Merry Christmas!!!

What?? The year is over?? I can't believe how fast time flies with two toddlers in the house. It has been a wild one and busy in many ways, but also much more mellow than past years in other ways. The truest thing I've heard lately is that parenting is made up of the longest days and the shortest years--that phrase pretty much sums up life in our house right now!

We kicked off 2014 at home with close friends eating sushi and playing games. It was a great time! Then, we headed off a couple weeks later for our annual ski trip in Winter Park. After getting ourselves towed out of a snow drift, we had a great weekend hanging out with friends and taking the girls on a sleigh ride at a local ranch.

 In February, we introduced Nathan to the Casa Bonita experience and visited the ice castles in Breckenridge. We also celebrated two years in our house. At the end of the month, we had dinner at the Cork to celebrate six years of marriage. Sophia had her first series of swim lessons, which she wasn't too sure about, and Olivia had a great time in her gymnastics class.

We had a birthday dinner for Mike at The Post in March and made the rounds to various other birthday soirees for kids and adults.

Being the good parents we are, we spent Olivia's birthday in April going to Rockies opening day with our friends... but the next day, we threw her a tea party themed birthday party complete with lots of people making her feel special. For Easter, we went to The Well's service at the Boulder Theater and then had brunch at Mateo. The girls had fun searching for Easter eggs and prancing around Pearl Street in their fancy dresses.

 Kelly wrapped up her first year of being MOPs co-coordinator in May and we all headed up to Estes Park for Becca's wedding at the YMCA of the Rockies. As usual, we attended the Erie Town Fair and had our annual Memorial Day BBQ at the Murphy's.

In June, we headed out on our annual state trip. This year it was conveniently...Colorado! I'll spare you the details of the whole trip, since we already wrote that blog, but we had an amazing time with our friends Amy and Zack (and their little Lilla). We made a big circle around the state-- staying in Glenwood Springs, Montrose, Telluride, Durango and Alamosa, with stops in Pagosa Springs and Ouray along the way. What a gorgeous state we live in! When we got back, Sophie had a cowgirl party to celebrate turning two and we headed to Fort Collins to celebrate Beth and Matt's engagement!

Erie continued the tradition of setting off fireworks on the 3rd of July, so we had mom, Lynn, Megan and Ross over for cake and burgers before watching the show from the street corner. On the fourth, we had a BBQ at Suzanne and Floyd's house and then the Milburns and the Wolfs came over for more fireworks fun in the street outside our house. The next day we attended the Erie Brewfest, where we sampled some of the local fare and then headed to a wedding reception for Lloyd and Allison. The following weekend, we took our annual trip to Wyoming, where the girls had a blast playing in the lake and got to experience their first rodeo. A couple weeks after that, Kelly went to Denver for an overnight Beth Moore conference with Amy, Allie and Debbie.

In August, Kelly helped put on a steering retreat for MOPs and then we took the girls to Nederland to experience the most favorite thing of Olivia's childhood thus far-- the Carousel of Happiness. Shortly after, Kelly's birthday fun started. Celebrations began with a trip to the Rockies game with friends and then continued with rafting in Idaho Springs and dinner at The Rio the next day. Olivia started preschool and loves it so much! Her teacher, Ms. Maul, is great with the kids and is always impressed by how advanced Olivia is. She is really making us proud already! Sadly, my dear cousin Connie passed away in August and we celebrated her life by having a great visit with my Great Aunt El, Great Uncle Perry and Cousin Carol.

We kicked off September with a Labor Day BBQ at Anna and Mike's house. We also got the wonderful news that we are expecting our third child!! We were overjoyed and terrified, as we have been with every pregnancy :) Baby girl #3 is due in May and we couldn't be more excited! Later in the month, however, we got the sad news that my Uncle Lynn had passed away from cancer. Kelly traveled to Dallas for the funeral and to help wrap things up in Texas.

In October, we headed up to Silverthorne with Beth, Matt, and Anna for a Columbus Day weekend away. It was great to see the changing leaves and we were even treated to a cozy snow storm :) The following weekend, we attended the Olsen's Halloween party and the girls had a blast riding horses, painting pumpkins and bouncing in the bounce house. Halloween fun continued the rest of the month with trick or treating at the Orchards, Trunk or Treat, and, of course, Halloween itself! The girls dressed up as Care Bears (because Kelly found the costumes at a garage sale for a quarter) and they loved it. Sophie has been obsessed with Care Bears ever since. Mike and Kelly even got in on the Halloween fun at Carter and Ashleigh's house with a party and "cop and robber" costumes.

Mike and Kelly headed up to Winter park again in November for a kid-free getaway where we enjoyed going out to a nice dinner and relaxing in a mountain lodge hotel. Later in the month, we celebrated Thanksgiving at Floyd and Suzanne's house and Kelly finished up her three online classes.

This December we plan to make the most of the holidays by attending the parade of lights in both Erie and Denver, as well as hosting our annual Ugly Christmas Sweater party. We'll be at Floyd and Suzanne's for Christmas and can't wait to celebrate with the family!

 Mike is still working as an auditor for the Department of Defense. Kelly is focusing mostly on wrangling the two children we have and growing a new one, but she also still does marketing consulting work, writes curriculum for 252 Basics, and helps co-coordinate her MOPs group in Boulder. Also, she is working toward her goal to open up a Christian preschool in Erie someday. In order to take steps toward this, she has been taking classes online and working at a local preschool two afternoons a week to help accumulate hours (she has to have 910 hours in order to get licensed.) Olivia is in preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. She is also taking a ballet class and loves playing with trains, Legos, and puzzles. Sophia has been attending a regular story time on Wednesday mornings and loves playing dress up, cuddling and singing "Let it Go" as much as humanly possible. We are still attending church at The Well in Boulder and are hoping to become official members in the coming year. We are also part of a Missional Community and have seen God do some really cool things during our time there.

Overall, this year has been hard work and good times all rolled into one. Having little kids is a struggle, but we wouldn't trade it for anything. Our lives are better as a result of all the messes and crying and tantrums because all these things are evidence that we have healthy, growing kids who are teaching us new things every day--even though that lesson is usually patience. We hope that your year has been a good one as well and that God is showing you things in your life and about yourself that you never saw before. Please keep us updated with how you are doing!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!