Selph Party of Five: 2017 In Review

Happy New Year!!

I ran out of time to post this in 2017, so a look back before looking ahead it is! I love being able to read back over our year and just remember and reminisce. So a recap is a must. Even if it is a little late. ☺

2017 was WILD for the Selph fam. We experienced a roller coaster of change, craziness, and adjustment like possibly never before. We faced a whole lot of challenges and ups and downs but through it all God was faithful and truly showered us with grace. The year started pretty rocky for us... financially, in our marriage, just in general. Terrell and I were distant and wanted really different things for our future, and it was a discouraging place for us. But through lots of prayer, patience, and seeking His will rather than our own, we found peace and contentment. And all sorts of new opportunities unfolded for us. It was a year of testing and of blessing. Looking back I'm so thankful He is sovereign and He can be trusted with our hopes, dreams, fears, and shortcomings!!

Here's a look back at the highlights and best moments of our 2017....

JANUARY

In January we started a brand new year and enjoyed a no snowed in weekend. It was disappointing to miss out on the snow but we made the most of it!

We had a super fun long weekend and cheered on our Falcons each week in the play-offs.

Then we celebrated Nanny's birthday, and at the end of the month had the best time celebrating our biggest boy's upcoming 8th birthday with his Pokemon party!

January was busy and fun!

FEBRUARY

With February came lots of celebrations... birthdays, Valentine's, and more birthdays.☺It's always a special month for us.

Garrison Cade turned 8 on the 5th!

We had an awesome birthday weekend and loved Garrison's birthday outing so much!! Snow Mountain was SO fun! (The Falcons broke our hearts on Garrison's actual birthday but thankfully we eventually moved on and are ready to cheer them on in the playoffs again this year.)

Layton turned 3 on 12th!

We had a really sweet family Valentine's Day...

And then celebrated Layton's birthday with a fun tractor party!

We also enjoyed Winter Break and a week off of school plus Nana's birthday and Paw Paw's birthday all before February was over. It's the shortest month of the year but jam packed for us with celebrations!

MARCH

With March came some major changes for this mama. I became a full time teacher again!! Eeeek!!! We enjoyed a special date night, endured Terrell coming down with the flu, tried our best to adjust to me working full time, and got our baseball season underway. March was tough and full of challenges but sprinkled in with some really sweet blessings.

APRIL

In April we enjoyed Spring Break! Wooohoooo!! We took some fun day trips and finally celebrated with Layton's birthday outing.

In April we also continued our baseball season, celebrated Granna's birthday and Pops' birthday, and enjoyed a really special Easter weekend with family.

April was lots of fun. And Spring Break was a huge blessing to me as I tried not to drown in my working mom-during baseball season schedule and responsibilities. We survived April but we also thrived some too. YAY. ☺

MAY

May was a blur. Seriously. We were busy and overwhelmed and limped across the finish line to summer. It was just pure craziness.

In the midst of school year wrap up, baseball wrap up, hosting a baby shower, Teacher Appreciation week with PTCO, preparing for the last week of school as a teacher and as a mama, and all the other little things that need to happen no matter what time of year it is, well May was extremely full. Including Garrison having a tonsillectomy at the very end of the month! But the highlights were super special. And I know that's what I'll always remember and appreciate most about May 2017.

Mother's Day weekend was super full but a huge favorite.

And so was wrapping up the school year with my big boys and my students. You can read all about the highlights of our May here.

JUNE

June was super exciting! One of the biggest highlights was interviewing for a PreK teaching position at our school and getting the job!! It was such an answered prayer for us and a huge testament to the way God can change a heart! MY heart in particular!

June was also full of trips for us. Terrell and I celebrated 12 years of marriage and were able to take a last minute anniversary trip thanks to Garrison's smooth recovery from his tonsillectomy. We had a wonderful get-away to the beach and the boys loved their summer weekend with Granna and Papa. ☺

Shortly after returning home from our anniversary weekend, we got ready for another long weekend with Terrell's parents in Gatlinburg! We had one of our best ever trips to Gburg and wrapped up the weekend by celebrating Father's Day with both sides of the family. It was a great few days start to finish.

