happy new year 2013

Happy New Year from our home to yours!

Last night we engaged in our second annual Marshmallow Gun Fight with Julie. Last year she gifted Jackson with these guns and we've now incorporated them into our New Year's traditions. Okay so maybe it's our only New Year's tradition. But at least we have one! (Thanks, Julie.)

While I ducked for cover beneath the couch cushions, Dan and Julie got their game faces on and took to shooting. Mini marshmallows were flying across our living room and kitchen at lightning speed! This year Jackson got way more into the shooting, mainly because he's actually able to fire the gun on his own now. And I'm pretty sure his intake of actual marshmallows increased by about 5,263%. Picking up the spent ammo was a chore that was embraced quickly and easily.

 

 

 

 

  

We might've gone to bed before midnight on New Year's Eve, but with good reason. Besides the fact that we were just plain tired from shooting (or avoiding) flying marshmallows, we also knew we needed our sleep for an action-packed New Year's Day full of driving, sledding, snow-shoeing, and fun with friends and family.

Before the crack of dawn on 2013, we loaded up the car with sleds, snow shoes, and puffy coats and took a 7:10 AM ferry boat and met our friends The Ericsons in Kingston for the drive up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.

Once we'd risen above the clouds, it was the most gorgeous, sunny day with blue skies and big smiles all around while the kids enjoyed sledding before we set out on a snow shoe hike (while all 3 exhausted kids passed out in their back-pack carriers) that jump-started my Braxton-Hicks contractions in a big way. If Emma isn't here by February 7th, I now know exactly what we need to do in order to coax her out of her comfy perch!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was an amazing day in every way and the perfect setting in which to reflect on the beauty of our Awesome Creator and all of the incredible blessings He has poured out on our family in the past 365 days. We finished 2011 on the heels of two more back-to-back miscarriages with hope and prayer of a healthy pregnancy in 2012. And here we are beginning 2013 with a healthy daughter who is due to arrive in a matter of days. Our family has witnessed firsthand the faithfulness of the Lord in 2012 and we rejoice that His mercies are new each morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). We're so excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in the year ahead!