Before we welcome in 2014...

2013 was a good year in the Peterson household. Looking back it had its fair share of changes, but we rolled with them:

• Mama went back to work in February after a whopping 7+ month maternity leave!
• Charlotte started daycare and Emily started preschool with a bang!
• Fortunately, things stayed the same in Matt's work world.

2013 also brought several upgrades to our home, including:

• a much needed new stove, including double ovens which Matt put to good use for BOTH our Thanksgiving & Christmas meals!
• some backyard landscaping, including an expanded patio and a teeny square of GRASS!
• a 2nd car, which was l-o-n-g overdue. And while not technically a "home" upgrade, it was definitely an overall "quality of life" upgrade. Basically, we bought ourselves an extra hour or two each day.

And finally some random numbers from 2013:

• 13,456 raisins & gold fish eaten by the girls on our walks
• 43 times we sang Little Mermaid songs during dinners (Matt would claim this is too many)
• 89 hours Matt spent watching Naruto (probably to forget said songs)
• 12+ hours the girls sleep every day (a very important number to us!)
• 4 raccoons constantly trying to rip up our sod (grrrr)
• 67 pieces of fuzz Charlotte consumed before realizing it doesn't taste good. Now she sticks with raisins.