2017
Being very honest, I don't know what to think of 2017. Not because it was bland (not good nor bad), but because it was both good and bad in quite some intensity. It was a whirlwind of emotions and a turnover of life events. It left me numb, at times, and I've felt so tired. The year 2017 confused me! We had our plans, and then the plans changed so much that it barely resembled the original ones. I'm getting exhausted even as I try to gather the words and the memories to sum up 2017.
Following the calendar, we started off the year with 2-weeks old baby Vicky. And Vicky only meant
love to us! Looking back, I just can't remember if I had troubles with sleep or feeling worn out or not. I do remember she had some tummy problems and then all of sudden it was gone! I record saying I was quite distressed about it at the time but now it's all *
puff* ... gone. What I do remember is that Vicky is just adorable! I can't wait to see her turn more and more into her very own self!
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| I can't resist her!! |
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| She is so fun! |
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| We make adorable kids! |
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| She is so funny! |
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| She is a very good eater now! Oh my, she eats a lot! |
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| she melts my heart! |
In January Nico started prek in Sioux Falls, SD. He just loved every minute of it! It was a joy to my heart to see him develop and improve in all areas throughout the year! Nico made SO much progress! Nico is not your average (almost) 5 year old boy. I mean, he is much cuter! Also, he might be a
little different in other areas too! We highly suspect Nico has some degree of ADHD although he hasn't been diagnosed yet (and he was evaluated when he was almost 3yo). Fortunately, Mrs L. and Mrs. H - his teachers - were amazing on guiding and loving him. They were so kind, so patient, they were so, so great! At our last parent-teacher conference, Mrs L. said to me these exact words: "I just adore him" and my heart was bursting with joy to hear that! We were so blessed with school and teachers this year! I wanna cry, so much I miss this school now that we've moved out of South Dakota!
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| See what I mean? He is the cutest! A whole lotta work, for sure! But we love him so much! |
During mid January-mid February we received my in-laws in our home. They were able to meet newborn Vicky (my mom had come and left in December, 2016 when Vicky was born). They were also able to enjoy the other two grand kids, see our house, experience some snow fun, do their shopping and they even visited The Badlands and Mount Rushmore on a week that had no snow forecast and the roads were dry. Good for them!
At the end of February, my good sister and her good husband came for Vicky's Baptism so they could be her godparents and they stayed for a week. It was so nice having them with us, the kids just love them and we all had a good time! I am so thankful for their generosity! It meant the world to me they could come for the baptism in the midst of their very busy schedules.
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| What a beautiful couple! We love you! And THANK YOU!! |
Around that time, Nico had his first - and so far, the only one - febrile seizure. I don't even want to talk about this again, but it was a landmark in our lives. Since we were clueless as to what was going on with him and he seemed unconscious and almost looked like he wasn't breathing, we just thought we had lost him. The thought of losing one of our children is not something we totally recovered from yet. Something snitched in our brains and we have become paranoid. Even poor Becca. When we see Nico acting
strange (as if he's about to start another seizure) we all freeze and worry. My heart pounds heavily and my legs turn weak - no joke. For weeks I couldn't stop thinking about it.
But then the ambulance bill came and insurance didn't pay for it (it went towards our deductible) so that helped us change our focus and our emotions into the unpleasantness of that $1,500 bill. Jokes aside, I would have called the ambulance a million times over again, regardless. I'm so thankful for all the workers in medical care! Really, I am!
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| He is always very sweet and loving to Vicky! Melts my heart! |
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| Nico's school pics! What a handsome little dude! |
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| I love him! |
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| I love them! |
In April, we drove to Chicago and perused this incredible city for 3 days for the first time as a family (Dan had lived in Rockford, IL for 9 months as an exchange student when he was a senior in high school so he had visited Chicago before). I loved it! What a cool city! There is a lot of GREAT free stuff to do (I recommend the Maggie Daley playground, the ZOO+botanical gardens, the bean - aka Millennium Park - and Eataly - free to explore, kinda expensive to eat/shop, but still worth it)! Very pretty city!
It hit me that our Chicago trip was probably the last one of that kind. Meaning, walking 4+ hours a day around a busy city with 3 kids and 2 strollers it's probably the maximum of our capacity! It's sad to think of it! I just love this kind of travel: walking, sightseeing, eating either gourmet foods or street food, taking the kids to zoos and many cool playgrounds! These are the good times, but they might be going by.
