Happy New Year

Wow...this is awful. I realize I haven't posted since before Thanksgiving. The last month turned out to be a wonderfully crazy and chaotic month! A lot has happened, so I'll just give a brief summary of events.

December started by me flying out to Sioux Falls for about a week. I went out to help my sister Sheri travel to WA with her 3 kids (a 3-year old and twin 1-year olds). It was fun to be there over the twin's birthday and I got to watch Kiera's Christmas program. The weather was WAY to cold though...I definitely don't miss that part of the Midwest. The trip home went surprisingly well, though we were both ready to be done traveling by the end of the day.

My sister Tami and her 3 kids flew out the day after we arrived in WA, so the blessed chaos increased. In all there are 8 kids, 7 of them are 4 & under. We had a great time hanging out. Going anywhere proved to be quite the sideshow with all the car seats and highchairs but it was great. We celebrated my 25th birthday by going to Red Robin with just the adults (a rare treat).

In the midst of all this chaos our house was slowly getting worked on. The cabinet people finished retaining our cabinets, we finally finished painting, and carpet was installed downstairs the week before Christmas. With all the people in my parent's house Nate and I decided to move into ours even though it wasn't completely ready. So I guess we are now moved in, but a lot of work is yet ahead of us. We finally emptied our storage unit (and the van we had parked in storage last year still full of stuff!). It was like Christmas as we went through everything, some stuff we had never even opened since we didn't have a lot of room in Olympia.

As I look back it is hard to believe it has almost been one full year since leaving Olympia. We are VERY ready to finally settle in and get our lives organized. It is amazing to see God's hand in all the events, from losing our jobs in Jan, and incredible trip to Europe, Nate's new job allowing us to live close to family, and my availability to help my dad as he underwent chemo and radiation this summer. God is good!