2013 recap

And just like that another year has passed by! 2013 was a very eventful, exciting year for our little family! Below are some highlights of the past year - individually and as a family:

Abby:
-officially got her Masters in Education degree
-grew a baby and birthed her
-tackled a few DIY projects (i.e. reupholstering, furniture upcyling, sewing)
-learning how to juggle two kids
-still addicted to Instagram @abbycorbett (click here to see a short video of photos from the past year)

Logan:
-got accepted to the Masters in Analytics program at NC State and started in June
-worked on a practicum project for United Airlines
-took two SAS certifications and passed both
-completed his very first Tough Mudder race
-excited to begin job interviews in a few weeks and graduate in the spring (hooray!)
-learned to make cinnamon rolls and bread

Hudson:
-had his fair share of sickness (croup 4x - yuck)
-finally loves going to nursery at church
-said farewell to his beloved bottles
-turned 2 years old and had one dino-mite birthday party
-enjoys old musicals, especially Singin' in the Rain and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
-animal (including dinosaurs) and book lover
-talks a ton! Longest words he can say: "dangerous" and "brachiosaurus"

Amelia:
-joined the family 2 weeks early on September 25th (same day her Aunt Kate left to serve a mission)
-great sleeper and eater
-had her baby blessing in December
-loves being swaddled
-started laughing, but will only do it for her brother
-attached to her binky

Together:
-camping trip in May with all the east coast Korths'
-celebrated our 4 year anniversary
-enjoyed lots of family visitors
-spent countless hours at various parks and museums
-Corbett beach trip to Holden Beach 
-traveled to VA many times (here and here)
-served as primary teachers
-spent Thanksgiving and Christmas at home (first time ever)
-became a family of 4

We loved 2013, and can't wait to see what the new year has in store for us.
Happy 2014 everyone!

(All photos taken by Addie Butler Photography)

*See other yearly recaps..... 2012 - 2011 - 2010

Christmas 2013

This year was our first Christmas at home. We decided to be grown ups and do our own thing this year. I did miss all of the family and commotion, but it was also nice to just be our family of four and create our own traditions.

Christmas Eve:

We decided to just keep it simple and make homemade pizzas for dinner. It was actually really fun and a great way to have Hudson involved. I made the pizza dough and the boys got to work making the pizzas. We got a variety of toppings to try which turned out to be really yummy. I think we will keep that tradition, especially while the kids are younger and can easily contribute to pizza making. Maybe when they are older we can do a nicer dinner for Christmas Eve.

After dinner, we read the Nativity story from the Bible. This was a little bit of a disaster. We tried to think of a way to get Hudson involved and listening, so we decided to use some of his toys/animals as props during the story. Bad idea, especially when Hudson took his dinosaur and roared at the baby Jesus. It was hard not to laugh through the whole thing, but it was definitely not as reverent as it should have been. Next year, we are investing in a real Nativity set not Hudson's animal collection.

We then let the kids open up their new jammies to wear, and sat around singing Christmas songs for a bit.

We put Hudson and Amelia to bed, and then went to work on setting up for Christmas Day.

making pizzas

 Hud & Mia in their jammies - so cute!

finished this Santa gift for the kids just before midnight

Christmas Day:

We were a little too excited to see Hudson's reaction to everything, so we were up early. I'm pretty sure we will be the only parents up before our kids on Christmas. Logan thought it would be a good idea to have a fire going (first time using it since we moved in 2 1/2 years ago), so we rearranged some furniture and it looked so magical.

Hudson got up about 30 minutes later and we opened Santa/stocking gifts. It was so fun seeing his reaction to everything. We opened a few more presents under the tree, played with Hudson's new toys, and then left to have nice Christmas brunch at a friends' house. We decided to space out opening presents with Hudson which worked out nicely; he didn't get too overwhelmed and it made the whole day exciting! 

After getting home from brunch, we got to Skype with Kate (Logan's sister who is serving a mission in Chile)! It was so fun to see her and hear how she is doing. We love that girl. She is doing great things in Chile. 

We lounged around for most of the day, opened the rest of the presents, and went for a walk around the lake. 

I don't even remember what we had for dinner. Maybe leftover pizza? I think next year we will try to do a nicer dinner for Christmas, or just keep with doing a nice Christmas brunch.  

It was a great Christmas Day. Really simple and relaxing (we stayed in our jammies all day), but that's what we loved about it! 

 opening Santa/stocking gifts

playing with the kitchen

Amelia with some of her Santa/stocking gifts

Video: Hudson opening a present

Special Weekend

We had a triple whammie weekend - Logan's family visited, celebrated Logan's birthday, and had Amelia's baby blessing at church. It was a busy weekend, but a really special one too.

We celebrated Logan's birthday with a cold, fun day at the arcade playing games and riding go-carts. Who says 27 year-olds can't have a birthday party at the arcade? It was a blast, especially everyone having a run on the go-carts. Later that night, we had dinner and cake (shrimp and funfetti cake for Logan's birthday - tradition).

Mariah and Logan getting ready to race

Video: Logan on the slick track - so funny!

Log and his mama - I think they look alike here! 

The next day (Sunday, December 8th) our little Amelia Linh was blessed at church. Daddy gave her a wonderful blessing. What a special day it was! We really missed having my parents there too (they couldn't come because of weather conditions in VA). Amelia looked so beautiful in her white ruffle dress (made by me) and headband (made by her Grammy Corbett). We just love this baby girl and feel so blessed to have her part of our family.  

 the kiddos with Grammy and Grandpa Corbett

 Of course, Hudson was running around so he couldn't be in this family picture

 

Thanksgiving 2013

I've been so behind with blogging lately. I sometimes question whether on not to keep going with it, but I really love being able to look back at all that we have done in the past years. It makes for a nice family history.

Anyway, this year we decided to stay put for the holidays. We have been traveling and going elsewhere for Thanksgiving and Christmas in the past which we really enjoyed, but we decided this year to stay home especially with having a new little one.

My siblings (Amanda and Tommy) came down to visit for a few days during Thanksgiving break! It was so nice seeing them and it was also their first time meeting little Amelia. We had our friends, the Heltons, over for Thanksgiving dinner. It was nice since we were able to split some of the meal up, so not one person/family was doing all the cooking - worked out great! The food was yummy and the company was wonderful too. It was a great first Thanksgiving at home!