2013

I've been meaning to start writing blog posts for about a month, but we got wrapped up in holiday celebrations (see below) and nasty colds (I won't elaborate).  So, here are all of my posts in one ginormous post about this last year.

Looking back at 2013, we had a great year filled with many wonderful things...

Adoption

This last year we made great strides with figuring out how we will grow our family.  Much of our nine years of marriage has been spent trying to get pregnant, and we have experienced some truly tough and heartbreaking times. After years of medications, surgeries, tests, and lots of waiting, we were left with one option. We started out the year thinking we would try in vitro, but our hearts never felt truly at ease.  We decided to consider adoption again (as we had done a few times over the years), and as we did we felt great peace and comfort. We knew it was what the Lord had planned for us all along. 

We spent much of the year working on the adoption process.  It was difficult and overwhelming at times, but mostly we have been so excited that we found our path to becoming parents. Through the process we have developed a great love and admiration for birth mothers. What strong and special women they are!  We feel truly humbled to be part of the miracle of adoption. We can't wait to see where the next year takes us on the road to parenthood. 

Home

We did a lot of work on our home this year - certainly more work than any of the other five years we have lived in this house. The biggest and most exciting project was getting our house painted. While we did get it professionally done, it required a lot of prep work on our part. We took down an old chimney that wasn't being used anymore, removed various wires on the outside of the house, and replaced some trim pieces.  It also was a little nerve-wracking to pick the paint colors, but it turned out pretty good. On top of that, we also got new rain gutters and got new shingles on the front half of the roof.  I'm so happy we got all of that done - our house looks so much better now!

We also replaced our old '70s brown interior doors with beautiful new white ones. It has done a lot to make our home more updated, and it especially brightens our hallway that has six doors!

As our birthday and Christmas presents from Doug's parents, they built shelves underneath our stairs -  the only real storage space we have in the house. It's so much more functional now (and a lot less creepy!).

Throughout the year, we went through each room of the house and got rid of a lot of stuff we didn't need or use anymore. It took a lot of work, but it's so nice to have less possessions to worry about and to have everything organized. We ended up taking a whole truckload of stuff to the DI. That was such a good feeling!

We hope to tackle more projects this year, but for right now it's nice to take break :).

Family

Each summer we have family vacations with both sides of our families. We had so much fun this year!

On my side of the family, we went to Bryce Canyon. This was by far my most favorite vacation with my family!  Doug and I had never been there before, so it was a great adventure. Awesome highlights include:

Watching 4th of July fireworks from our cabin

Hiking in Bryce Canyon

Driving to the top of Brian Head - 11,300 feet!

Riding the ski lift at Brian Head

Hiking at the peak of the wildflower season

With Doug's side of the family, we stayed at a cabin near Park City. The cabin had lots of fun entertainment - pool table, ping pong table, arcade games, hot tub.  We had so much fun, I didn't take any pictures. 

On the last day we had a fun family activity in downtown Salt Lake. We visited This is the Place monument.  I hadn't been there in so many years. It was fun to go back.

Doug's mom's family has lots of history in downtown Salt Lake, so we visited all of the houses that family members lived in. It was fun to hear Doug's mom tell stories at each place. We even got to take a family picture at the house she grew up in.

We ended the activity with going to the cemetery to find the graves of some prophets and apostles. While we were there we were able to find my grandparents' grave. I'm so glad we were able to find it, considering I hadn't been there in a long time.

Each year we look forward to the fun vacations we have with our families. I'm already excited for our adventures in 2014!

Holidays

I absolutely love the last few months of the year that we get to spend celebrating Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.  It's such a joyous time full of family get-togethers, yummy food, and pretty decorations. 

It has become a tradition of ours to go to our local pumpkin walk each year in October.  This year many of my family members came along with us.  It's so fun to see the creative scenes community members make out of pumpkins.  I especially loved the intricately carved Star Wars pumpkins.

We spent Thanksgiving with my family in Salt Lake. My brother-in-law's parents invited all of us to have Thanksgiving dinner with them.  It was scrumptious!  I could eat turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing all year round (but it's probably a good thing that I don't).

Baking rolls for dinner - from Texas Roadhouse.  Yum!

The kids toasting before dinner

We made our traditional turkey, filled with feathers that everyone writes what they are thankful on.  I love reading what everyone writes.

The weather was so great that we got to spend a bit of time outside.  We played my favorite yard game - a Finnish throwing game called Molkky.  First one to 50 points wins.  I don't think I've won before, but it's a bunch of fun all the same.

I spent lots of time playing with my sister's new dog, Deets. I must admit that I'm completely smitten with him.  He is such a fun dog!

One of my sisters that lives near us has a tradition each year to celebrate Advent.  She invited us over and we had a great time eating food (yay for more turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing!), lighting candles, and writing down what each of us would give to Jesus for Christmas.

Ready to eat!

Roasting dough boys in the fireplace

Much of the Christmas season was spent on the last few steps of getting approved for adoption, but I did manage to put the decorations up and make a few treats.

Our cozy living room.  I love to sit on the couch with
a mug of hot chocolate and look at the pretty lights.

Peppermint Bark Rice Krispie Treats

White chocolate covered mini Oreos - Doug's favorite!

We spent Christmas in Idaho Falls with Doug's family. We played many rounds of Rummikub, saw Frozen at the theater, did some shopping, and ate some delicious food.

We got the sweetest Christmas gift from Doug's mom - a crocheted baby blanket. She had made it two years ago, hoping that we would be able start a family soon. She felt it was a fitting time to give it to us, as a gift of hope. It touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes.  It's the first baby item we have gotten, and it does serve as a reminder of hope that one day we will have a little one in our arms.  I keep it out in the future nursery where I can see it a lot.  It's so precious to me.

We finished out the year with our traditional New Year's Eve party at my sister's house. My sister decorated her Christmas tree with a New Years theme. The balloons on the tree had jokes in them, and the kids had fun popping them and telling the jokes.

We did a jigsaw puzzle (I love puzzles!), the girls did pedicures while the boys watched football, and had lots of yummy treats.

 And we took an awkward selfie of us after midnight!

We also rang in the new year with our Finnish tradition of each person melting tin in a fire and dropping it in cold water. The metal hardens and forms a unique shape.  Then, we make a shadow of the tin on the wall with a flashlight and try to determine what it looks like.  That shape is supposed to tell your fortune for the coming year.  

Melting the tin

Looking at the shadow.  I think Anna's was a rabbit.

Mine was a duck.  Not sure what that means...

Doug's was a turtle.  We decided that if Doug ran a
race against Anna (like The Tortoise and the Hare), he would win.

The fortunes are usually silly and don't mean anything, but it is so fun - definitely one of my favorite traditions.


2013 was such a great year filled with lots of hard work and lots of play.  We're excited to see what 2014 brings!