Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015 in Review

2015 has been an interesting year.  Challenges come in all forms and even though we have been through our share of hard times, this year seemed jam packed with them.  The year didn't start out that way.  In fact, January started the year off with a bang - Brendan and I ran in the Disney Marathon and lived to talk about it!


In February, Aidan turned 10 and Mary came to visit:

In March, we went up to Massachusetts for Declan's Baptism and the girls started lacrosse:


In April, Brendan and Aoife celebrated their birthdays and Aidan started baseball games:


In May, Emmy had her First Holy Communion and we finished up lacrosse and baseball regular seasons:


In June, we finished up the school year and Aidan's baseball team went to the Championship game:


In July, we started the month with a rainy 4th of July.  After that, things fell apart with Evan Morris's suicide on the 9th.  We spent a few weeks curled in a ball with Tracy and then went on vacation with Grandma and Daddy Jim to NC.

In August, we went on some fun field trips and tried to enjoy the summer:


In September, Declan started preschool, Aoife started 1st grade, Emmy started 3rd grade and Aidan started 5th grade.  In another terrible turn of events, Brendan's father passed away and we went up to Massachusetts for his funeral.  Declan had his 3rd birthday later in the month and got to celebrate at school AND at home - he was pretty happy about that!



In October, we spent most of our waking time at football practice and games - best time of the year! Halloween capped off the month with a zombie, angel, little red riding hood and a firefighter.


In November, my grandmother passed away, Emmy and I ran the Girls on the Run 5K and we had a nice Thanksgiving.  




In December, Declan had a Christmas pageant, we celebrated Christmas together with Grandma and Daddy Jim and Tony and then visited with Mimi over the New Year's weekend.




This year has been tough but there have been so many fun times as well.  We are looking forward to 2016, knowing that it will bring some changes and excitement.  Middle School for Aidan and maybe a new school for Emmy and Aoife as well.  Declan is growing up so quickly and we are so happy that we are all together and that we get to live in this amazing, beautiful and exciting city full of incredible opportunities and fun things to do!  Please stay tuned - even after 8 years of blogging I still feel like this is only the beginning.

Love, 
The Cullinans xoxo

Friday, December 25, 2015

Christmas 2015

 WOOHOO!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!  The kids slept in until 8:00 (Merry Christmas to me!!) and then had a great present opening filled morning!  I tried something new for breakfast since no one really likes to sit down and eat while there are presents to be opened so....I set out a light breakfast early on - yogurt, granola, fruit, and some stollen.  We waited until Tony joined us at 11 to have a bigger brunch with french toast casserole and bellinis!!  We had a big turkey dinner that night - so much food!!!

Emmy got her lego friends barn!  She's been wanting this FOREVER!!
Aoife's American Girl Doll - best present ever!!
 Drums!
 a keyboard!!
 Declan loves the drums too!!
 Sparkly TOMS?? WHAT??

 So much fun!!  Declan loved it all!!
 Shopkins!


 noculars!
 breakfast!!

 Pirate ship!
 Tool bench!

 Aidan got a video drone from Mimi - loves it!

 Aoife and Caroline!
 Dinner!!