12 in 2014

My blogging year has been terrible, but in real life it was great! Dwija's link up is the perfect opportunity for me to quickly recap all that I've missed updating here on the blog. So here we go! 2014 at a glance:

 January was pretty low key. We enjoyed one week of cool weather and we wore long sleeves and pants and went for walks outside. It was glorious. 

In February we revealed to the world that were having another boy! I also entered into the final year of my twenties. 

March was an exciting and busy month. We travelled to visit family in Ontario, where we got our fill of winter weather! Although it was so much fun to spend time with everyone, it was not so fun when we got hit by an awful stomach flu that made the rounds. It was such a horrible feeling just sitting around and waiting for the next person to start puking. When we got back, we celebrated William turning two!

In April Shane turned 30 and I threw him a surprise party.  I was also hugely pregnant and feeling a bit uncomfortable. Right after Shane's birthday we were sent to Miami for a special ultrasound to see if the baby had what my doctor thought looked like a pretty serious heart condition. Long story short, his heart looked beautiful and it ended up being a whole lot of worry and heart ache over nothing which we were so, so grateful for. Easter came and I was never so happy to be with my family, since I thought I was going to have to leave them to go have the baby in Canada. So it ended up being a month filled with stress, and then intense relief and happiness. And it was all magnified by my lovely pregnancy hormones.

May brought the arrival of our sweet Gus! Labour wasn't extremely horrible, he was (is) such a dream baby, but I did have to deal with my usual retained placenta which was an extra pain this time. Living on an island, I think the doctors here are extra paranoid, and so I was subjected to a D&C, weekly appointments, and a whole lot of discomfort and medical bills only to have the placenta come out on its own two months later. It was not fun and definitely cast a cloud on those newborn days. Felicity also turned five this month! She was such a sweetheart and enjoyed the day even though Daddy had to work and Mommy really couldn't do very much to make her day special.

This photo represents what June was about: four small people having fun and loving each other but all needing to be taken care of. By me. We were busy but I can't say what we really did! Except Gus got baptised, and Felicity's Godmother came to visit for a week. It was fun showing her the island, although I was limited in my abilities to do all the activities.

In July Maria turned 7! She enjoyed her day thoroughly as always, with frozen yogurt, the park, watching Frozen, and ice cream cones (she had her cake the day before at her Frozen party). The girls went to Bible camp for a week, which they LOVED. Then we took four young children on the plane (so tiring but they were so good!) to NB to visit my family, which also ran over into.....

August! It was a crazy, busy, chaotic, and fun time, with a whole lot of people, including 14 kids under 7, all staying under one roof. There was a lot of running around outside, fighting over the two swings, putting on plays, swimming, drinking beer (adults only!), shopping, bonfiring, baby holding, cooking, hiking, and bubble blowing,  Two weeks just wasn't long enough! When we came back we celebrated our 8th anniversary with a fun little date of playing tennis and going out for dinner.

In September I was having a bit of a hard time and so my lovely mother came to the rescue! She flew down and spent three weeks with us. It was so nice to have her around, spending quality time with the kids and showing her the island. We even had a girls night out, and I managed to start school with the kids. It was so hard to say goodbye to her.

In October this boy gave me a scare when he split his head open while playing on the bed. Thankfully he was ok and was the sweetest, toughest little kid, not even flinching while he was poked and prodded with needles. Shane, Gus and I escaped to Texas for five days for a wedding. We had a lot of fun, but it was so hard leaving the other kids I'm not sure its worth it and don't know when or if I'll commit to doing it again!

November was filled with the ordinary exciting stuff like Gus starting to eat real food, starting to crawl, and pull himself up (crazy child!). We enjoyed cooler weather, and maybe started to like Cayman a bit more since we could actually spend time outside (without pouring with sweat!).

December has been busy! We started off the month running - Shane and I in the Cayman Islands Marathon relay (quarter marathon each), and the girls in the kids run. We had so much fun that the next week we ran in the Jingle Bell run 5k. I was so proud of the girls who ran the entire way - even little Felicity! Then there was lots of crafting, baking, planning, and getting excited about Christmas! Christmas with these kids just gets better and better each year. The bonus this year is that Shane is taking two weeks off so we've really been able to relax and enjoy family time, including lots of beach trips. snorkelling with the girls, and dates with Daddy.

All in all its been an exciting year and we are so grateful for all of our many blessings! Here's to a great 2015!

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