Friday Favorites.... Our Year in Review!

Happy Friday friends! Here we are.. the last Friday of 2017, and my last post for this year! I thought I would end this year with some of my favorite memories from the last 12 months. As I looked back, I just kept smiling....it was a great year. I am so thankful for my family, my good friends, my neighbors, my health and the community I have found in this little blogging world. So thank you for coming along with us for this ride through life.

Here are some of my favorite moments from the last year.

January

January was cold & snowy, but we made the best of it with some fun in the snow with friends. And hot chocolate of course!

We got some ice skating in at the local rink.

We ended January with a spontaneous road trip to an indoor water park. The kids had so much fun and it was a nice break from the cold & snow.

February

We celebrated Valentine's Day at home and at school. I also shared a little about my loves here on the blog.

We took a long road trip down to Florida to visit Paul's parents. The kids absolutely love this crazy long trip in the car!

Can't beat the beach when you know it's cold and snowy at home!

On our way back from Florida we stopped to explore Hilton Head. Gosh we loved it there! We rented tandem bikes and toured the island by bike.

It was such a perfect end to our family vacation!

March

March sure came in like a lion! Paul and I ran the Shamrock Run and oh my goodness...it was freezing!! But still a good time, despite how cold it was.

We celebrate Maddie's 2nd birthday with a peanut butter treat. Love that sweet dog of ours. I never thought I would be a dog person...but I am smitten. I shared how life has changed since we brought Maddie home.

We celebrate St Patrick's Day with our green & the kids missed catching that leprechaun again. They set traps every year to try and catch him.

And we also celebrated Dr Seusss' birthday with Cindy Loo Who and The Lorax.

April

We had a lot going on in April! Paul & I kicked off April celebrating my oldest friend's 40th birthdays. And by oldest, I mean she has been my friend the longest...since kindergarten. The best part...we live on the same street now!

Then we celebrated a few birthdays with dinner at a Hibachi restaurant. It was my parents' first time to this style restaurant and we had a blast! There is a 6 week period from the end of March through mid May that we celebrate a lot of birthdays. My nephew Nicholas, Luke, my mom, my sister in law Cassie, my dad, Paul, and my nephew Christopher all have birthdays in that time!

Somehow this guy turned 8. We celebrated with his friends with a Lego party.

We had a fun Easter with really warm weather, which is kind of unusual for us. There have been some snowy Easters!

We loved the burst of warm weather in April. This pic was just a random one taken as we headed out to dinner one night. I just love it, because we are all looking so darn happy that it is finally warm out!

We ended April with Ella competing in a dance competition. She and her friends did a fantastic job!

May

May was another fun and busy month! Paul celebrated his birthday and Maddie tried to snatch his pie as we were singing to him!

Paul and I went to a Kentucky Derby party. And I never turn down an invite with a theme!

May was a big month for Ella as she stared to play soccer. She was nervous to start, but wow did she make progress. She loves it!!

Luke started his first season of travel baseball and house baseball. It was a lot of baseball, but he loved every minute of it!

Celebrating Mother's Day with my mom💗

It's always a good day when the boat goes in the water! A sure sign Summer is coming.

I went to see Wicked with my mom & sister. What a great show!

And my highlight from May was by far the llama. You can read about the story here. It was a crazy sight!

June

June may be Luke's favorite month of 2017. He got the call from our dentist that he won the stuffed animal... a huge dog! They do a raffle every few months for a huge stuffed animal and Luke was beyond excited when he got the call that he won. He named him Patrick.

Ella had her annual dance recital.

She had the best people there to watch her on stage!

We said goodbye to 4th and 2nd grade. And we said Hello to Summer!

My mom took us girls to see NKOTB. It was just as much fun as when she took me 30 years ago!

July

July brought all of our favorite Summer things....some golfing....

dinners outside.....

the drive in....

4th of July fun....

all the smores you can eat......

aviator sunglasses....

and a visit from our very good friends.....

This crew is our framily.... friends that are most definitely family.

I love all the Summer things!!

August

Luke wrapped up his baseball season with a great group of kids. We were so lucky to have such a great group of parents to spend our days at the ballpark with.

The year end party had a dunk tank.

Your Dad + Dunk Tank= Best Day Ever!

We spent lots of time out on the water. My favorite place to be.

And we all got our for some family time on the course.

Paul & I made our best effort to look the part as we ventured to the Guns N Roses concert with friends.

And we ended August with Luke throwing out the first pitch at the Buffalo Bisons game!

September

We had one last hurrah before heading back to school. We met up with Paul's family at Canandaigua Lake for a family reunion. Funny story.....my brother lives near there, so the first night we got to catch up with him and his family.

We had a great time, despite some less than stellar weather!

Celebrated 17 years with this guy in September. Love that I get to grow old with him.

While we were on our trip, Ella and Luke got some exciting news. They are going to be the flower girl and ring bearer in Paul's cousin's wedding next Fall. So exciting!

Back from our vacation and back to school! 5th and 3rd grade for these two.

September was unusually warm, warmer than August. We took full advantage and got out on the water a few more times.

I love the lake in early Fall.

We closed out September celebrating a girl that somehow has reached double digits! It was a Fixer Upper themed party for my DIY girl.

October

October started out low key. Luke had a scheduled surgery (he is A-ok now), so we laid low the first two weeks. As you can see from this photo, he was pretty nervous about being in the hospital! Not much takes the smile away from his face!

Luke was on the mend and we got going on all our Fall things. We took a trip to see the leaves changing colors.

And of course took a visit to the pumpkin patch.

Then a ninja and vampire came to town.... and met up with a ninja turtle!

November

The kids and I joined my mom and Emma at a fundraiser for Emma's dance company. It is such a great event and the kids love helping out.

The kids each had a special event in November. Luke made his First Reconciliation.

And Ella had a great chorus concert.

We ended November getting ready for December!

December

Oh December... my favorite month of the year!!! We did all the Christmas things this month and I loved all of it! The last few years we have gone to Niagara Falls to see the lights. It is my most favorite time to see the Falls.