Welcome to our blog where we attempt to chronicle our family's adventures. 2015 has been an eventful one for us so here's a bit of a recap.
At the end of 2014 we found out that our surprise 2015 baby was a girl! In March we traveled down to Arizona to spend time with my family, including my sister and nephew. We also celebrated Samuel's first birthday with a small waffle and bacon brunch. The end of the month found us on a week long camping trip with dear friends recently returned from Germany. We enjoyed good conversation, yummy food, adventures, and of course lots of campfires.
Upon our return home my Dad arrived for a week of pre-planning and deck demolition for our huge deck replacement project. He left for a week, during which we had our old concrete pad torn out and replaced with a new, beautiful pad. My parents both came up mid month to spend an intense 10 day deck building marathon. Our brother in law and several friends also lent their skills and time to help us during the project. After they all left Jamie and I finished up the handrails to make the deck safe for use and worked on landscaping.
We were incredibly blessed by usually excellent weather this year, it barely rained during the time we worked on our deck project and we enjoyed many hours outside in the backyard. Our swing set got a good work out, we even got a garden in (thanks to a sweet friend who provided me starts). Samuel didn't walk yet but explored the yard extensively on hands and knees (don't worry we stayed on top of the dog poop pickup). Judah became a great helper during the project and picked up almost $15 worth of nails from the old deck ($0.01/nail). He also helped sweep, built boardwalks, moved rocks, and helped with our railing installation.
We rounded out May with a trip to our "friends on the mountain" in eastern Washington where we enjoyed some excellent hospitality and relaxation after all our work. In June we started prepping to welcome our baby girl and took one last camping trip as a family of 4 to Lake Wenatchee.
July was a big month at our house, we welcomed Zoe Anne on July 9 and became of family with 3(!) kids. We had several visitors including Jamie's folks, his sister's family, and my parents. Judah got to go to Vacation Bible School for a week with his best friends, our neighbors. And Samuel learned to walk! Literally the week after Zoe was born. Zoe was a super sweet newborn, laid back and easy going with her busy big brothers running around.
In early August we journeyed as a family of 5 to Minnesota to visit my extended family at the lake. A high point was Judah learning to ride bike with no training wheels. September found us getting back into a routine again. Judah started Pre-Kindergarten and took to it really well. He is enjoying learning letters and numbers and playing with his friends. I started BSF again and am studying Revelation while the kids are in the children's program. Judah also started gymnastics, which he loves, and impresses us with his physical abilities. We also took a last minute labor day camping trip to Oregon, our first attempt at camping with 3 kids. We were blessed to be visited by old friends during our 3 day stay, including my good friend from high school, Jamie's best man from our wedding, and his good friends from college. It was so fun to catch up again and we're excited to visit them all again soon.
October found us entering fall and getting pumpkins, which we painted as Minions, much to the joy of our kids and visitors. They lasted on our steps until early December, though our resident squirrel did peck away at them a bit. We also visited our neighborhood pumpkin farm, around the corner from our house. Mid month we headed north to San Juan Island to visit Jamie's family and introduce Zoe to friends up there. The kiddos dressed up as superheros for Halloween: Batman, Batman, and Super Girl. We ventured to downtown Edmonds for about 30 minutes of trick or treating in the rain.
November was our month of colds as they rotated through the family, ending up with Samuel getting pneumonia the week before Thanksgiving. Thankfully he recovered quickly and no one else got sick so we were able to have a nice Thanksgiving on the Island with the Zaehrings. December has been filled with Christmas preparations including decorating, cookie baking, crafts, and parties. We head south to Arizona for Christmas with my family, including our brand new niece.
We hope this update finds you well and that you have a blessed Holiday Season and we look forward, as always, till the next time our laughter rises in fellowship together!
We hope this update finds you well and that you have a blessed Holiday Season and we look forward, as always, till the next time our laughter rises in fellowship together!
Much Love,
The Zaehrings
Jamie, Michelle, Judah, Samuel, Zoe, and Ally
