Bailey Calendar

So last year I made a calendar to go with all the pictures I took of my kids for Kids 365 the year before... I loved that we were the pictures of the calendar! I thought I blogged about it... but I apparently did not. So here is a link to that first set of calendar pages.

This year I wanted to do the same... but I wanted to be sure that unlike the first time, my kids were the youngest at the beginning of the calendar and the oldest at the end.

Well I succeeded. Wanna see the finished mosaics for the calendar that is currently hanging on my kitchen wall?

January:


February:


March:


April:


May:


June:


July:


August:


September:


October:


November:


December:


I foresee that I will be making one of these every year for forever!

Calling it as I see it.

So lets face facts. I am not gonna finish blogging Christmas... cause there really isn't much to tell. We spent New Years recovering from Owen's birthday party. We watched the Rose Parade, which I love!

Then on the 2nd we packed up all day and then we left.

On the way out we went and visited Anthony and Katherine and their beautiful new baby girl.



Aren't they cute?

And just look at her little face!



Then we drove home. It took us 24 hours of pretty much straight driving. There were a lot of bathroom breaks.

That was it. I cant believe that I spent several weeks trying to figure out how to make that more interesting! Now on to what else has been going on around here... but that is another post!

Owen's Birthday

Ok... Seriously. Why am I having such a hard time finishing this?

Thursday was Owen's 32rd birthday. His parents planned a big party for him. We spent the morning prepping for the festivities. Owen went out and spent birthday money to buy an external hard drive for mp3's and a thumb drive for me cause we were running out of room on my memory cards!

Then he spent the day running around with his dad picking up things like the food for the party and his birthday cake. I went over to my parents and loaded the pictures onto the thumb drive and set up the external hard drive to download.

Then it was time for the fun.



First we all just hung out in the sun room and chatted. It was kind of nice.

Then it was time for the cake!



Notice that there are two cakes? That is because Mario and Melaney's daughter, Violet, shares a birthday with Owen. They had a cake for her so we told them that if they wanted to bring her cake to Owen's party we could have them blow out their candles together.

After the cakes most of the family guests started to head out. First to go was Owens uncle and aunt, John and Carole.



Don't they look like they are so happy together?



Then my dad and sister filtered out. Mom couldn't come cause she was felling really sick and didn't want to take the chance of spreading the cold she was coming down with.

Around the time family members started filtering out, Friends started coming.



First to arrive was my friend, Ginny. Owen invited her to his party without telling me cause he knew I wouldn't make a scene and ruin his birthday party and he wanted us to make up. That is a long story involving her having a not so nice reaction when I announced to the internet that I was pregnant with Liam. If you just joined us here at my blog... the post explaining that is here.

Anyways, the point is that she came and we were able to hang out and be nice to each other. I am not sure that the relationship is repaired... but at least we can be civil for now.



As people were coming and going the kids decided that it would be fun to play in the huge backyard in the dark!



Owen's Aunt Marguerite read a book to the kids...



Owen's cousin, Chris, showed up for a bit. His twin wasnt able to come cause he and his wife had another party to go to.

Then the parade of friends Owen hadn't seen in years started.



First we had Ramses.



Then Iris and her boyfriend. I am pretty sure his name is Alex.... I could be wrong though.



Then Sam and his daughter showed up. Eventually Sam went home and changed and put his baby girl to bed. He rejoined us later.... he lives two doors down from Owen's parents and he and Owen have been friends for pretty much forever.



Finally Owen's friend Arthur showed up. Owen was super excited to see Arthur cause they had lost track of each other several years ago when Arthur's mom decided to sell the house they lived in. Arthur and Owen had been next door neighbors their entire lives before that.

Eventually the only guests that were left were Mario& Melaney and Arthur. We got the kids to sleep and started getting ready for the big countdown to the New Year.



In this picture are 6 of the Bailey/Ramirez kids. (Liam was sleeping in the bedroom!) Can you find all 6? It is like a Where's Waldo page! Remember those?

Eventually the festivities ended. Then we realized that Arthur wasn't safe to head home and Owen wasn't tired anyways... so they called Sam and the three of them hung out like in the old days.



Eventually I fell asleep and Sam went home... Arthur stayed until about 6 am... then he headed home and Owen finally got to get some sleep.

This ends the festivities of Owen's birthday/ New Years Eve party.