2015: Year in Review and Massive Photo Dump (Part I)

I love year-in-review posts. Well, let me clarify. I love reading other people's posts, but I find them incredibly difficult to write. They take such a long time and I find myself wondering "Wow, what did we do that month? Anything? Apparently not..." But I'll try anyway--especially since I was so horrible about blogging in 2015 AND I didn't do a Christmas newsletter.

January
We started the year out by choosing a patron saint for our family with Jennifer Fulwiler's Saint's Name Generator. Our patron for 2015 was St. Godehard of Hildesheim, feast day May 4th, patron of traveling merchants (not really applicable), and against childhood sickness (hooray!) danger at sea (not planning any transoceanic trips, but good to know), fever (hooray!), hailstorms (well, we'd love a new roof but better not to have to deal with it), Oh, and against birth pains. Well, I guess that one's wasted because we're planning on waiting a while to try for #4 and won't be delivering a baby in 2015. Ha. Hahahaha. (This, friends, is what we call foreshadowing...)

Michael turned 4.

Alex and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.

Alex helped sponsor the high school's trip to March for Life in DC for the second year, and my wonderful parents came out to spend the long weekend with me and the boys.

February
Lots of time spent writing, *finally* got a second crib and moved JP from his little bassinet to a real crib in his own room, and, um... it was cold? See? These posts are so hard!

March

We found out we would, in fact, be having a baby this year. We took the pregnancy test on March 6th, the feast day of St. Colette--the name we'd had picked out for a girl for several years. So right from the beginning I was 99.99% sure we were having a girl.

John Paul turned 1 and took his first couple of steps.

We acquired a hand-me-down piano from my parents.

April

We spent Easter in Lincoln with my family and 7 out of 10 people in the house came down with the stomach flu. But it was a great visit anyway!

John Paul got his first hair cut and started walking in earnest.

May
We enjoyed a visit from my sister and her family.

At the end of May we went camping for the first time as a family. It was... quite the adventure. I loved camping growing up, and I hope we get to do a lot more as the kiddos get older. Camping with none of our own gear and three kids four and under was a little stressful. But it was still a beautiful weekend and some good memories.

And at the end of May we were privileged and blessed to attend the ordination of our dear friend and Liam's godfather. And somehow I didn't get any pictures except for a rather lame attempt at a family selfie on our way to the Mass. Sadness.

ignore the nose-picking going on in the backseat, please...

June

We had a gorgeous late spring/early summer and spent as much time in the yard as we could.

I turned 30, and my gut feeling was confirmed at our 20 week ultrasound when we learned that yes, we were adding a girl to the crazy mix of wild little boys.

a perfect birthday celebration at home with my boys

John Paul did not approve of the Otter Pops

We spent the last part of June visiting family in North and South Dakota. As always sleep was the hardest part of the trip, but we had a blast and the boys were such patient and fun travelling buddies.

meeting second cousins

we had a lovely visit with Alex's grandma--and despite his best attempts, John Paul did not manage to completely destroy her home OR throw himself down any crazy steep staircases

at the lovely cabin we rented with my parents and sister--it was so special to spend a week all together in the Black Hills

fishing

success!

we Rappanas are serious about our popcorn

we loved all the time with cousin James

And with that I think I'll have to make this into two parts so I don't break the internet with the number of photos in one blog post... Part II here.

Dakota Adventure #2

After being home for almost a month I'm finally getting around to this post about our second road trip of the summer.  I'm actually fairly pleased with myself that it's only been a month...

In mid-July we headed north for a two week Dakota Adventure consisting of family, fun, regressing to waking up every 90 minutes at night, weddings, and more family.  We had an absolute blast (minus the sleepless nights, but after another two weeks at home we're pretty much back to "normal" - for us).  We spent the first week in Lead, SD with my family - including my parents, who were spending a week in the Hills as well - and the second week in Mottt, ND with Alex's grandparents.

First, South Dakota.

We spent a lot of time playing and relaxing in Great Grandma and Grandpa Rappana's backyard.  Michael was leery of the grass for all of one evening, then he wanted to explore it... and eat it.  Grandma and Grandpa got in some good playtime keeping Michael entertained on his blanket.

There were also many ladder ball tournaments - maybe Michael will join in next year.

We had our very first taste of watermelon - and we loved it.

We hiked Harney Peak with Grandma and Grandpa.  Michael was a trooper - he cooperated by sleeping for almost all of the ~4 hour hike.  Daddy was a trooper too - he carried Michael for the whole hike, with a blanket draped over his sleeping passenger to keep the sun off him (Michael was not a fan of his hat).  

Above: Superhero Daddy.  Below: Sleepy little hiker.

We thoroughly enjoyed our week with Great Grandma Maxine...

...and Great Grandpa Chuck - as well as the rest of the Rappana clan :)

In addition to quality time with the Rappana side, Michael got to meet many of his relatives on the Mattox side at the reception for my cousin Zarah's wedding.  He was his usual cheerful self despite the hot weather and it being so close to bedtime.  Alex and I have no idea how the two of us ended up with a baby who is quite the little social butterfly... is it a case of two negatives equaling a positive?

Of course Zarah and Jeff were the stars of the show, but another very special guest was Great Grandpa Jim Sayre, all the way from New Mexico.  Michael was quite fascinated with both his hat and his beard.

After our lovely week in Lead we headed up to Mott.  The Cranes were gathering to celebrate Alex's cousin Molly's wedding.  The three of us arrived several days before the rest of the crowd, and we got to spend some quiet days visiting with Great Grandma and Grandpa Crane.

A major event of this week was Michael getting his first taste of steak (steak not processed by Mama, that is).  Michael sucked this chunk of meat dry, and he has been quite the little carnivore ever since!

Snuggling with Great Grandma Shirley.

Watching the news with Great Grandpa Charles.

Four generations of handsome Crane men!

...And several of the beautiful Crane cousins trying enthusiastically to get Michael to smile for the above generational picture.

Michael enjoyed the festivities at the reception.  No, he did not drink the beer, he just chewed on the rim of the glass - I promise; he did, however, stay up waaaaaaaaaaaay past his bedtime!

It was an amazing trip, and we were glad to get home at the end of it.  We are so thankful for our family!!!