2016 was wonderful and sad and scary and fun. I learned so much about life and loss. In May, , there isn’t a single day that goes by that I don’t think about him. I don’t spend a ton of time dwelling on more time, I don’t have doubts about things I would have said to him or changes I would have made. I saw him multiple times a week, we went to church together, he came over to hang out with the kids on a regular basis. In fact, he spent the entire day before his death with Judson. I often find myself somewhere between being bitter that my kids won’t get to grow up with him like I did and elated that we had the time we did.
It was a few months later that Allen called me at work to tell me Coco, our dog of nearly 12 years, had suddenly died. And I know that she was just a dog, but to us she was a part of our family. Truly, such a big part of our daily lives, and we miss her tremendously.
There were definitely some lows in our year. I was truly confronted with just how fragile life is and it has changed me so much. We’ve slowed down and enjoyed each other more, we’ve worried less and loved more. We didn’t let the sad days in 2016 define our entire year. So many wonderful things happened and I definitely wanted to take the time to look back on those, too.
We started out a year of healthy eating with the Live Whole 365 challenge. A year later, we’d all agree that our bodies are super thankful for huge changes in our diets.
We celebrated Allen’s birthday with a trip to Nashville and had way too much fun!
We traveled south for a magical adventure at the happiest place on earth. I know I say this every year, but this was the best Disney trip yet!
The kids an I had a fun photo shoot for the Colorbar’s Mother’s Day ad! It was fun to get super dressed up and take pictures with these two!
Chase and Haley got married!! And this is a great reminder of all the things I need to go back and catch up on for the blog! It was a beautiful day.
We took a trip to the beach and this year, Judson didn’t even hate the sand. He actually loved it!
Braylen started first grade!! Is that crazy?! She should still be a tiny little baby to me, but I don’t mind having this spunky 6 year old around. She has the biggest heart, more smarts than I know what to do with, and the coolest personality.
We packed a ton of fun in October. Fall festivals, parties and another round of coordinating Halloween costumes!
We welcomed a new addition to the family!! Tucker came at the end of October and healed our hearts a bit from the loss of Coco. It’s fun to have a dog in the house again, and the kids are obsessed with this guy!
I celebrated my 30th birthday with some of my favorite girls (+their husbands, of course). I’ve said this before, but I am seriously a lucky girl to be surrounded by these girls. We’ve been friends our entire lives and we never have a problem picking right up where we left off.
Braylen lost her first tooth on Christmas Eve. Thank goodness, because she was super concerned that she was the only person in all of first grade who hadn’t lost a tooth.
And we celebrated Christmas and wrapped up 2016.
I’d love to really work more on the blog this year, more content, more posts, and a better schedule are a few of my goals. I didn’t have any intentions to post a reader survey, but I thought it might be fun to do after chatting with today.
So, if you don’t mind, would you take a moment to fill out this survey? I would LOVE to hear from you!
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