A Review of 2011: July-December

So, once I started on this post I noticed it became a lot longer than I had expected. Which is why I split it up into two parts. So, here is part two of the Doyle's year in review!

July

Hunter and I took a trip to Ketchikan, Alaska to visit some friends.



I also hit up the Nordstrom Anniversary sale and participated in the Warrior Dash!



August

And then... I left Hunter with my parents and took off to Turkey to visit Jesse while he was deployed!







September

Jesse returned home from his deployment on our fourth wedding anniversary.



We took a trip down to Portland for a weekend. We ate, shopped, and went to the zoo and an amusement park. Great weekend!!



And then we got Air Force orders to move to New Jersey in June 2012! Oh yeah and I got a new car!

October

We took a little family outing on Jesse's boat.



We celebrated Hunter's 2nd birthday!



We made a trip to the pumpkin patch.



And then Hunter and I boarded a plane (or three!) followed Jesse to New Zealand for 17 days! In October, we visited Willowbank Wildlife Refuge, Hanmer Springs, and wine tasting in the Waimara Valley.







November

We were in New Zealand for the first week of November. During that time we took a road trip to Queenstown and Lake Tekapo.










We also had my two nephews and niece spend five days with us over Thanksgiving week. We had SO much fun with them!

December

Hunter decided he wanted to start potty training!



Our dog, Henry, became a father to NINE puppies!



Hunter loved Santa.




And we made some HUGE decisions for our family! Jesse signed reenlistment papers for six more years in the Air Force and I put in my notice at work. I will be a stay at home mom starting January 5th!!!


Wow, I felt blessed in life before writing this. But... now I feel blessed beyond belief after seeing how many wonderful events and oppurtunites the Lord has given our family over the last year. Glory be to God. :)

A Review of 2011: January-June

I've seen a couple other blogs that did a recap of the year and I love the idea! It's a great way for me to look back and see all the things that have happened in our lives in just one year.

January

We took a trip to our timeshare at Ocean Shores.





February

We took a trip to Minnesota for Jesse's great grandma Nellie's funeral. Althought the circumstances were not the best, it was great to hang out with Jesse's family. It included a trip to the Mall of America, a waterpark, and my first time ice fishing.









March

Hmmm, looks like it was a rather uneventful month. My sister in law had her bridal shower, here is a picture of my sisters and the sister to be!



April

April was a busy month for the Doyle Family. We were preparing for Jesse to leave on his 4 month deployment at the end of the month. So we tried to pack in lots and lots of fun family time. This included building Hunter a "Daddy bear" with Jesse's voice recorded in it, a trip to the tulip festival, Easter, and worked on Hunter's playroom!











And at the end of April, I watched my little brother get married to his beautiful bride.



May

In May I went kind of into an antisocial funk. I stayed at home a lot of the time I wasn't at work. So, nothing too exciting to report, so I'll just share a cute picture of my kid, k?



June

Jesse's mom came to visit for a weekend all the way from Washington D.C. The weather was amazing while she was here! I also got baptized in June! :)

Christmas 2011

I know, I am so late in the game, as usual. But better late than never... RIGHT?!

We had a very busy and fun Christmas weekend. I am sad to report that I was very bad about taking pictures though. I was really trying to be in the moment, rather than just capturing the moments with a camera.

On Christmas Eve, we celebrated with some of our dearest friends, Joe and Nicole, and their family. We had a wonderful dinner and gift exchange. I just love how much our friends love Hunter, it makes me love them even more (that's A LOT!).

On Christmas morning, I woke up bright and early in order to put together Hunter's fire/police house that his Grandpa & Grandma Doyle got him, before he woke up. I am not usually the person in our house to put things together... but Jesse refused to get out of bed, so that just left me. I'm happy to say that I did a pretty darn good job! :)






He loves this new toy. I love that someone finally thought to make a "dollhouse" for a boy. Such a great idea.

Then he opened up his Cabela's hunting/fishing set. This was another huge hit.




Then he opened up his books. I got him all If You Give a "blank" a "blank" books. Like a mouse a cookie, moose a muffin, pig a pancake, and dog a doughnut. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie was my very favorite book when I was young. But... he was more interested in playing with the gifts he got the night before, go figure.






He got a new North Face hat, which he found absolutely miserable. lol.



He also got three new Lego sets, which he LOVES!









Later in the afternoon, we headed out to my parents house for the whole family get together. I love it when our whole family is together and seeing all the cousins play.

Week in iPhone Pics- Week 5

I am soooo late with this post, but wanted to still share the pictures I took with my phone last week.

Jesse got home from a ten day trip last Monday night. Hunter was so excited that his daddy was home! Tuesday morning started with a beautiful sunrise and ended with a fun ornament exchange with the squadron wives.



On Wednesday evening we made a visit to visit Henry's puppies. They were so little! Afterwards we headed over to the mall for some Santa pictures.



On Thursday night, we had all three of Hunter's godparents (our bestest friends) over for dinner. Meghan read Hunter the Elf on the Shelf, but she found the elf, Buddy, rather creepy. I don't really blame her.

On Friday morning, I asked my Twitter friends advice on whether my new winter jacket was too short, and then we met up with Jill and Amanda (and their gorgeous little ones) for a play date at the parks and rec center. We had so much fun with them!




Later on Friday, I made silly holiday pictures on an iPhone app and then made some yummy cupcakes for my niece, Emma's, 5th birthday!



We had a fun and full day on Saturday! We headed up north for Halle's 2nd birthday party at a bouncy place!




Afterwards, we went to my sister's house to make gingerbread houses and celebrate Emma's birthday with all 5 of Hunter's cousins from my side of the family. It was such a FUN time! We learned that gingerbread houses start by being a kid activity but end up being an adult activity! I dunno if I wanna see another gingerbread house kit anytime soon! :)





We ended the week on Sunday with a lazy family day. It was full of Hunter cuddles and him helping me back a blueberry breakfast cake that I found on Pinterest.