Our Year in Review. Happy Holidays!!

It's that time of year when I look back and see all that has happened and count our many blessings.  We truly have been blessed this year.  No doubt this year has been a whirlwind.  It's been a great year, but definately one that will go down in the books as "crazy and too eventful."  We found out in February that Casey got a promotion with American Family.  Yay!  Good news!  It required us moving to Minnesota.  Um, Yay?!  Casey had been out to visit MN for the interview and really liked it.  All I knew about Minnesota was the Mall of America.  We moved at the end of April after 6 weeks of being apart.  (Which I really don't recommend with a 4 month old!)  It was a long haul, but we made it and moved into our new home and have since fallen in love with the beauty here!



Shortly after we settled in, we celebrated 10 years of marriage.  It's hard to believe it's been 10 years, but we'll take it!  Shortly thereafter, it was announced that American Family would be restructuring.  Which meant Casey would have to reapply for his job.  In his office, they have 3 people doing his job and needed to downsize to 2 people.  Right before Thanksgiving, we received news that one of his counterparts received a promotion which allowed Casey and the other person to keep their job.  Woohoo!!  It was a stressful 6 weeks while we were awaiting news, but we are so happy and so very blessed that it turned out the way it did!

As if Casey isn't doing enough, he is also working on his MBA.  He has 4 more classes (YAY!!) and then he will be done.  We expect him to graduate in June 2012.  I'm sure you'll hear the fireworks.



As for the boys, it's been year of firsts.  Caden is 3 and started preschool and loves it!  He has made several friends and enjoys wearing his IronMan backpack.  He also took swimming lessons for the first time and is now so confident in the water.  We have a huge lake near our house and spent just about every afternoon soaking up the sun this summer.  Caden loved playing in the sand and diving into the lake. He keeps talking about the day he turns 4 in February--- then he will be "grown up," he says!

Porter is the most laid back kid you'll ever meet.  I don't think I would have made it through the year without him.  He kept me calm and smiling through the entire move and office restructuring.  He's gone from sitting up to crawling to walking full speed.  He is quite the cutie!  He celebrated his first birthday on October 8th and loved every bite of his chocolate cake.

As for me, I've been blogging here and keeping the family together and happy.  I am lucky enough to still work for Southeast Community College in their eMarketing department.  For them to let me continue working for them has been a huge blessing and I love every minute of it.  In my spare time I've been worrying about the winters here so I purchased some hard core boots that I wear near daily.

We hope you're having a great Christmas season.  We are so thankful for the birth of Jesus Christ and thankful for this season we have to celebrate it.  We love you and please stay warm!