2012, in brief review...

I am about 27 weeks pregnant. Which explains the extensive blog hiatus. I won't say it's been pretty around here. As the New Year rolled around (and I found myself in bed for a week with the flu and a sinus infection), I had lots of time to think about the last year. The first half of the year Braden was deployed. I don't really know how to describe that period of time. I know his squadron left this week to go and I had nightmares for several nights before they left that he went with them. That must mean I don't feel ready to do it again. And then we had a month of non-stop trips when he got home. And then I turned up pregnant. And I got sick. And turned into an insomniac. It may have turned me a little crazy. It's a wonder Braden didn't volunteer for this deployment. I still have some weird issues happening with eating and sleeping but I think I have survived the worst. So the last half of the year was spent just trying to  make sure we had clean underwear for the next day, and not much more. It was an interesting year. Not sure how to sum it up. Maybe last year was more about enduring than anything else. Maybe it shouldn't have been, but it seems a bit that way to me. We managed to find plenty of joy in the journey and feel largely blessed and happy- it's just not a journey I care to repeat for awhile, on either account. I will say that I appreciate every bit of family time in a different way. Every night that Braden gives the girls a bath while I clean up dinner is no small thing to me. Family meals and wrestling matches and story times are all precious, and I am thankful to feel that in a very real way, every day. I feel so blessed to be able to conceive and carry our own children, but I don't love the experience. I felt like the Lord blessed us in many ways through Braden's deployment, but I didn't love the experience. It's okay to feel both immensely grateful, and also relief for its end right?

Saying goodbye, January 2012

Saying Hello, July 2012

So now we are off to a new year. We know this year will bring us our 4th daughter, among many other things. It looks as if Braden may spend this whole year home. I can't say how happy I am about the prospect of having him home and getting another little baby to love. I so look forward to all that this year will hold for us.

Now that I have re-joined the living, let's see if I can manage to fill in some gaps of the last year. Even if it means (and it does), that Maisey will undoubtedly color walls and Lila will likely empty the fridge and pantry and disperse various food content around the house. Let's hope whatever happens in the next few hours isn't too bad, or I'll need to take pictures of it and blog about that too.