If I'd had time...

Lots of people are taking time to look back over the past year, linking back to some of their favorite events, projects, recipes and posts of the year.

Unfortunately I didn't blog as much as I would have liked in 2013 - let's blame it on my twin pregnancy and their births and adjusting to life with four kids under five...

So here are my top ten posts I wish I'd written in 2013...

1. Post date - January 2013 - In January we celebrated Lucas' fourth birthday. Coming off the end of a hard first trimester and a few weeks of a horrible sinus cold, the only way we pulled off a party for him was with a lot of help from my mother-in-law. We had a "construction" theme, with a building site cake and a "build your own sundae" station.

 2. Post date - Feb 2013. Arriving on the day of the party was my brother Aaron, who came to visit us in Brazil for the first time. He was only here for ten days, but we enjoyed eating lots of churrasco (Brazilian BBQ), going to the beach, a water park and just generally hanging out and playing with the kids.

3. Post date - April 2013 - About four weeks before the twins' birth I did a maternity photo shoot with my friend from church, Raquel. We trekked across one of Sao Paulo's largest parks to find a quiet corner for some nice shots. Although I had hoped to get some good family photos as well, I'd forgotten how early the sun sets, and by the time the rest of the family arrived (and trekked across the park to find us) it was almost dark. Still I was glad to have taken the time to do it seeing as it was my last pregnancy and twins at that!

4. Post date - May 2013 - While I have mentioned the twins birth several times, I still haven't really gotten around to writing the full story. Most notable for being my first surgery and having a horrible recovery. As far as c-sections go, it was very routine. I kind of wished I'd had it filmed.

5. Post date - June 2013 - After growing my hair out for almost three years, (more out of laziness than a real desire to have long hair), it was getting to be too much to handle. Thanks to my pregnancies and breastfeeding, I haven't treated or dyed my hair in a long time. So my lovely blond hair was natural and chemical free. I'd hoped to be able to sell it for a nice amount, (natural blond hair is pretty rare around here) but I just didn't have the time to search out many options. In the end I was able to sell it for a little and get a nice hair cut which is much more practical for my lifestyle right now.

6. Post date - August 2013 - In August my oldest girl turned three! With the twins birth so relatively close I wanted to make sure she had a nice party. Of course, she requested a princess party. While I had planned to keep it pretty simple, I sometimes have a hard time doing that and we ended up with a big princess castle party with princess hats and wands, helmets for the "knights" and lots of food and fun!

 Elena really enjoyed getting to dress up in a fancy princess dress for the party.

7. Post date - November 2013. With life settling down, getting into routines with all the kids and our babies no longer "newborns" - I was freed up a little bit to help with a good friend's baby shower. It was so fun to get back into doing projects like this again. I really had a lot of fun with the decorating.

In case you can't tell - the couple wearing the "baby kit" (top right) are the expectant parents. Their first born, a boy, is due any day now!

8. Post date - November 2013. Since he had received a five year tourist visa, my brother decided to visit us again in November. As he had a longer trip he was able to visit Rio as well. Again, we enjoyed many of the same things; going out to eat, to the beach. He also met the twins for the first time. Now there is only one member of my family to meet the twins - my youngest brother. We're hoping he'll make a trip here this year. :)

9. Post date - December 2013. In 2012 we decided to host a small "Thanksgiving dinner" at our place for a few couples. We made a traditional turkey dinner. In 2013 we thought we'd like to invite more friends to share in the traditional meal and put together a big Thanksgiving meal for about 30 of the young people from our church. Needless to say we enjoyed a feast in early December; great food, fellowship, a "white elephant" gift exchange, and a surprise proposal!

10. Post date - December 2013. When it came to decorating my house in 2013 for Christmas I wanted to do something different from the previous year. I could have easily just pulled out all my nicely organized decorations and done something very similar, but I just couldn't make myself do it. I love re-arranging and doing things differently. So this past Christmas I decided to go with a nice traditional red theme.

So while I still have a lot of thoughts on the year past and many more ideas for posts for the months to come, I hope you enjoyed reading the ten posts I didn't write last year.