Last year I wrote a post on where we were in life. I thought I would keep the tradition going and do it again at the start of this year. If you are interested in reading last year's post you can find it
here. I haven't gone back to read it yet, I wanted to try to write this year's as free from bias as possible.
In late July we moved into a new house. We absolutely love it. We have a bedroom for each kid, a six foot fence in the backyard (Taylor built along with many friends who gave up their Saturdays to bless us), tons of storage room, and amazing neighbors. We still look at each other at night and say, "we can't believe it's ours and we get to live here!"
This past year Grayson turned two and it is the first time in almost 7 years, we haven't had a baby or been pregnant. It has been so much fun to really enjoy him at this age and not be hanging over a toilet or parenting from the couch. We thought we would start trying in fall of last year for another baby and then ended up moving, so we pushed it off to Christmas, then Taylor started a new job, now we are hoping to get to 2015 before we have a baby... the plan is to try sometime this year...we'll see. We are trying to take the next couple of months to gear up for pregnancy which is notoriously tough on me and our family. So worth it, but a tiring time.
Taylor started a new job working at USAA he loves it so far. He just got his series 7 license and is really excited about the many possibilities he will have their. We had to take a pay-cut for him to move their and pairing that with the recent purchase of our house leaves us looking at a very lean year. We are trusting God to provide for us as he always has and are looking at lots of creative budgeting strategies for the year.
I am loving decorating the house and am trying to take action on all the things I have pinned on pinterest rather than just pinning. I am learning to be a mom with a child in school. This is a major-change that I didn't anticipate. After 5 years of doing whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted to, it is quite an adjustment to have to get kids out the door on time and with everything they need. I want to eat healthier this year, exercise more, be intentional with my time and more present this year.
Katie is in Kindergarten and thriving. She can read amazingly well (proud mom speaking) and she and I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie books at night together which is something I always dreamed about doing with my daughter. She is creative, passionate, kind and enthusiastic. She just learned to crochet and desperately wants to take gymnastic lessons. She loves helping her brothers though it often comes across as trying to parent them which they don't love. I found her in her room reading her Bible the other day and it made my heart swell so much.
Levi is my sweet little buddy. He loves Star Wars and dinosaurs. He has a lava lamp in his room that he has on every night. This week he discovered that he has to close his eyes to go to sleep and has been taking 2 hour naps. He loves movies and would watch them all day if I let him. He loves having a Mohawk in his hair and spiking it up himself. He is an introvert and really comes out of his shell in individual interactions.
Grayson keeps us on our toes. He is always exploring and trying to keep up with Katie and Levi. Taylor and I love getting him up in the morning because he is just so cheerful. He is talking like crazy and says the funniest things. He likes to do things himself. He wants to eat crackers all day and will refuse food I give him. If we push a bite in his mouth he with then realize he likes it and eat a ton. He is tiny! At his latest check-up he was in the 5th and 6th percentile for height and weight. Which is actually up from the 3rd percentile. What he lacks in size he certainly makes up for in personality.
The kids play together pretty well. Some days better than others. We are trying to instill in them that they are best friends and need to take care of each other.
Oakley is still plugging along. We thought we were going to have to put him down the other day, but it seems he just has arthritis, fatty tumors, and a tummy-ache.
Thanks for hanging in there for this long haul of a life-summary. We are so blessed by God to be living this crazy, lovely life.
