2012 in Retrospect

"Every three years I have a really good year," my big brother Adam told me.  And then I thought about it for a while.  Is it every three years?  I don't know really, it's not that the other years are not good, or sub par in some way.  2012, however, was a really good year.  Just a really fantastic year.

We had so much to celebrate this year with Jared coming home, Nathan getting married, Cody and Audra moving, birthdays, and what not.  We blew our financial goals out of the water (more doubling our savings goal).  Which means nothing to a lot of people, but it was our first year with a real steady income and we're pretty proud.  However, Brandon has new confidence and has doubled our goal from last year. :-/  But it was the trips that made the year, we did so much fun stuff, I can't even believe it..

It really was just a wonderful year.. so here it is, 2012:

• In January partied with family celebrating a late Christmas and then partied again my mom for her birthday
• In February we went to big bear, celebrated Valentines day, and soaked in the sunshine.
• In March Sterling turned 18 months.
• April brought Easter, the beginning of swimming season, and a trip to Grandma's house for a seminar.
• May came with wedding bells, and we enjoyed warmer weather; celebrating babies with friends.
• In June Chandler turned five, Chandler took swimming lessons, and we celebrated 6 years of marriage.  By now, we were running our AC all day, and swimming three days a week.
• July was a blast.  We almost died on the boat, and celebrated Chandler's birthday, shark style.
• August started out with Sterling turning two,  a trip to the San Diego Zoo, we celebrated Nathan's wedding with an open house, and ended the month with the first day of kindergarten.
• September marked one year in Las Vegas, and we decided the summer wasn't too bad.
• In October I turned 26, and unsettling age.  We carved pumpkins, ate cake and celebrated Halloween.. and took the kids to DISNEYLAND.
• We celebrated Thanksgiving early in November with Brandon's mom and her husband.  Then packed up the kids, took a trip to Park City, drove to California for another Thanksgiving and a trip to six flags.
• December is my favorite month, and it did not disappoint.  Grandpa Dave joined us early in the month, and we enjoyed to wonderful Christmas parties before Sterling and I headed down to California to reunite with my little brother Jared.  Later Brandon and Chandler joined us for a wonderful, always eventful, Tate family Christmas.

A Very Merry Christmas

As always, our Christmas was fantastic!

 Grandma read us the Christmas story.

 Everyone got new PJs...

 ...except Grendel, but she looked mighty fine in her new sweater...

 Sterling and Chandler wrestled Nathan.

 We hung our stockings and went to bed.  

Santa came.

Sterling ate every single Cheerio from his hunt.

Chandler rocked his hunt..

And all was merry and bright..

Merry Christmas!!!

Park City

We spent the weekend before and first half of the week of Thanksgiving week in Park City.  It was spectacular.

Because it was early in the season, a lot of the ski lifts were closed.  So we drove up and went sledding on the ski hill.  The first day it was snowing really good.  (Brandon and Chandler climb the hill to go sledding)   

(Sterling wears uncle Adam's ski goggles)

 (Grandpa and Chandler)

Sterling really hated the snow.  He kept trying to brush it off his legs when it was falling, and just cried and cried the whole time.

Woooo!