Christmas Letter 2013

Last year we didn't get around to writing a Christmas card...It was a pretty busy time...

December 2012: Steve finished grad school at the University of Michigan.  We moved out of the condo we were renting in Ann Arbor and were "homeless" for Christmas.  Thankfully we have awesome family who took us in!  The day after Christmas Steve and his dad drove to Colorado so Steve could start work at the AFA on December 28.  I flew with Abby.

January 2013: We arrived in Colorado and settled into living at the Bolton house.  We are so blessed by that family.  They opened up their house to us and let us stay for a month!  Abby loved having a "sister" to play with everyday.  She even got used to having a dog! At the end of January we closed on our house in COS and moved out of the Bolton casa.

February 2013: I haven't mentioned this yet, but I was pregnant during this whole time.  So February was spent unpacking (Steve took care of ALL the unpacking because I got super sick and couldn't get out of bed).  I spent Fridays at the hospital getting IVIG treatments so that LG would stay healthy.  Abby got to hang out with Melissa and Alice.  Abby turned two!  Here are some pictures of her party.  Daddy made an awesome box fort from all our moving boxes.  

March 2013: Lucy was born!  She was born via scheduled c-section at 35 weeks.  She was perfect, all the IVIG treatments worked and her platelet count was high at the very beginning and she only had one day in the NICU!  Praise the Lord for medicine to keep us healthy! We had lots of family in town visiting our new little one and helping us get settled into life with two kiddos.  We are so thankful for grandparents who come into town to help us!

(and thankful for an awesome dad-o who took care of LG for the first 24 hours in the NICU until the doctors let Carey come be with her for more than 15 minutes. He did EVERYTHING - even had to teach mama how to feed the baby!)

April 2013: Can't remember much from this month...I was probably tired.

May 2013: The Klenke family came out and stayed with us for a few days.  It was fun to introduce Andy and Brittany to LG.

(andy enjoyed dressing LG up)

June 2013: Steve was busy at work teaching cadets how to build a steel bridge. We got to go up and visit him at work because his hours were long....Steve hiked a 14er (Gray's Peak).

(fun? doesn't look like it to me...)

July 2013: We got to go to Michigan!  We spent a lot of time up north and really enjoyed hanging out with family on the lake.  It was so nice to have aunties who help watch the little one so we could swim and play outside with Abs.  Steve got to go to Alaska with Russ and Jim.  They caught halibut (and other ancient fish creatures) for four days straight!  

August 2013: Momma turned 30!  We went on a family camping trip with K group.  

(Alice, I love that kid)

September 2013: Midge and Paul came out for Labor Day (Parent's weekend!!).

(those giraffes are crazy!)

October 2013: Abby celebrated her first "real" Halloween and LOVED going to houses and getting candy.  It was super cute to see her with all her friends going from house to house.

November 2013: We had our first family vacation with all four of us to Estes park and we got to celebrate Thanksgiving with our K group friends.  Melissa had Baby Clementine, that was an awesome night.

(we attended a "not so awesome" class where we learned about animal footprints...this is how Abby felt about the class)

Here are some photo updates from December 2013:

Making sugar cookies.

Christmas Jams!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Lucy loved the teddy bear ornament.

And, just to see what it is really like at our house....

(this is how photo sessions usually end....

Abby saying "What is happeting?" (yes, happeting) and Lucy crying.... Or, Abby saying, "Mom, Lucy's cryin!"  Yeah, no joke Abby, you just grabbed her face!)

Merry Christmas from the Klenke Clan!!!