I cannot believe that 2011 is coming to an end. So very hard to wrap my head around. It has been an amazing year around the Eckley house! Full of so many wonderful memories. We started the year just surviving with a 3 year old and 1 year old. Now we have a full fledged preschool loving 4 year old (almost 5) and a crazy 2 year old. It was a wild ride but full of lots of fun along the way. I thought I would take a look back at some of the highlights of the year from the blog. I will link to some of my favorite blogs from each month...
January - The year started off great with Auburn winning the National Championship. Really a huge highlight of the year just 10 days in! We also survived Snowpacalypse of 2011 at the same time. Eight inches of snow is huge for us. Really the whole winter of 2011 was snowy. We finished off the month by heading down to Auburn to celebrate the big win.
February - Life was really slow around the Eckley house in February. The winter months were long and hard at times with 2 young kiddos but we survived! We did celebrate a really fun Valentine's Day. I love my sweet boy! We did have some excitement getting the kiddos into their new school. We really have turned into those crazy parents that I used to laugh at.
March - What can I say about March... It was a crazy month! Started with my sweet boy turning 4 and having a fun birthday party and a fun day with his friends. Matt then headed out for a life changing trip to Rwanda (part 1, part 2 and part 3). The kids and I held down the home front which included a massive eye injury for me. March was busy!
April - April was a fun month but also full of some really hard times. Ben had his very first soccer game! He loved playing soccer this spring and fall. We celebrated the resurrection of Jesus with a wonderful Easter. The month ended very rough with the April 27th tornadoes in Alabama. It will always be one of those days that we will never forget.
May - May started with a quick trip to the beach since we had no power for 5 days. Both Kate and Ben had their last days of school for the year and we started a fun summer!
June - We took an amazing 10 day cruise to Alaska!!! It was so wonderful and we enjoyed every minute of it!! I won't link to the whole cruise but you can check it all out if you want to. That pretty much took up our whole month!
July - It was HOT!!! We didn't have air for the first week so that made it even more hot! We spent lots of time at the pool and playing with friends. Ben had his first sleepover and Kate went to her first movie. We ended the month with a fun trip down to Mobile to visit our friends the Wrights!
August - Back to school!!! Both Ben and Kate had great first days of school. It was nice to get back to our regular routine but we were sad to leave the laziness of summer behind. Matt celebrated a fun birthday (ok I don't know how fun it was). It was a month of transition and getting back into the "groove."
September - Looking back nothing really big happened during September. We were ready for a slow month. Kate and I started BSF which has been a wonderful experience for us both. I also got to go to the .mom conference in Birmingham while the kids and Matt had a great time at home. Lots of fun was had a grandparent's day at the kids school.
October - There is always so many fun activities in the fall. Ben and I went to the pumpkin patch with his school class. We enjoyed being outside and spending time together as a family along with a trip to Auburn. Halloween was a blast for our little cheerleader and football player. We also began sponsoring a child from Rwanda in October!
November - We celebrated sweet Kate in November! We went to Disney on Ice as part of an early birthday present. She turned 2 on November 16 and we had a super fun Minnie Mouse birthday party! We also had a really special Thanksgiving thanking God for all His wonderful blessings!
December - It was all about Christmas!! We had a great time leading up to Christmas going to parties, partying at school, seeing Santa and making gingerbread houses. Also thrown in was my birthday (I would rather it got forgotten)! Then it was the big day. We had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of Jesus on Christmas Eve and Day.
What a year!!! Filled with so many wonderful blessings. It is amazing to see God's hand of provision and guidance all the way through. We are thankful for 2011 but are looking forward to 2012 and what God has in store for us...
We had a great time eating together!
They were so excited to see all of their presents!
And to dig into their stockings!
We spent hours just playing with toys and having so much fun!
Matt and I enjoyed digging into our stockings as well. I was excited to get the yearly family picture ornament. 
Daddy (and Ben) were excited about the new Lego Wii games he got. 
Of course there was a HUGE mess but that is what Christmas is all about!
