Reflections on 2018

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Happy New Year, everyone!

Or should I say, Happy 3rd Week of the New Year! 😀

I have spent the last few weeks reflecting on 2018, and what I want for 2019, but never took the time to write my reflections down. So many big things happened, last year!!

my 2nd niece was born in March
bought our 1st home, &
moved back to Lexington
M. started his new job as a professor at UK
our 2nd baby girl, Rosie, was born in October
Mother-in-law and sister-in-law came to visit new house and see the girls (1st time for my MIL since we got married in 2010!)
celebrated our 1st Christmas in our new home

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Second to having your own children, watching your siblings become parents is one of the sweetest things in the world! My younger brother and his girlfriend welcomed a baby girl in March, and we couldn’t be more in love with her (and she fits right in with her cousins). =)

At the beginning of 2018, M. was offered a position as an assistant professor at UK (GO CATS!!), and we could not have been more excited that we would be moving back to Lexington! We had already been peaking at homes on Zillow since December of 2017, secretly wishing for a home in our favorite part of town, and this house just happened to still be available! Long story short, we closed on the house in May, and that solidified our move back to Lexington. It wouldn’t be until mid-July that we would move in, but we made weekend trips almost every weekend, to clean and work on small projects around our new home in preparation for our move. Not to mention, we were just too excited to stay away! Sleeping on an air mattress while being quite pregnant was not the most enjoyable thing, but obviously I survived ;).

M. started his position in August, and within a few weeks of moving in, we had everything completely unpacked. Rosie entered the world just one day past her due date, and my mother-in-law arrived just a few days after that! It was so amazing to see Lilly become a big sister–all the worries I had of her being jealous or disliking Rosie quickly disappeared when we brought Rosie home from the hospital. It felt so natural bringing home our new baby girl, and slipping into our new roles as a family of four!

Having my MIL in town to help with Lilly and run the house while I recovered was the best gift I could have been given. Seriously, without her help, I probably would not have been able to recover as quickly, and I would have been completely overwhelmed! My sister-in-law stayed with us the last two weeks of November, so for the whole month we were covered in love and support. We celebrated Thanksgiving, together, and it was so much fun having a little Thanksgiving dinner with just our little family! (FYI, it’s SO easy to bake turkey breast in a Dutch oven!).

And then Christmas and New Year’s were both spent at home. We have been married almost 9 years, and this was the first year we did not travel for the holidays! Between having a newborn and Lilly being a terrible traveler, we were content to start our own traditions for Christmas. We missed seeing our families, but waking up on Christmas morning with our girls was super special! 🙂 At least for the foreseeable future, we will be staying put for Christmas. Creating traditions with my nuclear family is something that has been tugging on my heart, ever since M. and I got married, and last year was a great year to start!

2018 was definitely one for the books, with a handful of big life events taking place, but it was more than that–it was the first time, in a long time, when the good times far outweighed the bad. The last several years have been a real mixed bag of joy and heartache and upheaval (which is a post for another time), but God really blessed us, last year. He quite literally gave us the desires of our hearts, and brought us so much joy and peace throughout the year! That’s not to say that 2018 was a cakewalk (we did buy a house, move, start a new job, AND have a 2nd baby all within 6 months!), but they were filled with joy.

I cannot wait to see what 2019 has in store, for us–we’ve got some pretty cool things to look forward to (including M. and I both turning 30!!), and I cannot wait to share with you all what my New Year’s resolution is…in Wednesday’s post. 🙂