Christmas Card

This Holiday season has felt busy & full for our family, as you could probably guess. But, my motto these days is better late than never, so without further ado, here’s our 5th annual Hollar Merry Christmas Happy New Year card! I think the only person who won’t see this is my grandma (‘What’s a computer?’), so I’ll be sure to send her a few pictures via snail mail.

So, you know, we had this baby. I could probably post a gazillion pictures of him & stop there & everyone would be happy. But, I’ll tell you, a lot happened this year! So skip to the last third of the post if you just want to see a gazillion baby pictures. For the rest of you, our year in review…

Early in the year we found out we were expecting, & I’ll tell you it was almost more shocking than exciting. We were trying, but it didn’t take us very long to get pregnant, so we didn’t think that positive test would come so quickly! That started a year full of doctor’s appointments, classes, tests, ultrasounds, & more education about babies & childbirth than I ever could have thought!

We also got to go to the Broncos playoff game vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers in January, which was one of the most amazing football games ever! Overtime, Tebow to DT, 80 something yards for the touchdown and the Broncos winnnnnnn!!!!! If you watched it you know what I’m talking about. Well, we were there, baby! It ranks up there as one of the best sports moments I’ve seen live. Right there with the Rockies win over the Padres in the wildcard tiebreaker in 2007.

We knew that we wanted to try to sell our house before the baby came. We were required to stay in our house until May because we got the first time homebuyers tax credit three years earlier. So in early Spring we started prepping our house for sale. We put it on the market in April & had a full price offer in 10 days! We then began pretty frantically looking for a new house. The housing market here in Colorado has always been pretty strong, so we did find a few houses we liked but they were off the market before we could put in an offer! We were tremendously blessed by a couple in our church who let us rent half of their duplex while we finished our house search. So, we moved from our old home to a duplex to our new home all in a matter of months. Not to mention I was 4-6 months pregnant at the time. Thank God for wonderful friends & family who helped so much! We found our new house in June & were moved in by July. We’ve been loving it ever since!

Garage Sale!

Bye bye Perry Street! 

Moving… Bleh. Moving twice? UGH!! 

Loving the new house!

Except for the lime green & yellow bedroom…

Ahh, much better. Just messy! :-)  

In June we celebrated 4 years of marriage by taking the day off work & getting great seats for a Rockies game. If you know anything about baseball, the Rockies were horrible this year and not surprisingly, they lost pretty bad. Not the best present, but it was still fun.

Also in the summer we sold our Yamaha Zuma scooter & bought a motorcycle! Michael loves riding it to work when it’s not too cold, & I love watching him put on a helmet. =)

We went camping at Lake McConnaughey in July, which was fun but soooo hot! We had a great time with some friends but ended up leaving a day early. This Mama was ready for some A/C and a shower! We hope to take Isaac camping this summer because we both enjoy it so much.

 Grizzly loved the lake

In August we had a fun BaByQ as a shower for Baby Nemo at our new house. We had some family come from out of town & we were surrounded by wonderful family & friends. We felt so blessed just to have people there to celebrate with us. It was definitely a great time for us this year!

In September we celebrated Michael’s 30th Birthday with some friends at a BBQ restaurant for dinner. Then just Michael & I took a weekend trip to Grand Lake. We stayed in a cute lodge, watched some football games, went out to eat, & just relaxed. It was a refreshing time for both of us & as always, great to spend some quality time together, especially before the baby arrived!

Nemo was due on September 29th, but the month passed with no indication he wanted a September birthday… Things stayed pretty calm & uneventful until…

Isaac! Born 10/11/12 at 1:23pm at Swedish Hospital in Englewood. Definitely the biggest moment of the year!

Newborn:

 

Month 1:  

 

   

 

Month 2: 

Isaac turns 2 months! 

In November I opened an Etsy shop, which is basically your own little online store where you can sell handmade goods. I’ve found a love for crochet, so I’ve been selling some fun hats for babies through adults. Check it out here! They make cute gifts for new babies, birthdays, or just for fun!

 Isaac sporting the Sock Monkey

 My cousin’s beautiful daughter Evelyn in her Owl hat!

I also went back to work part time, but have been able to work from home, which has been a huge blessing. Many moms say they’re ready to go back to work when the time comes, which I understand! But I’m so happy to be able to stay home full time with Isaac. It’s hard to juggle all these new roles (whose idea was it to open an Etsy shop?!?) but Michael & I are enjoying every minute & we look forward to what 2013 has for our family!

As I look back on 2012, I see how my faith really grew & was stretched. Not knowing where we were going to live caused some anxiety, but God is faithful & provided exactly what we needed. Having our first baby has been amazing but incredibly challenging, but God is faithful to give us what we need in the moment to care for our little man. There are many stresses in this life, from jobs to finances to relationships to time management, but God truly is faithful to give us what we need when we need it. That’s been the biggest lesson of the year- God is always trustworthy to give us what we need when we need it.

“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” ~Philippians 4: 19-20

Here’s to a new year, with new challenges, new adventures, & new loves. May yours be the best year yet.

xoxo,

The Hollar Family