A Dietz Family Year in Review

Remember yesterday when I said I had a blog post about Christmas and one about Grace to post? Well, I lied:) Sorry. Those aren't coming...at least not in that form anyway. I stumbled upon my friend Sharlee's year in review, and thought it looked like fun, so that's what you're getting. O.K., so maybe I didn't stumble upon Sharlee's year in review, it appeared in my e-mail. But nonetheless, it looks like fun, and I thought I'd give it a shot.



January

*We celebrated my 27th birthday at our house, with a fabulously decorated cake that my husband made and some good friends.



*Ken and our friend Alan put together Grace's crib and tried to shove it through our hallway.



*This was NOT successful! So, they ended up tearing it apart and rebuilding it in her room:)

*I found this random picture of Fenix and John which cracked me up, and still does:)

*Ken found new ways to harass Byron.




February

*Ken and I celebrated Valentines day with a cruise to Italy.



We dined on escargot




and

fine wine.



We followed our cruise up with a huge President's Day bash on February 21st.





Psych! I actually have absolutely NO idea what we did in February. Blame it on the pregnancy hormones!

I apparently had a horrible tooth ache though, and embarrassingly and somewhat psychotically, blogged about it here.

I'm glad that's over!

March


*I started decorating Grace's room.

And sadly, I have yet to finish.

*Sharlee and Amanda threw us a baby shower. It was a lot of fun and really well put together. We have great friends and family and were/are really grateful for all the support.

(P.S. Somewhere around January of this year I got REALLY bad about taking photos, and so I don't have many from the shower unfortunately.)






*Ken and I started our birth classes in the middle of this month, and let me tell you, it was an EXPERIENCE! They had me totally freaked out and feeling super unprepared.

April

* My work threw me and one other a co-worker a baby shower. It was incredibly thoughtful and Grace has the staff of MMS to thank for much of her impeccable wardrobe. In addition to that, the ladies at St. Lukes in Meridian (where my mom and I used to work) also threw me a baby shower. I really love those ladies! I am so lucky to have them in my life. They were such wonderful friends to my mother and are such great friends to me as well.

* We spent our Saturday mornings watching Fenix play soccer. He really enjoys it and has grown so much this year as a soccer player.



May

May was a big month! A phenomenal month!

*I taught my last day for the school year on May 6th. I had a great class last school year. I really did. I could not have had a better group of kids to share my pregnancy with. Some of them were almost as excited as I was. They also made a lot of memorable/laughable comments throughout my pregnancy, that kept Ken and I, and others, entertained.

*On May 8th, Mother's Day, Gracelyn decided to make her big debut. She was determined to get here on Mother's Day, and arrived just in time, at 11:24 that night. She was 6 pounds 14 ounces, 21 inches long, and perfect. I spent my pregnancy trying to imagine what she looked like, never really able to get a clear picture, and then she came and I looked at her, and it all clicked, like I already knew.



June

*We spent May and June getting to know our newest addition. Fenix loved/loves being a big brother and is a great one at that!



*Ken was named "Employee of the Month" at his job. A fact that Fenix and I harassed him about constantly. Every time we went to see him we had to go and check out his "Employee of the Month" picture:)

They didn't give him a button, which I thought was an atrocity. Every employee of the month needs an "Employee of the Month" button to wear for the duration of their reign. So, I made him one to compensate for his work's lack of thoughtfulness and appreciation.



*We celebrated Father's Day (You'll have to excuse the pajamas:),



and Fenix's 9th birthday.



*Grace started smiling this month:)

July

*We didn't have Fenix on the Fourth of July this year, so we celebrated a tad early, on Saturday, July 2nd. Dennin and Brooke came over, along with Dennin's main squeeze at the time:) We played Jenga, ate really good BBQ, and then let off fireworks in front of our house (as in sparklers and fountains).

We managed to somehow anger our neighbor. In fact, she was very upset that we were lighting off fireworks two days before the Fourth of July. Apparently that's unheard of. She didn't even know it was us though. She came out of her house asking us if we lived here. The idea of my husband, and I, and our 2 month old and our 9 year old sneaking into someone else's yard to light of fireworks did make me chuckle though.

She threatened to call the cops on us before we were even able to respond or apologize.

This is a picture of us and our shenanigans.



Seriously! Look at those heathens!

