Christmas Letter 2013

“Noooo!” “Stop!” “What are you DOING?!?!” These are the phrases that have been most common around our house this year. Mixed in with a healthy dose of “Aww, she’s so cute!” and “Aren’t they just angels?” (usually said when they are sleeping.) Olivia is two-and-a-half now and Sophia will be 18 months on the 15th of December, so we are right in the middle of the toddler phase… times two. With that in mind, here’s what we’ve been up to this year:

January: We celebrated New Year’s Eve at Carter and Ashleigh’s house with an awesome downtown view and a dangerously delicious signature cocktail.

February: In an effort to get out of the house during the winter duldrums, we formed a bowling team—Roll With It. We didn’t win any prizes, but we weren’t the worst team either, thanks in part to Mike’s hidden bowling talent. Kelly also took a girls weekend trip with some dear friends down to South Fork.

March: Kelly helped Ashleigh prepare for the big day with a bachelorette party in Denver. We also celebrated Mike’s birthday with a poker night and dinner at the Melting Pot.

April: Carter and Ashleigh’s had a beautiful ceremony and brunch wedding at the Wellshire Country Club. We also celebrated Olivia’s birthday with a tu-tu party—complete with lots of adorable little girls running around in tu-tus.

May: Our long-lost friends Alex and Katey Johnson came for a visit from North Carolina and Olivia started a ballet class, which quickly became her favorite activity. She did great at her twirls and jumps, but most of all she looked adorable in her little ballet outfit!

June: Kelly and Mike took a (kid-less) trip to Yosemite National Park. The girls enjoyed some time with Mike’s parents and we enjoyed exploring the beautiful scenery around the park. We stayed in a bed and breakfast and spent our time inside the park biking, boating, hiking, and soaking in as much as we could of the gorgeous backdrop. If you haven’t been to Yosemite—it’s a must-see! After we returned, we celebrated Sophia’s first birthday with a “You Are My Sunshine” party.

July:We spent the first weekend of the month visiting my dad and Crystal in Wyoming. The girls had fun fishing on papa’s boat and we all enjoyed an outdoor concert in downtown Saratoga. Sophia took her first steps after we got back and was running all around the house shortly thereafter.

August: We rented a house in Silverthorne with a few friends and made a weekend of Courtney and Brett’s wedding festivities, culminating with their nuptials in the backyard of a mansion in Breckenridge. While we were away, a storm cell hit our neighborhood and we got a call that a neighbor’s 10-ft trampoline had blown into our yard! Another neighbor lost the roof off their garage and a nearby bicycle track was half flattened. Later that month, Kelly led a retreat for the Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPs) steering team and we took a family trip to Colorado Springs for Kelly’s birthday. While in Colorado Springs, we visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and the girls had the chance to ride a gondola, feed giraffes, and ride the carousel. Sophia also had her baby dedication and was joined by family and friends for this special day. She was dedicated with about five other babies at The Well—the church in Boulder we have been attending since March.

September: Kelly helped host a bridal shower for Anna and we enjoyed the start of the football season by cheering on Peyton Manning and the Broncos. Olivia moved to her big girl bed and is still adjusting to her newfound nighttime freedom.

October: Mike again shouldered the bulk of the parenting load while Kelly spent the weekend in Silverthorne for Anna’s bachelorette party. And he took over again the following weekend when Kelly headed off to Kansas City for the annual MOPs conference.

November: We enjoyed celebrating Anna and Mike’s wedding in a lovely ceremony and reception held at Stonebrook Manor in Thornton. Alex was back in town to officiate, so we had fun hosting him and hanging out for the weekend.

December:Mike will travel to DC for work for a week and plans to see our friends out there. Then, we will spend Christmas with both of our families and host our annual ugly Christmas sweater party.

