What a crazy year this has been! As I type this, the year is coming to a close. So much has happened, both good and bad. From celebrity deaths, to politics, to just crazy stuff in general... I wouldn't have believed all of this would happen if you had told me last year. Lets just have a look back at all the crazy/scary/exciting/fun/sad stuff that the year 2016 has brought my family.
I've been so bad at updating that I thought I'd throw as much as I can of our year into a giant post before I start fresh in 2017.
The best place to start is exactly at the beginning, maybe even a little before. I will warn you up front, this post will be quite long. Lets start New Years Eve.
December 31st 2015...
We'd been recovering from a crazy stomach bug that swept through the house, hitting everyone but Shawn, and maybe Ben. We were celebrating at home, as we tend to do, but had no company due to everyone in recovery. We watched Minions, snacked on snacky foods, snuggled, silly danced, and had fun hats, noise makers, popper fireworks, and cider/champagne at midnight.
We rang in 2016 with our fun Tiemann family celebration.
Our family in January...
Since we were all sick on Shawn's big 30th birthday, we postponed his surprise party to January 2nd. He thought we were going to a small family dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. We surprised him with lots of friends and family, balloons, cake, decorations and even a 30 hat and necklace for him to wear.
January brought several Tiemann family adventures, including birthdays, a trip to Build a Bear (where we learned Scottie absolutely HATES big crowds), Shawn and my 8th wedding anniversary, Rylie bringing home the preschool class bear for the first time, and Rylie's first panic attack (thankfully these are few and far between but when she has them, they can get pretty ugly.)
Scottie turned 2! We were at the kids soccer games that morning but celebrated with family at home that afternoon with a Ben and Holly's Magical Kingdom sort of party.
Ben and Sydney went to Ninja camp for a week while Rylie went to a dance camp all week.
Played at the library for fun classes and just a nice place to hang out.
We moved into our very own home!!!
Rylie's back to school.
We went to a Royals game as our big huge family!
Big Ben turned 9! We celebrated with a Batman type birthday at the arcade with games and laser tag, and then back at our house with pizza and cake.
For Ben's birthday he got this really fun game. It's called Pie in the Face. We loved playing it together, and just laughing and laughing and laughing.
October....
Lots more outside time.
Rylie had her class field trip to the Pumpkin Patch. I've made some really great friends in some other mommies from the preschool. This year, we were lucky enough that Shawn also got to attend.
My baby brother left for Basic Training for the Army National Guard. We had his birthday/going away party.
Every year we also go to the Renaissance Festival. This year, we went twice.
We finished soccer season and had parent watch week in dance.
Of course we had to do our family trip to the pumpkin patch.
We took a special trip with Shawn's parents to one of our favorite weekend getaway places, Eureka Springs.
And Ben and Sydney had crazy hair and clothes day at school.
Rylie had her class Halloween party and parade.
We celebrated my niece, Langston's, birthday.
And carved our pumpkins.
We celebrated Halloween with Ben and Sydney's school parade, class party, and then lots of trick-r-treating.
November....
Ben had several projects he worked on this month. He made cookies for a fundraiser, read Harry Potter and did a book report and diorama, and made bangers and mash for the 3rd grade cultural feast.
We celebrated Shawn's aunt's 60th birthday.
I took Rylie and Sydney to a ballet. It was Madeline's Rescue, and just so happened to be Rylie's first ballet.
We continued to enjoy our walks downtown.
Rylie's school put on Stone Soup.
We also continued to enjoy lots of time with family and friends.
After Thanksgiving, we started decorating our house for Christmas.
And Sydney lost a tooth. Ben pulled it out.
December....
Rylie was home sick on the day that her class took a field trip to the Festival of Trees, so we took the whole family to have a look, later in the week. Every year, the preschool decorates a tree for the Festival of Trees. All of the trees are auctioned off and the money raised goes to charity. This year, the preschool tree went for about $700.
We got up bright and early and attended the Old Fashioned Christmas Parade.
And we got snow!
We celebrated CJ's birthday
My brother came home from Basic for Christmas!
We took the kids down to Union Station to see the Christmas train. We'd hoped to see Santa while we were their but he's quite a popular guy and the line was ridiculous.
