1. Of course my first pick has to be the day our little Levi was born. He's been such a blessing & has truly completed our family. He came into this world full of energy & hasn't disappointed in that category ever since. His pregnancy was quite difficult on me so I was beyond ecstatic when my labor only lasted 5 1/2 hours. :) I will never forget this day because it was the second time in 3 years God blessed us with a baby. Brian & I had to be at the hospital at a mere 4 a.m. to be induced and I kept joking with everyone that I would try my hardest to have him here before their lunches...and I was able to keep that promise because he was born at 10:36 a.m.
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| Our future basketball star |
| Daddies & their boys taking advantage of some night fishing |
| They melt my heart! |
3. Brian & I both turned the big three-oh this year. We normally don't do much for our birthdays besides eat dinner with our parents. This year we did something a little different & got a group of friends together for dinner at Hacienda then ended the night at Sportman's bar for some more drinks. It wasn't a huge to-do but that's our style. :) Even though the night reminded us we're aren't 21 any more....we sure did make some great memories!
4. The birth of our niece, Lillian Fay, is another memorable moment in my books. My youngest sister, Erin, added to our enormous amount of nieces/nephews making it a whopping 10 now. Little Lily is the only niece from my side of the family while the other 9 come from Brian's side. The coolest part of her birth is that she arrived on 11-12-13.
| Lily meeting Santa for the 1st time at Logan's birthday party |
I'm so proud of how much Logan has learned & excelled so well in the few short months he's gone to school. He comes home every time with an exciting story & something new he's either made or learned. My heart smiles to see how excited he is to go to school (which is a vast difference from the beginning of the year). I can't wait to see what the rest of his school year holds in store for him!
6. Brian recently made a big decision by making a change & moving to a new company within the union. This decision has weighed on him for most of 2013 & he finally bit the bullet a week ago. He'll still do the same job (insulating) but will be located at mostly local jobs. At his previous employer, he was constantly working out of town & leaving the house at very early hours. Now that we have 2 kids at home, he wants to be around more so he can be as involved as possible. Another nice perk to the job change is he'll be able to pick up the kids on the days that I work! Yeah for one less thing I have to do!! I'm very proud of Brian & this decision he's made.
7. Sadly, we lost my grandpa in October this year. He had been in bad health for a very long time so it's somewhat comforting to know he isn't suffering any more. My Papa was the kindest, most caring, & gentle man that walked this Earth. I've never heard him raise his voice much less a finger towards anyone. He would always tell the same old stories practically every time we were together & even though I'd heard them a thousand times before, I sure would give anything just to hear him tell those stories again! RIP Papa, I know you're flying high with the angels. :)
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| Christmas 2009 (Logan was only 9 days old) |
8. I was able to enjoy 12 weeks of maternity leave this year. This may not seem like a big deal to most people but it sure was for me. I wasn't this fortunate when we had Logan so as soon as we found out we were pregnant the planning began for us to make this happen financially. I'm oh so thankful I was able to take this time off; not only to spend the time with my boys but also to recover. As I mentioned before my pregnancy was quite difficult which led to several complications after delivery. I spent about the first 3 weeks dealing with these issues so by the time I felt 100% I was already at the half-way point in my maternity leave. Knowing Levi is our last baby made this a bittersweet time but I enjoyed every last minute & wouldn't change it for the world.
9. I experienced my first college football experience ever!! We've talked about going to one for years but the timing never seemed to be right so we made it a point to happen this year. Brian's future step dad is a superb planner & he put this whole trip in motion. We spent Brian's birthday weekend in Bloomington & tailgated before the IU game.
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| Lisa, Brian's mom, Ashley, & Me |
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| Hoo-Hoo-Hoosiers!!! |
10. I experienced my first over night hospital stay (with the exception of child birth) & surgery. While pregnant with Levi, I had to take an aspirin & 2 Heparin shots daily the entire time in order to keep my body from rejecting the pregnancy. In turn, this thinned my blood tremendously. My doctor expected this & prepared for it during my delivery but I still lost a large amount of blood (over 1/2 to be exact). After being home 9 days, Brian took me to the ER due to complications but I returned home after being assured everything was ok. To my horror at 3 am, only 13 days after giving birth, I went to the restroom to notice a massive about of blood loss. With the intense pain I was in & the fact that my sight was giving out Brian packed up the kids & we headed to the ER immediately. My parents met us there along with my younger sister, Katie, & grandma. Mom headed back home with the kids while everyone else stayed not knowing what was going on. After several test, the problem has been revealed & they took me into surgery to repair it ASAP. I don't remember much after that besides waking up crying to Brian because I was so scared I was dying. Because of my enormous amount of blood loss...yet again...they kept me over night before sending me home the next morning. I've never been more scared in my life but so grateful for such awesome nurses at the Women's Hospital who took care of me!
11. We also had our first experience of Logan having surgery. Needless to say, 2013 wasn't very kind to us in the health department. Any way, that poor kid has always had issues with ear infections & finally after battling one for almost 10 weeks we were referred to an ENT who scheduled surgery to remove his tonsils & adenoids only 3 weeks prior to my due date!!! Brian & I handled him being taken from us the best we could but knowing one of nurses that was with him during surgery made us feel better. He woke up from surgery spit firin' mad & the first couple of days were rough on everyone but we made it through. I'm very proud to say Logan has only had 1 ear infection since his surgery & hasn't battled too many other illnesses either. ;)
12. We hosted the largest party at our home (to date) just a couple of weeks ago for Logan's birthday. I was tired of renting a place or just going to a restaurant to accommodate everyone so I was determined to make it work at our house. (With a huge family like ours, you gotta do whatcha gotta do sometimes!) We had an awesome turn out...some 30+ people. Plus, we had an extra special visitor.....Santa!
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| The birthday boy wasn't too excited about Santa :( |
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| The best one we could get |
13. The fact that we were able to share so many wonderful memories with all of our friends & family this year has been amazing. I can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for us but the Gaiser's are ready to turn the page in the book & start another chapter! :)













