Our year in review - 2014

2014 was much less eventful for us than 2013, but we still had some new things occur this year. Chris joined a different department at W&M which brought some wonderful lifestyle changes for our family, most notably him not working on the weekends and not being on the road for a couple days every week. My job stayed largely the same and Eleanor grew by leaps and bounds. In fact, this year she grew approximately a total of 5 pounds and 5 inches, and obviously had some major milestone development. We grew as parents and our marriage grew to accommodate all these changes. Above all, we were wonderfully blessed with tons of love and opportunities to be with family and friends.

(For past years, click the following links: 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.)

January: We spent the New Year with friends and got a couple inches of snow in Williamsburg, which is a rare occurrence. Our families also came down to visit on separate occasions.

February: Eleanor got dedicated at church. We went up to Leesburg, went to a lot of basketball games, and Eleanor started solid food.

March: My grandparents came to Virginia and met Eleanor for the first time! I spoke at church for the first time during a series on Lent, we had a girls' weekend with my college roommates in town, and Chris, Eleanor, and I traveled up to Baltimore for a weekend to go to the CAA tournament - the first one that wasn't held in Richmond.

April: We had LOTS of visitors! My mom, Lauren, and Erika each came down for solo visits with Eleanor. Eleanor had her first school pictures and we celebrated Easter.

May: Tacking on to Eleanor's visitors, Chris' mom came down to visit for a weekend. Eleanor started crawling, I spent my first Mother's Day with as a mother with a trip to the beach with friends and family, and we bought a pool for Eleanor to begin her love affair with water. We also went up to northern Virginia to celebrate a wedding and graduation all in one and spent Memorial Day there and at the lake.

June: Eleanor had some very faithful and helpful babysitters this month when Ashleigh and Jessie came down to watch her one weekend and my mom and Lauren came down for another. Chris spent his first Father's Day as a dad, and one of my college roommates came to visit for a weekend. We celebrated owning our home for one full year and went blueberry picking.

July: We celebrated the 4th of July at the lake, Eleanor took her first steps, and we had a large family reunion with Chris' family up in Great Falls. Chris and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. We also went to California for our tri-annual Bass Lake reunion.

August: We headed off to Emerald Isle for a week at the beach. Eleanor turned 1 year old and we had a birthday party!

September: Eleanor and I started our biking adventures. We spent Labor Day in northern Virginia for a wedding and family time. We also went to the Eastern Shore for a wedding and then spent our first weekend away from Eleanor in Pittsburgh for yet another wedding. Then most of Chris' siblings came down for a sibling weekend!

October: Lauren came down to visit for the weekend, W&M had Homecoming, my mom came down for her birthday and we spent the entire time biking (over 40 miles in 2 days!). Eleanor also began her relationship with Maynard. Eleanor enjoyed her second Halloween as a mummy.

November: Eleanor and I walked a lot for our Hike It Baby challenge. We went to a petting zoo on campus, Gmom and Uncle Rob came down to visit and bike, and we celebrated Thanksgiving after the fact with family!

December: We spent the month doing lots of Christmas-y things like parades, Grand Illumination, and Christmas Town! We were able to see all of our family for Christmas this year up, for which we were very thankful. 

It's truly been an amazing year. Thank you for being a part of it! 

Happy New Year!!