Not with a bang but a whimper

And so, this is the way the year ends.

I *meant* to blog more. I'll admit, I felt guilty after reading my cousin's post a few weeks ago about how not documenting things on her blog makes it as if things didn't happen. And while I haven't had the year she has, I somehow managed to not write anything for nearly two months. No good excuses--just the usual: busy, writer's block (I was asked to write 4-6 sentences about myself for the Relief Society spotlight and it took FOREVER), laziness, the desire to make batches of fudge and caramel, busy, and STILL working on a book I started several weeks ago (heaven help me, I will find out what happens to Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, Davydd ap Gruffydd, and Simon de Montfort).

Two weeks ago, I was going to end the year with a bang and crank out a blog post a day. That didn't happen. So now I need to catch up on the last two months, along with write about my parents' visit in September. So here's the last two months, in pictures:

My parents came in September. We showed them Charlotte, ate lots of food, took them to South Carolina (my dad had never been), and just had lots of fun. We spent a day at Historic Brattonsville, and though we went a few years ago, it was good to go again when it was green.

Mabes in the log cabin with Grandpa

Riding Papa's shoulders


With Grandma at the Bratton residence, built in the early 1800s.
This house was used in The Patriot.

TA-DA!

The girls had a lot of fun with their grandparents, and my dad really made an impression on Annabelle. A couple of weeks after they left, we had the missionaries over for dinner. Before they arrived, I was setting the table and as soon as Annabelle noticed the extra places, she got really excited and started chanting, "Papa! Papa!!!" She was a little crushed when I told her that Grandpa wasn't coming that day.

Moving on to fall, Annabelle was able to enjoy fall this year, complete with jumping in leaf piles and everything else Mabes had promised her:

Also, Annabelle is working on the art of fake smiling:
We spend Thanksgiving with Dave's family, and went to the local science museum the next day:

lot of mirrors

Annabelle got to meet Santa at our church's annual Christmas breakfast:

She still doesn't like him.

Mabes was thrilled when we got a letter from Santa the Monday before Christmas saying that as an early gift, we were going to go to the Great Wolf Lodge for a night. It's only about 30 minutes away, but we were a little worried that she'd be upset about leaving her best friend/our next door neighbor. They don't get to play during the week, so she was hoping to cram in as much friend time during the vacation as possible. However, the letter said to pack your swimsuit and that was all she needed. Dave showed her pictures of the water slides and pools, and she was ecstatic. We left Tuesday afternoon, spent a few hours at the indoor waterpark, spent the night, and spent most of the day Wednesday swimming, sliding, and just enjoying the 84 degree park. While we were there, it was rainy and cold outside, so that was an added bonus.

Swim diaper on, she's ready to go!

In the wave pool

It's hard to see her, but Mabes is on her way up to the slide

Mabes comes down a slide

Dave and his girls

I'll do Christmas in another post...sometime. But we took care of my big Christmas present in November: our first "real" family photo:

My amazing friend Lindsay (Hart to Hart Digital) did them and put up with our girls' craziness. Despite them running in opposite directions and trying really hard to not smile, she managed to somehow capture some smiles and make them look really sweet. I mean, they ARE sweet. They just weren't being sweet that day. It was SUPER fun:
But I'm very happy with the pictures we got. Here are a few:

I like this one because it's like, "Look, it's a mom and toddler, playing and having fun
together!" Really, the mom is just frantically trying to get a smile!

I'm so glad we took these pictures. I'm not going to lie, it was exhausting. And I appreciate Lindsay for saying that she's worked with much worse (even if I think she's lying, I appreciate her caring enough to lie). I promised Dave we wouldn't have to do that again for several years, but then a few days later we found out that #3 is on the way, so who knows...maybe we'll be taking family pictures again next year!