Time flies. Welcome 2014.

There is nothing like the end of one year and the beginning of another to cause everyone to take time and reflect. I have always gone through phases with the whole new year/resolutions thing. Sometimes I have made "resolutions" which consisted either of:

1. Things I knew would be really easy to accomplish and check off my list (easy ego boost! ha!) OR

2. Things that I knew would be way too hard and easy to dismiss as a silly idea in the first place. Read: still not my fault that I didn't accomplish the resolution

Another new year phase of mine from years past would be to write a letter to my future self about whatever was going on in my life at that point and then I would read it the following year. Those letters were generally pretty amusing to read since this was primarily something I did during high school.

Essentially, resolutions and such just really haven't been something I have grabbed onto as new years begin - that being said though, I do enjoy taking time to think about all the life that happens over the course of a year. 2013 was quite the year, most of which I blogged about [thankfully]. Besides this blog, I also usually Instagram an assortment of life moments which are also fun to look back on.

Here are my favorite blog posts from this past year:

First post of 2013

A favorite photo with a friend

A public apology

A Day in My Life

A Rant...

Letting Go

Something Old, Something New (first post-wedding blog)

Hopefully it goes without saying that getting married was THE highlight of 2013 - but just in case you missed that - August 2nd, 2013 was hands down the best day of year, starting our marriage :)

Since our wedding & our marathon this fall, here is a look at the end of our year...time flies. Happy 2014 everyone, we are looking forward to sharing more life with you all in this wonderful year ahead!

October

• Our first marathon in Chicago
• The main event of October for any given year is the celebration of Adam's birthday!
• We led a small group Bible study in our home this fall, our small group was on hand to help celebrate Adam's birthday and later in the month to carve pumpkins
• Not running. After the marathon, it was time to take a break

November

• The whole month of November in my opinion can just be called "Pre-Christmas season" 
• Basketball season began for Adam who coaches a 7th & 8th grade boys team
• We went to a Christmas parade in a nearby town - it was unbelievably freezing outside to be standing and watching a parade - we left early!
• Most of my free time before Thanksgiving was spent working on designing wedding albums for all of our parents & grandparents to give as Christmas presents. 6 wedding albums later...I at least had a jumpstart on Christmas :)
• Adam's family joined us for our first thanksgiving
• We cooked & carved our first turkey successfully
• Here is a link to all the receipes we used for our first Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving 2013
• Chopped down our first Christmas tree (YES!!!)

Christmas parade

Thanksgiving Day

At the Christmas Tree farm, complete with horse drawn sleigh rides to the tree fields :)

Our tree being cut down!

Adam's parents went home with a tree too :)

High ceilings = BIG tree :) These pictures were taken putting the tree into stand #1. A few days later Adam went out and bought a bigger stand since our tree did not fit into the one pictured here. We have no pictures of putting the new stand on since there were just 2 of us for that little project. Just know it was a mess - but the tree was much happier to have more room, and Adam was more confident that we wouldn't wake up to our tree tipped over one day ha!

Decorating our tree!!

December

• I participated in a Women's Christmas event at church called "Advent by Candlelight" - everyone decorates a table, enjoys dessert and listens to a speaker + special music performances
• My mom came to visit! We spent the weekend baking Christmas cookies, watching Christmas movies, going to one of Adam's basketball tournaments - and then we got snow which meant Mom got to stay an extra day :)
• Tree hopping (read: Progressive Dinner) with our small group Bible study. Adam & I hosted the appetizers. We had such a fun night all together visiting that somehow we took no pictures.
• Adam & I sang in the church Christmas cantata, Adam is still singing the music he learned.
• Got to spend an afternoon visiting with our friends Kevin & Jordan who were up from St. Louis
• CHRISTMAS - we had a lot of fun getting ready for and enjoying our first Christmas together. 
• The day after Christmas we drove out to Maryland & spent the rest of the year visiting my family, which included a trip to the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. & ringing in the 2014

Christmas cookie baking with Mom

First time shoveling our front walk!

Saying goodbye to Mom at the airport

December was also Christmas card season!

Our visit with Kevin & Jordan. Lunch & a trip to the Kohler Design Center

Christmas morning & day! Magical :)

Opening presents by the fire :)

Driving to Maryland

Family time :)

Our visit to the National Cathedral 

Last picture of 2013/first of 2014 :)

January

• After ringing in the new year in Maryland, it was time to head back home to Wisconsin. We split the drive back up with a stop in Indiana to surprise Adam's parents :) 
• We made it home last evening despite snowy driving conditions all day
• During our road trips to and from Maryland we enjoyed listening to the Divergent book series, almost finished with the second book now

Our drive home.