2017 was a very eventful year for our family and for me personally.
My life changed in so many ways last year.
And since this blog is basically my journal, I'm going to share what I remember most about last year.
I've been doing a lot of reflecting on this past year.
Before I officially say goodbye to it (on my blog) let's take a look back on it.
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JANUARY
When I think about January 2017, I remember Opal's wedding.
Going to California and reconnecting with friends and getting away from my responsibilities was good for my soul. It was rejuvenating and so fun. And it was just what I needed.
(Blog post here.)
(Blog post here.)
Sean put the weather vein on the playhouse roof.
(I included this in this post because it will make Sean happy.
And making Sean happy makes me happy.)
We got a lot of snow and the kids loved playing outside in it.
I was in my second trimester of pregnancy.
Sean got an new calling in January. He was released as the Elder's Quorum President.
And he was called to be the Scout Master.
Which ended up being a way busier and more stressful calling.
(Blog post here.)
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And January's picture post can be found here.
FEBRUARY
We started off February with Sean going to Orlando.
As soon as he got back, he started working on projects.
He built a rock climbing wall on the playhouse.
And then he built a miniature playhouse for Ruby.
My parents came to visit.
(Blog post found here.)
And to be honest it was a very emotional visit for me personally.
Right before my parents flew out, my parents told me that my dad had lost some weight and that was feeling a little more winded lately. But when I saw him I was shocked.
He was sick and in poor health and I was totally unprepared to see him like that.
It was heart breaking and it was the first time that I realized that there was something wrong.
My parents bought Harry Potter robes and wands.
The kids were so excited. They had just recently become obsessed with all things H.P.
And February pictures post can be found here.
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MARCH
Lexi got glasses. She was so excited.
Eli got dental work done for the first time.
Sean worked on lots of projects in March. Here he is building our swing set with his friend John.
Sean enclosed the sandbox are and we filled it with sand.
Sean started building a pergola like patio cover.
We had several visitors in March.
Our good friend David surprised us with a visit one day.
My cousin Cassy and my aunt Lisa came out to see us one day.
I pulled the girls out of school and we went out to lunch and played in the backyard.
Sean's brother Aaron came to see us too. The kids had so much fun with him.
Lexi and I went to Women's Conference together.
March's picture post can be found here.
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APRIL
April was the month we were looking forward to most all year long.
We had so many things to celebrate that and that was also when I was due with Ty.
We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary.
We celebrated Easter.
We were so excited to finally be able to do an egg hunt in our own yard.
We were so nervous that Ty would be born on her birthday so we try to make it extra special.
She had repeatedly told us that she was worried that everyone would forget her birthday.
Here's Avery's birthday blog post.
We didn't tell the kids that my parents and brother were coming on Avery's birthday.
They were so surprised when they showed up at the door that night.
(This was the first time that we had ever seen my dad on oxygen.
He was miserable this whole trip. He wasn't feeling well. It was really hard to see him like that.)
My due date came and went. And we didn't have an April baby.
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MAYTy was born two days overdue on May 2nd.
It was my best delivery yet and definitely the highlight of the year.
Ty's birth story is here.
In May we celebrated Sean's birthday.
Sean took five weeks off from work after Ty was born. It was awesome!
At the end of the month, Sean went back to work
and I figured out how to keep my five kids alive and happy by myself.
On May 26th my biological father passed away.
I don't think I ever mentioned it on my blog. And I didn't post about it on social media.
Mike and I had a complicated relationship.
He and my mom divorced when I was three and I didn't see him very much as a kid.
And then he took for and no one in our entire family saw him for nearly a decade.
He moved to Utah shortly after we did and we reconnected
but I could never get over the abandonment I felt as a child.
His death brought on a lot of mix emotions for me
which were hard to process with all my postpartum hormones.
I don't want to go into more details but I need to mention this because it is one of the things
that I'll remember most about 2017 and it will effect me for the rest of my life.
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My May picture post can be seen here.
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JUNE
June brought a huge relief for me. It was our stake youth trek.
I spent nearly a year planning it and it was such a relief to have to over with.
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We started off June by having some fun with our dinner menu.
We followed the lunch menu options in the song Pizza Day by The Aquabats.
The kids had a lot of with that. We might make it a being of summer tradition.
Sean continued to work on the patio cover.
And Sean started another project.
David came into town.
You can read about that here.
Sean and I still really wish he and his family would have moved here.
That would have been so fun!
The kids spent a lot of time playing in our backyard.
We didn't really go anyway. I hand my hands full with a newborn and four other kids.
