Best of 2019

2019 has been quite a year for our family! We have experienced some lows and highs and everything in between. 

Our babies got a year older and we loved celebrating with each of them. 

Ava turned 9 in March. Her and I share March birthdays so we spent it at Universal Studios The Magical World of Harry Potter! 

Mia turned 2 in May and we had a mermaid themed party because she is water baby!

 Levi turned 4 in November and he had a blast at his party at the bouncy house- Monkey Joe's. 

Lily turned 8 in December and we celebrated with friends at the trampoline park! 

This year we experienced the scariest parenting moment to date. In May, Lily was diagnosed with an intercranial tumor. Thankfully, it was benign and the surgery to remove the tumor was a success. Lily amazed us all with her resilience and she continues to thrive. We are so grateful that through this scary ordeal our girl was all the strength we needed! 

Throughout the year we have had some amazing time with family. They all rallied around us and was the support we needed! Even when we could not travel, they came to us! 

In January, took our first and last trip to Ikea together lol, we traveled to visit Noah's brother (also known as Uncle Bubba), Jeremy and Monet and Ava and I had the best time on our mother-daughter trip to Orlando. I still owe a trip to Lily soon! 

The girls and Noah had fun at the first father-daughter dance at school and I had a fun time at my first instructor led DIY wood painting class. 

Noah and I both turned 35 this year and celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. 

The kids had fun with their cousins Easter egg hunting. 

Levi had a big hair cut. He went from a little boy to a big boy with one shave! 

We had lots of trip to the beach and pool before Lily's big surgery in July. Through her recovery we had lots of family visit including Grandpa, Mimi, Uncle Bubba and Aunt Sarah! 

Mia had so much fun at the beach this year! She was big enough to keep up with her siblings! 

We had fun at the county fair and we went to the movies (Aladdin, Lion King, Toy Story 4 & Frozen 2!) 

We had fun with our VA cousins at the beach and got to see the theatre production of Peter Pan with Aunt Seal and cousin Camille. 

We evacuated from another hurricane (that didn't end up to be nothing), but it was fun to visit family in Atlanta and visit the Georgia Aquarium! 

I snuck away for a girl's trip, my second trip to a blog conference and had a blast. 

We were there to celebrate my brother and Cassie get engaged! 

Noah became a Jeep owner again! 

The girls and I had so much fun being nerds at Frogwarts! 

Levi loved playing soccer with his daycare pals! 

He attended his first birthday party and had a blast! 

Ava and Lily finished 1st and 2nd grade and went on to have an amazing time in 2nd & 3rd grade. 

I helped co-host my best friend's epic Game of Thrones baby shower! 

The kids were adorable for Halloween. Ava was Seven from Stranger Things, Lily was a pirate, Levi was Maui and Mia was Moana. 

Noah got a new job and we visited him at his new office.

We started our good-bye tour by spending as much time with friends as we could. 

We took a trip to the Jacksonville zoo.

Mimi and the kids squeezed in some time with Santa before Christmas

We packed up our house to prepare for our move to North Carolina and we had our last day at daycare, school and work!

We said good-bye to our Georgia house and hello to our new North Carolina house! 

We definitely ended 2019 with a bang. We are so excited for what the new year will bring. 

Merry Christmas everyone, from our crew to yours!! 

We love you! 

Happy Thanksgiving and Life Lately

I haven't written a blog post in awhile. Life has been crazy around the Cruzan house and I just realized I really haven't shared too much about what's been happening.

The Cruzans are moving to North Carolina!! 

Back up to September... Noah accepted a position at a new company in Charlotte. During the summer, we almost moved there but with everything going on with Lily, we decided to stay put so we could focus on Lily's recovery.

Crazy enough this new company was still interested in Noah. This time, I thought "let's just do it". These opportunities don't come often and it was a great career move for Noah. I was extremely proud of him and he had moved to Savannah all those years ago for me. It was my time.

After we officially made the decision, it kick-started the next set of events-- Prepare the house to be put on the market, sell our home, find a job, look for a new home, MOVE....

We are in the thick of packing our house up now. We were blessed to receive an offer on our house within 1 month from putting it on the market and we just found a new house for us to move into in Charlotte.

