A Look Back on 2013

Every year, I look forward to doing this post. This year was a little different. We lost some very special people this year and that made it a bit of a  hard year. This year was blessed in so many ways, but there were also a lot of tears shed. I lost my Grandma, who had been ill for a long time. Leigh lost his uncle, who was sick for a short time. And I lost my Grandpa in a split second. The memory of these people and the pain of losing them only enhanced our need and want to live life to the absolute fullest. So now I will tell you about the good parts of my year.

Is it just me or does hardly anything ever happen in the winter? Maybe it's just us.

Leigh and I spent most of the winter playing with and loving Layla to pieces. Because she was still a puppy, we spent a lot of time at home with her and loved it.

I launched my new blog look which I just realised I've almost had for a year. Time for a change, maybe, but I still love it.

Before I knew it, spring was here.

Sidenote: I took this pic a few days after my Grandpa died. I will be honest with you guys, my heart was broken. I was close with my Grandpa, and his death was a big shock and those two things made it really hard. I spent a lot of time going for walks and I saw beauty in everything even with the pain. I feel this post would be incomplete without writing about this time in my life. Slowly the pain and shock has faded little by little. I still miss him so much, but I know he would want us all to live life to the fullest.

I got to celebrate my dear friend Bobbi's marriage with two wedding events:

In April, we visited Leigh's uncle in the states which is our favourite weekend getaway.

We celebrated beautiful Nicky's birthday...

We got a new car!

Leigh did stand up comedy for the first time and kicked ass at it.

I traded in my gym job for self employed trainer status, probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. I made a little website that I need to do a lot more work on....

We had Jeannine's 80s stagette downtown...

And her "Camp I Do" Shower

We celebrated Hilary's birthday...

Snuck this one of Leigh and I in, he rarely will pose for pictures :-P

As well as our three year wedding anniversary which somehow I didn't get pics of...

My Mom, sis and I did a weekend getaway in the states.

Leigh and I also went to what I'm sure is going to be an annual tradition - a model airplane tour in Wenatchee. I read like five books in a lawn chair and went to the hugest craft store I've ever been in. It was heaven.

Nicole, J and I had our annual PNE date...

We celebrated these lovebugs beautiful, super fun wedding...

photo by the amazing Carol-Ann @ Carol-Ann Photography

We celebrated Layla's birthday with a cake...

We celebrated my birthday...

Including a lunch with my hubby, Mom, Grandma and nephews...

Nicky and I also helped J's husband pull of a surprise birthday dinner for her at Milestones.

My sister also had a fun birthday dinner downtown (where's the pics, sis?) and we had my Dad's 60th at the Keg (I failed on the picture front in that regard, and we topped off birthday fest with an awesome dinner at my Grandma's house for her birthday.

Of course, after that is when the Christmas season started, including lots of festive things, a super fun downtown date with my Mom, and a surprise birthday party for my mother-in-law, which you can read all about here in case you missed it.

There are lots of things I didn't document with pictures, which I hate, next year I'm going to take pictures of every event (sorry Leigh! :-P) and that is a year in a nutshell. Lots of love, lots of memories, lots of tears, lots of lessons, and lots of joy. I can't wait to see what 2014 brings.

Happy New Year everyone! Thank you for reading my little blog!