4 hours and 2012 will officially be history. It leaves me stunned that this year has gone SO incredibly fast. But tonight I am celebrating all the wonderful things that have happened for us this year, and so excited for all the BIG things that will happen this year, like having baby #3 (I am still in shock we will have 3), moving to a new city we with call home for 2-4 years, hubby starting MEDICAL school and my little's growing up even more.
Here are all the things I am celebrating, in the typical (read: corny) Christmas/end of the year newsletter format:
Dear family and friends,Looking back at the past year, 2012 has proved to be one of the most momentous and exciting years we have had for our little family. It has been full of big life changes, wonderful blessings and memories.
In January, Richard took the MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test), even though he had not taken Organic Chemistry or Physics yet which comprise 2/3rds of the test, and he was only able to study for less than 2 weeks (most people study for 6-8 straight months). He was very blessed, did amazingly well and got a very high score. Richard also finished his bachelor’s degree in Psychology with minors in pre-medical classes and Marriage & Family Studies, in July. As soon as he finished we packed up our little family, leaving our home of the last 4 years, and moved back to WA. Both kids did amazing with our big move (they had never moved, so we weren’t sure how it would go), impressing us so much! Shortly after moving, all of his hard work paid off and Richard was one of the first students accepted to Pacific Northwest University of Health Science’s class of 2017, our top medical school choice, which also happened to be his first medical school interview! He will start school August 2013 and is so incredibly excited to begin the road towards his lifelong dream of being a doctor. For now, we are all enjoying the year-long break he has from school and have been so spoiled by having him around so much, with no homework!!
The week before our move from Idaho, we found out that we are expecting our third sweet baby (surprise, surprise)! I am due at the end of March 2013 and we recently learned we are having another darling, active, healthy little GIRL! She will be born a couple weeks after Liam’s third birthday, and while having 3 kids in 3 years will be challenging, we are so grateful for the timing of our sweet girl joining our family. It will be so nice to have another baby during the year-long break Richard has from school, with live-in babysitters until she is 4 months old (we are blessed to be able to live next to my family during this break)! Other than taking care of our 2 young kids as a stay-at-home mom and being pregnant, I have really enjoyed keeping up on our family blog (http://richennaclan.blogspot.com), photography, writing for the parenting website “The Power of Moms”, spending time with my family & friends, exercising everyday (except Sunday), and cooking (yes, it’s a huge hobby).
Liam turned 2 in February and is such an amazingly sweet little boy! He is so gracious and polite it is mind-blowing and also extremely loving, randomly telling us how much he loves us multiple times a day while giving us hugs. He is such a good talker, so mature, smart and big for his age that people mistake him for a 4 year old almost constantly. When he was 2 ½ we started the potty training process and he was trained in 2 days (he is convinced that he owns a “potty train” somewhere). He loves friends, nursery, dreaming of going to school/growing up, animals, wrestling with Daddy, drawing, reading books, eating, playing with anything he can make a toy, playing in the dirt, collecting bugs/reptiles and cuddling. Liam is totally in love with “his” Brielle and very excited for his new baby sister to be born!
Brielle turned 1 in August and is our darling little blonde-haired, blue-eyed firecracker! She is the sweetest, funniest, flirtest, most friendly, outgoing little bundle of beauty! She is such a girly girl and is always running around covered in jewelry, skirts, bows and drama! She brings so much joy into our lives, it is overwhelming! She loves being around people, playing with friends, animals, dancing, babbling (which is quickly turning into words and sentences of her own “words”), copying people, singing, playing dress-up, to be tickled, playing with Dad, squealing, any kind of music and being held/cuddled by mommy. But her most favorite thing to do is wrapping everyone around her finger with her cuteness and pretending to be a puppy.
Richard and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary (time flies!!), and had a BLAST! We went away for a 2 ½ day trip just the two of us, which were the best days of 2012! It was so much fun celebrating the best 7 years of our lives married to our best friend. It has been such an amazing blessing to have our love, adoration and friendship exponentially increase every year. This year we have also continued to go on a weekly date, enjoying the time as star-crossed lovers.
2012 has proved to be yet another amazing year, and we are so incredibly grateful for the blessings that have come to us this year. We are so grateful for our Savior and the wonderful family, friends and memories we have enjoyed this year! May you feel the love of your Savior at this Christmas season and throughout the upcoming year!
Love Richard, McKenna, Liam, Brielle and baby girl
So there is the summary of 2012 and the awesome, monumentous year it was. I am so glad it was such a great year leaving so many big memories. But I am so excited for all the big things 2013 will bring!
P.S. I have been thinking of my motto for this year, more on that later...