Let me just say, moving out of state with four kids is no small feat! It is definitely not for the faint of heart. I've had my share of bad days where my anxiety takes over, but I can say things are starting to fall into place. With a solid move date now, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I have so much to be grateful for.... My mother-in-law did not hesitate when we asked her to stay with us to help with the kids through this move. She has been so wonderful. I got so lucky! My friends have been so awesome too. Just this week my best friend Amy spent her day off helping me with packing. We are so grateful for our realtor, Mark, for helping us sell our house and connecting us with folks in Charlotte. We have had the best guidance and we could not have done all of this without help! I am just so thankful to everyone for getting us through this!

In the next few weeks we close on our home here and also close on our house in Charlotte. It is starting to feel real and I am excited for this next adventure for our family. Wish us luck!

In between packing and preparing for our move, we squeezed in family photos. I am so happy we did because I cannot wait to print these to hang in the new house!

Happy Thanksgiving for my crew to yours! 

Photography by my talented friend, Kate :)

Kate Laraine Photography

Best of 2018

2018 was a year! I love reflecting on all the memories made with my family. Let's get to it!

Mia experienced more firsts in 2018. January gave us our first Savannah Snow for the first time since 1989 so Mia was able to see snow! All the kids had such a fun two days playing in it!

Mia also celebrated her first Valentine's Day, Lunar New Year and Easter!

We celebrated lots of birthdays, too! 

Ava turned eight (8) and she had an epic slime party! She loves to make silly music videos and binge Fuller House on Netflix. 

Lily turned seven (7) and we hosted an awesome slumber party. She loves to play outside and is obsessed with LOL Surprise dolls. 

Levi turned three (3) and we celebrated with him at the Jacksonville Zoo. He loves super heroes and is the funniest kid! 

Mia turned ONE (1)! Her birthday theme was georgia peach because she is so sweet! She is by far my easiest baby. Except when you ask for kisses, she'll say no and laugh. But I steal them all the time! 

2018 was filled with fun! 

-Levi was potty-trained successfully! 

-Ava, Lily and I had fun screen-printing tees! 

-Took the kids strawberry picking this summer

- We had fun at the pool, beach and even in the sprinklers! Mia is a water baby like the rest of the Cruzan crew. 

- Ava and Lily spent two weeks this summer in Virginia with their aunt/uncle and cousins!

- Ava discovered Harry Potter! 

- We visited family for Fourth of July! 

- For mother's day we had a special photo shoot on the beach! 

-Levi and Mia enjoyed Halloween this year going door to door to trick-or-treat

-Mimi came to visit since she moved back to Virginia

-Daddy traveled alot for work, but we (I mean me) survived! 

- I went to my first ever blogging conference and saw Taylor Swift in concert! 

-Daddy gained a Panthers fan!

-Noah and I celebrated 10 years of marriage! 

-Ava met her best friend, Addison! 

-Lily learned how to ride a bike without training wheels! 

-Noah and I traveled to New York for our anniversary trip! 

-We enjoyed a date night and a concert in Charleston! 

-We traveled to VA for Thanksgiving!

-Levi visited the dentist for the first time! 

-Ava joined her first school club and had a couple of McAllister Musicians performances! 

-Mia learned to walk! 

2018 was a ton of fun! My life may be crazy but I would not change it for the world. 

Happy New Year and I wish you all a wonderful 2019! I cannot wait to see what it has in store for us! 

Christmas Past and Christmas Present

I was asking my sister the other day about what she remembers most about our Christmases growing up.  We grew up in a very Catholic family and we remember dressing up for midnight mass. We reminisced about my grandfather's colorful tree and decorations. I always looked forward to spending time with all our cousins and opening up my favorite present- these surprise packs from Sanrio that contained Hello Kitty stationary. Now, I know where Lily's obsession with blind bags and LOL Surprise Dolls comes from.

I don't remember stockings or leaving cookies out for Santa ever. I don't remember even having a Christmas tree every year. I think one year my parents put lights on our fake orange plant in the living room we were never allowed to play in. I do remember always having a manger scene in the front yard and in our living room.

I don't remember the presents all that much. I mostly remember opening up clothes, or items we needed on Christmas day.

We didn't have matching pajamas or sprinkle reindeer dust in the front yard. We didn't have a little elf doll that moved around the house each night. Our tree was not Instagram worthy. I'm pretty sure the tree I have up this year is not Instagram worthy.

I remember the smell of roasted chestnuts that my mom would bake. She loved fruit cake and cherry cordials too.

We did get to open presents after midnight mass. I think, only one though.

It was not about all the details of Christmas that I remember most. I hold on to and cherish the joy I felt. We were surrounded by love and family, always.

I think we can get caught up in the details and chaos of having to do it all. I know I am guilty of it.

