2020 Holiday Update

2020 was quite a year for our family. Things never slowed down and our list of projects got bigger and bigger.

We started the year with a house full of puppies. They were cute but we were sure glad when they went to their new homes. I did give in and let Austin keep one of them and he has definitely given us a run for our money.

February was an interesting month. Gran turned three and we had a little get together at Gambinos with friends and family. The Cookie Queens outdid themselves once again with the cutest (and most delicious) cookies for his party.

Austin spent a week out of town for some training and the kids and I kicked it into survival mode while he was gone. In that week, both boys had pink eye, Gran had an ear infection, and Ellie broke her arm. Meanwhile, Austin and his coworker were sightseeing and having catered meals. I’m not totally convinced that it was actually a work trip but…🤷🏻‍♀️

When Austin came home from that trip, he was home long enough to catch his breath and repack his bags to go take care of a customer out of town. We decided it might be safest and easiest if we traveled with him this time. We packed up and hit the road with him.

In March, Kansas was just starting to think about Corona Virus. Austin and I decided that maybe we should make sure we had something to keep us occupied all summer if everything was going to be closed down. Naturally, that meant that we decided to buy a boat. This boat hasn’t actually been taken out on the water by us yet. Our projects always start out with great intentions. 🤷🏻‍♀️ It needs a little work but that would involve Austin having free time to do the work.

Did I mention that the boat came with a motorcycle?

After spring break, things around us shut down and the stir crazy chaos began.

Our kids also learned about the beauty of bartering when we found a pack of TP at Sams and traded some of it for hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes. Actually, we used it as a teaching opportunity to show our kids how easy it can be to bless others and how important it is to take care of those around us. They were so excited to deliver each pack of toilet paper that they fought over who got to carry it.

In April, we tackled a few projects around the house. We joke that we had kids so we can put them to work around the house but sometimes they willingly help and we don’t mind at all!

Easter was different this year but we made the best of it. We played the role of the Easter bunny for some friends and we participated in a socially distanced Easter egg hunt.

Part of our socially distanced Easter egg hunt involved a competition for best family photo. We participated…and won.

On April 19th, we celebrated Emery’s first birthday by staying home and having cake.

We had some fun with his birthday pictures this year.

On April 26th, Austin’s dreams finally came true. We bought a conversion van. We made a deal a long time ago that he would agree to having four kids if I would agree to buying a conversion van. We shook on it so when we saw this van, we had to buy it. Everyone assumed that we got the van because I was pregnant with number four already. That was not the case! It seats eight though so maybe I’ll get a few more kids out of the deal!

In May, we continued to do some projects at our house. One of them was hanging a swing like only a redneck can. Apparently, Austin’s redneck engineering isn’t half bad because it’s still up.

Emery got his first mullet in May which seems notable. At least for our family it seems notable. We didn’t keep it for very long but it was fun for awhile.

We spent most of our summer riding bikes and trying to stay cool. Ellie learned how to ride her bike with no training wheels and Gran zipped around on his balance bike most of the time. Ellie also played T-ball this summer and did a summer ballet camp. I’m sure you already know that she did both with her own style!

Austin played in his first golf tournament this year and it was absolutely worth the 5 hour road trip to watch him play. I forgot to put short socks in his bag when I packed for the trip. He bought his shirt and some wooden clubs from Goodwill the night before we left and he refused to believe that he needed anything more than a Walmart sack to carry his balls in.

We also bought the kids a quad this summer and I think Austin has enjoyed it more than any of the kids have.

In June, we got a BIG surprise when we found out that I was pregnant again. We are due around Valentine’s Day with another boy. Ellie keeps putting orders in for a sister but Austin and I keep getting her order all wrong.

In July, we took our RV on its first road trip and it was quite an adventure. You can read all about it here. We had a blast but holy moly we were happy to be home all in one piece.

The kids and I started the month of August with a special trip to the zoo with my brother, DJ, and his girlfriend Leah.

