In case you missed it on the way in, click below to view Noah's review of 2013-14...and our first eighteen months at UW-Whitewater!

I'm so behind I'm not sure that I'll ever catch up on this blog... but it's a new year, and time for a new start. Here's a snapshot of our life :-)

We enjoyed wonderful Christmas celebrations at both of our parents! We let ourself take some real time off- knowing the months ahead are going to be extra crazy {On top of regional meetings and laborers conference we are taking students to Florida over Spring Break and then headed to WI Dells for 10 weeks on May 15 to staff a sumnmer training program!} Noah and I are trying to play a game of cribbage a day to make sure we take time to relax :) It's working!

We were blessed to see all of our siblings, spouses, neices, and nephews! Including our newest nephew, Baby Luke :) It was a great family time- lots of good food, lots of laughs, lots of games, and even snow in Rice Lake :)

This weekend we headed to Cedar Grover for our first UWW Navs wedding! Macy and Matt had a great day- and I feel like our girls are finally old enough to enjoy a wedding! They have been to SO MANY WEDDINGS in their short lives- but this might be the first they really were able to appreciate more fully. They had a blast dancing with our students, eating cake, and taking photo booth pictures. It was a good time!

This is our last week of gearing up for the semester- staff meetings, lots of prep for Noah!!, and getting all details/schedules worked out for the coming months... whew! A week from tomorrow we will host our 2nd annual "Snowcia"- snow fun + soup= our welcome back social.

I'm finding that as the kids get older it takes more and more work/energy/time/planning/creativity to be a MOM to them. They have more needs, and more diverse needs. And more plentiful needs. And more urgent needs. I'm guessing those with more kiddos older than mine would say, this only inreases in the future :)

I'm wrestling through what my role is on campus and how to stay involved when I don't feel like I have a lot to give! I'm doing well- but my health continues to limit my capacity and require more sleep than I could possibly think necessary to function :) SO I'm finding the best thing I can do is to manage my life, stress, sleep, ets as well as possible so that Noah is free to do what he needs to do. When I overcommit, or under rest then I am not able to keep up with the day to day life... and that isn't helping anyone!

So we are doing well, taking one day at a time, seeking the Lord, hosting as much as we can, and enjoying our girls. I feel like we have moved over to KID stage- we no longer have babies. They are both toilet trained, super verbal, very helpful, (and a bit demanding at times ;-) and they both have lots of ideas!

Ellie is getting into drawing and has learned to write her name, she would say her best Christmas gift was her new pretend toaster, and she has so many ideas for Josie- tonight she picked out 5 thigns she wants to wrap for Josie to open up in the car when we go to Champaign :-) She's too much fun right now and I feel like when I talk to her I'm not talking to a 3 year old. Our converstion today in the hotel.

Ellie: Do they have cups for us at breakfst (after noting that we had used up our cups in our room)

Me: Yes, they should

Ellie: Oh yeah that's right, at hotels they give you cups for your breakfast. Like last time.

Me: When was the last time you had breakfast in a hotel (I truly couldnt' recall?)

Ellie: WIth Grandma Lu and Bompa, Laura and Paul, Matt and Julia. But that time they didn't have a breakfast like in the hotel it was just in Grandma Lu and Bompas room. Thats where they had all the food. And they shared a room with Claire and Rachel and Laura and Paul. And we had our own room with Matt and Julia. And Laura and Paul brought their fish. And they had a lot of food in their room. And cups.

... Okay, yeah, she was right :) She is far more of a thinker than I am. She was the only one to notice that Noah shaved his beard (woops!) And the first thing she said when she got a desk for Christmas from Nana and Grandpa was "But how are we going to get this home in our van?"

Oh Ellie, she's always thinking things through.

Meanwhile Josie is making us laugh all of the time! Uncle Matt discoverd at Christmas that whenever you way her name to her, she laughs. And it's true, its hilarious. She can sing Away in a Manger, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, some different song prayers and the ABC's. Although anytime she sings the ABC's she ends by saying "eeee" "ahhhh" because we sing the ABC's while brushing her teeth and always ask her to say "eeee" and "ahhh" before we finish brushing :-) If you tell her "You're so cute" she will reply by saying, "No I not cute, I Josie Kate"

She loves her cousins and her grandpas mmost of all. And if you can't find her, you can bet that she is sitting somewhere just looking at books- lots of books- especially photo books and flipping through every single page over and over. She's still a very good sleeper- taking close to a 3 hour nap most days and going to bed a bit before Ellie and sleeping till a bit after Ellie in the morning. She wants to do everything herself! And it feels like forever ago that she was using diapers- she loves to tell you " I am 2 and Ellie 3" Anytime she hears anyone say the word to/two/too :-)

We are grateful for life, thankful for a new year, and looking forward to a great semester! Hope to be blogging again sooner rather than later!