But as we build on our traditions each year as a family, I want my kids to really remember the love and the joy of the season.

What do you remember most about your childhood Christmases?

Cruzan Crew: Fall Recap and Life Lately

It has been awhile since I wrote a post about what's going on with the Cruzan crew. My last recap was back in the summer! I love writing these recaps because it brings up all the family memories we have made so far. Plus, I'm super forgetful and this is a nice way to remind myself what we've been up to!

While it is fall for most places,  Savannah holds on to summer as long as it can. We finally made it to the beach! We didn't go all summer so the kids were super excited for a beach day. We are very lucky to live so close to one. It was Mia's first real trip and she loved it. She wasn't scared of the waves at all and kept running into ocean like she knew how to swim!

I survived a weekend alone with the kids. Noah typically travels during the week and is home on the weekends. While he traveled for work a ton this fall, the kids and I kept busy. My weekend alone was jammed back with trips to the farmer's market, running through the sprinklers in the park, baking and movie watching! 

There was no pumpkin patch trip this year but we did manage to get pumpkins and carve them.

Mimi moved back to Virginia so we were super excited for her to come back to visit us this fall. She arrived just in time for Halloween and Levi's birthday. The kids loved having their Mimi again. It's been a hard adjustment for everyone because we are used to seeing her on a daily basis. 

This year for Halloween we met up with friends to trick-or-treat. Levi had more confidence in going door to door even though he thought he was supposed to give people candy instead of receiving it! Mia was not too interested as soon as she got that first piece of candy. The wagon came in handy. 

Noah and I took advantage of Mimi in town and we actually had a date night! We traveled to Charleston for the night for a concert. Date nights are rare for us so any time we get to spend time together I cherish them! 

I'm proud to say, Ava has discovered Harry Potter! I have been a fan from the beginning and it's been so fun to have her join my nerdom. This fall we went to Frogwarts, a HP-themed event at the Savannah Railroad Museum. It was a super cute event and we had so much fun even if Ava got sorted into the Slytherin house! 

Ava is in third grade and joined her first club! It's called McAllister Musicians and is like glee club. She has come to love music and theatre like me and last month she performed for the first time for the Veteran's Day program. They sang a medley of patriotic songs and she loved every minute of it! 

Our Levi man turned three years old on November 9th! He is such a big boy now. He quickly conquered potty training! He is all boy- loving all things ninja turtles, super heroes and mickey mouse! He is very independent and competitive. We race almost everywhere we go. That includes at home when he has to go potty. But, Lordy, for everyone's sanity please let the kid beat you! He doesn't grasp the idea of good sportsmanship just yet.  He has introduced us to so many things because all we knew before were girls. Levi is silly and his laugh is the best! Well, actually we love his Darth Vader and Chewbacca impersonations! 

To celebrate Levi's birthday we spent the day at the Jacksonville zoo. 

For Thanksgiving, we traveled to Virginia to visit with Noah's sister, mom and family. During that trip Noah and I finally celebrated our anniversary by spending a few days together in New York early in the week. We had a great time exploring the city and just getting some alone time! 

Thanksgiving break was so nice. I took the whole week off and it was good to spend it with family. The kids had so much fun with their cousins. We squeezed a girl's night in to watch the Fantastic Beast movie and went to the National Zoo for their Zoolights event. 

Mia has been growing so fast! We just had her 18 month well check and she's still in the 6th percentile in height! She will definitely be petite! She is so smart for her age and she holds her own in the house with her siblings! She continues to be the easiest baby! Her little face melts our hearts every time! 

Levi's first dentist visit was a success! I was so proud of him! The tooth fairy has visited our house lately quite a few times. Between Ava and Lily we have lost lots of teeth! Lily is now missing her front two teeth, just in time for Christmas (all she wants is her two front teeth, get it?) 

Speaking of Lily, she will be celebrating her birthday soon! This angel will be turning 7 on December 12th! She is so excited too, counting down the days! She's one of my biggest helpers around the house and has the heart of gold. She is constantly thinking about her siblings and gets her sensitivity from me. We call her dirt ball because she doesn't care about getting messy or dirty! She loves LOL Dolls and we will celebrate her with a fun sleepover this coming weekend! 

I love writing these posts! It's fun to look back at our adventures. It's also a little bittersweet because they will never be that young again. They grow up so fast and I try to just soak it in! Sometimes time doesn't even allow you to do that. It just keeps passing by too fast!