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| Inside Portillo's with a double stroller plus a baby car seat stroller! We are crazy people! |
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| Walking around Chicago and the kids enjoying some front row seats! |
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| Our reflection on the Bean! |
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| Beautiful grounds close to the Zoo & Botanical Gardens |
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| At the Zoo & Botanical Gardens! GORGEOUS! |
But the real reason we drove to Chicago was so I could attend an Opus Dei silent retreat in Valparaiso, IN. Dan stayed with the older two kids in our rental marina condo and I took 5-months old Vicky with me! It was my first Opus Dei retreat in the US. I didn't know anyone there, but that didn't matter at all. It was so peaceful! One little secret: I attended this retreat as a promise I had made God a couple years before. I said that when the time came when were in a better financial situation, I would go on an Opus Dei retreat, asap. And Dan got a substantial salary increase in January, 2017. I suspect Vicky brought that bread under her arms! 😊😊😊
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| We also visited the Indiana Dunes State park before my retreat! |
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| Beautiful grounds of the retreat house in Valparaiso, IN |
We were back home for a May, 1st snow day (I miss the snow!!!) and the last month of school which meant a lot of fun activities and end-of-the-year programs. Nico's program was really something, to say the least!
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| Father daughter dance |
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| My pride and joy: Rebecca awesome reader! |
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| Last day of prek3 - We love Ms L. |
Then summer break came! And one week into it, I managed to injure myself riding my kid's scooter on our home driveway! Way to go, Gabby! Dan had a conference to attend in Boston one week later and we were still unsure how long I would have to use a cast. It could have been two months! So my good brother, Rafael, came to the rescue in a short 3-day period! God bless him (and my parents for donating their airline miles for his plane ticket)! Luckly, after two weeks we found out I didn't need a cast at all, although I was kinda sore for another 3-4 weeks. The kids loved having uncle Rafa with us and even though he was studying a lot, we tried to take him to fun places like the pool, restaurants, nearby cities, the movies drive-in, etc. Dan and I also took the babysitting opportunity to have many date nights!
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| ugh |
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| Yay, uncle Rafa is here to the rescue! |
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| Japanese lunch date with Dan and cupcakes afterwards! |
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| Mother and daughter movie date! Cars 3, we liked it! |
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| Vicky likes uncle Rafa and vice versa! |
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| Rafa helping with the kids! |
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| Yay, I have a working arm again! First pool for Vicky! |
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| Radioactive popsicles in our backyard porch! |
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| Our 3rd trip to Trinity Heights in Sioux City, IA! It's beautiful and we enjoyed eating at the Hard Rock Cafe lunch buffet afterwards - every time! |
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| Museum of Visual Materials - free and always fun! |
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| Bowling with kids! |
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| Cherry Berry Frozen Yogurt afterwards! |
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| More pool! |
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| More Rafa! |
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| baby's first swing! She loves the swings! |
Summer break was also the time when Dan was interviewing for the out-of-state job he ended up accepting. It was a hard decision-making and discernment time for us! We had a house, private affordable catholic schools, an easy work-home commute, job security, good friends and all-in-all, a comfortable and somehow easy life. We didn't even have allergies back in South Dakota, compared to Texas, where we lived before. I loved the snow (I even enjoyed the shoveling part), fall was beautiful and summertime was so pleasant! But the new job offer had two or three things to offer us that were the deal breakers in our final decision. I think it's polite to keep the details out of it, as they are too personal, but we really believe God has called us to leave our dear South Dakota life behind and take this new adventure up. And believe me, it hasn't been without many challenges and difficulties. But that's adult life, I suppose. You can't have a perfect situation anymore. The decisions get tougher and tougher when your have a growing family and, therefore, multiple different needs.
Rafa was finally back to Brazil (after making a ton of stranger-friends everywhere he went! I guess he is very likeable!) and we were back to school shortly after!
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| Farewell pic at the airport! |
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| Bye-bye bro! Love you! THANK YOU |
By then, we already had a pretty good idea that we were really moving to Georgia, although there was still a lot of uncertainty of how long we had until our move. I tried to breath in as much as I could of our last months in Sioux Falls, SD but the process of selling our house, packing our stuff (also getting rid of a lot of stuff) and arranging the moving details were too overwhelming for me. It was a very stressful time with all the emotions that came along, I'm sure I didn't cope very well. But we still went out for a few last family outings and tried to enjoy the last bit of our house before we sell it!
