2014... A Year of Change!

Reflecting on 2014, I have to declare it the year of CHANGE (have I mentioned that I hate change!?).  Some of it was good; some of it was hard.

Major changes in our household this year included:

• Becoming a family of 5 when Aleah was born in April
• Josh losing his job of nearly 10 years and starting a new job
• Hannah starting Kindergarten
• Jacob starting preschool
• Me babysitting our niece, Madelyn

Hard things we went through on top of the change:

• My Grandpa Miller passed away.
• I spent 4 days in the hospital with pre-term labor at the end of a pretty difficult pregnancy.
• We spent about two months thinking and praying about if we were supposed to move to Nashville (we never wanted to); that was very stressful!
• Josh's transition to his new job has not been easy on anyone in our household.  We're still working on that one.

In summary, we went from a difficult pregnancy, to adding a baby to our family, to losing our job, to finding a new (stressful) job, to a whole new schedule for every member of our family this fall.  Really, when I think about this year, I think "stress" and "change," and then I wonder if I'm being dramatic because nothing that happened was world ending by any means.  It was just a lot of.... stress and change!

God gave us some new, exciting ministry opportunities and continued on with others we've been doing:

• I assisted my best friend Sandy as she started a new after school program at our church, Cross Training.
• I led two moms' Bible studies this year, one in the spring and one in the fall.
• I don't know if this is "ministry" per se, but Hannah and I both donated our hair this year, something I've always wanted to do!
• We were able to sponsor another Compassion child, walk in The Walk for Life, do OCC boxes, participate in The Living Christmas Tree, and continue on in early childhood ministry and PBT financial work, etc., etc.

We did not go on a big vacation this year, but we visited some fun places:

• 10 Year anniversary in St. Louis
• Jacob's 4th birthday in Indy
• Christmastime weekend in Chicago
• A day at the "beach" (Indiana Dunes)

Some really great things happened too:

• My sister Emily moved back to Catlin
• Josh and I celebrated 10 years of marriage 
• We got two new nieces, Madelyn and Hazel
• ALEAH WAS BORN!  She is the very bright ray of sunlight on this somewhat difficult year.  She makes everything hard seem so small.  She makes me so happy!!!  Being a MOM is still the best job ever!!!

Christmas Break

This being my first year as a real "school mom," I really loved Christmas break.  We seriously packed in the fun.  Here are the highlights

• We drove around Catlin and Danville to see Christmas lights
• We took Hannah to get her ears pierced.  I had always told her that she could do it whenever she was ready, but she would have to be sure.  She talked about it a few times over break.  The morning I was going to take her, she decided not to go.  That night, we were at the mall for a different purpose, and she decided to march herself into Claire's and ask them to pierce her ears.  She was very brave.  She said it only hurt a little bit, although she did cry afterwards.  She said it's because she was scared.  But she LOVES her new earrings.  Josh and I were a little surprised on the cost, but Josh wanted to make sure she had good earrings that wouldn't irritate her ears.  

• We went out for ice cream at the year around shop in Oakwood
• We went out for Chinese at the mall food court
• We rode the Carousel at the Champaign mall
• We made homemade ornaments for Christmas gifts 

• We made lots of Christmas candies to take to our parties (caramels, fudge, peppermint bark, etc.)
• We hosted Mike & Kristen for New Year's Eve and served a fancy dinner
• We took a fun craft to the preschool class at church.  The kids each made a baby Jesus.  I wish I had taken a picture, but it was a crazy morning!
• I played my trumpet for the first time in years for the Christmas service.
• We spent lots of time in the kitchen, and I tried lots of new recipes (Pasta Da Vinci, Mini Chicken Pot Pies, Roast Ribeye, and Josh made Corned Beef and Cabbage, which was probably technically his first cooking experience... ever)

• We had 4 family Christmases on 3 different days; those will be another post!
• We went to the Christmas Eve service at church
• I went out with two high school girlfriends, one who I hadn't seen in several years.  This is Dawnielle, one of my very best friends from high school:

