I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that I love Christmas letters! Last year I wrote our year in numbers, and the year before that I did the letter from the perspective of my 1 year old. I didn’t do a special perspective this year, just my own, but I still thought I’d share it with you here, along with some of this year’s family pictures. We got lots of fun candid shots like this one, but I was amazed that our photographer was actually able to get a picture with all of us looking and smiling! With a 3 year old and a 1 year old that’s pretty extraordinary!
Christmas 2013: It’s strange to look back at photos from this time last year and see how small my babies were. To see them now, I think my Mother in Law and I are the only ones that still call them babies! We’ve officially made the transition from a house of babies to a house of toddlers/preschoolers. It’s bittersweet, as we of course miss the baby stage but we are enjoying the little things like sleep, the ability to communicate with our kids and 50% fewer diapers to change, so I can’t honestly say I’d go back to the baby stage if I could, though it was a joy while it lasted.
One of our biggest (or should I say, smallest?) struggles this year has been with our little girl’s weight. She was diagnosed with failure to thrive back in April, because she kept losing weight. A combination of several trips to the Dr. lots of fattening foods and switching her to formula helped her to finally stop losing weight. She’s still tiny for her age (16 months), but it doesn’t seem to be a cause for concern anymore now that she’s maintaining the pounds she has.
What she lacks in weight she more than makes up for in personality! The little girl is already quite the drama queen, and has been known to scold the vacuum cleaner, shaking her little fist at it on more than one occasion. Just don’t get her started on her big brother when he does something she doesn’t agree with. Between the two of them, we have quite the noisy days, but it couldn’t be more fun!
Little Man has a cousin that started school this year, and ever since then, he’s been begging to go himself! I’m thinking I might need to get a video of him saying this to use as proof in 10 years or so when school doesn’t seem quite as exciting. He’s is our “big hard worker man” (as he likes to be called) and he can frequently be found “workin’ on stuff” throughout our home. He has his own toolset now and there’s nothing he can’t fix! He’s just turned 3 and he’s a great big brother doing a good job taking care of his little ‘sissa’, and of course, bossing her around.
He loves to be the man in charge and is quite keen to do everything without help these days. Including getting dressed, which has meant him sporting some pants that were backwards and inside-out for a full day. If any one at the mall noticed that day, they didn’t say anything, and he was beyond proud of himself for doing it “all by his own.”
Hubby has been doing great at work, and even put in some extra hours this summer to learn how to do the warehouse side of his job. He loves working outdoors and has a really fun time whenever they need him to go help out there. Thanks to his Novellas, his favorite Spanish radio stations and Spanish-speaking friends at work, he’s become fluent in Spanish. He loves to practice on the kids and me, but Little Man is always correcting him, and informing him of the English words that he should be using. He clearly doesn’t quite understand the concept of other languages yet, but it’s cute watching him try to teach daddy how to talk.
Sometime around July of this year I made the transition from “Stay-at-home-mom” to “Work-at-home-mom” as my blog has really started to grow this year and bring in a small side income for us. I love writing so this is the perfect job for me.
Also this year I’ve been pursuing my dream of becoming a published author. In May I finished my book proposal and I’ve been sending it out to agents and publishing companies in the months since. I’ve gotten rejected and ignored more times than I care to count, but I’ve heard this is part of the process that all authors go through, so I’m trying to stay positive. In the mean time I’m working on self-publishing an e-book, I hope to have that finished by the end of this year or early next.
All in all 2013 has been a wonderful year of learning, growing and change. We are looking forward to next year and excited to see how the kids will grow and our lives will change in the next 12 months.
Merry Christmas
Lastly, add that personal touch to your Christmas letter, by sending a family photo or Christmas card along with your letter. Our favorite place to get them is from one of our affiliates, Minted.com! They always have gorgeous, high quality Christmas cards and they’ll even address the envelopes for you. It makes everything so much easier! Check out our card from last year!
Heather says
Love this girlfriend!! Your family pictures are so darling!
Major congrats on following your dreams. I’m hoping I’ll have an ebook finished by May of 2014 :)