The Year in Review...

It's that time of year, folks. The time when I go back through a year's worth of pictures and create a digest of just how exciting our family really is...NOT! Anyone who reads this post all the way to the end is either a very committed blog reader or very, very bored. Either way, here we go!

January actually starts...with Christmas. Years ago my sibs and I all decided that fighting our in-laws for time on Christmas was too much trouble. Instead, we select a random Saturday in December or January to celebrate with my side of the family. It is usually held at my brother's house, but last year we hosted it on the first Saturday in January.
In January, we also had Molly's Dedication at Church...
...and Molly and I attended yet another of Meggie's dance competitions...
...where Molly showed all those teenagers what flexible REALLY looks like.
The big word for February was snow...
...'cause we got mounds and mounds of that cold stuff last winter! The kids had so many snow days we feared they would have to go to school all summer to make up those days.

February also brought...
...Molly's first Chinese New Year celebration. (Always a big hit!)

Gotta admit -- based on pictures, anyway -- March was a slow month in our house. The only thing that happened was that Carson went from this...
...to this...
...when he was finally freed from his ankle-foot orthotics (or AFOs, or Spiderman boots as he called 'em). While he never complained about the AFOs, he surely celebrated his freedom from them!

April brought coloring of eggs...
...and, of course, the dumping of egg coloring when Pig Pen decided to make a huge mess.
We love her anyway and let her wear her "Princess spinny dress"...
...for Easter Sunday, right alongside Carson in his "handsome suit."

April also brought the beginning of soccer practice...
...although Molly never did embrace all that running around.

In mid-April, we took the kids to the aquarium...
...where we spent too much money buying overpriced stuffed animals in the gift shop. That trip was the weekend before Molly's big surgery...
...that never happened! What we thought was going to be a five-day stay ended up being about a four-hour stay and no surgery. (Thank you, God!) So, instead of recuperating from surgery that day...
...we got to attend Carson's first soccer game. Molly's first soccer game followed the next weekend...
...and while she looked like she was having fun, she never really PLAYED soccer. She just ran around in the uniform, waving to the crowd.

April ended with Meggie heading off to Florida...
...with her dance team (and without her Mom) for Worlds, where she promptly injured her foot...
...spent the weekend in a wheelchair in the Magic Kingdom...
...and came home for a hospital visit to figure out the extent of the injury. (Thankfully, just a bad sprain.)

May brought Mother's Day...
...and the very next day, Meggie decided we were growing out Molly's bangs.
While I didn't like it at the time, I have to admit I prefer the no-bang look now.

In mid May, on the way to Meggie's academic awards banquet, I got into a pretty bad car accident, which earned me an ambulance ride...
...and a week in that awful collar. Plus I missed the banquet...which made me feel like a horrible mother. Ahhh, guilt.

May also brought the end...
...of Molly's soccer season. Actually, the end of her soccer career. The Diva is NOT interested in signing up again. We support that decision.

At the end of May, we attended a cancer benefit for a friend of my brother's...
...where the Littles danced the night away. The next day, we celebrated cousin Adam's graduation from high school...
...and rounded out the month of May with the Littles spending a fun day at a local amusement park with Aunt Nikki.
June is the traditional month of graduations, and our June was no exception...
...when Molly graduated from preschool. (I think preschool cap-and-gown ceremonies are a bit of overkill, but I digress...)

In late June, I found out why I was having such horrible migraines...
...and got my "Mamaw glasses" (as Daddy calls my trifocal prescription glasses). Those frames didn't last long -- they were too heavy and drove me crazy -- and a few weeks later I traded those in to get these...
...pink wire frames. (Much lighter and easier to get used to!) Meggie also got glasses...
...and much bolder frames. She still has them, but honestly rarely wears 'em.

The rest of June was mostly spent...
...sunning and swimming.

July brought Independence Day...
...and the Littles' first experience with sparklers. The Teenager, however...
...just decided to watch, thankyouverymuch.

July was a big reunion month for us, as we attended -- err, crashed -- a travel group reunion...
...that reunited Molly and her foster sister, Michelle...
...and also introduced us to some really fun families. Molly greatly enjoyed meeting her fellow Diva, Mya...
...and Meggie and I enjoyed meeting her hysterical Mom, Sara, from one of our favorite blogs.
After arriving home from that reunion, we had a reunion of our own in our hometown...
...when Grant and Olivia passed through town with their parents, Kristina and Mark. (They were in our travel group for Grant and Molly's adoptions.)

July ended with the great joy of Daddy and Carson's summer...
...the beginning of football practice.

In August, Carson lost his first tooth...
...two days before we celebrated Molly's first Gotcha Day Anniversary!
The first weekend in August brought Carson's first football game (at an NFL stadium)...
...on the same day...
...as Aunt Nikki's slip-and-slide party! August also brought our very successful yard sale...
...uniform hand-outs for football...
...and a visit to the ED...
...because Carson needed to pass gas. Seriously.

As August wound to an end, Molly got to sit on the school bus for a trial run...
...and meet her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. K. (God bless Mrs. K... Carson had her for Kindergarten, too!)
We ended August with Meggie's last first-day-of-school picture...
...Carson's first day of 1st grade...
...and Molly's first day of Kindergarten...
...although she didn't get to ride the bus for the first time until the following week.
September brought Carson's 7th birthday...
...and the start of AWANA (and weekly Bible verse memorization for the Littles).
In September, Meggie went from this...
...to this...
...when she donated a 15-inch ponytail to Locks of Love in preparation for these...
...amazing Senior pictures.

We rounded out September with the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, which included Molly's first (and only) Chinese dance performance...
...and a hayride through the pumpkin patch.
In October, Carson and Molly attended their first high school football game...
...and the kids and I got front row seats for Disney on Ice.
I finally got to attend "Muffins with Mommy" in October...
...Molly had her 6th birthday...
...I ended up in the hospital for three days (no pictures from that, sorry), and Carson got accused of bullying a much larger boy in his class.
(Last I heard, he and that boy are now great friends. Boys!)

The end of October was busy, as we celebrated Carson's third Gotcha Day anniversary...
...and a favorite holiday in our family...
...Halloween! (Interestingly, we still have Halloween candy left over. Apparently, the kids enjoy collecting the candy but just don't wanna eat it.)

November was a slow month, until the final week...
...when we celebrated Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday of the year, hands down), then went to visit this very famous house...
...in Memphis, Tennessee. (Yes, that is Graceland.) The house didn't impress Meggie as much as...
...the pink Cadillac did. She decided that's the car she wants...her Hyundai Accent just doesn't compare to a pink Cadillac, after all.

Two days after arriving home from Graceland, Evan (a boy Meggie had been "talking to" and "hanging out with") made their relationship official when he asked her to be his girlfriend.
So now Meggie has a boyfriend and never has time for us anymore. Oh, well...it was bound to happen eventually.

December brought Molly's Christmas dance recital...
...on the same day that Meggie got her acceptance letter to Xavier University!
The next weekend, on the same day we had our family pictures taken at the mall...
...the Littles visited with Santa at a Christmas party...
...but forgot to tell him what they wanted! And, of course, the end of December brought Christmas...
...and all the joys that come with it.

While tonight is New Year's Eve, Daddy, the Littles and I have no big plans. (Meggie, of course, will be going to a party with Evan.) That's OK, though...Daddy and I are starting to embrace life with an absentee Teenager and two busy and fun-loving Littles.

So now we race into 2011...
...and I, for one, can't wait to see what the new year brings!

Happy New Year to all!!