Well, I basically have to do that because I can't even remember last week so our Christmas cards for our friends and family would be pretty boring if I didn't. Good thing for this blog; it saves the day again.
So let's take a look at what the Evans family has been up to this year... this should be interesting.
In January, I opened a bank account for my baby (okay, she was 12 but still.) I got a sinus infection and finally convinced Phillip to get rid of his college textbooks, except for the one that holds down the lid of the humidifier. I staged a gigantic photo shoot fail involving my baby and a CVS clearance Santa hat, and also tried to burn the house down making applesauce.
Besides making these helpful Valentines for pregnant women, I was busy in February decluttering the house in one manic episode. I learned how to use the snowblower, got really paranoid when I started to suspect my phone was legit spying on me, and cried when the baby scratched my cornea. Fun times.
We replaced the printer that had been driving us crazy and asked you guys to vote on how we should dispose of it. We were thrilled when you chose the sledgehammer and even made a video of the execution. It was seriously therapeutic. My son competed in the Pinewood Derby, an event which is apparently very hard to explain to kids who haven't seen one before. We also had a late season snowstorm that caused a dire emergency when the power went out with a cake in the oven.
One of my favorite things we got to do in April was visit a mosque for an open house; we even got to witness one of their daily prayers and it was pretty awesome. The weather turned nice and I had my annual freakout over how the house exterior and our lawn have gone to pot. (Don't worry, I'm over it.) My daughter folded 1,000 origami cranes for a charity organization, and I had fun writing about why moms can never finish a book and making a flow chart for toddlers called "Should I Eat This?"
In May I discovered I'd been driving around with a parking pass from 2015 prominently displayed on the windshield, once again proving I don't have things together in the slightest. I potty trained the preschooler and witnessed the miracle that is a child healing themselves on the way to see the pediatrician. The highlight of my month and possibly the entire year was receiving this Bona spray mop for my birthday.
In June we flew to visit my parents in Minnesota. We went mini golfing and to Ikea, but mostly we had a great time swimming in the lake and going to the waterpark for 2 weeks. Basically, my kids are amphibious now. The 5-hour delay at the airport on the way back wasn't quite as fun, but we made it home eventually. I penned my thoughts on siblings getting along and we figured out that the baby was allergic to mosquito bites, of all things. Phillip and I celebrated our 14th anniversary and I wrote about the thing he does that makes it so easy to be married to him.
In July we had our piano tuned and found out it's actually 111 years old! We also started our educational summer vacation, where we learn about the cultures of different countries around the world every week of summer break from school. We don't want the kids' brains to completely atrophy, after all.
In August I took the little kids out for ice cream while Phillip to the big kids to Six Flags in the pouring rain. I thought it was a good trade-off, because the ice cream was indoors. We insulated the attic and I'm still swooning over the coat rack we installed for all our kid-sized snowpants and coat hand-me-downs-in-waiting. We followed that up with a disastrous camping trip and this time, I'm not even exaggerating.
September is the blog's 3rd birthday and when the kids say they want to bake a cake, you bake a cake. We harvested the world's lamest crop of potatoes, my 11-year-old lost a tooth and I freaked out because I thought it was an adult tooth, and I dug through the trash to find something one of my kids accidentally threw out. (We later found it in an entirely different location, so I'm deducting pain and suffering from her allowance indefinitely.) It was also fun to relive 1998 when I discovered Nintento Classic consoles at our public library.
My son was a banana for Halloween, and my advice to you if you're feeling depressed is to order a banana costume on Amazon and have someone wear it around the house. There's no other way $12.99 can cheer you up so fast. In October I found an inchworm in my hair, finally bought some pants that fit me, and the 1-year-old learned he can reach anything if he carries the bathroom stool around the house. I lived phone-less for a week and discovered that Target is really weird. On the blog, I published some musings on my unbreakable bad habit and you guys loved this video chock-full of sarcastic answers for the next person who asks "Why do you have so many kids?"
When you're afraid of heights, our living room isn't an ideal place for your 9-year-old to break a hole in the ceiling with a bouncy ball. We learned that this November, and least we know now for next time. I made a triple chocolate layer cake from scratch for Phillip's birthday, and it was confirmed to me once again that I hate fancy baking. Phillip took the kids to a hotel overnight and I had almost 24 hours to do whatever I wanted and only share my food with me, myself, and I.
I may not be even remotely competent at using festive holiday Jello molds, but this December I've really seen how lucky and blessed we are. My 1-year-old is healthy after sitting in the E.R. all afternoon with a nebulizer on his face, and the kids drew names for their Secret Sibling and it's been sweet to see them sneakily doing nice things all month for the person they drew. Also, I think I win the prize for funniest place someone has ever counted our 6 kids and asked, "Are they all yours?"
And that's practically a wrap on 2017. (If you want to boost your stalker status, you can also read our photo updates from 2016 and 2015!)
Happy New Year!
3 comments:
Great recap! You had a really full year :) I clicked through to read the "Are they all yours?" story and now I'm convinced that you SHOULD slip random kids into the photo to see if anyone will notice ;) Hope you all have a happy new year!!
How did I miss that your piano is 111 years old?? That is important info there!!
I'm so glad we "Met"! You keep me constantly entertained!!
Thank you!
What are great year for you guys full of funny blog moments to share with all of us :) And a big year for your blog too!
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