Editors Note: The below is part of my annual anniversary tradition of emailing all those that were involved in our wedding (wedding party, musicians, parents, etc...) and updating them on our year and what they were up to this year as well. You may not know all the players and feel free to skip this lengthy recitation. It is an important piece of our story for us though and a tradition we plan to continue. (You can read last year's update here.) Meanwhile, thank you for following our story and sharing this grand adventure of married life. We are so happy to be sharing this journey with each other an welcome you along for the ride.
In honor of our NINTH anniversary it is one again time for our annual re-cap. It has been an exciting year. We've experienced great joy, many challenges, some loss and are so glad to have each other through it all.
Brent and I do not have a tremendous amount of individual changes this year, for once. We continue in our same jobs (GW, Drexel, OSSM), same hobbies (Legos, games, reading, scrapbooking, etc). I've developed my new interest in Zumba which I'm sure you know all about if you've been reading the blog. We did also construct and plant our first real vegetable garden which is actually doing very well. I think it has been fun for everyone. Brendan continues to rapidly change. He can do a million things himself now and insists on it. He is interested in space, robots, Toy Story, books (lately Dr. Seuss), animals, playing in the water, and movies and generally being silly. The big news, of course, is our new little lady, Maggie. She is now 10 months old and cruising all around investigating everything. She puts everything in her mouth, adores her brother, and already has definite opinions about things. She is golden haired with triple dimples (two cheeks, plus chin) and in my very biased opinion just beautiful. She will be baptized this weekend in Edmond.
Even with two kids we do keep very busy with other things. I only made one trip to DC this year between snow storms and maternity leave, but am going again in two weeks. The kids and I visited Audra and Zach in STL in the fall and Brent and I took a quick vacation to Vegas in the Spring. We are all going back to STL in July to meet our nephew!! Meanwhile, Brent went go Hoboken/NYC for a conference this week and it looks like I won't actually see him on our anniversary which is sad:( I did spend the day at my parents' house though which was pretty fun and surrounded by larkspur just like at our wedding.
As for the rest of the group from our wedding there are lots of events as usual. First, the babies lead the way again - in addition to Maggie, Gina had her second son, Andrew, just a week before Maggie was born, Peter's daughter Ashtyn was born in November after a long bed rest, Janna (Brent's cousin) had her third child - Roman- in December, my sister is expecting her first child, a son, this month(!!) to be named Zane Able, my cousin Erica is expecting her fifth child (and third son) in September, the Palfreymans are expecting their first baby in November. Wow, that's a lot and I hope I'm not missing anyone...
Weddings - Mary got married to Andy M. in August. I was so excited to be a bridesmaid. It was a wonderful time and as Maggie was late being born I even got to go to the bridal portraits. So much fun to share her wedding adventures. Thanks Mary! (Missing you!)
Other happenings - My brother got a new job with a financial products/insurance company (let me know if you would like his contact info). Alisha moved back to OK this year! Sarah's first niece was born in July and is very adorable. Tracie, Bethany, Chrissie and Jessie have joined in my Zumba adventures. My brother ran a marathon --- which was completely amazing. My Mom retired and is so happy and relaxed already. She has been traveling all around already to see my siblings and her friend Christal. I'm so excited that we'll get to play with her more during the year. Tracie, Jamie and Able will be Maggie's godparents at the baptism this weekend which is very exciting. My Dad is, I believe, going back to teaching full time. Brent's parents each had some skin related health issues to varying degrees, but are both doing very well now for which we are very thankful. Bill got a big promotion this year which means lots of travel for him, but I think everyone has adjusted well. John, our nephew, turned two. Sadly, we didn't get to go to the party next year, but did get some fun visits from him in the spring.
Erik and his wife have been busy with house renovations and are getting ready for a trip to Colorado. We had the great pleasure of spending new year's eve with them this year which was a lot of fun. Serenity, Chrissie and Eric's daughter, continues to be full of amazing feats and is currently learning to love music and crafts. You can read all about there adventures here. The Hoppers "may" be moving to Edmond so would be close neighbors to us which would be fun. In the meantime, they have taken some trips to see their parents and are enjoying doting on Jackie's daughter. Erin and Patrick remain busy in Utah as Patrick works to finish his Masters degree very soon.
Andy and his wife bought a new house in Tulsa. Alisha is now house shopping. Sarah had been ill this year, but following her recent surgery is thankfully feeling much better. Able, Sarah, Tracie, Jamie and Carl all also made Vegas trips this year. Jennie did a triathalon (not sure if that was since my last update, but very neat in any case). Chrissie and I are planning a Scrapbooking retreat for this year. Mary and her husband are spending five weeks in Germany this summer with a student group and have a fascinating blog going that I would recommend checking out. Brian and his family are still in Houston for at least the next year while Linh finishes her residency and fellowship and Samantha is keeping them busy and happy. Somehow, I'm sure there is much much more that I'm forgetting, but in short everyone is busy, happy and healthy as we head towards the next year. We continue to post our pictures here if anyone wants to peruse our various activities from the last year and more.
Thanks to all of the above and to all of you our readers and dear friends for all your love and support over the last year as well as the many before that. You make our marriage and our family stronger and we thank you for it. Please come visit us any time we love having guests!
Love,
Abbey & Brent
No comments:
Post a Comment