Meanwhile, Kelly is still working from home part time as a marketing consultant for MWH and a few other companies. She also continues to write curriculum for 252 Basics and wrote an article for the MOPs International weekly email. Kelly is also helping lead the MOPs group at Calvary Bible Church. Mike works four ten-hour days for the Department of Defense in the Denver Tech Center so he can be home on Fridays. The job is going well but the commute is terrible. He gets a lot of “reading” done on his drive, though, thanks to books on CD. The girls have a wonderful nanny who stays with them two days a week. She loves to take them to the park and the children’s museum and they enjoy their days with Jaime. Olivia has started potty training and is slowly getting the hang of it. Sophia is talking a little more every day; though Mike is a little wounded that she learned how to say “ferret” before she learned how to say “daddy” with any type of consistency. All in all, it has been a crazy year with these crazy girls, but neither of us would trade a moment of it for any other life. God has provided for us through all of the year’s ups and downs—including Mike being furloughed during the government shutdown, storm cells, and record floods in our neighborhood—and we couldn’t be more grateful for His provision. We are praying for each of you and hope this holiday season finds you healthy and full of joy.

Merry Christmas!

Spring-Time-Flies

From Mike: Well, spring is almost over, which means it’s time to update our neglected blog. I know you’ve all been on pins and needles waiting to hear what we’ve been up to, so I’ll get right to it. Now where was I? Oh yeah…March.

Kelly and I celebrated our 5-year wedding anniversary on March 1st! How did we celebrate, you ask? Well, I paid a visit to my eye doctor and got my pupils dilated, and Kelly worked. Exciting, right? Well, it gets better…that evening we romantically dined at a noisy steakhouse with Kelly’s mom and step-dad. I think Kelly and I can confidently proclaim that we are living the dream!

Now, let me caveat all of this by saying that it was around this time that the Federal government was threatening civilian employees with 22 unpaid furlough days due to sequestration, so Kelly and I were in all-out financial belt-tightening mode, which meant we cut a lot of “fun stuff” out of our budget... including eating out. Consequently, you may notice a lack of exciting, extra-curricular activities mentioned in this blog…you’ve been warned.

Anyway, the rest of March basically consisted of baby showers, bachelorette parties, and birthday celebrations…namely, Amy and Zack’s baby shower, Ashleigh’s bachelorette party, and my 31st birthday. Amy and Zack’s co-ed baby shower was at their house in Fort Collins, but we also had a bowling match that afternoon in Denver. Our plan was for us to drive up there together, and I would carpool back down to Denver alone with a few teammates, who were also at the shower while Kelly stayed awhile longer and then drove home with the girls. Sounds like a good plan, right? Well, it was, up until the moment in the car on the way to Denver that Kelly called asking where the car keys were. The stark realization that the keys were still in my pocket was only the first in several brainless mistakes I made that day; a day that ended with me arriving back in Fort Collins 5 hours after the baby shower began to my fuming wife, fussy baby, bleeding toddler, and two gracious party hosts, one of which was very pregnant. Oops!

Olivia officially turned two years old on April 4th! Kelly and I are amazed how quickly time has flown and refuse to acknowledge that she’s one year older, and thus one year closer to leaving the nest. We threw her a “two-tu” party that weekend and enjoyed watching her parade around in her adorable pink tutu, then promptly smear cake into it…*sigh*

For some reason, spring is garage sale time. Perhaps it’s supposed to coincide with spring cleaning? Anyway, a couple of weekends in April and May, we could be seen either wandering around various Erie neighborhoods looking for cheap treasures, or trying to pawn our stuff off on other people. Kelly began attending a monthly get-together with other ladies from our neighborhood and has been enjoying the opportunity to get to know other women in our community.

Olivia began attending ballet class in mid-May. This class is designed to convince parents that their kid is the cutest, most adorable little dancer in the whole world…which, of course, is true in our case. Seeing the pictures and watching the video of Olivia prance around in her leotard almost made me squeal from all the cuteness. Seriously, it’s ridiculous how cute she is.

After MOPs (that’s short for Mothers of Preschoolers) ended in May, Kelly made the decision to become the MOPs Coordinator next year. She hit the ground running and immediately began conducting planning meetings with the steering team. If you know Kelly at all, you know she has a gift for administration, and she’s looking forward to helping run the show in the fall. We received some great news near the end of May: my impending furlough had been cancelled! After three months of anxiety over our financial situation, God answered our prayers and we couldn’t be more thankful for His faithful provision!

