Hello, It's Me...

...I was wondering if after all these months you'd like to see...

...Two really mediocre pictures from Christmas Eve. (Womp womp.)

I had to pull out my SD card for another project this morning, and found it really funny and sad at the same time that there were only 10 pictures on the card, all from Christmas Eve, which means:

1. I didn't take any pictures of Christmas Day, or Matt's birthday, or Oona's second birthday.

2. I haven't picked up my camera in a really long time.

3. I haven't touched this blog in a really long time.

Life got really busy after Christmas. The biggest change is that I just got a part time job! I'm not quite ready to talk about it on here, but it's an exciting turn of events for me. My life is not at all like I imagined it would be as a kid, and that's something I sometimes get anxious about. However, I have to say I'm kind of enjoying being surprised by each unexpected twist of the road.

I think things will be quiet here for the rest of winter. Matt and I have an exciting trip planned for April which I'm excited to document here, and with the return of spring and summer always comes a renewed interest in taking photos so I don't think this is the end of blogging for me, just a short hiatus as I get adjusted to some big changes in life.

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!

Facelift

Wow, it feels like this space has finally grown up. I'm so pleased with how the blog's little "facelift" turned out! It was high time I let a professional fix it up, and Veronika was a pleasure to work with. I chose her because I've admired her design work for a good while now, and I highly recommend her templates on Etsy if you're in the market for one of those.

Goodbye 2013 // Resolutions

Photos from a rare sunny day last week at Holland State Park.

I slipped on the ice and fell right on my fanny. And pulled a groin muscle. It was fun!

Hi again. Sorry, no baby yet. But we did have a nice (very fast) Christmas - and can you believe tomorrow starts a new year? 

2013 was a crazy, crazy year. Some highlights:

We moved up to Michigan from West Virginia. 

We almost died carrying our kids up about 1,000 ice covered stairs to see a very big lake. 

We survived our first Whole 30. 

The kids turned 4 and 1 in the same week. 

We experienced our very first Tulip Time! 

We got a little unexpected surprise. 

I got a little closer to the big 3-0. 

We spent a lot of time cooling off and having fun in downtown Holland. 

We visited Chicago for the first time. 

I somewhat grudgingly became a minivan Mom.

We started dreaming in pink. 

The kids went trick-or-treating for the first time. 

I started recording the hilarious things my firstborn says. 

We took a tour of the hospital where the baby will be born (and made the huge mistake of taking the kids with us.) 

Can't forget the epic moment where we spotted the Tardis at our favorite coffee shop!

We bought the perfect tree from the nicest tree guy ever.

2013, you were busy, messy and crazy - but I wouldn't have had you any other way. You were a great year! I'm actually going to miss you!

But I can't help looking forward to all the craziness 2014 is going to bring. Which leads me to...

2014 RESOLUTIONS.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1. Have this baby. (She obviously decided having her own birthday month was more important than giving her old Mom and Dad that 2013 tax deduction. Rude.)

2. Complete another Whole 30 to combat the 30 I've packed on this pregnancy. (Again, baby...rude.)

3. Be more patient and present with my kids.

4. Refuse to let having more kids than I have hands stop me from having lots of adventures with my family in 2014. 

Thanks to those of you who read my silly ramblings here on The Sweetness, and especially to those of you who leave me sweet comments/e-mails. You encourage me and make blogging a lot more fun.

Happy New Year!

It's A Major Award!

Well, maybe it's not quite THAT major but it's still pretty sweet.

The very kind Bird On a Pencil nominated me for the Inspiring Blogger Award. I really enjoy her blog, especially her book reviews! She is always giving me ideas for new reads. Stop by her blog sometime and say howdy!

Now, as per blog award instructions, here are 7 things about me...

1. Taking horrible selfies is my forte. I have "a thing" going for that front facing camera on my phone. It enables me to get that "perfect" over-thought, totally ridiculous self portrait. Yes, at the time I apparently was feeling pretty full of myself thought this was a perfect shot. I think I had just finished a challenging workout and was feeling particularly tough? Yikes. If you were to steal my phone and go to my photos file you would find even more horrific selfies, and lots of them. And that is why my phone is password protected! I'm not the only one who does this, am I? Anyone?

2. My very first kiss was "THE kiss" on my husband's and my wedding day. And you know what? It was a sweet, romantic idea but a very horrible, awkward kiss. It'll make for an interesting story to tell the kids. And to give this story a happy ending, you should know that we eventually got much better at the kissing thing, so I don't dwell as darkly on the fact that our first kiss was a major dud in front of a hundred people, (at least not as much as I used to.)

3. I was homeschooled from pre-K through 12th grade. And yes, I was one of those stereotypical home schooled teens who wore jumpers and went to 4-H and was not very socialized. But I turned out pretty A-ok in the end. I think.

4. I have always loved the name Jude, and was going to name my first son Jude, but before I had the chance my Mom stole the name and named her little white Havanese dog Jude. Thus, the name is ruined. Forever. Yes I am still holding a slight grudge. (And the moral of the story is, never share the baby names you love most with ANYONE. They are not even safe with mothers!)

5. I always pour milk on my ice cream, and mix until it's the consistency of slush. I am pretty convinced my Dad (who taught me this skill) and I are the only two human beings on earth that eat their ice cream this way. And I have no problem with that.

6. I am a hypochondriac. Google makes this condition almost unbearable. I am, on any given day, dying of a fatal, rare disease.

7. I don't believe you can ever have too many pillows on a bed. Ours seem to multiply every year and by the time I'm 30 we may need to get a bigger bed.

I am tagging these lovelies for the award...

Gracie G.

The Misfit Diaries

Katilda

Shades of Monet

The Lyons Den

Prairie Hen

Create*Loves

Adored Austin

Five Sixteenths

Harvesting Kale

She Learns As She Goes

Crowley Party