As if an engagement wasn’t enough excitement for one month, we also bought a fire truck. Yes, you read that right. We went with a practical vehicle that would not hold all of our family and would take up the half of our driveway left behind the RV. Bringing it home was like Christmas morning for Austin and Granville. I should have known that widening our driveway in the spring would mean that we would just buy more stuff to park in it.

We are still homeschooling Ellie. She’s in first grade this year and enjoying her mask free classroom. I was really nervous about homeschooling last year but I’m so glad that we chose to do it. We love the flexibility of it and being able to customize her learning to exactly what she needs. We were discussing the idea of taking the RV on a school trip somewhere. I told Austin that it would be fun to take it to the Ark. I was talking about the museum of Noah’s Ark called The Ark Encounter in Kentucky. Ellie chimed in with “you mean the Ark of the Covenant?”

Our fall proved to be just as busy as the rest of our year. We had a garage sale, started house shopping, Ellie started another year of ballet, Austin totaled our beloved Jeep, we bought an International Harvester Travelall, family came to visit us, and we got busy on finishing our remodel so we could get our house listed. Naturally, we only buy vehicles and toys that need some TLC so Austin spent a few weeks getting the Travelall road ready. Then some more time working out all of the kinks. So far we are really loving it and look forward to fixing it up and making it our own. The remodel and house search will get its own post…probably.

In the middle of all of our mess, Emery was put into a full leg cast to finish straightening out his foot. He spent two weeks in the first cast and another two weeks in a second one. They didn’t slow him down much at all but they did make him VERY cranky.

In November, we did hit the polls and vote despite our lack of social media posts! We kept working on our house and Austin, the conversion van, and the fire truck were featured in a music video. Austin is pretty sure that in itself justifies the purchase of the fire truck. He is now referring to himself as a “rap mogul” and would appreciate if everyone around him would do the same. We will definitely share that video as soon as it’s finished and put online.

November is when we usually take our annual trip to Branson to see all of their Christmas stuff at Silver Dollar City. We decided this year that we should focus on the remodel and stay on top of the stack of medical bills that we are still receiving. We all missed going but we hope to go back soon!

In November, we celebrated a lot of birthdays in our family. Austin took me to dinner at Kiku for my birthday and forced me to do some shopping for myself. The next weekend, we celebrated Ellie’s birthday with dinner and went to check out the Christmas lights at the zoo.

We are currently in a season of uncertainty and that has caused a lot of stress, anxiety, and tears for Ellie and myself. She is struggling with the idea of packing her things up without knowing when we will get them out again or where we will be unpacking them at. She is also very stressed about where we will be for Christmas and what it will look like this year. She’s sad that she didn’t get to put her little tree up in her room like we usually do. We did buy a small Christmas tree for the camper that I’m hoping to plant at our new home someday. I’m feeling overwhelmed by everything being up in the air with the sale of our house, living in the RV while we are in between houses, finding somewhere to store all of our stuff, and eventually finding a new home. Ideally, everything will be wrapped up before this baby is born but I’m preparing myself for living in the RV as a family of six. Please pray for us as we work through this season of change together. We are trusting that the Lord has perfect timing and He knows what is in store for us.

It wasn’t until I wrote this that I realized just how many vehicles and toys we accumulated this year. To be fair, we did sell our Suburban and Austin’s service truck after we bought the fire truck. We are now at a dozen vehicles and toys so Austin says we are still in the “reasonable range.” 🤷🏻‍♀️

We chose this year’s theme because we’ve joked a lot lately about Austin keeping me barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen for as much of our marriage as possible. We’ve both embraced the “archaic gender roles” in our marriage and it makes us laugh to see people get so upset about it. We decided to have a little fun with that!

With a year like 2020, the holidays have been a great reminder for us of the Hope we have in Jesus. We get to celebrate a savior that came to earth to give us the ultimate gift of eternal life. We pray that all of our friends and family members have accepted that gift and know where they will spend their eternity.