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| Apple Festival at the orchard |
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| Omaha Zoo, quite expensive BUT completely worth it! It was the most FUN zoo we've ever been! |
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| Although losing Rebecca for 15 minutes at the end of the day in this gigantic playground inside Omaha Zoo was NOT fun at all! |
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| Our post traumatic treat to her: sushi dinner! She loves sushi! |
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| Enjoying our last fall in our gorgeous backyard! |
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| So sweet! |
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| So very sweet! |
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| She is such a happy girl! |
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| I might miss all the leaves, or.... maybe not! |
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| Our little batman ready for Trick or Treating! I won't miss freezing to death on Halloween! |
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| Our little lamb! |
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| I'm glad we took pictures inside, because outside we were covered head-to-toe in heavy winter gear! And we couldn't walk more than a block so freezing cold it was! |
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| Our 7yo old Becca "lost" her first two teeth! Pulled out at the dentist office! |
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| She is the CUTEST! |
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| I convinced Dan to play cards with me almost every weekend! |
We were fortunate that our house didn't take so long to sell, but having sort of a FHA first time buyers loan (through the state program) and less than 2 years into our mortgage meant our finances took a toll. I'm sure you are thinking: "why did you really have to move?". And believe me, a lot of times I have the temptation to think the same way as well! But I believed these were God's plans for us back then, I have to still believe that now! And to offer up the difficulties and joys that come along! My good Sioux Falls friend, S. recently wrote me:
"You know, I have experienced that sometimes God grants me bigger crosses in order to stretch my heart to be able to recover whatever gift he is preparing to give me." How beautiful is this idea? And it rang so true to me when I read it that I actually cried! Thanks S.! I miss you already! You were a good friend to me!
The rest of the year, as you can imagine, was a blur. The days merged into months, and just before thanksgiving we left for our new adventure!
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| Our last date night in SD! We even got a babysitter this time! |
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| The movers and their gigantic moving truck! |
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| Rebecca buried in hugs from all her sweet classmates! |
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| Oh Ms M. and Ms F., you were wonderful to our little girl! I am so thankful!!! You gave her the best farewell party (with lots of pizza and cupcakes) and you got her letters from all the second graders, which were collected in two books! We cried together reading the letters in the car! |
It was a four days road trip in our minivan from South Dakota to Georgia! But before we settle, we drove a little bit more south to the beautiful beaches of the Emerald Coast in Florida! We had some magical days in paradise! We can't wait to come back when it will be a little warmer! One of the perks of living close enough to Florida! Disney World will have to wait until 2020, though! It will be the 50th Disney World Parks anniversary and a lot of the ongoing construction and improvements will be done by then! Plus, you really need a year in advance to plan all the hotels and restaurants reservations. And we couldn't go now anyway since we are broke, in case you have missed this piece of information from above! Ha! (
Oh God, I believe in You and I love You!)
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| And she ate it! And she liked it! |
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| love my family! |
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| These two are best friends! |
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| In love with the beach and the sunset! |
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| Snow jackets on the beach! Yes! |
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| Going for a walk solo twice! Thanks, Dan! |
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| Dave and Busters and Christmas tree selfie afterwards! |
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| I love her many funny faces! |
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| After our delicious Thanksgiving meal at Sharky's! So good! And such a lovely sunny and not so chilly day! |
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| Another beautiful sunset! |
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| This boy! |
For Christmas we drove to Helen GA since we have no family in here to spend it with! And it's basically it, folks!
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| Six flags annual passes! |
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| Ikea!! |
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| Trader Joe's! |
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| Brazilian bakeries and restaurants! |
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| We even had some snow in GA!!! |
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| Baking Christmas cookies and decorating! |
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| Upside down! I decorated these! |
Last, but not least, Dan gave a TEDTalk! I'm very proud of him and his hard work no matter the circumstances! He always gives his 100% self! Here is the link:
Dani TEDtalk
2017, you were really something, what exactly, I'm not sure! Maybe time will tell!
Have a merry new year, everyone! As for my 2018 resolutions, maybe I can write about them in a future post (after I reflect upon it first!).
Love,
Gabby
xoxo
