Goodbye 2010

Ah 2010.  I know I touched on this around Thanksgiving, but 2010 sure was a fickle year for us full of ups and downs.  The depression, the job loss, the miscarriage, the loss of family members.  All of this led me to think that 2010 maybe just wasn't our year. 

And then on December 29, it was all put into perspective.  A good friend of mine, Jen, who has a blog many people follow called Maybe if You Just Relax delivered her twins at 32 weeks, shortly after discovering that one of her identical girls had passed away the night before her scheduled c-section.  Her daughter Evelyn was born an angel, and her sister Ainsley was transported immediately to the NICU.  I can't imagine.  I can't imagine how she feels, and how this pain will affect the rest of their lives.  She is part of a local group I belong to and we have been putting together donations for the family.  I will put the information at the bottom of my post if you would like to help, but know that the family appreciates comments on their blog and keeping them in your prayers as well.

All in all, the end of 2010 brought a lot of heartache not only to my friend, but to so many of us who had been waiting for their good news.  Hug your children tighter.  Appreciate the healthy babies in your life, and know that so many people have experiences of loss that so many of us can't even imagine.

I don't want this post to be a downer, and I tried to think of other things I could talk about.  But quite honestly, Jen and her family have been just about all I have thought about since it happened.  I look at my kids, and can't imagine one without the other.  I think of trying to celebrate the birth of a child while mourning the loss of their identical twin.  I think of our birth experience, and I how I thought it was rough, and realize I have nothing to complain about.  So to this, I've had one thought about this coming year.

Bring it on 2011.  We're ready.  I'm looking at the new year with a fresh perspective, and thinking about how you should never take anything for granted. 

The end of 2010 means the end of my Project 365, of which I think I generated about 358 photos for, give or take.  I plan to try again this year, I think, since taking a picture a day has become a habit anyway, and isn't much of an adjustment from my normal picture taking habits.  I also have the addition of a new Speedlight (thank you Mom and Dad!) which is sure to improve the quality of my indoor photos, especially those taken late at night when I've forgotten to take a picture.  I tried to gather a photo a day from the past couple weeks for this post, but, well, it was the holidays, and I have more to share.  You'll deal.

December 20 - Nothing special about this day or this picture.  Ben had climbed into the booster on the floor and got himself stuck.  It was pretty funny to Mommy, pretty frustrating to the Ben.  Also, look at how long his hair is! We got his hair cut again a couple days later. 

December 21 - Happy Birthday Grandpa!  Once again, they got to blow out the candles and sit on the lap of the birthday person.  They are actually blowing the candles out now.  Luckily at family parties, nobody minds that Maggie ends up spitting on the cake.  They will have smash cakes again at their second birthday! 

December 22 - We went to Nama and Granpa's house because Nama really wanted them to help decorate cookies.  She offered to bake them and make the mess at her house, so why not? 

December 23 - Well, kind of.  By the end of the day, I did finish these adorable snowman handprints.  But for monst of the day, I spent my time in bed, throwing up every time I tried to eat or drink anything.  What a way to get out of wrapping presents.  The picture is actually from the 24th, but oh well. 

December 24 - Christmas Eve!  This year I got the brilliant idea to do our traditional reading of The Night Before Christmas before we left for dinner with Andy's parents.  Only Maggie was interested in sitting on my lap, Ben was running around somewhere. 

Hey Cuz, do you think our Mommies planned this?

Adding in second cousin Brooke for the group shot. 

The traditional family shot in front of the tree.  Meant to get a belly picture too since I was wearing the same turtleneck from my favorite belly shot from the twins, but it didn't happen.

December 25 - Merry Christmas!  Maggie and Ben very seriously listened Christmas Eve when I explained that Santa would come and leave their presents and eat the cookies we made for him.  They nodded along very seriously like they understood.  The kitchen was a huge hit, as were just about every other present they opened that day.  Choo choos were a very popular gift this year.  Maggie and Ben both push them around and say choo choo!  Choo choo!

