Auld Lang Syne

Since today is the final day of 2014, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on this beast of a year before jumping headfirst into the next one. And my, what a year it's been. 

2014 started off on the wrong foot. Literally. On New Year's Day of this year, I--at 23 weeks pregnant--woke up and stepped out of bed to find gushing bright red blood. I spent the next nine days in the hospital, strapped down to monitors, and worried about the very real possibility that I would either deliver a terribly premature baby girl or lose her altogether. In order to keep her chances of survival high, I stayed on modified bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. This was difficult with moving to a brand new home in a brand new town, but we made it work. Our January was incredibly hectic with all of these things going on, but most exciting was celebrating Bobby's first birthday and seeing Florida's first snow since God was a boy. 

We spent the remainder of Winter settling in and making our house a home, exploring the beach, and spending time with family. It felt good to be back close to home. I had to rely on the support of family and friends during those months of bed rest; I couldn't have made it through the pregnancy without all of their help. It truly takes a village.

We celebrated Easter, welcomed Spring and our sweet Vivien Louise (who was born perfectly healthy at 40+ weeks, thank the good Lord!) into our family, and we spent the next couple of months trying to get the hang of two under two.

Summer was full of sweaty heat, pool days, beer, popsicles, and play dates at the water park.

Late Summer was full of emotions. We were so proud to baptize Vivi and to take part in my friend's Chicago wedding, and we were struck with tragedy to learn of the passing of our dear friend, Moose. We reconnected with a ton of our military family when we went to Moose's funeral at the Air Force Academy in early October, and we celebrated his life with an amazing party and piano burn.

We spent Fall outside, wore lots of fun festive-wear, watched football, took a trip to the fair, and went trick-or-treating. 

We began the holiday season with our Atlanta family for Thanksgiving, and then we enjoyed a magical Christmas at home. 

 2014 has given us some of our highest highs and lowest lows. It's been exhilarating, exhausting, and tons of fun. Thank you for all of your kind words, support, and friendship. I can't wait to continue blogging in the new year! I'm sad to see this year go, but I'm so excited to welcome 2015 and see what this new year holds for us! 

We'll take a cup of kindness yet

for Auld Lang Syne

Happy New Year's Eve!

-Annette