Hello 2014!

 The holidays this year were very comforting for our little family. Despite the long drive that took an extra hour and a half, it was SO good to be around our family. It warmed my heart to see them all interacting with our little daughter and showing her so much love. It's fun to see a different side of them all now that we have her. And her big cousin Evelyn just loves her to death. Christmas itself was kind of a disaster. Sara was quite the upset little girl Christmas morning and wanted to cry for hours (like... HOURS) in the early morning. Luckily, when she finally snapped out of it, she got to open her first Christmas present and then Mommy and Daddy got a fun present of their own. We ACTUALLY got to go out and watch a movie! (The Hunger Games... which was amazing btw) This is the major joy of having family around. The evening of Christmas, Sara was much happier and we had a full house with all of us. It was just like old times. I can't wait to make fun memories with Sara and our families in the future. It was really hard to drive back to Vandenberg by ourselves. We definitely have several friends that we have made here that have made this place better, but it's not home. I always pictured us raising kids with one of our families, and it's hard sharing everything she does over the phone. I'm so happy that we have the technology we do so that we CAN share her through pictures, FaceTime and all that, but it's just not the same. I guess that's really one of the sacrifices we gave to have this life of ours.

 But moving on... Sara also had her first New Years. Which Jason and I don't usually make a big deal out of. I think we've both only been up for one midnight celebration, of which we were just watching TV. ha But it's crazy how fast time flies. This year will be my 10 year High School reunion! What the crap? This year, Jason presented the idea of having a Blessings Jar. This jar was used last year as his Anniversary present to me. He filled it with love notes and bible verses and I opened a note each week for the whole year until  our next anniversary. He's a sweetie isn't he? So this year instead of taking things OUT, we'll be putting things IN! They will be blessings. Things or people who have blessed us or things we're thankful for and at the end of the year, we'll read them all. It's a pretty good idea if I don't say so myself. I'm excited to see what's in store this year... hopefully not another baby.. HA. I just scared myself with that thought.

 I know I have my monthly Sara update page, but it's fun to share things that have been going on. At the chapel, two of our friends were also pregnant and we all had our babies around the same time. Two boys and our girl, so I made us a Harry potter trio set of onesies. Ron, Harry, and Hermione. It's fun to see our before and after pictures. Sara and I have been going on walks every morning. It's been nice just to be out of the house and to be getting a bit of exercise. We even go out of the cool, foggy mornings. And the last two are of Sara and Daddy. He's so sweet with her... don't let the fork fool you. hehe It's been quite the adventure being a temporary stay at home mama. She drives me a little crazy at times, but by the end of the day when I say "Jason... YOU take her".. all I really want to do it grab her and snuggle with her myself. People use to tell us when we were pregnant "It'll change your life and you'll never know what you ever did without her" Well, for the last 7 weeks I've thought to myself.. "I DO know what I did without her and I liked it!" I was sleeping... eating WITH Jason, and the food was hot, watching TV, going to movies, having my OWN life. Now how selfish does that sound? More recently, I look at her, and I see it. What would I do without her? It's going to be hard to go back to work. Sometimes I feel like it'll be a nice break away from her, and then I think of all those hours I'll be missing of her life and the new things she's going to do when she's away from me that I'll miss. And that makes me sad. So, who knows what will happen for the next school year. But we'll figure it out when we get there.

 Tonight, the lady who is subbing for me and taking care of my kids at school, is going to take care of Sara for us and we're heading out for a delicious night filled with good food... HOT food, made right in front of us. We're re-celebrating our anniversary with a hibachi dinner. Our real anniversary was going to be dinner and a movie on the couch when the baby was asleep. Unfortunately.. she realized we were going to have time to ourselves and cried all night. So that's exciting. It was really something to look forward to! So, we're going to have to make a point for more date nights.

It's amazing how much I can write when the baby is asleep! ;)