Furlough notwithstanding, we had saved enough money to continue our tradition of visiting a new state each year. On May 31st, Kelly and I left the girls with the grandparents, and flew to sunny California for a kid-free visit to Yosemite National Park. We spent the next few days exploring the park and soaking up the breath-taking scenery. We were awed by the iconic vistas, sheer granite cliffs, towering sequoia trees, and thundering waterfalls that comprise the landscape in Yosemite. We rented bikes, took a canoe out for a spin and hiked up to a few waterfalls. Suffice it to say, we took plenty of pictures and were reluctant to return home, even though we desperately missed the girls.

Last weekend we celebrated Sophia’s 1st birthday. Kelly had the bright idea to throw her a sunshine-themed party. Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun. Anyway, our little ray of sunshine is growing bigger every day (not to mention her appetite!), and we love watching her learn new things and develop her own unique personality. She's not walking yet, but we expect that any day she'll be chasing Olivia around like a pro.

That’s it for now. See you next time!

Happy New... March?

From Mike: It’s March already?? How did that happen? That means “write a blog” has officially been on my to- do list for over a month now. Whoops! I guess here’s a recap of the past two months in the Nishi household… January: We rang in the New Year at Carter and Ashleigh’s apartment in the Highlands, which gave us exclusive access to their balcony where we got to watch the festive fireworks show light up the downtown Denver cityscape. Our annual celebration of the Japanese New Year moved from Berthoud to Erie this year as we gathered at my parent’s house for the traditional fare of mochi soup and sushi. I really stretched my culinary skills this year by bringing finger jello. I still occasionally feel the pangs of heartache and injustice when I think back to the Broncos’ unbelievable playoff loss to the Ravens, but being a longtime fan, I am no stranger to post-season disappointment. However, I would like to point out that Tim Tebow has more playoff wins with the Broncos than Peyton Manning does. That is all. ;) After months of schedule conflicts, we finally got an opportunity to visit a church in Boulder called The Well. The simple message preached that week (stop trying so hard to become a better person and love Jesus) drew us into this amazing community of believers and before we knew it, we were signing up to help with children’s ministry, and attending what the church terms a “missional community” gathering the following Wednesday in Erie. The purpose of an MC is to engage with their local community through activities that will draw non-believers into a meaningful relationship with Jesus. February: We celebrated Carter’s birthday the first weekend in February by enjoying some delicious (and entertaining) hibachi at Mt. Fuji in Denver. The next day we returned to the Vinson’s house for their annual Super Bowl party. While the Raven’s win was both a national tragedy and a disgrace to professional sports, we nevertheless enjoyed spending time with friends and watching the VW commercial where a father hysterically teaches his son to play “catch.” The following weekend Kelly attended the Zuiker’s baby shower, and we had our first bowling league match. That’s right folks, we joined a bowling league. If any of you have seen me bowl, you’re probably scratching your head right now. Well, rest assured, this is strictly non-competitive. We decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day on Saturday the 16th, and since we’ve had to tighten our fiscal belt with my looming furlough threat and Kelly’s inconsistent income, we treated ourselves to a tasty Mexican food dinner at La Fogata. Kelly’s dad and Crystal drove down from Wyoming that weekend also to spend time with their grandkids…and Kelly and me. Later that week we drove downtown to celebrate Kelly’s mom and her retirement from the Denver Business Journal. Kelly framed an old picture of Sharon when she worked for the Daily Camera and bring it to the party so her friends and colleagues could see what she looked like back in her heyday. It was a huge hit, and a major conversation piece. The last weekend in February Kelly left me and the girls and drove down to South Fork, CO to spend time with a few of her girlfriends. Although she had to get some work done while she was there, and found out the hot tub was busted, she enjoyed the quiet girl time, and eventually returned safely to us. I, on the other hand, did our taxes and shoveled 8 inches of wet snow off the driveway…and played video games…and occasionally spent time caring for Olivia and Sophia. I’ll not burden you with the early March events…yet. But here’s a teaser to keep you on the edge of your seats until then: Kelly and I celebrated our 5-year anniversary and lots of friends had babies...