Blurbs

Well my blogging fell off for the last few months, but on the long list of things we have been up to blogging about it fell pretty low on the priority list.  But one of my goals for this season and the upcoming year is to get back at it since this is the easiest forum for me to document our lives.  

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In late August we moved! We had been talking for over a year about moving and finding a more permanent home in the area, with more space for our growing family.  While we loved our little house, we hadn't planned on two babies in that house, and the time had come to find something for our family as it is now.  So we packed up, said our goodbyes and moved about 25 miles away to what will hopefully be our forever home.  

We have been in our home for almost four months and we are slowly making progress on making it our own.  Our first order of business was extensive painting, and since then we have been piecing it together.  It took us almost three years to really love our other home and make it feel like it reflected our style so we are our taking our time on this house as well, but I know eventually (with a lot of patience) it will be the house of our dreams!

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With our whirlwind move, we have taken the last few months to really relax and just enjoy family time.  The boys are thriving, and playing together, and I hope to do a post on some of the little personality things they have right now that we simply adore.  

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Most nights this is the scene in our house as they crowd around the tree to run the choo-choo.  We are heading north to Nana and Pop-Pop's house in just under two weeks, and these train loving little boys are going to be in train heaven with all of the train's pop-pop is setting up in anticipation of their arrival! 

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Last month we celebrated Finnegan's first birthday. I thought the first year with Rowen went really fast, but I can honestly say that I think this year went faster.  Our days are blessed by this sweet little boy and we can't imagine life without him or his brother.  He is having surgery this weekend, and hopefully it will only be a little blip in his story.

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On four different occasions I have tried unsuccessfully to take a picture of the boys for a Christmas card.  I don't know that I will get an actual picture of them where they don't look like they are being punished (even though they are being bribed with m&m's) or someone is crying, so I may not send out Christmas cards this year, which on initial thought made me a little sad, but I know won't be the end of the world. 

If all else fails, I do have one back-up...

Well I think this was a good little recap, and hopefully my blogging will pick back up! 

Saying Goodbye to 2012

If I had to sum up the last year in one word, I would call it Magical. Now I'm not going to sit here and say the whole year was sunshine and rainbows, because lets be real there were days that weren't so pretty,  but on the whole, it was an amazing year.  Not only did we grow in size as a family, I believe we grew in so many aspects of our life--our marriage, our home, our patience, our hearts, our faith--the list could go on.

While  I thought about doing a recap of the year, I don't think I'm going to because I know there will be something that I forget to include.  I just want to remember the moments, like the day we found out we would be gifting Rowen with one of the most amazing things we as parents could give him, a brother, our dear sweet Finnegan, who doesn't yet know how much joy he has brought to our family.  Its moments like these, that made 2012 magical.  So here is a list, with not a whole lot of detail, of some of our moments of 2012:

-Finding out our family was growing
-Celebrating Rowen's first birthday
-Rowen taking off walking
-Taking Rowen to Disney
-Summertime swim days
-Seeing Joe graduate
-It's a boy!
-Rehoboth Beach
-The great raisin incident
-walks, walks, and more walks
-EAGLE
-Watching a dear friend marry her best friend
-Visiting the zoo
-Doing over two little boy rooms
-Day date
-Trips to the pumpkin patches
-carving pumpkins
-eating ribs
-Halloween
-A visit from grandpa and a first trip to the train store
-Seeing Flight
-Meeting Finnegan!
-Seeing my boy's meet and grandma meeting Finn
-Our first Thanksgiving as a family of four
-pneumonia and a three week (the worst week ever)
-Driving lights, Christmas trees, and a purple hippo
-First family road trip
-Finnegan's first New England Christmas

2012 was a glimpse of great years to come.  When my boys are teenagers, and hopefully best friends, I will remember these last few weeks of 2012 as their first few weeks together, the beginning of their bond as brothers.  

So Goodbye 2012, you have been great to the Rivera Family, and we will remember you fondly in the years to come.