Year in Review

2011
This year we had a very exciting and eventful year. We started the year off with the craziness of the wedding and all of the family that came with it. We were very blessed to have so many of our family and friends present on one of the biggest days of our lives. We had so much celebrating with everyone that was able to come. We had some long travelers come; Grandma Mary made the journey all the way from Hawaii and Laura happened to be home from Africa then. We had many travel from California, Washington, Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia and I am sure I am missing some. Following the wedding Jon and I enjoyed a wonderful honeymoon to St. Lucia. We had a lot of fun just relaxing and seeing all of the beautiful sights. I got scuba certified so not only did we sight see on land but under water too.


St. Lucia was one of our many travels this year. We were fortunate to travel with Jon's family to Hawaii for a wonderful cruise this summer. Following the cruise we took several weekend trips to visit friends and family. We ventured to Denver to visit David and Candice, we went to Virginia to visit Paul and Stacy and we went to Waco to visit Dan and Traci.


We came back to a crazy life and more school work. We both continued to truck on through our year of masters work. We are both getting a little tired of being in school and ready for the end to come. Thankfully as another year closes so does another semester of school. We will both finish school this summer. Jon will be done the end of May and I will finish the end of June.

In the craziness of the end of the year we also had some very exciting news, I am pregnant! We are not only excited for summer to come because it means the end of school but it also means we will welcome and new little bundle of joy. The baby is due mid July. As I went to the doctor today and saw the most amazing miracle of life, I was totally amazed. It is crazy to think this little thing that is so tiny is so developed and active.

We look forward to all of the joy and excitement this year has to bring. We hope that everyone had a blessed holiday season and that 2012 finds you healthy and happy.

Courtney

Wrapping up another semester

Well we find ourselves in the hustle and bustle of finishing another semester of school and getting all of our holiday preparations done.  I am very excited to announce that we will both be done with school in 6 short months.  This has been a long road and not the ideal road for newlyweds but we have faith that it will pay off later.  This semester Jon took a heavy load of 5 (all of them were 8 weeks, 2 sessions) classes and I took my normal 1.  In the spring he will finish up with his final 3 classes and graduate the end of May!  I will be taking two classes this spring, more than I am used to, and one the month of June.  Although I won't finish until June it is getting closer every day. 

As the holidays are getting closer we are trying to enjoy the festivities amidst the chaos of school, work and whatever else.  The nice thing this year, we will not be going out of town for any of the holidays.  We usually go out of town for at least one of the holidays but this year we were lucky enough to not have to.  We convinced my dad's side to come and visit us for Christmas.  I am very excited to be hosting the first Christmas celebration at our house with most of our family.  Luckily I have finished the semester and started to do some shopping but there is still plenty to do.  I am very excited for this week to come to a close and to have some time off work.  I often feel like our lives are so hectic we seldom have time to take care of the basic things around the house.  This break I have big plans for cleaning out my closet, and who knows what else ;)...we will see how that actually plays out.

We hope this holiday season finds everyone and their families happy and healthy.  As we reflect on this past year we realize how truly blessed we are.  God has given us a beautiful house, wedding and the love of one another.  We both have jobs and the opportunity to work on finishing our degrees.