2016......peace out!

I was definitely not on the ball with the Christmas/New Years card this year, which is fine, that's life sometimes. I do however love reflecting on time. Time is SUCH a huge gift, and this year has been full of memories and experiences that were time well spent.
It's also been a year full of love. "Love is the fabric of life," and I have never found that to be more true than this year having our sweet little Lo Lo come into the picture.

Life has changed SO much having her around! She is spunky as can be, fearless, confident, but also incredibly loving and sweet. She has been an incredibly good baby from the get-go, sleeping through the night, eating ANYTHING I put in front of her, being flexible and go-with-the-flow, she's just been a dream! We really can't imagine life without her in it. Even though it's a lot harder to keep the house clean, I have to sweep 600 times a day, and I now am singing songs from Mickey Mouse Club House in my sleep, life with Lo is way more fun, and I can't believe in less than 2 weeks we will be celebrating her FIRST birthday (insert tears here). Where did my tiny little newborn go?!

Kyle and I have had a wild year (aside from becoming parents). After 7 years with his former job, Kyle took on a new venture with a different company, and is loving it! We took on the challenge of selling out house, which proved to truly be a challenge indeed. Two weeks after listing our house we had a full price offer, and we were ecstatic to find a more permanent home to live in. We found a house we loved, made and offer, and it was accepted. We had everything ready to go! The week our current house was set to close, our buyer walked away. That same week I also had a miscarriage, after an unexpected pregnancy with an IUD. It was a tough time for us, and after 2 more weeks of our house being on the market (and it hardly showing at all) we decided that we were going to take our house off the market and back out of our offer on the other house. We learned a lot from these trials, and although we still don't understand why it wasn't the right time for us to move, we felt at peace knowing that The Lord always has a plan, and when the time was right, we would be able to get into another home. A few short weeks later we found out we were expecting again, and we are ecstatic to be welcoming another little one in June!

It really is true though that we make our own happiness. Despite the sadness we experienced through various events this year, we have found so much joy in the little things. I love being home with Logan. I still work for a podiatrist a day and a half a week, and though I really enjoy my job, I will be a full time stay at home mom come June when baby #2 comes, and I'm excited for that new adventure. Kyle is first counselor in the Young Men's program at church, and he finds a lot of joy in spending time with the boys he works with. We have added 5 new games to our game collection this year, and have lots of fun having game nights with our friends. We got to do a couple weekend trips to Leavenworth, and two wedding trips to Utah, but no big vacations this year, Kyle and I are hoping to go somewhere just the two of us in 2017 (fingers crossed!!!) I got to enjoy playing on an all girls soccer team this past summer with some friends and my sister and that was awesome! Kyle and I also did a softball league with a bunch of friends over the summer, and a volleyball league this past fall. Kyle also played on a basketball league (we love our athletics!) It was fun to enjoy some of the action before being pregnant again :) We spent lots of time on the lake this summer, and Kyle got up on the wake board for the first time (unlike his cool wife who gets up everytime:) Of course we spend a lot of time with our families, who just ADORE our little Logan girl, we really are so blessed to have both sets of parents so close (and so willing to take her when we need a date night!!!)

Overall, 2016 has been good to us! Life is so full of surprises, Kyle and I definitely never foresaw having two little ones in such a quick time span, but thank goodness God is in charge. Our faith in Jesus Christ remains the guiding factor of our lives, and we know that so long as we are obedient to His commandments, we are supported in our trials and are able to find joy in the journey! He has made our lives so much greater than we could have on our own! Here's to another great year in the books!