I'm Baaack! (With Randomness)

I think this is a new record for how long I've gone without blogging. I had every intention of blogging sooner (I even wanted to do the 2012 Year In Review that my sister Courtney did) but any free time I had (which was very little) was spent passing out from exhaustion or relaxing with Caleb.

Although I do wish I had more documented from the past month or so, I don't regret letting myself rest when I needed to. I apologize in advance, this post could get long as I recap the last 4-6 weeks.

The past 4-6 weeks have been kind of a blur really. December was full of baking, lots and lots of baking, birthdays (both Ellie and Reagan turned 4, and I had 3 other nieces birthdays to celebrate in the month of December), Christmas shopping, wrapping, Christmas parties, preparing a song to sing on Christmas Eve, etc.

Missing Grandma Nancy this Christmas season was hard. I noticed as Christmas drew closer, I became more emotional. With every beautiful memory being made there was a slight sting behind it knowing Grandma should've been here.

BUT, right before Christmas each of the women in our family was given a beautiful gift from Grandma, one of her last wishes, to carry with us. We were each given a beautiful cross necklace designed by Grandma Nancy and her mom "Grammie", years ago. My sister Jenn wrote a beautiful post about that experience.

Aside from the obvious heartaches of missing Grandma and thinking about Dad and his upcoming surgery, our Christmas was a good one. We spent Christmas morning as a family of 4, then packed up and stopped by my parent's house briefly to exchange gifts with my family, then headed to Caleb's family cabin where we spent 3 days in the snowy mountains.

Here's Caleb reading the Christmas story to Ellie and Ethan out of their children's Bible on Christmas morning:

These 3 are my world. I LOVE them!

Ethan wasn't really as grumpy as he looks in this picture.

The highlights from those 3 days included  making a gingerbread house with Ellie, playing on the frozen lake (don't worry, I was very careful), and a sleigh ride with the whole family through the snow with a quick stop for cookies and hot chocolate half way through. It was storybook perfect! Just what we needed to end the crazy Christmas season.

During our stay at the cabin, our camera started acting funny and now we can't get it to work at all. Boo! So, I really hope we can get the camera fixed soon or all of my posts are going to be extra boring. Anyone know how to fix a camera that says "Lens error, restart camera"? I have NO idea how to "restart" my camera!

At the end of 3 days, Caleb stole me away for 48 hours to celebrate my 31st birthday. We stayed at a hotel in Denver and saw The Hobbit and Les Miserables within 14 hours in the movie theater. Before that weekend, we hadn't seen a movie in theaters for almost a year! I guess we really wanted to take advantage of time without the little ones. Ha ha. Les Miserables was SO moving-I highly recommend it!

After my birthday weekend was over, we returned home with the kids and it was New Years Eve. This was one of our less exciting New Years Eve's as we went to a small party for just a couple of hours and then headed home to put the kids to bed. Caleb and I plopped down on the couch, watched a movie and toasted with sparkling cider. I couldn't even stay up until midnight this year. Oh well, I was still more than happy to say goodbye to 2012!

Right after New Years, it was wedding time! My cousin Ryan married his fiance Lorin this past Thursday and the whole week was spent with out of town family and filled with wedding festivities. The rehearsal dinner was a blast and the wedding was beautiful!

Well, that catches us up to now.

I'm going to be 14 weeks pregnant on Tuesday and officially in my second trimester! I can't believe how fast time is flying and how fast this pregnancy is going. We're pretty confident that this will be my last pregnancy so I'm trying to soak it all in and not complain about how "large" I am already. ;)

Caleb returns to work tomorrow and I can't tell you how much this is going to upset the kids (and me too). It's amazing how quickly we get used to being together all day every day over Christmas break. I'm just thankful that we get to spend as much time together as we do.

Whenever January hits, I'm both sad and relieved to have life slow down. As we look on to 2013 and we wonder what it holds, I'm finding that my hopes/prayers for this year are a lot more simple than in past years.   Mostly, I hope and pray for healing. Healing for my Dad as he recovers from his surgery on January 17th, and that we will hear that he is cancer free after his surgery. I would also pray for healing for so many that lost loved ones this past year. Those that lost loved ones to tragic and horrific shootings, and those that lost loved ones in other unexpected ways. I also pray for healing for families that are being torn apart through other circumstances.

I hope and pray for healthy babies. A healthy 3rd baby for us, healthy babies for my sister Alli and my friends, and most of all I pray for babies for all of those couples that have been dreaming and trying to have a family for many months or years.

I'm really curious to see what this year holds. No matter what, I know God is faithful, and I'm holding on to that truth.