It's a Dutton Kind of Life: 2013 Recap

2013 was such a fun year! We made sweet memories, had lots of fun, and made big changes.

We began the year with a once in a lifetime trip to Disney World. It was so much fun surprising the kids the morning we left. We stayed for five magical days. It was a much needed change of scenery for our broken hearts.

One of my favorite memories is of me and Allie staring at the Disney castle with her sweet little arms wrapped around my neck.

Another favorite memory is from the "It's a Small World" ride, where Allie slept on Daddy's chest...

and Ty pointed out every single dancing figure through the entire ride.

We closed on our house January 15th, and immediately began demolition and a GIANT remodel. Rusty worked day and night, and about 7 weeks after we closed, we moved into our newly remodeled, mostly finished, house.

We took a quick trip to Las Vegas in the middle of the remodel to celebrate my Grandma's 80th birthday. How cool is my Grandma?

This birthday girl turned 4. What a bundle of energy, joy, love and sweetness she is! I'm so blessed to be her momma! And I LOVE Ty's photo bomb!

Allie Renee's 4th Birthday

Ty graduated from Kindergarten in May. We were so proud of him, and he was so excited to be out for the summer. I can't believe how fast he's growing up.

And that is a giant baby bump right there... We were trying to get everything ready before our sweet Eli arrived. This pregnancy wasn't easy, but boy was it redeeming! That's for another post, someday...

The day before Eli was born, we finalized the plans for our NEW HOUSE... It was a fast and furious few weeks, but we bought land, picked out house plans, and got paperwork situated in a very short amount of time...

July 11 arrived with much anticipation... We got to meet this sweet bundle of joy after a short and very blessed, complication free induction!

Eli Parker, 7lbs. 13 oz. and 21" long

Seriously? Isn't he the sweetest? I know, very cliche, but I can't get over how sweet all four of my baby's faces have been.

Two days after he was born, I had the best birthday party of my life! We had dinner at home with my all of my favorites! We didn't take a picture, so here is a 4th of July pic...

Fourth of July 2013

We celebrated Maggie's first birthday. Very bittersweet. Sweet baby girl, how I miss you. What a blessing you are to our family! I love these pictures of the kids.

Ty started the 1st grade. He was mostly excited about school, but like the rest of us, didn't want to start the school routine. Here is our handsome boy on his first day.