2017 in a Nutshell

We visited Busch Gardens Christmastown for the first time this year! Chase was disappointed there weren't many rides open, but the beautiful lights made the night worthwhile. We even snuck in the "Scrooge No More" show. 

This picture made our 2017 Christmas card stating we are dysfunctional at times but we are always joyful in Christ. The picture was taken Thanksgiving Day.

Chase's short lived martial arts experience

The boys' school pictures were taken back in September (bad lighting since this is a picture of a picture). They've already changed so much since then, especially Chase with having his braces and a new haircut now. 

I love seeing the boys in their matching PJs...this may be the last year I can get Chase to do this. 

A big smile on Chase as he arrives at school on the first day on the school bus.

A fierce Batman and Skull Ninja

This picture was taken when Gabe got his first metal at school for reading 100 steps (one step = 15 minutes of reading). He's covering his metal in this picture and the lanyard blends in with his red shirt, but it's there and he's proud of it!

The beginning of fall with leaves turning and falling...this picture was taken after church on one beautiful Sunday

A good Christmas morning includes messy hair, PJs, and big smiles.

One of Gabe's favorite gifts from Auntie Amber: a Home Depot leaf blower and toy chainsaw set. 

Do you ever receive Christmas cards with those letters inside where friends and family brag on their loved ones and accomplishments for another year? I see nothing wrong with these letters, but I do find myself rolling my eyes from time to time because life isn’t always as peachy keen as those letters depict. I use my blog to recap the year and brag on my family too, only I also include the bloopers that occurred as I feel it’s a better representation of reality. As I mentioned in my last post, it’s through those mishaps that we truly learn those important life lessons. It’s also those imperfect moments through which we can live, laugh, and love.

2017 was by far the quickest year of my life. As cliche as it sounds, it’s a fact: the years truly do go by faster as we get older. Although it was a lightning-fast year, it was a good one. I won’t recap the whole year because past 2017 blog postings tell the story. However, I will recap the last third of the year since my last posting was before school started (wow!).

As a family, we experienced a pretty big transition switching the boys over from a private Christian school to Isle of Wight County public schools after Labor Day. This transition entailed not only a new school for the boys, but a new childcare provider before and after school hours. Thankfully, these changes went over fairly smoothly and the boys handled them with God’s grace. As soon as they walked into Kids Come First (their new before/after school childcare provider), they blended right in and talked with the staff as though they had always attended there.

They also got adjusted to Hardy Elementary pretty quickly. For Gabe, it wasn’t as big of a deal because he had been going there for speech since he was 3 years old. Kindergarten was going to be a big new experience for him regardless of which school he attended, but I’m thankful to say he’s done even better than expected at Hardy. He is already reading small books on his own and scored above average for math at his age. Another huge bragging moment (drumroll, please): Gabe’s speech has improved so much that he only needs to go twice a month now! This time last year we were still going twice a week! Amazing progress! His teacher believes he won’t need any more speech therapy after this school year. What a huge blessing that is considering he was so inarticulate at age 3!

On the other hand, Chase has never struggled with speech, except in the sense that he doesn’t know when to stop it. Although he has made the honor roll so far since he’s been at Hardy, he at first struggled with rushing through assignments too much and socializing instead of listening to the teacher’s instructions. He is learning to slow down and listen better, but there’s no changing the fact that he’s a social butterfly. He gave martial arts a try for 5 weeks (about 10 sessions), but it didn’t take long for him to realize that it wasn’t a social sport. After his sensei had to reprimand him for not being focused enough and goofing off too much during multiple lessons, we decided martial arts wasn’t Chase’s forte. He may want to try it again in the future when he can take it more seriously, but for now, he’s going to stick with soccer.

Speaking of soccer, Tim’s team the Pirates went undefeated for another season in the fall. Gabe scored several goals and seems to finally be getting the hang of the sport. Chase’s team didn’t do as well, but they still had a blast playing. Both boys are going to play spring soccer in 2018 and Tim is going to test out his luck coaching the 8/9 year-olds for the first time.

In the meanwhile, Gabe is signed up for swim lessons this winter at the Smithfield YMCA. I offered swim lessons and swim team to Chase, but he swears he is already an Olympic swimmer and doesn’t need any improvement. So, Chase is just going to wait out the winter and look forward to soccer practices beginning in March.

We had an exciting fall with soccer season and typical autumn festivities. We went trunk-or-treating at First Baptist in Hopewell and trick-or-treating around our neighborhood in Smithfield. Gabe dressed up as Batman at his school and was Robin for going around the neighborhood. Chase was a ninja. We enjoyed celebrating the many fall birthdays in our family. Tim and I also got to sneak in a date day/night at Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream. We concluded the fall with Thanksgiving with Tim’s family in Hopewell. We celebrated with my family the Friday after Thanksgiving.

That brings us up to one of our favorite times of year as a family: Christmas! I’m sad that it came and went so quickly, but I’m also excited for all of the new adventures 2018 will bring. The boys had a fun Christmas and Santa was very good to them. We did the typical cookie baking, decorating the house and trees and attending Christmas Eve service at church. Gabe’s offering during the service was that he farted and proudly announced it. I don’t think anyone else noticed outside of Tim and me, but that was quite an embarrassing Hallelujah moment.

Of course Christmas to us also means spending time with family. Unfortunately, one of the cornerstones of our family (Grandma) got sick on Christmas Eve with flu-like symptoms and spent most of her day in the ER. She was unable to join us Christmas Day, but she is better now and we were able to visit her on Friday to exchange gifts with her. She said even though she was sick on Christmas Day, she enjoyed the peace and was able to rest and reflect on the true meaning of the holidays (JESUS!) without having all of the chaos of family being around. I can’t help but wonder if this was God’s way of preparing us for future Christmases without Grandma with us...as much as I hate to ponder the thought of losing her, I have to remind myself that she is almost 92 years old. She is amazingly healthy for her age and gets around well, but she’s had a few more scares within the last year.

Along those lines, we never know what lies ahead of us...we could live to be 92 like Grandma or die tomorrow. With that said, let’s make every day count in 2018 as though we could be Heaven-bound at any moment! If you're unsure if you'll be Heaven-bound when you die, don't delay believing in Christ as your Savior and committing to Him in 2018...I can assure you the Christian life isn't always easy, but there's immeasurable peace and joy that accompany it! Happy New Year!