2011 wrapped up:
In
January we went to
Singapore, which sadly I never blogged about. I have all of the pictures on my home computer so maybe I will do that soon. We celebrated Chinese New Year while we were there.
In
February, we had our final
hoopla at the Sheraton before heading back to the
states.
In
March, I didn't blog much because we were
celebrating all the holidays we missed with our families.
April showers definitely hit hard. The
big storm that took away my
sister's in-law's house. It is something we still
talk about. The time that Shelley mentions it the most is when we are at my parent's house and the washing machine is running. Yes, that sounds completely weird, but she says their washing machine sounds remind her of the tornado sounds. We all try to refrain from doing laundry while she is there. I also wanted to update you all on how Steve and Rhonda are doing. They were able to find a house that a couple was selling fully furnished. The couple was moving to South America to be with the wife's family and they were leaving everything behind. The house is only minutes away from the land the old house was on (which is where they still keep their horses) and even though they've had to start completely from scratch, buying this fully furnished house was a huge blessing!! I went by to visit when they first moved in and it is gorgeous with a wrap around porch, pool and huge garage! Thank you for all of your prayers for that family!
In
May Gary and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary in
CHICAGO!!!!
Also, Gary
graduated with his Bachelors degree
from Heritage Christian. It was a fun day filled with lots of celebrating!!
June brought Gary's
29th birthday. We kept things low key, but 2012 might be the year for the BIG BASH!!! 30!!!
In July we experienced heartache. We lost Gary's grandfather, which was one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through. I am fortunate enough to still have all 4 of my grandparents, so losing Pop Washer was extremely diffcult and still is.
Gary and Pop at his graduation in May. The last picture they had together.
August was the month for babies!!! We had one on
Gary's side and one on
my side!!
Benjamin and
Alyza are growing so fast and we are so blessed to have them in our lives!!
October was a pretty low key month, but Gary and I did take some much needed time off and spent a couple of days together for our
stay-cation!! It was way fun and I highly encourage these!!
Thanksgiving (which was never blogged about for some reason) was of course celebrated in
November, but something else fun that we did was go on our first
marriage retreat!!
December, of course, was full of Christmas!!! I went a little crazy
decorating and
crafting this year, but it was so fun!!!! We also rejoiced with my cousin when he was
baptized!!
As you can tell, our 2011 was filled with a little joy, a little happiness and a little sadness, but it's another year in the books and we are SUPER anxious to see what God has in store for us in 2012!!!
New Years Resolutions:
I actually have a few of these and most of them are the general lose weight, eat better, exercise more, but 2 things in particular are high on the priority list.
1. Read the Bible in it's entirety. This is something I am sad to say that I haven't done yet. I have started and done very well many many times, but I have never read the entire thing through consecutively. I'm anxious and excited about the things I will learn and how I will grow!! Please pray that I will be have the endurance to do this task and hopefully I will be able to do it in less than a year :). I will definitely keep you updated and let you all know how it's going.
2. Start a prayer journal. My friend, Rachel, gave me the great idea to get my cousins prayer journals for Christmas. They all three seemed to really be excited about them. I wrote them a sweet note in the front to encourage them. After doing that I decided that I needed to start one this year too. I have heard that they are amazing and show God's awesomeness!! It's been a slow process so far, but I'm excited to look back at the end of 2012 and see how God has answered my prayers. I know that God always answers our prayers with either a yes, no or not right now, but it will be neat to actually track it and see how he is answering. Do any of you have prayer journals? Have they changed your life? How?
I truly hope that 2011 was amazing for you all and I pray that 2012 will be that much better!
Happy New Year,
Kimberly
