2011 for us was a momentous year. Our kids grew from 2 yrs to 3 yrs and 7 months to 1.5 years! Chase and Sophie enjoyed many friendships (including each other's) and had to say goodbye to some dear friends that moved. Sophie went from crawling to walking to dancing! Sophie was baptized with two of her friends and Chase began attending Sunday school and learning his catechism, of which he is quite knowledgeable. Chase grew more affectionate with his sister and enjoys playing with her (as long as she doesn't grab his trains!) Their favorite playtime is bathtime!! Chase had a Lightning McQueen themed bday party and Sophie's first birthday was adorned with owls! After all, she is our Sophie-owl. Chase enjoys bedtime stories (especially The Runaway Bunny, Un Bolsillo Para Corduroy (yep in Spanish), any Dr. Suess book, The Hungry Caterpillar, the Foolish Tortoise, and The Storybook Bible). Sophie loves her books but doesn't always sit through the entire reading. She plops herself in your lap whether you are ready or not!
As a family we enjoyed a beach trip to Delaware (while getting new windows for our house!), hiking trips, a trip to the pumpkin patch, and the kids' first Halloween in which they dressed up as an Indian prince and princess. Mommy and daddy ventured to SE Asia (for their first vision trip, not to mention first trip ever without kids!). The kids spent much quality time with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunty Cat.
Brian and Krisha both celebrated their 30th bdays- B with a zip-line canopy tour and K with her friends on a "girls night out." Brian coached the church softball team (with a trophy!) and completed the Blue Ridge marathon (despite the monsoon!) and the Tough Mudder (despite having to run through voltage and swim in an ice pit!). Krisha started as a Zumba instructor at the Y, happily choreographing 11+ songs of her own! Krisha enjoyed many a good book this year including: Marriage Matters, Study of Acts, Study of Deuteronomy, Brave, Heaven (by Alcorn), Radical (by Platt), The Pilgrim's Regress (C.S. Lewis), Creative Counterpart, The Mystery of Marriage (by Mason) , Bringing Up Boys, The Mystery of Children, and a Bio of Wycliffe: Herald of the Reformation.
Christmas this year was extra special with Chase understanding more of what it means and even helping countdown on the Christmas calendar. Sophie could identify baby Jeeshush, the donkey and the cow. Those (minus the camel) are the important ones, right? Still working on the others. :) Zoe, now 6, had a rough year with an infection but we are grateful she is alive! Sophie loves her and calls her "wee-wee."Chase is almost done with potty training and can identify his numbers and letters. Still working on the writing part. His favorite toys are his matchbox cars, his Thomas videos, and his new kid camera! He got his first professional haircut (at 3.5 yrs!) so his wavy hair is gone and he is looking more and more like a big boy, not a toddler. Thankfully the bright blue eyes and dimples are here to stay. Sophie grows in her ability to talk, sing, dance, and express herself! She has a huge love for babies as can be noted in the photo of her meeting her cousin Brooks for the first time. She even got her first baby doll and purse. Her hair has gotten curlier and curlier and cheeks bigger and bigger though she is still a petite little thing. We are enjoying this stage of cuteness and compliance!
All in all, 2011 has been a good year. Even though the pictures reflect almost all victories, I cannot say it enough that our lives are not perfect. We have been blessed greatly by the Lord, challenged immensely in parenting, marriage and personal sanctification, and pressed to cling to Him more. I'd be remiss if I acted like the collage represented every facet of our lives. This psych major knows full well that blogs are deceiving. We choose what we put out there. And as sinners, we prefer to think the best of ourselves, not always the reality. So, let me be honest. There has been heartache and soul-ache moments for sure. We have struggled through some battles as well as walked with dear friends through their battles. Both sin and glory have been experienced on a more profound level this year, and yet we know that He is unchanging and God is in the business of redemption. We await more glimpses of His redemption in 2012.
Thanks for staying tuned. Looking forward to blogging more of those personal insights soon.
Groomsmen with the groom!
One of them was an enormous bulldog that trotted around the beach with the other dogs. This bully had at least 20 lbs on Zoe!
We ate at a quaint sandwich shop, found a sushi place for dinner (sooo good compared to East Coast sushi!) and even treated ourselves to frogurt for dessert. They still had peppermint from the holiday season so I was ecstatic!