*Ken's mom and step-dad come to visit from Colorado. We had a blast. Ken and I had big plans of taking them to the botanical gardens and to a few wineries. In the end we spent most of our time on our back porch, chatting. And to be honest, that was even better. It was SO nice having them here. We did attempt to take them to the Idaho Botanical Gardens on two occasions. Both times, they were having a concert there, so next time they come we will make sure to call ahead. I would love to post pictures from their visit, but I'm having trouble finding them on the computer, which means they are somewhere on Ken's phone. I really will have to upload them later.


*After two years, we sold my mother's house. This was bittersweet, but it was time.

*Grace started laughing towards the end of July. She was outside in her swing when she discovered the mobile and found it very funny!:)

August

*I surprised Ken with an early birthday present, a trip out to Nebraska. Ken was missing his family, and we really wanted Ken's Grandparents' to get to meet Grace while she was still a baby. It was a short trip (filled with lots of plane anxiety--this seems to get worse as I get older:), but it was a really good time.






*My district started school on August 15th and Grace started staying with Cara and her family during the day. Something we are SO grateful for. They take such good care of her and they love her. There's not much more we can ask for.

*Ken and I celebrated four years of marriage on the 17th. We went out to dinner that evening with Grace, but celebrated a few weeks prior with dinner and wine, while Grace spent some time with Sharlee and her mom.

September

*Ken turned the big 3 0! We celebrated with a BBQ, complete with super tacky decorations hanging from the ceiling, and some great friends! Ken's birthday falls on Labor Day weekend, so sometimes it's hard to get everyone together with it being a holiday weekend. We're really grateful for those that came and made the evening special. Our patio was packed And, once again, I failed miserably at taking pictures.

*Sharlee, Grace, and I, participated in the St. Lukes Women's fitness walk. I've been waiting a while for Grace to join us.

*In addition to that, Sharlee and Zach joined us for Purple Stride, a walk to raise money for pancreatic cancer research. We formed a team called "Cruisin' For Caren". We are really hoping to do it again next year, and raise a bit more money/possibly recruit a few more team members.




*Grace was also baptized this month




and towards the end of September began to experiment with sitting up on her own.

October

*Grace turned five months and towards the end of the month, started eating solids. She LOVES her food!



*We enjoyed another season of soccer, and Fenix scored his very first goal! He was psyched!



*My husband found even more ways to harass Byron.



*We celebrated Halloween with an 80's Halloween party the weekend before, and then I spent Halloween handing out candy with Piglet...I mean Grace, and my zombie step-son helped his friend put on a haunted house. It was a good Halloween. We're already planning for next year.









November

* Ken's dad, sister Kori, and brother Kasey came to visit us for the Thanksgiving holiday. We ate lots of good food, lounged around the house, played games, went Black Friday shopping, and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Ken's family has joined us for the last few years on Thanksgiving and it's something we look forward to every year.






*The kids spent some time sporting their Nebraska Huskers gear. (I think Grace may actually have more Husker gear than Bronco...:)




And finally (you're almost to the end, hang in there!)...

December

*Grace got her first tooth at the start of the month and her second at the end. She is getting super close to crawling and has been for the last month now. She seems pretty content to just scoot and roll her way everywhere, so when crawling doesn't work, she just does that. She'll be 8 months in a little over a week. The mobility factor has made taking our monthly picture a little difficult. See picture below for evidence.




*We went to "Festival of Trees" with Amanda and her daughter Cecily. In addition, Grace and I got our Christmas spirit on at the Christmas Show in Boise with Sharlee.



*Ken found yet another way to harass Byron.



*In addition, he found a new way to harass Grace...or at least me:)



*I managed to mail 40 Christmas cards this year (If you didn't get one, I don't have your address:) Which really made me think about how blessed we are. We have a lot of really great people in our lives.



*And finally, Christmas came. We had a great Christmas. Ken made yet another delicious dinner on Christmas Eve, and we spent Christmas opening up gifts, eating dinner at my aunts, and relaxing and spending time together.









Phew! If you made it his far, then I commend you! I'm exhausted just typing all of this, which means I may need to make updating this on a monthly basis a New Year's Resolution of some sort.

2011 was a good year for the Dietz family. I'm grateful for the family, friends, and memories that were a part of my life in 2011, and I'm excited to see what's in store for the Dietz crew in 2012.

I hope 2011 was good to you, and that 2012 brings you lots of new adventures and memories!

Happy New Year!