The girls

 Abs is playing soccer this fall.

 Bells turned 8!

Abs is in 1st grade.

Bells is in 3rd.

Hannah is in 7th grade

Madison is in 9th grade.

Madison turned 14.

Bells lost another tooth!

She thinks she's the boss.

S

Summer!

 Last day of 2nd and Kindergarten! Last day of 6th and 8th grade! Madison and some of her friends before the 8th grade dance. Hannah is 12! Showing me her spinning moves.  It was the day of their Kindergarten program.

We've had a lot going on in the month of June!  Holy moly!  It's hard to believe July is just next week!  We've had a Kindergarten celebration, a kid completing Middle School....how can I even be old enough to have a high schooler?!  I started taking classes at the community college here and so Anatomy is keeping me busy along with another course I just finished up.  Woohoo!  It's funny going to school now my age and working on labs with kids who are the same age as some of your oldest daughter's age!  Haha!  Hannah has been working on her beautiful tan swimming with her BFF and the girls are excited that our pool passes are in the mail so we can finally go to our community pool.  The two older ones are at girls camp until Thursday this week so it's a lot quieter in the house.  Midas is still the best dog ever... This dog is loved!  We have been doing a lot of relaxing since soccer is over now and activities I've been involved with are done.  Yay for that!  Dan still has a crazy schedule but it will be his own set hours in a couple weeks after his replacement is done training and he just has his old boss's job.  Tomorrow we tour the Pentagon with some friends we made in Okinawa.  We are so excited to see them!  It's been over 3 years since we have seen them!  And I'm just about finished decorating this house!  There are too many walls!!  But we love the space!  

New things

We are really enjoying NOVA.  The girls are all settled, have made friends and are happy.  Dan is working and has a crazy schedule so we actually have had a lot of time together when he isn't working.  It's been nice.  People told us to not go out of the beltway, but Dan never really hits traffic, and we love living out where we have everything just outside and around the corner of our front door and not be stuck in a townhouse or a home with 1980s appliances.  We are distributing chores around here because we are no longer in a 1400 sq ft home where I can clean top to bottom in a couple of hours.  We've more than tripled our home size and I feel overwhelmed some days and I honestly don't have super messy kids...just with Dan being home so much the weeks he isn't working, I fall behind. Abs is signed up for soccer and she is beyond excited.  Bells wants to do karate and Hannah has her circle of friends here, she is rarely home on the weekends and enjoying drama. Madison went on her first date...it was a movie...she had fun.  She is in 8th grade...of course these things would start happening but it just is still crazy to me.  She is all registered for High School...when did this happen???  And I'm slowly trying to finish moving into this house.  I've been in kind of a decorating funk...which is so unlike me but it's slowly coming together.  We bought a piano that I'm refinishing and I need to redo my dining room set.  I didn't paint the leaf when I repainted it last year, and the dining room is too large to go without the leaf, so I have a table that has black in the middle.  But we have a super clean garage and a clean storage room so at least that's not something I need to deal with.  And we've been having glorious weather here...60s...sunny...no chill to the bone cold wind blowing like Newport.  We actually like taking our dog for a walk in February.  I do miss our view in Newport though...

She is 6!

My baby girl is 6!  We had a wonderful day, even though she wanted to just stay home all day since she was sick.  So we orders Chili's to Go and had her Baskin Robbins Oreo Cookie cake.  And bonus...her dad was here to celebrate!!  This kid is one of a kind!  She is spunky and so witty.  You don't think she is listening but she is and will have an instant comeback.  She is kind and thoughtful and brutally honest.  She doesn't like babies...dolls or real ones because she just doesn't get why people think they are so cute and funny...they just lay there and look like old people.  She loves dragons, legos, computer games, and just giving brownie squeezes.  She also loves loud music and knows quite a bit of songs...although, she loves Christmas music a lot and still tries to sneak in the playlist.  She is also the best shoulder massager.  She loves to draw and color and is quite good.  It's funny seeing her class art displays...I can always pick Abigale's out because it doesn't look like all the other Kindergartners.  We are constantly laughing with this kid.  She is by far my favorite Abigale in the whole world!

2016 recap

January

Polar Bear Plunge Easton's Beach Newport, RI.  My good friend
convinced me to start the New Year with freezing my butt off!

My mom came to RI and stayed with the girls while I went to Bahrain for
2 weeks to visit Dan.

Abigale tuned 5!!

February

First real snow of the season

Abigale was constantly sick with UTIs and pneumonia.  

March

Dan and I celebrated 13 years apart...I mean marriage.  Someday we will have an
Anniversary together again.

Togetherness with electronics

We had some warm days in March...Abs and I enjoyed our bay walk.  We also
found out Abs has a spinning bladder diaphragm as well as a grade 4 reflux into
her left kidney.  That explained all the UTIs and so we started PT and daily 
antibiotics hoping that fixes the problem or surgery will be needed.

I forgot Easter was in March!  

April

Midas doing what he does...

The girls had a nice surprise in April!!  12 days home!!

We were rear ended by someone looking at their phone!  My car hasn't been the
same since!

May

Kim and I freezing at the golf fundraiser for Cluny.

Field trip day with Abs at the Newport marina

Bay walk

Home in our neighborhood caught on fire.

Madison's band concert

June

Hannah turned 11!

Abs graduated preschool at Emmanuel Day School

We got to celebrate Hannah's real birthday in DC and with her dad who
was in the country for a conference.

Cross country road trip with Grandma Nancy, Grandpa Gary, 4 kids and a dog
Niagara Falls

Nauvoo

July

Badlands

Mt Rushmore

Where we would be spending the rest of the year

I flew back to RI but the girls and Midas stayed in Oregon.

August

Madison turned 13!

I waited for our things to get packed up and drove down to DC
to leave my car and fly to Medford.

Bells turned 7!  I wasn't there but she had an amazing birthday with family.

September

First day at Lone Pine

First day at Hedrick

First day of Kindergarten

 October

8th grade

6th grade

Kindergarten

2nd grade

Halloween

November

What a wonderful and hard day.  We got to spend time with a big group of family,
hear my grandfather give advice on life and his testimony, and say goodbyes.  I left to find a home
and meet up with Dan a couple of days later...it was so hard leaving but I am so grateful
I was able to tell my grandfather I loved him and give him one last hug before he
left this world.  Those last days I spent with him, I will surely treasure as well as all
the other wonderful memories I have with him.

We found a house and we bought a new car.  

 December

I flew back to Medford a little earlier than originally planned.
Grandpa passed away the day before I arrived.  His funeral was
a hard thing...it was lovely as funerals go, but it was an awful
day.  I had also been up at 3 am taking a kid to the ER.  It was
exhausting and a dreary day.  It was so nice to see the sun finally
peak out after days of not seeing it in Medford after the
funeral service.   

Christina and I made 17 gingerbread houses from scratch.  This was such
a fun activity.

The girls and I flew back the 14th and were able to spend Christmas with Dan!
How nice it has been to be all together again!