2012 Wrap Up

This year was a big year for the Michel family.  We spent January and February getting ready for the arrival of our new family member by painting, doing some home improvement projects,  building a fence, and generally spending fun time as a family of three.  After some debate, we elected to have our second child by ceasarian section and scheduled it for March 20th -- the first day of spring.  We had planned on naming him Rhodes, but some hesitation in the last month led us to go into his birth without having a name fully picked out.  On March 20th, Locke Steven Michel was born at 7:37 a.m. weighing in at 8 pounds 15 ounces making us a family of four.  Less than a week after our baby was born, we elected to put our home on the market and began looking in earnest for a new house in the school district we wanted.  We spent the month of April having open houses to sell our house and bonding as a family.  Chris interviewed and got a new job as a school counselor at Schilling elementary school starting fall of 2012.  We also went to KC and went to the zoo and aquarium with the Perkins family.  In May, we had Locke baptized and a celebrated Ledger's third birthday.  I went back to work at the beginning of May and the wonderful Grandma Darlene stayed home with Locke for most of the month until Chris finished with his school year.  In June, we enjoyed another river festival, sold our house, bought a new house, and went to Colorado for our Michel family vacation (and that was all in one weekend!!).  We spent the end of June and all of July moving into our new home and learning to live with a newly cantankerous three year old.  We had a pretty significant drought this summer, so our lake was too dry to spend much time in the water.  In August, we built a fence at our new house (that's 2 fences in less than 6 months, in case you're counting) and put up a shed -- thank goodness for the help from our friends and family.  Chris started his new counseling job at Schilling, Locke and Ledger started back to child care with Grandma Jamie, and Ledger started his first year of preschool at Four Seasons.  September started a very busy fall season which included a trip to Lego land in Kansas City and the OU/KSU football game in Norman.  In October, Locke cut his first tooth and began eating some of his first solids.  After months of trying without success, Ledger finally pooped in the potty (YAY!) and by the end of the month, was completely potty trained!  We dressed as a family of Jack Sparrows for Halloween and Daddy and Ledger even won a costume contest prize for best couple!  In November, Locke started pulling up on furniture and becoming more and more mobile.  We did double duty Thanksgiving again starting out with Michel family dinner at our house and then heading to KC for Thanksgiving with the Perkins and Powell families.  December was busy and filled with family!  We loved having Christmas in Oklahoma as well as multiple Christmas celebrations in Salina and Lindsborg.  The Michel family celebrated New Year's Eve at home as a family and are looking forward to a wonderful 2013!