Year Wrap Up

Nathan has been a blessing to our family. He is so sweet and loving. He is always happy. He has made going from a family of 3 to 4 super easy. The time has flown by. I can’t believe he is will be 9 months soon. He is growing like a weed and so active. I can’t get over how big he is. He is wearing 18 months, has 4 teeth, sleeps all night (average 11 hours), eats al lot, wants table food vs. baby food AND his 1st word was “Mama”.
Gosh I love my sweet Little Man.

Ava on the other hand is something else. This year has been difficult for her. She is so jealous of her little brother. She wasn’t like that at first, but now she notices how much time we must give Nathan. He is more active so Ryan or I are always with him/holding him. We are working on a balance of “time” between the two of them. We are about to start “special time” with Ava so she gets one-on-one time with each of us. I’m planning our special time to be church and lunch afterwards plus a few shopping and mani/pedi dates. Ryan’s is to be determined.
As far as academics and athletics she is doing great! Her teachers say she is one of the best mannered  kids in class (shocking to us) and picks up on things easily. We took her out of swim because she lost interest and played around too much. We enrolled her in TOTs/basketball, gymnastics and now horse lessons.
Her other interest is music and she remembers songs so fast. Her current favorites are: Animals (Maroon 5) and  Turn Down for What (idk the artist). Before that a few were: All About that Bass (Meghan Trainor), Fancy (Iggy) and Come With Me Now (Kongos). She also likes dressing up, “make believe” playing, anything to do with horses and legos. 
This past year she has become a picky little eater. Her favorite meal is fried chicken, cheese, veggie: asparagus and fruit: strawberries/oranges with a glass of chocolate milk. She is still a terrible sleeper. She rarely falls asleep early, fights her sleep, hates taking naps on the weekend, wakes up too early and sometime wakes up in the middle of the night.
Lately she is testing her boundaries with us. We are trying to find a fine line between her expressing her feeling/thoughts vs. talking back/being mean. I keep warning her sooner or later if she keeps it up or is mean to her brother I will start spanking that booty (because time-out doesn’t works). We shall see where that goes….Ryan says, “I’m all talk”.
Yet, with all her little Ava-the-grouch moments she can still be the sweetest, most adorable little girl. I LOVE hearing her say, “I love you”. I can’t get enough of her tight hugs,  funny face expressions, dancing (love her should moves), impressions (frozen tree is my favorite), and creative imagination (we currently have a shark and dolphin in a Tupperware bowl – aka: their tank in her restroom). 

Ryan is still at MHI Inc. 9 years down. He is doing very well as a Production Manager. He has stayed busy with all the new growth in Katy. Currently he is 1 of the Top 8 Production Managers for MHI in the Houston Area. His interests remain the same, Golf and Football. He didn’t play in as many golf tournaments as he would have liked. He missed a few around the time of Nathan’s birth. This year he has fully embraced being a Texans fans. No more flip flopping back and forth with the Cowboys. As always, he played in Fantasy Football leagues.  I think 3 or 4….and I don’t recall him saying much about winning, so I guess he had a bad season.

I’m still with ConocoPhillips. This too, will be my 9^th year with the company. The first quarter pretty much flew by as I was handing my work load over to co-workers and getting ready for maternity leave. Then I took 4 months off with my sweet babies. That time was truly wonderful. Nathan was easy and Ava was fun. Once I returned to work in August I assumed a New Position as Master Data Team Lead. I have a small group of 3. I manage all the processes and procedures for my group. I ensure my group enters all records domestically and international into trading systems and SAP. I respond to all audit requests and manage monthly Trading Metrics for Commercial Integrations.  Plus a few other one off things along with backing up Dodd Frank Analyst (ugh: my least favorite responsibility). Along with work and being a mama I still enjoying running. After Nathan I started avidly running again. I love running and it really helped loose those extra post pregnancy pounds. I ended the year with a great 10k time and plan to keep racing in 2015. My goal is to run the LaPorte Half Marathon in November.

2015 is off to a busy start! So far January and half of February is booked. Before I know it I will be planning Nathans `1^st Birthday and Ava will turn 5 this year (tear). 5! I cannot even believe it. I want 2015 to go by slow and enjoy every minute of it. We have a lot of great things planned.