2013: A very full year, chock full of changes

January

We began the month with our traditional house blessing on the feast of the Epiphany.

It seemed bittersweet as we realized it would be the last time we would bless this particular house.

(Do we lose the chalk every year? Patrick's using a coloured pencil instead).

I set no  New Year's resolutions except to sell our house, and hopefully have a new baby.
Big enough resolutions in and of themselves, when you think about it!

February

Anyone recognize what those little green stickers are?

Here's a hint: Noah rifled through my nightstand, found these and did some artwork with his peculiar Catholic medium.

Here's another hint: In February we found out we were expecting our third child.
God be praised!

Also, this fun day occurred.

We came home from Kent Building Supplies where my Dad works (where I had gone to get discounted flooring to redo our laundry room) and Patrick raced to the van to help me get the kids out as soon as possible so we could watch the developments on ewtn.com

March

The boys enjoying their freshly painted room.

Other than packing, organizing and repainting the house whilst newly pregnant and sick,

I have no memories of March.

March has always been a forgettable month.

April

Our pride and joy turned four!

We celebrated his big day in style with his favourite foods, a trip to Swiss Chalet and a tea party with our parish priest and the visiting priest who was preaching a mission.

I could tell he felt loved and special that day.

And... our house sold. 

St. Joseph came through big time.

When I would tell people that we were moving, I'd joke, 

"pray our house sells quickly, and for more than our asking price."

Apparently these people must be very prayerful, 

because our house sold two days after listing it! 

We actually got offers from two separate people after viewing it only once each, 

and the second person out-bidded the first by offering us more than what we listed it for.

We were so very happy!

May

We trekked down to Ontario to look for a house,
as the place we had our eye on was being sold to someone else.

Here I am admiring a property that we were (wisely) advised against buying.

Thankfully for us, while we were still in town, 

the sellers from the house we actually wanted cancelled the sale from the previous guy. 

It was all a little hairy because I found this out when Patrick was out of town (working the March for Life, the busiest time of the year for him at work), and was virtually unreachable. 

I needed to get a hold of him right away to get our offer in.

I was determined we would buy this house, even if he was out of town, even if he had only been inside it once many years ago (as the sellers are friends of ours) and he had no memory what it looked like inside.

I figure the Proverbs 31 lady "considers a field and buys it" so I should, too.

Anyway, we managed to swoop in and got our beloved house with the big back yard.

I got that field I had considered.

Yet on the way back, our dear (old!) Sienna start acting mighty weird in rural Quebec.
We stopped at a mechanic who spoke no English.
Patrick, in his best possible French, told him we were heading back to Nova Scotia.
The mechanic took a quick look at it and as sarcastically as possible said "bonne chance!"

It died on the highway all of two minutes after that.

So besides buying a house in May, we also bought another van.

Sigh. It was an expensive month. 

Meanwhile, Isaiah turned two and we ate a ridiculous-looking Baby Beluga cake.

I love this kid and his willingness to overlook my cake-making flops.

June

We spent our last night in Nova Scotia at my in-law's because our beds were disassembled onto a moving truck.
We looked onward excitedly to our new adventure, but not without great sadness in leaving our families.

We spent two weeks camping out at a university residence then set up shop in our new home.

It was so wonderful to get settled, and we spent the rest of June unpacking and letting the boys roam around in their new yard and exploring our little town.

July

This month brought us hot days at the beach,

my 29th birthday,

and the beautiful wedding of my dear friend.

August

Apparently I spent a lot of August hot, tired, pregnant and whiny.

I found this picture that Noah took of me. Flattering, no?

But it encapsulates this month.

That, and swimming lessons for Noah 

(which became failed-attempts-to-coax-him-into-the-water lessons)

and a visit from my in-laws.

September

I got suitably huge.

But that didn't stop me from baking a perfect storm.

My parents came to visit, too.

We also 'started' homeschooling (but that's a weird thing to say since our early-years approach is 'learning all the time.')

October

Beautiful fall, Thanksgiving, and of course, 

the birth of Anna.

The climax of our year!

The day she was born, Patrick ran out with Isaiah to grab some Subway subs for dinner. Noah, however, wanted to stay back and see if Mommy needed help with the new baby.

Sweet, sweet boy.

November

Anna was baptized.

We enjoyed life as a family of five, and made the early-days transition relatively well.

December

We enjoyed a beautiful Christmas. 

It was peaceful and relaxing, holy and happy.

The kids all fared remarkably well at Midnight Mass and we were blessed to be invited to friends' for Christmas dinner.

This is the only photo I took of Anna in her first Christmas attire. I'm sad about that.

But that dress? Adorable.

That smile? Even more adorable.

So... to recap.

2013: Sold house, bought another house, moved across several provinces, destroyed a van, bought a new van, started homeschooling, conceived / gestated / birthed a baby.

It doesn't get much more eventful than that.

But what a happy year it has been.