Finding Our Way

First off, YES I'm really here...and posting.  Shocking I know.  I'm sorry that I've been absent for a while, but 2011 was not the easiest of years for us.  There were great things that happened, and there were many MANY other not so great things that our family went through.  I was so lost, just trying to muddle through a day at a time, that I was in no condition to try to explain to anyone else why I just couldn't come here and be HAPPY.  

I'm not sure if we're completely out of our rough patch, but we're working on it.  And we, as a FAMILY unit, are stronger than ever.  It's been nine months now since we moved into our new home and yes, there are still boxes in some areas.  Some rooms are painted and decorated, but others remain the same as when we moved in.  I told Greg we just needed to LIVE here for a while, to get a feel for how OUR home was going to take shape.  Some rooms spoke to us right away, others are still biting their tongues.  I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but I guess WE decide what's normal in OUR house, so it's got to be okay huh.  

...Where did we leave off, the first day of Preschool I think?  Well since then Fionn decided in December that he didn't want to go to Pre-school anymore, so I let him stop going.  It was only two days a week, for 2 hours, and it wasn't worth the fight.  There's a fantastic tot time at our Childrens Museum we can take advantage of, where he and Cate can go together.  

Maggie's doing great, still dancing, even adding Irish Step Class this year.  Right now she's prepping for the annual parade here in Pittsburgh.  She also added basketball, and just had her first two games.  They played the same team twice and she was a bit surprised in the first game when the other girls were pretty rough with them.  As you can see Mag caught on quick and didn't let them just take the ball the 2nd time they played.  We were so proud of her, as you can see from the 2nd picture, she's one of the biggest girls on her team and the other girls are pretty small.  No one else on her team really stood a chance at fighting for the ball, but Mag tried to help them out when she could.  She played defense by standing behind the girl trying to distract her.  Seeing how they're in 3rd grade, it worked and was pretty comical.  It was like a cat and mouse game.  Both of these scuffles are when her team was playing offense and this one girl kept trying to steal the ball from the little girls.  Mag didn't give up and actually won possession a few times!

As you can see Cate is GROWING like a week.  Only two months until she turns TWO.  Where did the time go?  She is an amazing little thing.  Her vocabulary is amazing, and she's already trying to poddy train herself.  She's out of regular diapers already, but do still use cloth when she'll let me.  She's in her big girl bed now, no more crib.  We officially no longer have a baby in our house.

  Fionn, well he's Fionn.  God bless him, he keeps up on our toes.  He's our comedic genius who now loves to play tricks on his big sister.  His favorite prank is waiting until she's in the shower then sneaking in and flushing the toilet.  yeah,  silly boy. 

This was he and Cate's inaugural trip up and down our alley behind our house in their new mini cooper that Santa left them.  He was a good driver (for the most part)  He waved to the neighbors, stayed close to use and even let Cate drive for a little bit.  As you can see daddy was there to help him get back on the road. 

So that's where we've been, just taking life a day at a time and enjoying being a family.