Rylie had her last day of school before Christmas break and made a gingerbread house.
We had a fun time doing gingerbread houses at home too.
The big kids had their last day of school before Christmas break and their class parties.
We made sugar cookies as a family. This was the first year, everybody was fully able to participate.
Then there was Christmas Eve. We even managed to catch Santa before he left for the North Pole and on his long journey around the world.
And Christmas Day.
Then of course, we celebrated Shawn's birthday!
And he finished that day with letting his daughters and nieces give him a makeover.
What a crazy year we had! So many good times and memories. We truly are blessed to have the people in our lives we do and to be given the opportunities we have been given. While 2016 was overall a really great year, we don't take a bit of it for granted, and can't wait to see what 2017 has to offer.
I've been so bad at updating that I thought I'd throw as much as I can of our year into a giant post before I start fresh in 2017.
The best place to start is exactly at the beginning, maybe even a little before. I will warn you up front, this post will be quite long. Lets start New Years Eve.
December 31st 2015...
We'd been recovering from a crazy stomach bug that swept through the house, hitting everyone but Shawn, and maybe Ben. We were celebrating at home, as we tend to do, but had no company due to everyone in recovery. We watched Minions, snacked on snacky foods, snuggled, silly danced, and had fun hats, noise makers, popper fireworks, and cider/champagne at midnight.
Our family in January...
Since we were all sick on Shawn's big 30th birthday, we postponed his surprise party to January 2nd. He thought we were going to a small family dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. We surprised him with lots of friends and family, balloons, cake, decorations and even a 30 hat and necklace for him to wear.
January brought several Tiemann family adventures, including birthdays, a trip to Build a Bear (where we learned Scottie absolutely HATES big crowds), Shawn and my 8th wedding anniversary, Rylie bringing home the preschool class bear for the first time, and Rylie's first panic attack (thankfully these are few and far between but when she has them, they can get pretty ugly.)
February....
I took Sydney out for manicures and pedicures in a mommy/daughter date time. (This is something I hope to do more of in the new year.)
We got the kids all ready for Valentines day and their class parties.
Rylie turned 4! We celebrated with family and friends at good ole Chuck E Cheese, in a cool My Little Pony theme.
Sydney, at age 5, went to her first ever sleepover.
We celebrated my niece Abby's birthday.
Family walks...
Parent watch week at dance.
March...
Sydney turned 6!!! We celebrated at Laugh Out Loud with lots of friends and family, in a Monster High style party.
Took Sydney to the ballet.
Spring Break, we went to Denver with Shawn. While he worked, we played. We went to the Downtown Aquarium, Breckinridge to play in the snow, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Casa Bonita to eat and watch the cliff divers, the Children's Museum, and Sam's No 3 for delicious food. Our hotel was pretty cool too. Every floor had a different theme. We stayed on the fun and games floor that was decorated like PacMan and Mario.
A gymnastics birthday party.
St. Patrick's Day
Three of the four kiddos came down with Hand Foot and Mouth. It was super rough and delayed our big Easter dinner.
Easter
April....
We had our Easter dinner redo.
S'mores!
Scottie turned 2! We were at the kids soccer games that morning but celebrated with family at home that afternoon with a Ben and Holly's Magical Kingdom sort of party.
On Scottie's birthday, in between soccer and her party, Shawn and I snuck away with my step father, who happened to be our realtor, to take a second sneak peak at a house we had seen, and loved. A day or two later, we put in an offer that was accepted!!
We added to our family with a new dog, Duchess. We learned quickly that she's an escape artist and an incredibly fast runner. She really fit in well with the family though.
Rylie's school art show.
May....
Ben made me roses in one of his art classes! The cool tile in the back is also a Ben Tiemann original.
Soccer continued on.
The big kids school had their yearly carnival.
More s'mores
Adults vs Kids soccer game on the last practice.
Family paper airplane competitions.
Sydney's school music program.
Soccer season ended
Rylie had her last day of school and class picnic.
Sydney performed her ballet in a school fundraiser gala.
We celebrated Torren's birthday.
We celebrated our friend's daughter, Gabby's, 1st birthday.
We began to pack for our big move!
The big kids had their last days of school.
And we celebrated the end of the year by going to lunch with friends.
