2015 Recap

I'm calling 2015 the year of dramatic happenings. And sickness. There seems to have been a lot of sickness. I have to say, if it wasn't for the amazing kindness of my ward (church congregation) and our neighbors, our family may not have survived this rough year. I'm only a little exaggerating.

January started out with one of those epic never-ending colds for everyone in the family. It's hard to believe since I spent the majority of the year the size of a whale, but I did run my first half marathon this month (sick as a dog...bad choice in retrospect).

February was actually a pretty good month. I found out I was pregnant with baby #3, ran my second half marathon (while 5 weeks pregnant) and had an awesome time, and everyone managed to stay pretty healthy. Until the last week of February. That's when the horrible morning sickness kicked in and our family just kinda stalled for the next few months.

March was a horrible blur of morning sickness. I spent almost 3 weeks at my parents' house, just being sick and letting them help with the kids. Then, my amazing and wonderful and super kind ward stepped in. When they heard I was so sick, immediately they came to my rescue. I did not advertise for help, they just showed up! Almost every day a sister from my ward came and picked up my kids so I could throw up rest in peace. Or bring us meals. Every day. Nothing expected in return, just a happy willingness to help a friend in need.

April was misery, but my wonderful friends and neighbors pulled my family through and we somehow survived the morning sickness. By the end of the month I finally started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We found out we were having a girl, but got flagged for possible down syndrome. One amniocentesis later, we found those fears to be unfounded, thankfully, but it was good to know that we were prepared and happy to welcome any child into our family, disability or not.

May dragged on with a mixture of recovery and excitement for the coming months. Uncle Eric came home from his mission in Italy and we all took the kids to Disneyland for the first time at the beginning of June. We joined the community pool club and spent many days there, soaking up the hot CA summer sun.

July meant family reunions and travel. We took our first big road trip as a family to Utah and spent the 4th with our super fun Hamilton cousins.

August was our annual camping trip with Grandma and Grandpa Langlois. The kids loved every minute of this fun experience and played camping almost every day after. I realized that in all the chaos of the beginning of the year I never started my goal of painting the upstairs. So I went full force into painting the upstairs rooms and setting up the nursery.

September felt like an eternity. We scraped all the ceilings of popcorn, an expensive but excellent choice. Jude started preschool and I did a little happy dance to go grocery shopping sans one kid. We made one last trip down to Southern CA for my friend's wedding, went on a last big date to see "Phantom," and then just hunkered down to wait for this baby. Even with all that went down, it still felt like the loooongest month ever.

October! Finally! The absolute best day of the year: October 8th, when we welcomed our daughter Lucy into the world. Not surprisingly, October flew by in a flash of late night feedings, paternity leave adventures with Dad, and Halloween.

November whipped by, as usual, with Thanksgiving and holiday prep, plus settling into the routine of 3 kids. I realized that the honeymoon phase was over, and three kids started to totally kick my butt. In order to add to the drama, I had an emergency wisdom tooth removal, but at least the kids went to Grandma's. After Thanksgiving, we were hit with another never ending, miserable string of colds. They are still lingering as we enter the new year.

My favorite month December was a bit of a downer. We tried to squeeze in as many Christmas activities as we could in between the bouts of miserable sickness. At one point we had 3 people on antibiotics. We made a record 3 trips to Urgent Care and 1 trip to the doctor. I got a cold, then mastitis, then bronchitis. Jude and Ellie had ear infections, and baby Lucy is still wheezing. It was ROUGH. But on the bright side, we celebrated our first Christmas as a family in our home and then traveled to SoCal for some family time.

2015 had a lot of ups and downs. A lot of bedridden days of sickness, trips to urgent care with infections and possible blood clots, and a long labor. But we got by with the help of our friends. I'll be forever grateful for my amazing friends who constantly came to my aid in so many ways. In the end, it was all worth it when we got a cute new baby girl that we love and adore. We went on new adventures, started to take advantage of being homeowners, and reached new goals. I am especially grateful for my Savior this year; I leaned on His strength so much during our more dramatic moments and He pulled me through every time.

So here's to 2016--I can't wait to see what the new year brings! I hope your new year is wonderful and full of adventure!