Playing outside!

We got home earlier in the week and Charlotte was thrilled to be in the warm sun and play with all her toys! I told Chris that was probably could just keep her Christmas presents packed away since her "old" toys were all new to her again! We are so happy to be back in our routine!! (Even though we miss everyone!)

A Year In Review!

January: Charlotte and I were still in New York staying with Mom while Chris was deployed. We continued to enjoy the snow and family, and Charlotte enjoyed bossing her grandparents around. We got ready to head back at the end of the month.February: Charlotte and I made it back home to San Diego and enjoyed being in our house and the warm weather. I got a new computer with our Tax Return (wahoo!). We got ready for Charlotte's 3rd birthday and killed time until Daddy was suppose to get home.
March: Charlotte turned two! We had a little tea party at Summer's Past for her birthday. The week of her birthday she also decided that she didn't want to wear diapers anymore so she started wearing underwear! We worked hard at potty training and she was doing really well (until Daddy came home in April!).
April: I think April was the best month of the year! Daddy came home from a 7 month deployment in Iraq. We were so happy to be a family again. Grammy and Papa came out to visit an we had a lovely night away at Brian and Robyn's wedding!

May: We enjoyed catching up with each other and had visits from Mimi and Kelly! We spent Memorial Day Weekend in Big Bear Lake where Chris participated in the Tough Mudder run. We had a nice month being together. Chris was getting ready to transfer to Shore Duty so he began to spend more time at home.
June: The first weekend which also happened to be my birthday weekend, we spent in Palm Springs at a retreat for Chris' work. Then two days later we boarded a plane heading back east. We spent most of the month in New York and New Hampshire. Chris took a whole month of leave and it was so nice to hang out and visit family. We had a blast at Town Beach where Chris grew up in the summer!
July: We returned home after 4th of July and were happy to be back home. Charlotte started Pre-School two mornings a week towards the end of the month. I wanted her to go for some social interaction and to help with her speech. She started with all her little friends so she was right at home! Babo Skip came for a visit at the end of the month which Charlotte loved!
August: We saw lots of ponies this month! We took Charlotte to the Del Mar Races and she loved it. We spent lots of time playing in the water since it was so warm! Daddy was home most of the month and boy did we enjoy it!
September: We announced that Charlotte was going to be a big sister, baby due in February. Charlotte started Speech Therapy at the end of the month to help her with her articulation. She was only slightly delayed and just in the articulation aspect, but our insurance would cover it before she turned three, so we figured what the heck! Charlotte was finally fully daytime potty trained (can go by herself and no accidents!) but still not at night! We left at the end of the month to go back east for a few weeks.
October: We had lots of fun this month. We spent the beginning of the month in New Hampshire and went to the fair which Charlotte loved. Then we went to New York and went to lots of pumpkin patches and apple picking. Once we got back to California we had lots of Halloween activities. Charlotte had her first Halloween party and parade at school. She was a very cute cowgirl and loved trick or treating! We suffered all month with Halloween songs over and over...
November: Chris spent about every other week away at some fun driving school which Charlotte and I carried on our daily activities. Mimi came out for Thanksgiving and Charlotte had a Thanksgiving feast at school. She (and Mama) loved all the pumpkin pie! Right after Thanksgiving we started decorating for Christmas, only to get off the Halloween subject! Charlotte loved all the Christmas lights and decor!
December: We visited with Santa and Charlotte didn't cry! She told him she wanted a purple pony and a purple car for Christmas. Charlotte and I left early in the month to go back east for the remainder of December. We had lots of fun with all the Christmas festivities. Charlotte got her first haircut! She is doing so well with her speech. She talks up a storm and is much clearer to everyone! We are so pleased with her progress. We spent the last week of 2011 in New Hampshire before we head back home. We had such a great year and are so excited for all the changes coming in 2012!

Photo Shoot with Tatum!

Another catch up post... Back in November we had a mini photo session with Tatum from Tatum Kathleen Photography. She came and took pictures for us when Chris came home and she is wonderful about supporting military families. When there was a great deal on TroopSwap I signed right up for a session so we could have some Christmas card photos! We had a fun little shoot!

A few from our Photo Shoot...

Since it is the last day of the year, I always scramble to make sure I have everything posted to include in 2011's blog book. I hadn't posted these photos because we used some on our Christmas card, so here they are. I unfortunately don't have all of them because they are all on my desktop at home, but here are a few that Charlotte and I did back in November in the backyard!

Christmas!

There was still no snow on Christmas. Luckily Santa still came! We had to wake Charlotte up at about 8:30 to come downstairs to see what Santa brought her!
Grandma and Grandpa came over first thing in the morning to watch Charlotte open her presents. Chris found it hilarious that Grandma wore her fur coat. He had to try it on. Once he did then he realized why she has it!
Santa filled our stocking with lots of good treats!
He ate his cookies and the reindeer ate most of their carrot we left. He even left Charlotte a note!
Finally the princess made her arrival. She was very sleepy.
I think Daddy was more excited than she was, especially since he was gone last year for Christmas!

Sleepy Charlotte slowly opened some presents.

We opened our stockings then took a break for breakfast.

Charlotte decided that she really enjoys white chocolate. She won't touch regular chocolate, and I prefer white, so of course so does she! She loved eating almost my whole bar...
Santa left some Cinderella dress up shoes and Charlotte loved them. But when I tried to take a picture of them she turned around and told me "You see my bum?!". Lovely.
When we really started opening presents Daddy helped Charlotte read the tags. Santa made it easy though and all of Charlotte's presents were wrapped in Snoopy paper! Charlotte's favorite!
It took a very long time to open presents. We opened, then played, then rested... and repeat.
Grandpa and Baylie napped in between all the excitement!
After about 3 hours of opening (she was very very slow) we had to encourage her to finish opening so we could be done. She then started to play. She got a doctors kit and made sure to check everyone to see if they were healthy!


After some more white chocolate we headed upstairs for a nap!
We got a few Christmas pictures once everyone was dressed.



It was such a nice family Christmas. Hard to believe it is already over!