Memorable 2009

Happy New Year! I, for one, love new beginnings. This past year was definitely memorable as we focused this year on two words: Connect and Grow. No babies, or weddings (like last year's blog), or anything else to announce this past year. Only one other word comes to mind: HOUSE.

It only took from February to July to accomplish-- the dreaming, searching, finding, settling in to our amazing new home. Which, by the way, was my Christmas gift this year, a long with all our new furniture. Patrick was VERY good to me. It's been a joy to make this house, our home. Take a look at some before and after pictures:

family room

living room

And while we're on before/after pictures---at the start of the new year, it's hard to forget we had just began again as 2nd time parents. It was a very challenging time for both Patrick and I. We had a lot of sleepless nights. The worst part was that Caelan refused to take a bottle until he was five months old, making it difficult to be away from him for more than two hours. Thank God those nights are over...

Now, he's a delightful little baby. A highlight this year was that we had a huge first birthday party at our new home. He walked at 13 months, and he has 8 teeth now. Micah walked at 10 months, and had zero teeth. Micah started out the year terribly two. There was a lot of tough love around this house, but I think we are seeing our reward because he listens and obeys most of the time. Key word is "most". We were watching some videos of him at the start of 2008 and were simply amazed at all he was able to do and say then. He's so much fun.

Since we bought the house and all new furniture, we were too broke to do much else. So whatever travel we did, we wanted it to be fun for the kids, and easy for us. So we headed to Michigan to visit Kristen and Len and Micah's and Caelan's four cousins.

We also got to see the beach with the kids, and our small group family. Oh, and by the way--one of the dating couples on this trip got engaged on Christmas.
Woo hoo! Another one bites the dust!

Also, another highlight in 2009 was the entire family
on Patrick's side was able to visit this December. And the word "house" again comes up, because we were finally able to host a large family!

Twice over! My family came to stay for the rest of December
and I just simply thank God for this house.

In other updates, Patrick is taking on more responsibility at the office and is a project manager of a multi-million dollar government contract. He enjoys the challenges, but is wondering if he'll still have his sanity in tact. His number one job as husband and father is the one he cares about, and I can tell you that this man engages with his children. What an impact it is already making. He's doing an exceptional job!

I'm still LOVING my job as CEO of our home, Event Planner, Head-diaper changer, Top Chef--but I am thinking I want to start doing something else part time. I'm praying about it, so we'll see where the Lord takes this. Meanwhile, I'm heavily involved in my mom's group, Community Bible study, and now another Beth Moore study weekly. Both of us are asking where the Lord wants us to specifically serve this year in ministry and we don't want to waste the gifts and talents He gave us to use! As a side note, another exciting thing (to Patrick's dismay) was that I cut off all my glorious hair. Goal in 2010 is to grow it back.

When I think about this year, I have to just exhale loudly. My life just feels so very full. I feel the time we were given, was used to maximum impact. I celebrate the gift of Jesus, my ridiculously amusing husband, my sweet sons and all the wonderful people in our lives. We made this year about connecting in relationships, almost occupying every weekend getting together with friends or family. We also made it about growth in so many areas of our marriage, in parenting, and in our walk. We're goal setting again for 2010 and we can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us! Thanks for sharing this year with us. All three of you faithful followers should also know that Patrick has resolved to blog more this year. Hooray!!!!!