I was just in survival mode last summer.
Mike was cremated and because of scheduling conflicts, his funeral was a month after he passed.
His funeral was very difficult for me.
My June picture post can be found here.
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JULY
July was such an emotional month. We had our highest highs and our lowest lows.
We started off the month with family in town.
We had the best weekend celebrating my niece Halle's baptism and Ty's baby blessing.
The first week of July is always excited at our house.
We celebrated my birthday, the 4th of July and Lexi's birthday.
Sean went out of town and was crazy busy working on a high demand audit.
So we spent lots of time with friends to help keep me sane.
We all decided to take the Pottermore house quiz and our entire family is Hufflepuff.
Not Ravenclaw like we had previously thought.
We celebrated Harry Potter's birthday.
In July, I got the worse phone call of my life.
My dad called me. He and my mom were both crying.
They told me that he had been diagnosed with
Hypersensitivity Pneunmonitis and Bird Fanciers Disease.
His doctors told him that he probably only had two or three years left to live.
I wasn't completely shocked
because my dad had continually declined each time I saw him earlier that year.
But I was of course just devastated.
This happened just weeks after I had buried my biological father.
I remember thinking at Mike's funeral, "Well at least I still have my dad."
But now he was being taken away from me too.
This was a lot for my two months postpartum, very emotional, extremely hormonal self to handle.
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AUGUST
August was a busty month.
Sean was slammed with work.
And I couldn't stop thinking about my dad.
I decided that I wanted to go visit him before school started.
Sean ended up not being able to go with us.
I still can't believe I made that trip by myself with all my kids.
We stopped at my grandparents' house. It was so fun seeing them. The kids had a blast.
Here's the blog post I did about August, including pictures from our trip.
We were in Washington for my dad's birthday. It was nice to be able to celebrate with him.
I think the kids' favorite part of the trip was going on a ferry ride.
The rest of August was spent outside trying to soak up the last of summer.
Lexi and Avery started school again.
SEPTEMBER
Eli started preschool.
Lexi made some new friends. They call themselves the Sweethearts.
We had our first ever yard sale.
We also had a bake sale. Avery got to use all the money from that to pay to get her ear's pierced.
Our bunny Cookie died suddenly.
We had some awesome perfect summer nights.
The weather is awesome in September.
Here's my September blog post.
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OCTOBER
We had another fun month.
Ty got put in a pumpkin. He can thank Pinterest for this tradition.
We celebrated Eli's fifth birthday.
We headed to Washington. My aunt Lisa and my cousin Cassy and her new baby B met us there.
It was so fun seeing them.
We headed to Long Beach Washington for a week.
The kids loved playing in the sand.
Here's my Long Beach vacation blog post.
This trip was so special to me personally
because it's the last time that I will remember my dad acting like my dad.
He was tired on that trip and needed to rest a lot and needed to use his scooter
but he still interacted with the kids and played games with us adults at night.
I'll always look back fondly at this trip because of that.
And of course Halloween is so fun and memorable when you have little kids.
NOVEMBER
Here's my November blog post.
We started off the month with Ty's half birthday.
We introduced him to baby food other than rice cereal.
We headed to St. George for Thanksgiving.
More details can be found in this blog post.
We had to St. George early.
Which caused us to travel on Ruby's birthday.
She did't care though. She was just a happy three year old.
We left St. George because my dad was in the hospital.
Ty and I instantly flew to Washington to be with him.
The doctors thought he was going to die. They thought he only had a few days left.
But he surprised us all and lived and went home.
Here's the blog post about our trip.
DECEMBER
It was a busy month.
We said goodbye to our bunnies.
It was a hard decision to make but we think it was for the best.
The girls and Eli too had Christmas choir concerts.
Blog post can be found here.
We had Santa pictures taken for a fifth year.
I couldn't be more happy with the results.
You can see more pictures on my blog post here.
We went to Washington for Christmas.
It was the first time we have traveled for Christmas since Lexi was one.
Here's the blog post I did about the rest of December.
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Here's what I will remember about this year...
-Being in several meetings every month planning trek.
-Mike's decline and passing.
-And then a few months after he passed, I told the kids about him and who he was.
-Seeing my dad's health decline with each visit.
-His terminal diagnosis and hospital visit.
-Surviving the drive to Washington and back by myself with five kids.
-Our week on the beach in October.
-Celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary.
-My difficult pregnancy.
-Sean working hard on projects in our backyard.
-Ty's birthday and just falling instantly and completely in love with him.
-Watching the kids all instantly fall in love with Ty too.
