GOODBYE 2018!!
2018 has brought both highs and lows to our family. How has our year gone? Let’s see…
January: Johnny and I went on our first cruise! You can read more about that here. Now that we are a year away from that cruise, I am more than willing to try another one. This time maybe with family and friends. Also, Logan went through the month of January and most of February with a broken wrist. He has stayed off the pogo stick since then! We also finally ate at Debra’s Restaurant (a little inside joke with JB & I). January was also the start of my journey to get healthy, more to come on that.
February: I turned 37 and Logan turned 12. We decided it was time, well maybe not time but we gave in, and got Logan his first cell phone. Logan also joined the Lake Hamilton Trap Shooting Team. He has fallen in love with the sport and is very ready for the season to start again.
March: Let’s see, what happened in March??? I had to look through pictures on my phone to remember. (Seriously, my phone camera roll is as good a journal as anything). It looks like we started the month with our Sunday School classes annual Chili Cookoff, that is always a fun event. Logan had his final cotillion event and was super happy to be done with anything having to do with cotillion. March 10 brought us the annual Adam Brown 5k at Lake Hamilton School. Our whole family participated, though I was dragging Noah across the finish line at the end. Then we ended the month with our Sunday School class annual Easter fellowship. Let me say, I love the support group our Sunday School class provides.
April: We started April out with EASTER! What better way to start a month than with the celebration of the resurrection of our Savior??? Our Easter Sunday always consists of church in the morning then going to my cousin’s house for a BBQ with our family. Once the Easter celebrations were over we headed straight into Baseball and Softball for Noah and Macy. They both had great seasons, both of their teams won their leagues. April ended with my last baby having “Wizard of Oz Day” at Lake Hamilton Primary school.
May: May brought us Logan’s first ever Trap Shooting tournament. He did really well for his first time in a tournament. We also got to open our pool and started what would be a very fun summer of swimming and hanging out on the back deck. Macy finished her piano lessons for the school year with a recital and the all the kids finished the school year with good grades. The month of May also brought us a wedding for my baby cousin Drew. We ended May with those baseball and softball championships for Macy and Noah.
June: We started our fun summer months with Vacation Bible School. That is always a big event for me as I had been the VBS Director the previous 2 years. This year I took a step back and was just in charge of registration. It was a very fun week. Then we started full prep for our BIG RV trip that we would leave for at the end of the month. We also got to celebrate Noah’s 7th Birthday and Johnny and I’s 16th Wedding Anniversary. June was a month of fun, fun, fun.
July: EPIC, that is how I would describe July. This month took us on a trip through 8 states and over 5000 miles. You can read all about our Great American Adventure here. We made it back from our trip in mid-July, just in time to celebrate Johnny’s 39th birthday and spend the rest of the month relaxing.
August: Back to School! August always means back to school and back to schedules and routine. I did take the kids on one last adventure before school. We spent a day at Mid-America Museum where they got to do all kinds of hands on science and walk through the Dino trail. August also meant celebrating Macy’s 9th birthday. Unfortunately, August also brought great heartbreak to our lives. Our friend, Brian Speers, passed away suddenly. Johnny and I had both grown up with Brian and he actually is the friend who set us up many, many years ago.
September: In September we started a Community Group in our home. It is just a gathering of several families from our church (though all are welcome). We spend the time eating, talking and doing a short bible study. It has quickly become one of our favorite nights of the week. Honestly, September was mostly just getting through the daily grind and continuing my getting healthy journey (you can check that out here).
October: October was a month that brought more heartache, our friend, Heather Pitts, another friend we had grown up with, passed away suddenly. It’s been so hard to believe that 2 friends, only 39 years old, left this earth so early. We can only look to God and trust in his ultimate plan through these events. October also meant deer camp prep and Halloween. I think Noah had the most fun at Halloween this year because he got to be Zed the Zombie.
November: November means deer camp and Thanksgiving. We also started November with a Robotics Tournament for Logan. He has been taking several Computer Science, Coding and Robotics classes at school and has enjoyed every bit of it. We had a fun deer season, though it was a pretty wet and nasty one. Thanksgiving was spent at my parent’s house with a delicious, traditional meal.
December: Oh, December! One of our busiest months of the year. It was full of Christmas parties, band concerts, choir concerts, busy work days and Christmas prep. It is always fun though. For me, the last several months have brought a lot of traveling and stress at work. I was looking forward to December and a few days off around Christmas. We enjoyed all of the celebrations and then took a spontaneous trip to Branson after Christmas. You can read all about that here.
Overall, this year has been amazing. Though the end of the year brought a lot of heartbreaks, the first 8 months of the year were amazing. Now, I’m ready for 2019!!