Wednesday, December 31, 2014

the best of 2014


Tonight, Steve and I spent some time flipping through all of the photos from this year on our computer. We chose (some) of our very favorites to post. It’s going to be hard saying goodbye to 2014—God has blessed us so much this year! Check out all of these wonderful memories:

2014 is the year we met our sweet Ephraim Luke. We’ve watched him grow for 11 months, and we are so happy with our little family of four!
 
It was one of the coldest winters ever, so we did a lot of snuggling up at home from January through March.
 
It took some adjusting to having a two-and-a-half-year-old and a newborn. In some ways, we are still adjusting and learning how to balance both boys. :)

 

 
In June, we had so much fun on our road trip to Nebraska! We were able to see both of my hometowns (Chicago and Lincoln), and visit with a lot of family.

 
We had a blast during our week at family camp in New York with Steve’s side of the family in July :)


Summer flew by, and we tried to soak up as much outdoor time as we could.


We celebrated all of our summer birthdays back-to-back. Nolan’s donut party was a huge hit!
 
This fall, I loved sharing in Ephraim’s first Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!


These boys have made me the luckiest girl in the world. I love my job taking care of them.

I am excited for all that 2015 will bring! Being a big list-maker and goal-setter, you can find me sneaking in some extra journaling today. I hope that God will continue to mold me into the woman that he has designed me to be. And I pray health and happiness for all of you in this coming year :)

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Ephraim at 11 months


Ephraim, I can’t even believe you are less than a month away from turning one-year-old! We’ve had a really fun month snuggling up at home and celebrating your first Christmas. You are a little explorer, but I am always your home base. Please stay my baby forever :)

You are:

Dancing to music! (You wiggle and stomp your right foot)
Learning how to share. You give Mommy or Daddy a piece of food or a toy, and quickly take it back :)
Standing for around 15 seconds before you realize you’re not holding on to anything
Waving with both hands when someone new walks in the room
Eating all you can with your ONE perfect new tooth (your bottom left)
Loving the vantage point from Mommy’s hip
Laughing at your big brother’s antics
Investigating everything that has to do with water
Picking up every crumb and sticker off the floor
Waking too often at night (Though last night you slept from 12-8 which I think is the best yet!)
Nursing like a champ. You can’t figure out how to drink water from a sippy cup or bottle. Any suggestions?
Making everyone fall deeper in love with you.




Your legs are still chubby, but they are slowly thinning out (aww. . .). And that hair! It’s getting long, wispy, and somewhat curly in the back. I love it!

 

I am going to be soaking in these next twenty-nine days the best that I can! He’ll be sporting a “12” before we know it :)

Monday, December 29, 2014

christmas, part two


On Friday, we celebrated Christmas with my in-laws. In true “Everybody Loves Raymond” fashion, we don’t have far to travel to their house. Our family keeps getting bigger—my in-laws now have six grandbabies to love :)  We opened the pile of generous presents, and then we grazed on cranberry orange cake while chasing around all of the little ones.
 

My friend Meghan gave us an adorable package of sugar cookie ingredients, and the kids loved decorating the cookies with tiny Christmas bulb sprinkles.

    


Steve decided to do a read-aloud of “Dad is Fat” by Jim Gaffigan ;)




On Saturday afternoon, we hugged our houseguests goodbye. Life is always so fun when they are here that we miss them already! Nolan never stopped running around with his cousins from Monday to Saturday. And Ephraim loved watching the little baby and trying to touch her face!


On Saturday, Steve was at our friends’ wedding (I unfortunately couldn’t go because it was out of town), and my mom invited us over for dinner and some Swedish rice pudding. It’s the best!



 
When my mom went to Minnesota last month, she brought back a box of photos and mementos from my grandparents (dad's parents). I can't begin to explain how wonderful it is to discover new photos of my dad. I didn't have nearly enough time to get to know him on this earth, so seeing pictures of him is like piecing together bits of my history. We haven’t made it through the whole box yet, and I can’t wait to see more :) 

I am thinking these were early high school.


Baby Ephraim turned 11 months old yesterday! (Whoa!) I am not going to be ready for his birthday in only a month!

How was your Christmas?

Friday, December 26, 2014

friday favorites

F R I D A Y   F A V O R I T E S

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas yesterday! Our celebrations are continuing on today—this time with Steve’s side of the family. I love stretching out the holiday for as long as we can :)

Here are my FAVORITE moments and photos from the past few days:

 
We really enjoyed the Christmas Eve service on Wednesday night at church. We have a new pastor (my stepfather retired), and he and his wife are wonderful musicians. Steve joined them in leading worship, and it sounded beautiful! As per tradition at the end of the service, we gathered around the perimeter of the sanctuary and sang “Silent Night” while holding candles. I look forward to this every year :) Nolan did an awesome job holding his candle for the first time!

 
I had Nolan and my nieces help me make cinnamon dough ornaments for the tree. They loved taking turns with the rolling pin. We cut out little trees, stockings, and stars. The ornaments made the house smell delicious and Christmasy.

 


Another favorite moment was seeing this group snuggle up for a movie :)
 

Yesterday, we went over to my mom and Don’s house for Christmas dinner and present-opening. The boys had such a great time!



 

  Ephraim looked ADORABLE in his “My First Christmas” outfit!


My mom bought us each a 2014 ornament. Nolan got this cute mini version of his turtle sandbox.


And E got a “Baby’s First Christmas” sweet little deer :)

 
Another gift he got was a stuffed Peter Rabbit—perfect for his upcoming birthday party :)



 
Nolan loves his new Home Depot toolbox :)

  
Baby Ephraim took a nap mid-presents.





His first Christmas was most definitely a success :)


I just pulled a cranberry orange bundt cake out of the oven, and I can’t wait to taste it for brunch at my in-laws!

Enjoy your holiday weekend!
Xoxo.

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