• We hosted three game nights and served lunch/dinner
• We attended Josh's cousin Pammy's birthday party at Red Lobster

• Josh and I went on a date (with Aleah) to The Possum Trot
• Hannah and Jacob went to a Salt Fork basketball game and Steak 'n Shake with Grandma and Papa
• We went to a friend's b-day party
• I took the kids shopping in Champaign to do exchanges, etc.  One of my favorite purchases was this ornament:

• We got Aleah a new bedroom dresser (Grandpa and Grandma Gurtler are giving her money for Christmas to go towards a dresser and we went and picked it out).

• We set up new shelves in our living room and reorganized the kids' library.  The kids have spent tons of time looking at their books:

• We got to have Sunday lunch with my childhood minister and his wife, Bob and Nell Stacey

• I spent lots of quality time with Josh.
• We found out my sister Emily is expecting!  They came over and told us, and we put Hannah's old shirt on her and took her picture:

• We had two sewing days, and I finished a quilt I've been "working on" for about seven years.

• We set up the kids' new bunkbeds

• We made a gingerbread house.

• We did puzzles, including this 400 piece one:

• We played our new games, mostly Barbecue Party, which Jacob declared his favorite Christmas gift:

• And although I did wash laundry the entire time, I ignored putting it away until the kids were back in school:

• I call that a very successful "break!"

Downing Christmas

We had Christmas Day with the Downings, as we always do.  It's always a fun day with his aunt, uncles, and cousins.  We eat, open gifts, play euchre, play "the brown bag game," and just talk all day!

The kids didn't have a lot to open this year, which was ok with me!  Steve got them an outdoor basketball hoop, which we have to set up, and Uncle John and Aunt Becky got our family Disney On Ice tickets.  I'm always thankful for gifts that don't have to go somewhere in our house!

Aleah had a good first Christmas:

Christmas Morning

We left cookies and milk for Santa, and Hannah wrote him a letter on her own.  She is learning so much at kindergarten!

Santa brought Hannah a scooter (that ended up having to be exchanged); he brought Jacob a toy phone; and he brought Aleah a base for our Rody so it can be a rocking horse too.

Josh and I got the kids a really cool pool at Aldi on end of the summer clearance.  The kids kept asking for it every time we went this summer, but I waited until it was the last one left and it was marked down as far as I thought it would go.  We can't wait to use it next year!

Hannah took money to buy gifts at Santa's Workshop at school this year.  She got Jacob this cool stuffed turtle.

She got me a necklace and earrings.

Josh and I got the kids each a personalized book.

I was really excited about Josh's gifts this year.  I got him a case of Surge, a Peter Pan Pez, and a Friday Night Lights T-Shirt.

Jacob made me some precious gifts at preschool.

Aleah got matching Minnie jammies this year too, but she wasn't in the mood for a group picture.

We always make homemade doughnuts on Christmas morning.  I also hadn't got all of my candies done, so we made caramels and peppermint bark that morning to take over to the Downings later that day.  

I love having Christmas morning at home with my family!

Sudlow Christmas

Sudlow family Christmas was on Christmas Eve morning, as it usually is.  We had fun dressing up the three babies, but we didn't have much luck with taking pictures!  

First, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus:

Then we opened TONS of presents.  With 19 people, there are A LOT of gifts!

All the girls got cute teddy bears from Great Uncle Art and Great Aunt Linda

Aleah got a Simba

Hannah loved her Elsa shirt from Uncle Phil and Aunt Erika

Grandma Teresa made beautiful doll clothes for Hannah.  

She kept saying, "I love them; I love them; I love them!"

Jacob LOVES his Barbecue Party game.  He was familiar with it from TV, and we have played it tons since Christmas.  He said, "It's sizzlin' fun, by Goliath."  And he also said, "I can't believe I actually have this game."

We had a great day, and then we all headed to church in the evening!