It is really hard to believe that we are now officially in the year 2020.  Looking at all the memes, postings, etc. there are a few things that have really blown my mind.  20 years ago was Y2K…what the heck? That wasn’t yesterday?!? I can remember it so vividly…that New Years Eve night when we weren’t sure what would happen.  A friend of ours thought it would be hilarious to shut off the breaker to the building we were in right as we all shouted “Happy New Year” and make us think we were really having an issue with the new year turning to “00” again.  We all stood there in the dark for a few seconds, and then it came back up and he fessed up to the shenanigans. It was pretty funny (after the fact).  

But looking at 2019, we had a LOT happen at Our Tin House.  Here’s a quick breakdown of our year:

January – I started this blog!  Hard to believe it has been a year, and I didn’t write nearly as much as I wanted, but it has been so fun!  I contracted c-diff and ended up terribly ill for about two weeks (see “When You Need Your Village”).  We found out we were expecting Baby #3, which was such a blessing. We also lost my husband’s grandfather, Poppy, at 90 years old.  He was the heart of the family, the rock, the legend. He was a cattleman, a family man and, most importantly, a Godly man. Losing him was a terrible way to start the year, and throughout 2019 we had lots of “firsts” without him.  

February – We got to tell everyone we were expecting Baby #3, which was so fun and exciting.  We have TONS of February birthdays in our family, so there were celebrations just about every weekend.  We traveled to San Antonio to celebrate my husband’s Grandma B’s 80th birthday with family and friends.

March – We lost Grandma B and it was heartbreaking.  She loved her family so fiercely and it was the 2nd grandparent in just two months who was no longer with us.  We also purchased part of Poppy’s herd and became “cow-people” overnight.  It has always been my husband’s dream to have cattle of his own, and the fact that they were from his grandpa made it extra special!

April – Dance Competitions Galore!!!  Did I mention I am also a dance teacher?  My dancers competed at several competitions during the month of April, and my daughter had her first year of competition.  It was exhausting (especially being 4 ½ months pregnant), but it was very fun. We celebrated Easter with an awesome crawfish/shrimp boil and lots of family time!  I was also asked to join the music team for a Catholic Women’s ACTS retreat, and was SO pumped!

May – Lots of end-of-school stuff for our little Kindergartner.  Our daughter completely thrived in her first year of school! We have to thank Ms. R for that!  She really brought out the best in our daughter, and what I thought would be an “okay” first year of school was amazing!  She grew so much…educationally, mentally, emotionally, physically…it was crazy looking at the First Day and Last Day photos and seeing the changes!

June – We had our end-of-year dance recital for Smooth Moves.  It is always such a rewarding thing to see an entire year of work come together (and fingers crossed that it does!).  It was a great show and I was so proud of all our dancers!  Vacation Bible School was in June also, and it was a blast (and also exhausting for the adults! Lol!)  We took a family beach trip with some friends and had such a great time.  My girlfriend was also pregnant at the time, so we just sat on the beach with our feet in the water and only got up to reapply sunscreen or grab a snack!  It was a great trip, and we also got to celebrate their oldest daughter’s birthday!

July – The week of July 4th we had a family reunion with my husband’s family in Medina, TX.  He actually took the two kiddos down a few days early to help his grandpa and aunt get prepared for all the visitors, and also for some extra time playing in the river.  I later joined them and we had such a nice, relaxing time. Toward the end of the month, our daughter had her 6th birthday…complete with a Tinker Bell birthday cake and lots of swimming at her Granny’s house!  

August – We were trying to fit in all the things that we needed/wanted to do before the baby got here in September, so there was one more family beach trip (with me in true whale status…LOL!), finalizing the nursery, and getting our daughter ready to start 1st grade.  

September – We started off with a bang!  My water broke the night of September 1st and our baby boy was born in the wee hours of the morning on the 2nd!  That really set things into a totally different trajectory than what I had planned (funny how babies can do that?!).  That’s also why this “New Year” blog post is going out mid-January!  September was also the month that my husband and I celebrated 14 years of marriage!

October – Our older son turned 4 this month!  Since I was home with the baby for all of September and October I was able to spend so much time with him also and it was such a sweet time to really watch him grow and know him as an individual (away from big sister, cousins, etc.).  He is SUCH a loving boy, tender-hearted to the max, and absolutely ADORES his baby brother. I also had a birthday in October, and my parents celebrated 40 years of marriage! 

November – This was when I was really trying to get back into the swing of all the things: back at work, back at dance, back to a “normal” routine (whatever the heck that is).  It’s safe to say that I’m still working on that now, but every day gets a little easier…a little smoother. We hosted Thanksgiving at our home for the 5th year. Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday…no muss, no fuss, just good quality family time and great food!  This was another big first for us without Poppy…he was usually the one to carve the turkey, so everyone was definitely missing his presence big at Thanksgiving. 

December – I was SO excited to get an early Christmas present from my in-laws…a new Christmas tree!!!  We have had the same, hand-me-down tree from my husband’s grandparents since we got married in 2005. It was a small, pre-lit tree, but none of the lights worked and it was really starting to show its age.  We had a great time decorating the tree with the kids, and I even let my daughter go with me to Hobby Lobby to pick out a few new ornaments to add since this was a much larger tree. A big highlight for me this Christmas was that we were back in our newly-remodeled church in time for Christmas Vigil Mass.  It has been over a year since the start of the renovation and expansion of our beloved church, and it literally gave me chills when we started singing Silent Night as our entrance hymn!  

Looking back on this year, even though it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, it is really hard not to feel extremely blessed.  Sometimes it is really easy to focus on the negative, but I encourage everyone to do their own “year in review” and see exactly how much good has happened in the last year.  Happy New Year!