And by the end of the month we were beach bound for SGI! One of my favorite places on earth!!

June was awesome and we loved it big time!!

JULY

We welcomed July at the beach while enjoying an oh so wonderful vacation with family. St George Island was the best once again and we loved our week at the beach! (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

We arrived home from our vacay in time to celebrate the 4th!

Then we enjoyed our last weeks of summer with a girls day, swimming pool visits, play dates, Nana Camp, working in my classroom, celebrating AnAn's birthday, and our big summer weekend. We finished up the month with pre-planning and our first day of school!

July was pretty awesome. We savored our 2nd half of summer and made the most of our laid back days and endless time together. For the 2nd year in a row it was one of my favorite months!

AUGUST

August was pretty exhausting. As always. Sigh. The back to school adjustment (especially for me!) was a tough one. But, the best news is that I loved my job!! And slowly, slowly we all adjusted to our new normal. We celebrated Frankie's birthday, daddy's birthday, started soccer, started finalizing pool plans, began work on our brand new deck, and finally made it to a Braves game at SunTrust Park!

August was crazy and wore us out but we had some fun and definitely counted our blessings. God's answered prayers for my start to PreK were felt and wow-ing!!

SEPTEMBER

September was full of fun but also came with some unexpected scares.

We kicked off the month by celebrating Austin's 6th birthday with a fidget spinner party!

The whole weekend was all about Austin and celebrating his birthday. He decided on another trip to Chuck E Cheese this year and we had a blast enjoying the water slide all weekend long in addition to his fun party.

Then we had a wild week with 3 days of no school and 2 days of no power thanks to Hurricane Irma. Thankfully we didn't have any damage and only suffered a few minor inconveniences.

We continued the month with soccer, Buggy Days, an Atlanta United game, and the busyness of the school year before our middle man really scared us by coming down with HSP. So thankful for a bestie who knew to send us to a pediatric urgent care and for the NP there who recognized it right away!! We ended up spending the night in the hospital and praying for good reports so we could go home the following day. We are actually still monitoring the HSP but he is doing well. We don't have a clean bill of health yet but we think we're super close.

OCTOBER

October was full of fun and all things Fall! I celebrated my 34th birthday, we enjoyed Fall Break, we continued our soccer season, and we made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch.

We also celebrated Piper's and Papa's birthdays and wrapped up the month with so much fun on Halloween and trick or treating with our favorite cowgirl!

October was special and full and we loved it a ton. ☺

NOVEMBER

This November was the busiest I can remember. School was especially crazy for me with a huge to-do list and tons of work to prepare for December and the end of our first semester. Honestly I was pretty stressed for most of the month. But we wrapped up soccer with games, parties, and tournaments, had our new septic system installed in preparation for putting in our pool, and finally made it to Thanksgiving Break, Thanksgiving Day, and kicking off the Christmas season.

My baby boy was in his first little program at school... as the cutest pilgrim ever!

We enjoyed Holiday in the Park at Six Flags...

The lighting of our trees downtown on Thanksgiving Eve...

Thanksgiving Day!!

And last but not least... the fun, adventure, and stress that came with the Selph Family Christmas Tree.

November was definitely the opposite of dull. ☺

DECEMBER

Oh December. How should I describe you? SICK, fun, festive, SICK, busy, exciting, and SICK. Haha! We struggled during December. Most of us were sick more than once, but thankfully we were still able to squeeze in most of our holiday fun and traditions as we prepared to celebrate our Savior's birthday. Unfortunately I couldn't savor the season like I wanted and things were definitely stressful as we battled all the sickness, wrapping up our first half of the school year, and trying to Christmas shop and wrap. But the highlights were special, as they always are during December.