Sydney and Rylie had their end of year dance showcase.
We spent the whole day downtown at Busker Fest.
And we visited loved ones who have passed on Memorial day.
June....
We celebrated Adam's birthday.
Kid's baseball began.
Wine Tasting!
Lots of swimming.
We found tons of tiny toads. I guess they come from a little pond across the street. Rylie found and saved loads of them from the lawn mower, kid feet, and the car over the summer.
July....
We celebrated Kelly's birthday. (I'm so in love with this picture. The love on Scottie's face as she looks at her aunt. It melts me every time.)
We celebrated the 4th of July, and lots of it.
More baseball
Vacation to San Francisco. We saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Pier 39, Alcatraz, China Town, Girardeli Square, Lombard Street, the Sequoia trees in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park (including the famous General Grant), the beautiful beach in Santa Cruz, and lots of wild life we don't normally get to see. I also celebrated my 31st birthday there.
We celebrated Payton's birthday.
August....
More swimming and just time well spent, outside.
And back to school we go.
Walks and ice cream on the plaza.
The Missouri State Fair.
Soccer and dance are back.
A huge storm blew threw!
Sydney had to get two of her baby teeth pulled since her grown up teeth were coming in behind them and the baby ones just wouldn't get loose.
September...
We started our first big house project. New stairs for the outside deck. I'm so proud of Shawn and all his hard work on this.
Every year we go, and enjoy, Irish Fest!
Soccer and dance are back in full swing.
Rylie's back to school.
We saw the gigantic sunflower field.
Big Ben turned 9! We celebrated with a Batman type birthday at the arcade with games and laser tag, and then back at our house with pizza and cake.
For Ben's birthday he got this really fun game. It's called Pie in the Face. We loved playing it together, and just laughing and laughing and laughing.
October....
Lots more outside time.
Rylie had her class field trip to the Pumpkin Patch. I've made some really great friends in some other mommies from the preschool. This year, we were lucky enough that Shawn also got to attend.
My baby brother left for Basic Training for the Army National Guard. We had his birthday/going away party.
Every year we also go to the Renaissance Festival. This year, we went twice.
We finished soccer season and had parent watch week in dance.
Of course we had to do our family trip to the pumpkin patch.
We took a special trip with Shawn's parents to one of our favorite weekend getaway places, Eureka Springs.
Sydney had her class music program.
And Ben and Sydney had crazy hair and clothes day at school.
Rylie had her class Halloween party and parade.
We celebrated Halloween with Ben and Sydney's school parade, class party, and then lots of trick-r-treating.
November....
Ben had several projects he worked on this month. He made cookies for a fundraiser, read Harry Potter and did a book report and diorama, and made bangers and mash for the 3rd grade cultural feast.
We celebrated Shawn's aunt's 60th birthday.
I took Rylie and Sydney to a ballet. It was Madeline's Rescue, and just so happened to be Rylie's first ballet.
We continued to enjoy our walks downtown.
Rylie's school put on Stone Soup.
We also continued to enjoy lots of time with family and friends.
After Thanksgiving, we started decorating our house for Christmas.
And Sydney lost a tooth. Ben pulled it out.
December....
Rylie was home sick on the day that her class took a field trip to the Festival of Trees, so we took the whole family to have a look, later in the week. Every year, the preschool decorates a tree for the Festival of Trees. All of the trees are auctioned off and the money raised goes to charity. This year, the preschool tree went for about $700.
We got up bright and early and attended the Old Fashioned Christmas Parade.
And we got snow!
We celebrated CJ's birthday
Rylie had her last day of school before Christmas break and made a gingerbread house.
We had a fun time doing gingerbread houses at home too.
The big kids had their last day of school before Christmas break and their class parties.
We made sugar cookies as a family. This was the first year, everybody was fully able to participate.
Then there was Christmas Eve. We even managed to catch Santa before he left for the North Pole and on his long journey around the world.
And Christmas Day.
And he finished that day with letting his daughters and nieces give him a makeover.
What a crazy year we had! So many good times and memories. We truly are blessed to have the people in our lives we do and to be given the opportunities we have been given. While 2016 was overall a really great year, we don't take a bit of it for granted, and can't wait to see what 2017 has to offer.
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