mom's year wrap '14

as 2014 comes to a close, I can easily reflect back on a year full of change and growth but also of love and prosperity for our family this year!

The beginning of the year was really just a continuation of work on the house, around the house, finishing the girls rooms, working outside, etc. We had a crazy long winter last year, tons of snow, lots of playing outside, etc.

Cora celebrated her 3rd birthday with "Frozen," and then before we knew it, Amara was celebrating her 6th birthday with a beach party too!

Late Spring brought a lot of change for the girls as they began to prep for our last days with Sarah. She went through the process of listing their house and they enjoyed all their time together. Amara actually stopped going to the GCCCC in favor of spending more time with Sarah and Jonathan and Cora altogether.

The lot of them enjoyed parks, special outings, crafts, celebrated parties, and just soaked in the last of their regular time together. Their house sold super fast, and June was the end of an era for that.

We took a vacation to Hilton Head Island right after Sarah's last day and we LOVED it. It is our new favorite vacation spot for sure. We got to see different sides of the girls, experience the beach and pool everyday, and watch our little guppies take off! We tried new restaurants, activities, and started what we hope will be lifelong traditions.

The summer brought time with Carissa and her family. Lots of hours were logged with her family at the Big Splash pool, parks, back yard, and lots of kids and laughs. We learned to adapt, transition from Sarah to Carissa, how to get along with 4 older "siblings," and have fun doing it.

Fall brought school for Amara! She started as a Darbydale Dolphin right after labor day. This gave Cora some alone time during the day (again) and Amara the chance to spread her wings. Eric and I began our career-long volunteering time with Ms. Bice, Amara's teacher, and we started learning the ins and outs of getting everyone on the bus, out the door, papers in bags, returning papers, and doing it all on time. Amara immediately began winning quality awards, was noted as a leader in her class, and continues to impress us all weekly.

Cora continued on with her gymnastics classes while Amara tackled Karate, Upward cheer, Hip Hop with the CCS, and anything else she could stumble into. It was a busy time, but we made it work and even took a second short vacation to Hilton Head in September!

October brought fun activities. Spending time with the Vogt's, our fall party, festivals, parades, and family time. Playing in the leaves, picking up lots of sticks, and enjoying the great property and outdoors.

Grandpa Jahn had a major heart surgery in November, so we all experienced that with him. The upside though was Eric prepping his first turkey with dad, us all spending the night there, and having a fun day of crafting at their house.

Winter kicked off early, but then no snow. The good news was we got to keep playing outside, but the girls are still waiting for their white winter (even now). Cora is almost 4, planning her party as we speak, and Amara is 6 1/2 going on 16. We had an amazing Christmas holiday filled with trips to the Polar express, visits and breakfast with Santa, making cookies with friends, shopping, wrapping, decorating and playing.  It was a magical season that literally flew by!

We experienced our first school winter break--which gave us opportunities to do lots of fun things together too, and had its' challenges. We celebrated LOTS of birthdays in December too, and Amara got to have the independence of her first Secret Santa shop for family at her school.

The girls attended their first New Year's Eve event, and just like that, we are already up on a new year, 2015.

We were so blessed and lucky to have a happy and eventful year. As we roll into the next year, we are all healthy and are enjoying school, home, and family lives together. This year we will have a first grader and preschooler before long, time really does fly and I'm happy to be able to think back on the last year with such fond memories, friends, and events to recall.