So....January.
Photographic evidence suggests that not a lot happened. I took this poor quality photo of Hannah and Ted stomping down leaves in the back of his truck to fit in more leaves. Because we raked a TON of leaves in January. Looking back at old photos, we also apparently got sick, gave the kids baths (obviously), went to the park, and watched Ted play in a few city league basketball games.
February
Our sweet girl turned three! We had a party at the park down the street and I made a really awesome lion cake, as requested by the birthday girl. Ted took Hannah fishing a lot. We spent some time at the zoo. And I got hipster glasses that I continue to wear without being very confident that they actually look good on me.
March
April
We got a bike trailer and used it every single day to ride to the park a mile from our house. We took both kids out on the boat and it went about as you would expect it go. We celebrated Easter and taught Hannah to ride a bike with training wheels.
May
We started putting together our family alter. We crowned Mary at our weekly play group. And Ted and I went on an actual date! We didn't even have a gift card and had to pay for a babysitter and everything.
June
We found out we were pregnant! (suppressing the urge to make the obvious date-night joke) Hannah and I took a girls-only road trip to Missouri for my sister's bridal shower and I got to tell my family the good news in person. We also got to stop in Mississippi and visit our friends just before they moved to Texas (which, sadly, is no longer on our route home...) We spent a few days at the beach with Ted's mom, sisters, and nephew. Ted's dad to came to visit. More fishing. More playing at the park. More gymnastics.
July
July was pretty uneventful. We announced our good news to the rest of the world and mostly tried to stay cool and avoid going outside if at all possible.
August
August was quite the fun month. We spent a week at the beach, this time with my side of the family. My parents, two sisters, one boyfriend, and one fiancee all in a house together. I continued to feel sick even though I moved into that magical second trimester. After the beach trip, my mom stayed with us for another week so that I could attend a week-long training at work. Since she was in town over our six year anniversary, we got to go on ANOTHER date! (that's a 12 week bump pictured. man, third babies!) The rest of the month was spent trying to get creative in the terrible heat.
September
September. Oh glorious, glorious September. I hope you are etched in my mind forever. We moved! We're renting a beautiful farm house way, way, way out of town. Our new town consists of a blinking yellow light, a gas station, and Methodist church, and a feed store. Although Ted's commute is long and it's a haul to take the kids anywhere, it's beyond worth it. Our landlords are missionaries and spend half the year abroad and half the year staying in the pool house (which means we have a pool!). We met them the day we moved in and (thank you Jesus!) get along with them really well. It's very communal living and the house and yard need a lot of upkeep, but in exchange for our privacy and free time we get fields of luscious green grass, fruit trees galore, horses and cows and chickens surrounding us on all sides, and the most amazing view of the sunrise and sunset every single day.
Life slowed down in September. I finally got that energy boost that comes with the second trimester. We spent all day, every day outside just.....being. Moving was hard and getting the house together was stressful, but we did it and were mostly settled by the end of the month.
September 2014, I love you.
October
October was also awesome. We planned a pumpkin patch/wagon ride/potato soup party with friends but it was so stinking hot that it turned into a swimming pool/brats and burgers party. We hooked the flat bed trailer up to the lawn mower and took the kids on wagon rides in the evenings when it did finally cool down. We picked tons of pears and made pies (that we didn't share with the kids). We pinched ourselves every day and said "I can't believe we live here." At the end of the month, we drove to Missouri for my sister's wedding. The two day trip went surprisingly well. I got to spend a weekend sans kids in St. Louis for my sister's bachelorette party. The kids both got sick and daddy took care of everything like a boss. We got the see real fall leaves for the first time in years, something we've really missed since moving to Florida. We spent Halloween at the rehearsal dinner and our kids have no idea that candy is involved in dressing up and saying "trick or treat."
November
November kicked our butts. It was the most fun/intense/stressful/busy/awesome month in recent memory. Maybe ever. It started off with a bang on the very first day (All Saint's Day!) with my sister's beautiful wedding to the most wonderful man. Such a holy celebration. A true sacrament. Incense. Inspiring homily. As good as Catholic weddings get. And so much fun! But performing my matron-of-honor duties while six months pregnant and also taking care of the non-napping flower girl and ring bearer with my groomsman husband might have actually been the hardest day of my life.
We returned home from our two week trip for just a few days before we packed it all up again and went to Arkansas to visit friends. In the few days we were home we went to a fall festival and had a few bonfires. Then it was back in the car for four more days and sleeping in more hotel rooms. Despite it being a frigid, frigid weekend in Arkansas (we saw snow! a whole centimeter. and that was plenty) we had a great time catching up with our friends who moved away from Florida last Christmas.
In just three weeks we drove 3,000 miles and slept in eight different locations. And somewhere in that whirlwind Hannah started riding a bike without training wheels! At three! We still can't believe it. By the end of November, we were looking very forward to a quiet December at home.
December
December was exactly what we were hoping it would be. Life slowed back down. We really got into celebrating Advent and the many feasts days that came with it. We woke up in our own home on Christmas morning for the first time ever. We lived it up during the Twelve Days of Christmas and enjoyed family movie nights and light displays and took the kids out on the boat for the second time (it went much better than the first). We sent out Christmas cards. We sang Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel at dinner and then switched to Joy to the World. (The kids are still singing both and it's just adorable.)
We didn't get to end the year in an Adoration chapel on our annual New Year's retreat in the Missouri mountains with friends. But we did Skype with a few of them, chose patron saints for 2015 together, and actually stayed up until midnight. We ended the year grateful for our home and for our (three!) children. God blessed us abundantly in 2014.
