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 :)

October

Hunter started preschool this month! Our little boy is growing up so fast. He attends "The Learning Center" here in Lake Elsinore, it's a program offered through our city Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-12. He loves school, his new friends, and his teacher, Miss Lorena. The other parents and I volunteer in his class once a month and bring snack. Its a great addition to our week and gives me a little break and some one-on-one time with Skyler. 

These first 2 pics are Hunter's first day of school.

Halloween was fun this year, we took the kids to the pumpkin patch by our house again and went on all the rides and blow up activities. Skyler was a flower and Hunter was a "work man", he really wanted to be just like his Daddy:)

Hunter's school had a Halloween party for the kids where they all dressed up, had a parade, and took turns hitting a pinata. 

Unfortunately, Chase was out of town on Halloween day, but the kids and I made the best of it by going to Oma's classroom for a visit and Hunter got to walk in the parade along with the other kindergardeners. Look for the white hard hat in the middle of the group :)

Then we headed to Balboa Island with Grandma Converse and trick-or-treated with the Converses. Uncle Wayne was dressed as the scariest killer clown I've ever seen and walked on sky high stilts taking pictures with everyone all over the island. The kids were oddly not that afraid of him. I was.

And things are coming along on the salon. All the major construction items are pretty much finished, we were waiting for floors to completely dry before moving furniture in and then its just decorating and touch ups before business begins in December. I made a website called www.hairbytami.com and hope to build a clientele quickly over the next year. We hired a nanny this week that will come over during my business hours to watch our kids and my clients' kids while they receive their services. 

On another note, who is this little girl and what happened to my quiet, cuddly, still baby? Skyler is now nonstop wiggles and squeals, so much so that she doesn't even want to take 10 minutes to nurse anymore! Still sweet as ever, but much more active now. She started crawling, as of Nov 3rd! She has been scooting around the last month doing the army crawl and rolling, but now she is up on all 4s, and moving quicker every day. She even pushes herself up on her hands and feet and sticks her butt in the air, its really funny. She pulled herself up to standing for the first time the same day she crawled, in her crib. Luckily Chase was home and was able to lower the mattress so she wont be able to get out. Yikes!