2011, A Year in Pictures

I was scrolling through some old pictures a few days ago, reminiscing about this past year, and thought it might be fun to take a quick walk through 2011 in pictures from each month.  From my perspective, 2011 was a wonderful year.  There wasn't any spectacular event that sets it apart from previous years and yet, it was a year filled with many unforgettable things.  I think we spent the year becoming a family of four, getting our "sea legs" so to speak, as we learned to do life with another little person under our roof.  I'm so grateful to the Lord for the little gifts He's given Travis and I, and for this sweet sliver of time we had to experience with a sweet little girl and a brand new little boy.  It was a year full of the mundane, everyday stuff of life, but I've never enjoyed (or been more challenged by) the mundane more! 

 So, it's nothing too exciting, but I hope you enjoy this little calendar year in review. 

 Oh, how time flies when you're having fun!!

January

Back in the days when we could sit the two of them together and know that at least one of them wouldn't move!

A year ago right now, this was Miss Ava.  Wow, what a little peanut

And this was sweet Carter last year!  Still living in his bouncy seat most of the time, but I'm laughing now realizing he was almost too long for that seat at 3 months!  Look at that wild hair :)

February

Our two cute valentines!

One of our first nights out together, but not quite alone :) We took Carter with us for our date night, I was still nursing and it just seemed a lot easier.  I'm pretty thankful we can go out without some tag alongs now!  A year ago, I felt like that day would never come, but now it seems like an eternity ago.

March

We flew to Texas in March for the first time as a family of four!

It was Carter's first flight and he did pretty well.  Unfortunately we had 3 stops, which was torture, but this little guy hung in there.

Sweet baby.

And this busy little bee did pretty well, but we spent a lot of time walking around the plane keeping her entertained!

Our first vacation as a family of four!

April

Happy 2nd Birthday to Ava!

We hosted our first "friend" birthday party...

...and had a great time!  Ava was definitely into all the celebrating :)

May

Carter got his first haircut from me.  Our black haired baby was quickly become a blonde haired, blue eyed boy and those ends definitely needed a good trim!  Thankfully he had no idea what I was doing, so at 7 months this guy has his first cut.  Not too bad for an amateur!

We also dedicated Carter at our Church, with my parents and cousins there.  Such a sweet morning for Travis and I.

At the end of the month, Travis took Ava with him on a last minute trip to Texas for a funeral.  It was a special memory for the two of them, especially Ava.  She talks about going on the airplane with Daddy pretty frequently!

Travis officiated the service for his Paw Paw and I learned later that Ava got carsick in the limo, on the way to the cemetary, throwing up all over her dress and Trav's suit coat :) He wore his shirt and tie the rest of the day and Ava changed into shorts and a t-shirt.  Probably a good thing I wasn't there!

June

We took a week of vacation in Wisconsin with my side of the family in June.

We took some family pictures while we were there and some 8 month photos of Carter.

Mostly we just relaxed and played outside.

July

We spent a week at Camp with Daddy and the Junior High kids in July.  It was a 3 ring circus getting there and maintaining any sense of normalcy, but the kids loved it and we had a fun week together!

A few weeks later we said goodbye to Travis and sent him to Peru on a mission's trip with our church.

He was gone for 10 days so I took the kids to my parents house.

We were very thankful to get him back again!

August

Trav and I celebrated 8 years of marriage in August.  Best 8 years of my life :)

We bought a minivan to celebrate, ha ha! Oh, how life has changed!  

Carter became mobile and the adventures really began! 

Life got a lot more exciting this month for all of us :)

We attempted our first family camping trip...

...which is one of my favorite memories of the year.

We had some ups and downs but it was definitely something we'll do again!  Camping.  I can't believe I agreed to it and even more than that, I can't believe I liked it :)

September

The majority of our month was spent cheering on Travis and his high school soccer team.  We loved it and they had a great season!  They finished their conference play as Conference Champs!

October

We took the kids to our favorite apple orchard to celebrate the start of Fall!

It was a picture perfect day and one of those I'll cherish forever!

Happy 1st birthday Carter!!!

We had a fun day throwing a birthday party with family for our little guy.

And just like that, we left the baby years behind. 

Two toddlers in our family...hard to believe!

After Carter turned one, he got a double ear infection and then...

...staples in his head!  He fell and we experienced our first traumatic injury :) Thankfully it wasn't too horrible, but tears were shed all around!

On the heels of all that fun, we discovered that Ava brought home a good, old fashioned case of head lice.  And we met the Minnesota Lice Lady for the first (and let's hope, only) time!  I thought staples in Carter's head was traumatic, but nothing was as traumatic as the threat of lice. 

 And that's all I'm going to say about that :)

We closed out a crazy month with some cute little animals in our house!

We found a cute, pink leopard...

...and a darling cow.  It was a fun-filled night of candy and costumes!

November

We had some family pictures taken that captured this stage of life perfectly.

Next year I know I'll look at these and marvel at how tiny they were. 

 What a crazy, couple of years we've had!  From no kids to 2 back to back, it's been a whirlwind of joy and exhaustion.  So glad to be experiencing it together.

We took a roadtrip to Texas for 2 weeks and made some incredible memories together.

It was a sweet, sweet couple of weeks together and one of the biggest blessings of our year!

December

We wrapped up a fun month celebrating Jesus' birthday together at my parent's house with lots of family.

2011 was a wonderful year for us...

...and we are looking forward to all the Lord is going to do in 2012.

Happy New Year from the Armstrongs!

We wish you a year filled with more of Jesus. 

After knowing Him, everything else pales in comparison...