2019 Holiday Letter

Season's Greetings!!

We feel so freaking lucky and privileged that every new year and new ages our boys become is our new favorite year!  Scrolling thru the 2019 year of pictures with Declan made it easy to pick out many favorite moments!  There were lots of photos to include here and he couldn't take any out!

It was a year of transition starting at the end of January as I began a new position at ISD 622 in Early Childhood Screening and closed down our in-home childcare.  I enjoy my new role very much with a great team of teachers and nurses! And when screening is slow, I love subbing in middle schools to get my older kid fix!   Evan started PreK at our church, Gethsemane, in the spring while Dec finished up Kindergarten.  It was wonderful to have 6 weeks off with them in the summer to take golf lessons, tour playgrounds, swim a lot and just go slow and with the flow!   Now they both get on the bus together for 1st grade and PreK at Castle Elementary and we LOVE their teachers and Evan's new afternoon childcare!  Andy is in his 13th year with 3M!  ("I see 3M first" is our regular favorite dog park or driving on 94 game!)  He didn't have to travel much this year to train, but 2020 could be busier!

Evan and Declan both did soccer this fall and one of them loved it a lot more than the other... (Pictures deceive.. Dec loved it but Evan finished strong. Most the season was a lot more on the outskirts watching the mobs than we expected him to be!)  Both are Lego lovers too.  Declan really enjoyed a Brick Bots Lego league at our library and they got to present their Boomtown Build at a competition!  When they aren't insanely getting on each others nerves (or ours), they are pretty amazing brothers.

Family get together's at the holidays, parades, Great Wolf Lodge, Green Lake, Fox Hills and  Ben & Helen Thrall's Pittsburgh wedding were fun highlights.

TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY Dinner where it all began :) 

          Team World Vision was a huge life altering part of 2019.  Thank you every single person who cheered us on or donated.  I seriously PAUSED about everything except family life after the race and never made the official "thank you's" I intended too.  But thank you, thank you, thank you!  Our team changed over 220 lives, including our own.   My family supported me on bikes on a few long runs, did the Global 6K, cheered hard at Ragnar Midwest, and the finale TC Marathon.  I do not know exactly what 2020 holds for a race yet... Chicago Marathon maybe!?  But praying to still captain a team at Geth, and continue to raise awareness and funds for the children and communities this amazing organization supports.

   

My last big confession of 2019: My three boys finally got me pretty hooked on Pokemon Go!  They had been learning it for 2 years and I never really cared or understood it.. But in the needed PAUSE season this early winter after 6 years of PUSHING hard at life and big transitions, our family time included learning how to Catch 'Em All!  (Message me if you are an addict too, so we can send you gifts ;) )

  We hope your 2020 is amazing!