the house, we decided we needed to get out, so we went and played at the mall with some friends.
Taking the girls bowling for the first time...
Bella cracks me up in the beginning of this video!! It never gets old.
February
Kodi Burns came to Huntsville, so of course, Jared had to get an autograph. He got there hours early, so luckily he was towards the front of the line.
Jared bought a little helmet for Kodi to sign, and conveniently, it came with a kid's Auburn football uniform that Taylor could wear.
A beautiful day at the park
Cari had the awesome idea of "heart attacking" Aunt Mimi on Valentine's Day.
March
Celebrating Jared's birthday
Making rainbow cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day with some of the cousins.
Taylor played soccer for the 1st time. Her best friend, Megan, was on her team.
This picture was captured by Megan's Uncle Arthur.
April
Jared and Nathan ran a half marathon at the Talladega Super Speedway.
We celebrated my best friend Miranda's 30th birthday!
We went to the Atlanta Temple open house before it was rededicated.
Church Easter egg hunt
dying Easter eggs with Grandma
Jared and I got the girls a few things for Easter, but Grandma, of course, makes sure they are spoiled! :-)
Bella loves makeup!
Making resurrection rolls for the first time on Easter morning- a fun and delicious way to talk about the resurrection of Christ.
Ready for church
Another Easter egg hunt after church at the Forbes' house
Last picture of the Forbes' trampoline and swing set before the tornado came.
And of course, there was the infamous April 27th. I've posted enough about the tornado already, but I couldn't talk about events that happened to us in 2011 without mentioning that.
This is a link to a video a friend of ours took of the tornado and posted on facebook (hopefully the link will work)
Our house the day after the tornado
Part of the neighborhood
Bella's 2nd birthday was the day after the tornado. It was a small celebration, but we made the best of it.
May
On May 14th, Jared and I went to Haleyville for the 1st Annual Mark Forester Price of Freedom Race. Jared did the 10K, and I did the 5K. This was only my 2nd 5K. The 1st one I ever did, I didn't train for at all and finished in 38 minutes. I decided I was going to actually try to train for this one, and my goal was to finish in 30 minutes. Jared said it was a tough course (he has done lots of races) because there were lots of hills. At one point, I remember passing an old man standing on the side of the road waving an American flag. It made me think of Mark and all that he sacrificed, and it gave me the strength to keep pushing and not stop. I finished the race in about 30 minutes 15 seconds!
Some of Mark's family and friends participated in a 30 mile walk in honor of his 30th birthday.
To get to Haleyville, Jared and I drove through Phil Campbell, which was also hit by the same tornado that came through our neighborhood. We drove down there the night before the race, so it was dark, but on our way home, we were able to see some of the destruction.
The pictures don't even do it justice. The whole town seemed to be almost completely wiped out. I believe they said the width of the tornado was about a mile at that point.
When we got back in town from the race, we had family pictures taken with all of the Mayfields.
Daddy's girl
Taylor had her soccer awards program.
Houses in our neighborhood started to be bulldozed.
Jared had his 10 year high school reunion (unfortunately, I don't have any pictures).
Jared started building a shed in our backyard.
Taylor had her dance recital. This is actually dress rehearsal because we're not supposed to video or take flash photography during the recital.
I was released from Primary after about 4 1/2 years and called to serve as Young Women President at church (eekk!)
June
The house repairs began. We got a new roof! (oh and in the picture you can see the new van we got)
Another house bulldozed.
Lots of progress was made on the shed.
July
We spent 4th of July weekend at my grandfather's lakehouse- swimming, fireworks, boat parade, family = lots of fun!
I was able to go to Girls' Camp to visit my YW one night.
I also went to youth conference as a chaperone.
August
This year, Bella got to start dance. She loves it!
Taylor started Pre-K this year. She was so excited to get to go to school. I didn't cry, but it seemed very strange at first not having her around for the first part of the day.
Taylor and her teacher on the first day of school.
Taylor was mostly excited to ride the bus to school. In fact, she was upset when we told her that we were going to take her to school on the first day. That all changed after a few weeks. She did not like the fact that the bus didn't have seat belts and wanted me to take her to school everyday. She is back to liking the bus but still occasionally asks me to take her to school.
September
We went to Disney World!!! We went with my brother's family and had tons of fun. There was barely a line for any of the rides, and althought it was still hot, it wasn't unbearable. The only time we had to fight the crowd was when we stayed at Magic Kingdom until after 9:00pm so we could watch the fireworks. When the fireworks were over, the monorail was down, so everyone there had to wait for the ferry.
We loved the place where we stayed. It was not on Disney property, but it was a very short drive to the parks, and we had a kitchen and washer/dryer. The resort also had a lot of amenities, but we didn't really get to experience any of them (except my brother and Jared went golfing one day) because we spent so much time at the parks. We were able to go to Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. My nephew Bryson got to celebrate his birthday while we were there- what an awesome birthday present!!
Taylor got a really bad cough during the trip and vomited a few times. We thought it was just from her cough, but then, the day we left to return home, Bella vomited a few times in the car (so fun!). My brother also got sick the day before, so it could've been a virus. That was the only downside of the trip. Other than that, we had a blast!
This trip really deserves a post of its own, but that will probably never happen.. haha.. I got tons of pictures, so if you want to see them, you can go to my facebook page.
October
We went to Lyon Family Farms.
We went to Orange Beach during fall break. I LOVE the beach! My ideal vacation is being able to just lay out on the beach all day every day, enjoy the sun, read a good book, listen to the waves, relax, and just not worry about anything! Unfortunately, it was too cold to do that while we were there. The water was freezing, and most days, it was really windy, so it made it pretty impossible to be able to stay at the beach for very long. So, we had to find other ways to entertain ourselves.
We spent a lot of time at the indoor pool and hot tub. We went to The Track, shopping at the outlet stores, and on a dolphin cruise.
and of course, we went to Lambert's Cafe.
Taylor had her Thanksgiving program at school.
Thanksgiving with the Mayfields. Alisha always does an amazing job!
Daddy always reads to the girls before bed. Love getting to see this every night!
December
We had a new friend visit us for the holidays! Taylor wasn't very original in naming him. First, she named him Jingle (because that the name of the elf that visits the Forbes' house), and then she changed his name to Patrick (because that's the name of the elf that comes to her class at school). Jingle/Patrick loved to hang out in very unusual places.
We had visitor's week at dance.
Taylor got to go on a school field trip. Can you tell that she was excited?? Both Mommy and Daddy were able to go with her, too.
We went to Santa's Village and Early Works.
ward Christmas party
Taylor had her first horseriding lesson!! She loves horses, so we were surprised that she was scared at first, but she warmed up and loved it! As a bonus, Bella got to ride for a little bit, too.
We celebrated Taylor's birthday at Chuck E. Cheese (again!)
She had been begging for a Nintendo DS.
Taylor had a school Christmas party. They played musical chairs, opened presents (they each got a puzzle and a book), and ate pizza.
Christmas Day was on Sunday, so we woke up and opened a few presents, went to church, and opened more presents with Grandma after church.
The girls and I rang in the New Year with some great friends and a little sparkling grape juice :-)
and Jared and Nathan went to the Chick-fil-A bowl in Atlanta to watch Auburn play.
and one more thing....
We found out we are having baby #3!
It was a busy year!!
2 comments:
Fun post!
That's so wrong that you put that announcement at the end of the post! I love that your girls look so different from each other. Both beautiful though! Valoree Morgan
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