2012-The Year That Flew By!

Here we are at the beginning of 2013 and it seems like I was just here in 2012. I cannot believe how quickly this past year went by! Here is a quick recap of our year. I am going to try to be better about updating on here this year. I have fallen woefully behind in pictures and updates on all of us! January 2012-Made a decision to leave my practice of 5 years and join a new practice in west Fort Worth. I was worried about adding a commute to my already busy schedule but the job has been well worth the extra car time. I am finally in a practice where I feel fulfilled professionally and am able to grow and learn constantly! It's been very exciting! February 2012-Had emergency eye surgery for a retinal detachment. They were able to save my vision and I can still practice dentistry! I now have to wear loupes to practice but I would have had to go to those eventually anyway. I will have to have cataract surgery on my right eye at some point but not yet! The only other differences I notice are an increased sensitivity to light and I have to use a scope when I shoot a rifle at any great distance. May 2012-Went to San Antonio with my office for the annual TDA convention. Got to spend some quality time with one of my closest girl friends! Lily started her first ballet/tap/tumbling class and loves every minute of it! She is constantly showing me her toe taps and ballet feet. July 2012-Made our summer trip home with everyone coming to town. There are 3 families in Midland that I grew up with. We have done holidays together forever and we all make it home twice a year to catch up and have fun. We are getting to be quite the group as all of us "kids" are getting married and having families of our own. I also got to make a trip to Phoenix for a seminar in Cerec and got to spend time with my parents, brother and sister-in-law and Aunt and Uncle August 2012-Joshua started Kindergarten! With his late birthday, he's one of the oldest kids in the class and loves it! We also had him screened for ADHD this fall. Eric has ADD and Joshua has shown some of the same tendencies for years. He does appear to have it mildly and we are working with him on routines, organizational skills and focus drills to help him cope. They seem to be doing the trick for now and we will continue to monitor him closely. I'm praying that he grows out of it but you just never know. September 2012-Joshua turned 6! He is such a fun kid. He's a sweet, sensitive, goofy, smart boy. He makes me laugh daily with his silly antics. Joshua begged to play piano all spring and summer so we signed him up in the fall through his school. He has had a great time with it and doesn't give me too much flack about practicing. He's always loved music and this has been a good outlet for him. It has also helped with his concentration and goal setting. Fall was a blur of Tball, dance, pumpkin patches, school carnivals and costume parties. We a ton of fun and it feels like everything moved in fast forward! December 2012-Lily turned 3! She is a feisty little girl and keeps us on our toes. She's also incredibly bright. She carries on conversations like a 4-5 year old. She knows most of her letters by sight, all of her shapes and colors. Counts to 100 with very minimal help and loves to tell her brother to "stop antagonizing me!" It's never a dull moment around here with these two! We spent Christmas in Midland with my family this year and the kids got an invitation from Grandma to stay for an extra week. They had a blast and Eric and I got a wonderful break! I think we've seen more movies in the week they were gone than we've seen in the past year or two! We got to go out for New Year's Eve and even made it to midnight for a change. 2013 is shaping up to be a great year! My boss is building a brand new office and we hope to be in by the end of the month. It's going to be spectacular! I have set several goals for the year and am going to do my best to get them all accomplished. I have made a pretty good start by cleaning out the kids' rooms while they were gone. I plan on taking the house room by room on my Fridays off to clean out the clutter and stuff that we no longer use. I also have grand plans to repaint. We painted when we moved in almost 7 years ago. Two kids and a houseful of animals means that it could use some sprucing up! Eric's really excited about those plans... We have a big trip planned with my parents in May that everyone is excited about. We are going on a Disney land/sea adventure. We'll spend 3 days in Disney World and 4 nights on the Disney Cruise line. We've done this same sort of trip before without kids and look forward to sharing the experience with them. We took Joshua to Disneyland right before he turned 3 and he loved every minute of it. He has Lily amped up to a fair degree and she can't wait to meet all the princesses! I'll end this with some recent pictures.