honestly it didn’t go as well as I’d thought. the tumbling class Andrew took last summer was going on right next to us and he was so interested in that, that today I called and got him switched! Though I had him put in the older kids class because I just think 2-3 year olds would bore him. He was already so ahead last summer. He’ll be with the big kids starting next week bur here’s a few of the pics i got from his first sports class about basketball. I’ll put this in a few posts.
OK, so I’m a little behind schedule with my new year’s post. 
No surprise there I suppose!
I just briefly wanted to recap things from the last 10 years for everyone. Seems like the beginning of a new decade is often a time to reflect on the past 10 years of our lives, individually/family and as a nation and a world. It is an important step in growth as is the next step – looking to the next 10 years and hopes and desires for the next decade. But always remember the most important thing is to enjoy this moment, truly it is all we have!
10 years ago Andy and I celebrated our first New Year’s Eve together. I think we both knew then it was the first of many. (We had always acted together like we would just be together for the rest of our lives!) It was the big Y2K New Year’s and the country was put into a tizzy by the media as it often still is to this decade. Andy and I started a “tradition” for our first New Year’s that year that I think we will keep, we stayed home! We had no desire to go out with all the crazies that year for sure. We have strayed from that a few times, the year we got married we went out and saw a comedian for the new year and Andrew’s second New Year’s we went to a friends. And of course there’s the two years we were working at Sambuca! But our best New Years have always been the ones we saw the new year in from the comforts of our own couch. This year was no exception. The kids almost made it to midnight even, which they often do anyway. We saw the ball drop in New York on TV and had a toast of sparkling grape juice with them, then go them to bed. They were falling asleep as the clocks changed over to midnight and Andy and I smiled at each other over their heads.
In the last 10 years Andy and I have been through so much! We lived in probably 8 apartments, from one bedrooms, 2 bedrooms, one bedroom with attached garage, a 2 bedroom townhouse style, our first 3 bedroom this year. We’ve lived in the middle of cities and out in the country. For the next year we hope to buy our first house and in the next 10 years hope to own and rent out several properties.
We had 3 cats, 4 cats, now 2 cats, and I’m thinking it is almost time for our first dog! Hopefully in the next decade we will have a small plot of land and have our own chickens too.
We visited a few places, Dublin, San Antonio, New York City, Shreveport, all before having kids! And since the boys, we have been to the southern parts of Texas and hope to go to lots of fun places with them in the next 10 years.
Andy and I both had anywhere from high paying corporate jobs to no paying jobs! Andy started his own company which itself has been through a lot of changes and I am sure will go through more in the near future. I am still settling in to being a stay home mom and homemaker but I feel from day care, retail, full time student, and waiting tables, this is by far the best/most challenging gig I’ve ever had.
The coolest thing we have both done in the last 10 years has got to be having 2 beautiful and amazing boys. We feel truly blessed to have been given the chance to have these humans in our lives and to be a part of their growth and to learn from them. They teach us to be in the here and now and to listen to our intuition more than anything else ever has.
I could write a whole other blog post about our collective hair styles over the last 10 years! Between cuts and colors, there are countless changes between the 2 of us. Andy sticks with his shaved head these days and saves his hair changes for the beard, but occasionally still grows his hair out just to try something new. A far difference from the first year we were together when he had bleached blond, black orange and even blue hair! I’ve been through, blond, brunette, reddish brown and black, from super short to pretty long and back again a few times. I think I’ll stick with short for a few more years before trying to grow it again. But we’ll see, I might change my mind tomorrow!
Overall these last 10 years have been the greatest of my life. My mother would be the first to tell you that Andy and I have been very good for each other. That’s speaking lightly! I don’t even like to think of my life without him or where I’d be if we hadn’t gotten together 10 and a half years ago. Instead I think of the wonderful times we will have as we continue to grow together over the next 10 years.
Thank you for being a part of our lives to all of our loving family and friends! We couldn’t have made it this far without support system.
Now look forward to many more posts from me of pics from my new phone this year. One even coming today probably after Andy teaches me how to do it!!
Hey, Andy here, we recently picked up a new iPhone 3Gs which we’ve been anticipating as it supports video! Not only can you shoot video straight on the phone, but you can also easily upload it straight from the phone to YouTube! This means we will not only be able to update the blog with misc. pictures we take while we are out, but we’ll also now be able to shoot videos of the boys and upload them immediately as well. How cool is that? It’s like we’re living in the future. Lea inherited our old iPhone so she’ll also be taking tons of pictures now and posting those once I show her the ins and outs of how to do it all.
Without further ado, here’s a few videos I’ve shot so far showing the boys in action.
First iPhone Video Test
Just a short video of the boys sleeping. Sorry for the narrow, vertical video, I figured out holding the phone sideways is much better for shooting videos in the later ones.
Paul T in the Tent
The boys have a play tent in their room and they just love hiding and playing in it.
Andrew Plays with Their Castle
They got a big castle for Christmas this year as a shared gift and Andrew loves playing with it!
At Sports Class!
This is their first day of Sports Class! It’s also their last for a while as Andrew would much rather stcik with his gymnastics class and eventually martial arts. Paul T on the other hand LOVED it but so did Andrew at his age so we’ll see. The whole time we were there, there was a tumbling class going on next to us (the same class Andrew used to take) and it was killing him not being able to go over there. He ended up having a fun time though overall with the sports class, he just decided he’d rather try to get into a gymnastics class next time.
