Looking Back

In  January the big event of course was the arrival of sweet little Oona Caroline. Oona's birthday was one of the best days of my life. All the birth days of my kids are memorable and special in their own ways, but Oona's delivery was so peaceful and sacred. The calm before the storm! While the delivery was easy and peaceful, the settling in period was anything but. We struggled, and thankfully we persevered all the better for it. 

In  February we attempted a little Valentine's day photo shoot for Matt. It was one of the few, short + sweet distractions we enjoyed during a very hard month. It was bitterly cold and we were frantically searching for a house as our landlords needed us to move out of our rental. Nursing Oona and figuring out how to manage three children was proving to be a bigger challenge than I had expected and I started feeling really overwhelmed.

Oh  March, you beast of a month. We finally found and purchased a house, and though it needed considerable work it was love at first sight during our very first walk through. God provided a house that met nearly every single unique need our family had - what a tremendous blessing! In early March we took a break from packing and flew down to visit my parents and sister in North Carolina. It was good for us all to spend time relaxing at home with Mom and Dad, and I'll treasure those sweet memories of them meeting Oona for the first time for the rest of my life. Then it was back home and time to move. Moving with a 4 year old, a 1 year old and an infant was just awful. There's just no way to sugar coat it! On top of the stress of moving out of our rental in the middle of winter, we decided to paint as much of the house as we could before moving into the new house which meant many late late nights working until the wee hours of the morning. The day after we finally moved in, Matt had to fly to NYC for work, and left at home with the babies in our unpacked house feeling totally exhausted from the move, I came down with the worst post-partum depression I have ever experienced. 

Things started getting a lot better in  April with the arrival of my wonderful mother-in-law. Sharon's week long visit was just what I needed. We celebrated Olive and Silas' birthdays and the weather finally started warming up enough to start spending time outside. Tulips started peeking through the dirt, and I finally started coming out of the post-partum depression fog. Spring was the light at the end of a dark tunnel for our whole family.

May was gorgeous and warm. We enjoyed our second Tulip Time, watched the parades march past our new front yard, and took lots of walks in our new neighborhood. Mothers Day was extra special this year, hands + heart full with my three beautiful, rambunctious little ones. I finished out the month with a really big bang and got braces! (Yikes!)

Summer really arrived in  June and it was such a fun, busy month. We celebrated Matt on Fathers Day. I only freaked out a little about turning 28. My Dad drove up to Michigan for his very first visit - we had SUCH a blast, hiking and kayaking and exploring Holland with him. We enjoyed every second of his visit with us.

July was packed with almost too much fun to handle. We spent a wonderful week in gorgeous Glen Arbor, MI with Matt's whole family. It was so good to see his brother Chris again, who traveled from Colorado to join us. Soon afterwards MY whole family (all the siblings included) came and spent a week with us in Holland! 

Olive started kindergarten in  August and has loved it ever since. During this month we got a lot of work done on our house, and it really started to feel like home.

Things started cooling down in  September. We had some fun little adventures, exploring a dahlia farm and spending a fun day in lovely little Rockford. 

Matt and I attended Art Prize in October which is becoming one of my favorite parts of autumn in west Michigan. We also took a quick trip to Ohio to celebrate our nephew's 16th birthday.  

The holiday season officially began in November. We celebrated a quiet Thanksgiving at home, got our first blizzard of the season, took a couple of trips to IKEA, and got our Christmas cards finished in record breaking time! 

How is it already the very end of December? I took an unplanned break from blogging this month because I just couldn't catch a breath - lots of church and social activities, Matt had a week long business trip, then we decided last minute to spend Christmas in WV with Matt's parents! We only just got back last night and I'm feeling happy, content and a bit overwhelmed at what a crazy-wonderful whirlwind 2014 has been. Thank you for taking the time to follow our simple story through this little blog. Those of you who have reached out and connected through the "blogosphere" have truly made this year sweeter to me. An extra special shout out to the lovely Veronika for helping me give "The Sweetness" a much needed face lift this year. She did such a beautiful job!

Happy Happy 2015!

It's going to be a great year, I can just feel it!