February

Love the weather, love our tax return, love Skyler's first time to Disneyland, love Hunter's new teeball program, love our new furniture, LOVE February. So many great things this month! And throw in a Superbowl Party and Hunter's Valentine's Party and we were a busy bunch this month.

Hunter and his team, The Rockies...

 Our new monster couch... ALL seats recline!!! We were able to move our old set into the front room and what a difference it made! Just need a few lamps and decor, rearrange some things, but our house is finally getting closer to being furnished :)

I've been spending nap times this month preparing for Skyler's "A your adorable" first birthday party, and so excited to celebrate the great joy she has brought to our lives over the past year. 

Skyler's middle name, Dawn, has a special meaning to us as she is named after my grandfather, Donald. He had a great love of music and always sang to my cousins and I.  "A your adorable" by Perry Como was his special song. I grew up with my Mom singing this song to me every night as well, and have kept up the tradition with both of my kids.  I so wish he could be with us at Skyler's first birthday party, along with her other great grandparents she was never able to meet. But it will be a great day of celebration for a very special little girl that has brightened so many lives. 

January

We headed up to my aunt and uncle's condo in Arrowhead for New Years again this year with my parents and Grandma Converse. It was a blast as always. There was tons of snow and Hunter was able to go sledding for his first time! We made a snowman, snow angels, and had snowball fights. We loved starting the new year out this way...

Until we got home, and the flu continued to spread again. :(

On the weekends if we were all feeling up to it, we did a few fun things like the skate park, where Hunter loved riding his scooter and bike.

And we found a great hiking place near our house, but discovered the hard way that it was not "stroller friendly", so next time we will bring a carrier for skyler ;)

For Christmas, I got Chase and Hunter tickets to see MONSTER JAM  for January 26th, and they both had a blast! Hunter hasn't stopped talking about it since and Chase said he was speechless and stared the entire time with his mouth open. Haha, the boy LOVES his monster trucks, and his favorites, Grave Digger and Blue Thunder were both there!

Skyler is pretty much walking now. She takes about 6 steps before gently sitting herself down, or reaching my arms. Slow and steady, unlike her brother who's first steps were basically sprinting across the room. She babbles "mama, dada, nana, baba," throughout the day and is eating "big people" food now if i cut it up really small. There hasn't been a food she hasn't liked yet so far. She is still sleeping great at night and for both naps, goes down so easily every time.

Chase's job is going really well, he was just promoted to "foreman" and has extremely long days and then comes home to do more work on the computer. He loves it though and is enjoying the company he is with and the coworkers.

My home salon is up and running and I'm so happy to say that I've actually gotten pretty busy over the last couple of weeks! I've gotten quite a few Moms from the moms group I joined in my city, and neighbors and a few from online advertising I've done and I keep getting new calls almost every day, so  far so good!!

December

Another great Christmas, full of love, laughter and excitement. We started the month off with decorating the house, getting our Christmas tree, the appearance of our elf on the shelf, Elfis, and our daily advent calendar with fun things to do. We went to see Temecula's Santa's Electrical Parade with Grandma  and it was awesome, hopefully a new tradition for our family.

We also had a month of the flu around here, with Hunter passing it to me, and me to Chase. Luckily Skyler didn't catch it. 

Mid-month we went to see a Polar Express Light Show at the Riggans' house and went to take pictures with Santa and Hunter was able to tell him what he wanted for Christmas- "Wall Tracks". Hunter's preschool had a Christmas party and he had fun messing around with his buddies from class. We made Christmas cookies  and I made our traditional cinnamon buns and egg casserole for Christmas morning. 

Christmas Eve we went to Great- Grandma Marylou's like we do every year. We had fun with another white elephant game, ate some great food and got to see Santa Claus :)

Christmas morning, we woke up and opened our stockings and presents from Santa.  Chase and Hunter immediately set up his new toy and then Nana, Tom and Grandpa Pierce came over for more presents and breakfast.

In the afternoon we headed to Oma and Opas where we opened MORE presents, among the favorites were Skyler's Disney Princess push car, Hunter's Leap Pad, my new camera, Chase's new tool chest, and a new family dining table!!! Yes, we are absolutely spoiled.

Chrsitmas evening was spent with the whole Converse family, everyone was actually in one place at the same time! Especially with the 3 new little girls added this year, it was really fun to be together.

Here are some of our family photos we took a few months back...

We are looking forward to another great year in 2013!!!

November

We have been having fun getting ready for holidays and cooler weather around our house this month. Skyler is now crawling nonstop and climbing up onto everything and everyone. On November 11th she said her first words, "mama" then "dada" 15 minutes later. Now she says "nana" as well, and babbles all day long, she is so precious. She got her first taste of "Thanksgiving food" with some unsweetened sweet potatoes and had everyone laughing with her gag faces. We spent the holiday at my parents' house this year and had such a beautiful day eating outside, playing ping pong, and just being thankful for all the blessings in our lives and being together.

The salon is now finished and more beautiful than I imagined. Thank you, Monte and Nancy and Chase for helping make it all happen. I appreciate you all so much!! Now to get some clients in here and get to work :)