Wait...what?

Wait...what???  Having several pre-teens in our home, we hear this phrase a lot.  Well, now I find myself saying it as I try to grasp the reality that it is truly a new year!  As a mom of 6, my blogging has taken a back seat for a while.  It seems my last few entries have been "catching up" and here I go again.  As I reflect over the past year, I just have to mention some highlights!  

We had all of my side of the family together in November and were able to get a great snapshot of our newest member of the family and I have two nephews getting married this year so we had the addition of their beautiful fiances too!

When I think of where our family was just a year ago, I can't tell you how blessed I feel to be able to embrace each moment with those that are closest to me!  My Dad is a walking miracle and I will daily thank the Lord for allowing him more time on this earth with us!

Some highlights that may seem minor to you but are huge to me are:

1.   No more pull ups for anyone. (Big for the budget!)
2.  My children are doing their own laundry!!!!  I cannot tell you how huge this is for me!  Eli does his, Isaiah & Jesse do theirs together and Carmen & Ciera do theirs.  They wash it, they dry it, they fold it and they put it away!   They are learning responsibility and they do it without complaining!  Huge!
3.  My kids remained on the honor role all year!
4.  We survived Eli's broken thumb and Isaiah's broken collar bone.
5.  We had a fun summer with a trip to Mobile and a dream Orlando vacation.
6.  Eli decided that, for now, his favorite sport is basketball!  Yay for air conditioned games!!!

Of course a huge highlight was the birth of Samuel Emmitt!

He is such a joy!  I love his laughter!  The kids enjoy him so much (I know that changes once he begins driving them crazy, but I'm loving their interaction with him for now!)  I can't believe that he is 8 months old today and as of last week, he is crawling everywhere.  Yep, here we go! 

Our church family is embarking on a new adventure and it all hit reality in December!  We sold our facility to an organization that helps adults with Aspergers to transition into real life.  The owner of the company came to us a year and a half ago asking us to pray about it.  Our location was perfect for them because it was right across the street from Brevard Community College (It's a university now but I can't remember it's name :/)  which is where these adults attend.  As we prayed, we became excited thinking about reaching beyond the walls and having the opportunity to reach a different area in Melbourne.   We finalized the sell in December and are temporarily renting a Seventh Day Adventist Church for our service on Sundays.  We are continuing to seek where God would have us on a more permanent basis, but for now we will reach out to the neighborhood where we are!  This is a picture of our last Sunday in the old location.

We had a new experience this Christmas.  Typically we go to AL for the Christmas break to see my family, but with everything in transition with the church we didn't feel that we could get away.  So, everyone came to us!  It was wonderful!  We had our Christmas meal out by the pool while the kids swam.  There were 22 of us all together.  It was a great time!

We ended 2013 in a new way as well.  We took the kids out to Seaworld to bring in the new year with their fireworks over the water.  Fun times!

Well, thank you for allowing me to get caught up again!  I have missed writing and hope to do it much more this year now that I'm getting into the swing of things with our new addition.  I hope that you had a great Christmas and I pray that you have a wonderful new year filled with many blessings from above!