2014 Year in Review

Since I am not consistant with blogging AT ALL!! I am totally copying what a good friend of mine did for their Christmas card and putting together a month by month highlight, just to give you some insight into what is keeping us busy and me not blogging, ha ha! What a year! It has been a really great one, full of joys, challenges, and promises of blessing! God is sooo good! January Trev started training on the Steinbach Fire Dept. While it's been an adjustment for our family, getting used to him being gone more regularily, it's also been rewarding as well. He trained every Tuesday evening and a couple of weekends till his exams in October. While we have had to get a lot more intentional with spending time together, we have really experienced a lot of joy thru it. One of the blessings and joys of him being on the fire dept is being a part of the Fire Fighters for Christ cell which is a wonderful community that we're loving getting to know. And our kids LOVE their babysitter who comes when we have cell :) Not to mention how much joy Trev has thru serving and helping others as a fire fighter. It fills me up with joy just seeing his joy in helping someone else :)

Also in January we began looking into options of buying a different house or even the possibility of building. We prayed a lot about it, and through that God confirmed His plan for us to move. February Troy had an MRI as well as tubes put in his ears. We'd been monitoring his hearing for a while and it was discovered that his ear drums weren't draining properly and that they were full of fluid. Not too long after the procedure I watched as he heard and looked for, and found on his own, an airplane in the sky!! March Trev and I celebrated our 11th anniversary!! I cannot imagine life without this amazing man, and I am so blessed to have the best husband and father to our kids!! April Troy turns 2!! This boy brings so much joy to our family and he is the sweetest boy who loves hugs, being with his sisters doing everything they are doing, and his soother. He loves reading books and singing along with music. He still didn't start sleeping thru the night consistently until December. And motored around by crawling everywhere!

May This month was filled with the regular everyday things and appts, getting together with friends, some birthday parties for friends and our neighbours wedding. June This month we celebrated Shiloh's 4th birthday!! She is a ray of sunshine always looking on the bright side of things! She loves helping others and brightening their day if she notices they are sad. Shiloh loves riding her bike, dressing up as a bat, playing trains and cars and dinosaurs and lego, She loves tutu's or any kind of skirt that twirls. She still sleeps with her very special unicorn 'Sophie' whom she is crazy attached to. Shiloh also shares her birthday with one of her cousins. It's so neat how that worked out!

Also this month, we took a step forwards in moving and put a down payment on a lot Trev had his eye on since January! He noticed this lot in town when we first began talking about building as an option, but we were more looking for a house then, but as we looked and looked, there was nothing that would work for us. At one point we had a builder come to look at a house with us that we were interested and give an expert opinion and he mentioned to us that he could build a house for us comparable to what we were looking at. So we decided to move forwards with it unless God closed that door for us. July Trev turns 34 this month! He is the most amazing husband and best dad in the world to our kids, a hard worker, honest, giving and thoughtful man! He puts 100% into everything he does, whether family, work and being a fire fighter.

Natasha went to Red Rock Bible camp for a whole week and Chloe, Shiloh, Troy and I went and visited with my Grandma at Nutimik for that week! It was a really great week :) It was definitely so wonderful to have that quality time with their Gigi. I hope it works out again for this next summer! It was this month that we also listed our house! Buying the lot and building all hinged on it selling. It was so exciting and faith building, since we both felt God told us He was going to bless us with another house. But knowing the market and time of year we were listing, it didn't seem promising. But God always keeps His promises! We had 5 showings this month, which was amazing! August Our house sold!!! Only God could have made that happen, along with our amazing real estate agent (and sister-in-law)! He proved yet again that He keeps His promises (see January ;) ) We needed to find a house to live in temporarily while we build. But God knew what we'd need and almost immediately Trev's brother and sister-in-law generously offered us their house that they had listed, since they recently moved, and it couldn't be more perfect since most places don't rent temporary time frames and they were willing to be flexible, not to mention postponing the sale of it! We are so blessed!!

Chloe also went to camp this month with her good friend, they have been going to camp together for a few years already and have a blast! Septmeber Back to school! Chloe begins Middle School(!!!) The switch to middle school was a bit nerve wracking since about half her friends went to the other middle school, but she seems to have adjusted fairly well! After some looking into things for Natasha with school, we decided to keep her at Elmdale for one more year before she switches elementary school catchments with our new house. October This month was a momentous one for Trev. He passed his practical fire fighting exam in Brandon!!! He traded his black training fire helmet for an official yellow one. We are soo very proud of him!! The excavation for our new house also began!!

Another HUGE thing this month is TROY BEGAN WALKING!! One of his favourite people, Andy, came over for the evening. When Troy, who was wearing a bat costume, saw him he said to Andy "fly fly!" to show him how a boy in a bat costume flies and just walked right over to Andy and ever since, he hasn't stopped!! November Natasha's birthday happened this month. She is officially 8 now!! What a sweet girl she is. She is so sensitive, caring, generous, giving, funny and so goofy! She is such a bright spot in our family! Some of her favourite things are being with friends, sushi, crafting, being with friends, playing lego, making her own books. Oh and did I mention she loves hanging out with friends? She is so very social and almost always up for something fun!! :)

We also celebrated my nieces 4th birthday with Natasha, since they share the same one, along with my dad's on the 19th and my own on the 10th. It's a full month of birthdays :) Decemeber This is a momentous birthday for Chloe! She is in the double digits now! It feels like yesterday she wasn't even 2 yet and now we're into a whole new world of double digits! Chloe is loyal, caring, sensitive, kind, helpful, she has such a servant heart and often looks for ways to help out. She is turning into a wonderful, gentle, beautiful young lady and we are so blessed to have her in our lives! Some of her favourites are Chicken fingers and fries, reading, lego, going on dates with Trev or I, spending quality time with friends and family, sleepovers, reading together, shopping and ketchup!

We also got the roof shingled on our house! We prayed for a nice day, and after some discouraging delays God blessed us and the group of amazing people who helped shingle our roof, with +5 degree temps! And Dec 13 has the potential to be really cold!!

And of course there's also Christmas! We thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas gift of time with going to a hotel in Grand Forks for a couple nights.

Both our extended families also did gifts of time and I have to say, it is a Christmas that none of us will forget any time soon. It may be a new tradition to keep up with since it was just so amazing to have that kind of time together :) That is our year in review, I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our world and wish you all the best for 2015! God is good!!