December 26 - We waited to open most of the presents from Mommy and Daddy until the next day because they were a little overwhelmed.  Maggie was opening up clothes and holding them up like she was checking the fit.  Too cute! 

We also went to my parents house for dinner and to do presents with them.  Much easier on the babies and on still tired Mommy.  I guess this also passes as my 14 week belly picture, we were playing around with the new flash and I realized we never took a real one this week. 

The Weeble house was a big hit, and once they got the batteries in and found out it played music?  Hysterical giggling and dancing.  I was going to try to post the video of this, but I took it on my phone and have no idea how to get it here. 

December 27 - Maggie and I split the holidays with the sickness, she woke up Monday morning covered in puke, and threw up a few more times that morning.  She recovered quickly.  Ben got to spend the day with Nama and Grandpa M. and my parents came over to help me get organized.  She really liked her apple juice this time and the juice boxes from McDonald's were great.  So she was keeping hydrated like a good girl, and I never had to worry about dehydration like the last time.

Just a random goofy shot of Andy playing with the new towels.  I'm still learning how to use my new flash, and this was an oops shot of having the flash in the wrong direction.  It has sort of a backlit superhero look to it, doesn't it?

December 28 - We went to Andy's brother's house for dinner and to celebrate Christmas with his family in from out of town.  Just a couple of kid shots from the evening.  

Maggie and Ben have gotten pretty good at posing for photos when you ask them to.  Sort of.  They put themselves up against the wall for this shot where I was just looking to take a picture of them in their new pajamas.  Ignore the diaper champ please, their composition could use work.  Love the second picture too. 

December 29 - Maggie was sick again this morning (I think she just ate too much) so Ben got to go to Grandma and Grandpa's again.  He came home while Maggie was still sleeping, and got to spend some quality one on one time with Mommy playing trains.  He loves the bridge, he likes putting the trains in there and getting them "stuck" so he has to get them out.  When he pushes the trians around and they fall off the track he says "Uh-oh.  Down."  and you have to help him fix it. 

December 30 - We went to my Grandma's for dinner for a Russian Christmas-ish celebration.  My parents leave soon for Florida so we snuck it in early.  Look, a rare photo of me with my sweetie.  

Whoa, that's a big piece of cake!!!

Mommy, there is cake on my nose.  Uh-oh!



December 31 - The ladies started off the New Year's Eve festivities with a trip to the hair salon.  A long overdue cut for Mommy and Maggie's first professional bang trim.  The hairdresser said that she was a perfect customer and the best one of her age she has ever had.  Best news was bang trims are free, so we don't have to do it ourselves anymore.   

Maggie and Ben stayed up for the party and rang in the new year with Grandma and Grandpa, their aunt and uncle and cousin Ryan.  We were laughing at this new play position of Maggies.  Little tiny butt sitting on the floor while she kneels to play.  

Right around midnight a fight broke out.  I told Andy that sadly, I was pretty sure that was a sign of how 2011 was going to be around our house.  Ah, the happy sounds of having a sibling who takes your stuff. 

Not only did we let our toddlers stay up until midnight, we let them toast the new year.  Don't worry, Mommy was drinking straight orange juice, so it was just a little sugar rush. 

What might be a new New Year's Day tradition, making monkey bread with my two favorite little monkeys.  They did a pretty good job helping, although I know that the two step directions part was a little tough.  Ben basically liked throwing the dough.   

Celebrating the New Year at Auntie Alice's. 

My little entertainer.  She was pulling imaginary things out of the bag, naming them and then handing them out around the table to all of the ladies of the family.  "Um, pretzels" (hand imaginary object to someone), "Um, pizza", etc.  Too cute!

January 2 - We got new toddler sized towels for Christmas, and we love to wear them.  This was after a much needed bath yesterday afternoon. 

And that's all for 2010.  I want to pass along the information if you are interested in helping my friend Jen.  You can paypal any donations to knepperfamilydonations@gmail.com.  You can also email that same address if you would prefer to send a check, and the contact information will be sent to you.  We have a fabulous local group of moms that have been doing everything we can to help her out at this horrible time, and I am proud to be part of such a generous and thoughful group of women.