1. The year started out rather calm, but it didn't stay that way for long. Early in the year, Emma participated in her first gymnastics competition. It was a friendly competition just among girls in her gymnastics school, but she enjoyed it--and she scored 1st place on bars.
2. In the spring, the girls each celebrated their birthdays. And then we promptly dug a big hole in our backyard! (Not in any way related to the birthdays.) Work started on the room addition we added on to our house, and continued for a few months.
3. Next came Josiah's 1st birthday. We had quite a few family members join us for the party. It was hard to believe our little guy was a year old already!
One of the funny things about Josiah's 1st birthday was, he hated cake. It was like he was scared of it or something!
4. Two weeks after Josiah turned one, we left for a family vacation in Florida. The five of us left a few days ahead of the rest of my family, who we met up with down there. We took the kids to a real beach for the first time. They loved it!
Once my family arrived, we spent several days at the Disney Parks together. It was a lot of work doing Disney with three kids so young, but the kids all had a good time.
5. In late spring and early summer, various family members competed in a number of races. Dakota got back into running this year, and ran the 20k Dam-to-Dam race at the end of May. Then he and Emma ran in the Clive one mile race. (He pushed Ashlyn in the jogging stroller.) The Clive event also featured shorter sprint races that both girls ran in.
A couple weeks later, Emma competed in her first triathlon. (Swim/Bike/Run) She did a great job and is looking forward to doing it again next year!
6. During the summer the girls participated in several reading programs. Emma was quite pleased with herself when she learned she had won the top prizes at two different book stores. She was July's top reader at Half Price Books, and she was the top overall summer reader at Wellspring. Both top honors came with prizes and gift cards to buy more books.
7. A trip to the state fair in August also netted Josiah a handful of prizes--namely a trophy and a couple ribbons. We entered him in the fair's decorated diaper contest and the diaper derby. The girls helped decorate his diaper with lots of ribbons, bows, glittery stickers, and a great big flower on the tush. I wrote on a plain, white t-shirt (adorned with more glittery stickers), "My Sisters Did This To Me!" The girls walked him up to the judges table; the judges loved it, and he took home the first place trophy!
After that, it was on to the diaper derby (a crawling race). He missed the signal to start because he was too busy looking around at everything else on stage. But once he finally spotted me on the other end of the mat, he took off and won a 2nd place ribbon.
The rest of the day we spent exploring the butterfly house, the kid-sized farm, and lots of other exhibits and rides.
8. At the end of the summer, we hosted a small family reunion of my dad's side of the family. My dad and his wife, Lisa, drove up from Texas for an extended weekend. Both of my sisters, my nephew, and an aunt and uncle also came out for the weekend.
9. Also at the end of the summer we felt the call to make some changes at our church. We left our comfortable chairs among our friends and stepped into a little known micro-congregation operating within our own mega-church. Dakota was invited to organize and help with the music for the International
Fellowship (formerly known as the African Fellowship). The first few months were challenging--not really knowing anyone in the group, being the only white people in the room, being uncertain of cultural expectations, being the only ones who don't speak Swahili, and more. But as we've gotten to know the people in the group better, we count it a huge blessing to be involved with them.
In November, we had a group of the Kenyan ladies over for an afternoon of pie making. They had never made pies before, so it was fun to spend time with them teaching them new skills, while getting to know them better.
10. And to wrap up the year, a highlight for the girls has been all of the different activities they got to start or take part in this fall. Both continue to do gymnastics, but there have been a few new things added to the mix. Ashlyn got her first taste of soccer when she and Emma joined park and rec. teams.
Ashlyn also got to start having piano lessons with Dakota, which she was very excited about. She's picked it up surprisingly fast! Emma continues to do well with piano lessons, and tries to have at least one piece ready to play at the nursing home each month. And finally, the girls started horseback riding lessons this fall. Through a connection at church, we met a couple who have horses. They were happy to let us come over each week to learn about and help train their horses (and dogs, and cats, and birds...). All three kids have LOVED it! Unfortunately, we've had to pause for the winter (it's getting a little too cold to spend so much time outside), but we're looking forward to picking it back up again in the spring!
Well that about wraps things up for our year! It's been full of challenges and blessings, and we're glad for the ways our family has grown through it all. Keep up with our family by following this blog throughout the year, and drop us a line occasionally to let us know how things are going with you!
Merry Christmas to you and your family, and blessings for a wonderful new year!
2 comments:
Wow, I really enjoyed reading about your year. Such fun!!
Thanks Jenny! :)
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