Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. -James 1:17
We are certainly aware of the truth above after the year we've had, which was highlighted with the birth of our son, Hayden Don in August. We became aware of his arrival on Christmas morning last year. I had a hunch a few days beforehand, but figured a few days wouldn't change anything, and the positive pregnancy test helped explain the 200 or so ounces of water I drank a couple days earlier at a Christmas get-together.
Anyone who has expected a child knows how exciting of a time this is and how hard it is not to share the news with the whole world, or at least with everyone in "your" world. We were headed to Minnesota to spend the holiday with my family. Once on the road, we called Matt's family and shared "one last 'Christmas Gift'" with them since we'd already celebrated the days prior to us leaving. Needless to say, they were all ecstatic about the news!
Traveling on Christmas day limits shopping availability, but we were pretty set on finding a gift we could wrap for one of my family members to open. We found the following at a truck stop:
Keep in mind they have no idea of the news they are about to receive. As we sat down for supper and my sister opened this, confusion set in across the table until I had to explain that I was not the aunt. Once the news was comprehended, chaos erupted. I think the flailing of my mom's arms were intended to give me a hug, but too excited and caught off guard by the news to complete the task. (Love you, Mom!)
In April we returned to Minnesota for the Larson get-together, but kicked it off with a little gender reveal party. We had the ultrasound tech call Matt's aunt with the baby's gender, and she had a cake ready to fill with pink or blue frosting depending on the news.
And so began the point in life where time just starts flying faster than it ever has before. Preparing for Hayden's arrival, in addition to our already busy lifestyle, made the first half of the year simply disappear. We didn't let it slow us down too much though, if anything we picked up the pace a bit, enjoying things we were warned we wouldn't have time for once Hayden joined the family.
Our Borrowed Kid
Our Big Brothers Big Sisters match is something we've grown to cherish and appreciate more this past year. You've heard the saying, "You don't realize what you have until it's gone," right? Well, Trenton and his family moved away for a couple months last winter/spring. Thankfully, it was only temporary and they are back--Trenton is back.
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We celebrated our 5-year anniversary of being matched this year!
The top picture was taken at the BBBS office the day we met/started the match.
The bottom picture was taken last December. |
When you've known someone nearly half their life and have invested so much time in to them, they become family. You'll notice throughout the rest of the letter that that is exactly what has happened and we talk and share about him as if he is family. He's a pretty proud uncle, too--Uncle T!
Trenton still enjoys being active and being outdoors. We introduced him to "racing" this year by entering him in a 5K to benefit SIDS. Matt and I walked the 3.1 miles, and we told Trenton he could either walk with us or run it and we'd see him when we got done. He was completely up for the challenge of running the course and set out for 1st place...he finished 12th in about 32 minutes time.
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| Trenton's first 5K -- Strides for a Find (Bode's 5K) in Paola, KS on May 11 |
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| Big Brothers Big Sisters Frosty 5K -- Downtown Salina on November 23 |
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| Matt, Hayden and I walked the Merry Mile. Pretty sure it was about 25 degrees that morning...Frosty indeed! |
Our "Dirty" Hobbies
With the purchase of the RZR and Trenton enjoying it so much, we have gotten back into the dunes as much as ever. We made the trip 4 times this year, and ended up getting an Arctic Cat Wildcat as an upgrade for the RZR S, so the RZR is for sale. We got to enjoy almost all of our “dunes friends” between the trips. Trenton got to ride the dune chopper a little, and this last trip we let him ride Kayla’s 4-wheeler, as she had not been riding this year with being pregnant (and now the milk shakes) although she did get out a few times the most recent trip and had a great time.
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What is a dune chopper you ask?
Well you see...this one being the original is known as "The Punisher."
No more questions, please. |
Trenton picked up on the quad and shifting and clutch very quickly, so 4-wheeler didn’t get much of a break! The last trip was Thanksgiving weekend where we had the whole family on Kayla’s side, and Trenton too, it was a very fun trip! Thank you Dan and Lydia for allowing us to use your camper, Jared and Kelsey certainly enjoyed it more than our no insulation trailer! Everyone had a great time, Janet cooked a great Thanksgiving meal, and we put lots of miles on the ATVs. Trenton not only had his first experience with riding the ATV on his own, but also had his first and second crash, but it was all worth it because he made it up Buttercup twice! The second crash was a little rough on Trenton, and probably me too, as he was bleeding after his landing, and ended up with a mild concussion and a few loose teeth. He is tough and rode the very next ride again. We were so proud of him, not for being so tough, but for learning so quickly.
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| Fun in the sand... |
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| Fun in the snow... |
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| Fun in the mud, fun with friends... |
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| And easy to haul...(no ramps needed in some cases)! |
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| Oh the things we'll do to travel together as a family. Matt needed to work down around the dunes Thursday & Friday, so we had to take the truck. |
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| Sometimes multiple trailers are needed though...not a problem! |
We still enjoy the dirt track racing, and on top of our chasing races to cover in photos and videos with Dirt Track Central, we also started a stock car touring series. IMCA Stock Cars have been my favorite class of race cars for quite some time now, and this past year I coordinated races for the drivers to compete for a point fund and national bonus points. We had an exciting summer racing with stops in Liberal, Colby, Hays, WaKeeney, and Mayetta, Kansas with a total of 11 shows.
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| Matt with a group of the stock car drivers who followed his series. |
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| Matt living vicariously through our friends son, Nash. |
Between racing and the sand dunes, we put a lot of miles on the trusty Tioga (our RV), and so at the end of the summer we put the old girl up for sale with almost 96,000 miles, and Grandma and Grandpa wanting to let theirs go, it was time for an upgrade. Although the new Aerbus is two years older, it has half the miles and many nice features we are excited about!
To Sell or Stay
For several months, maybe even years, we have debated on moving closer to Salina to be closer to family, friends, Trenton and a majority of our activities. With Hayden on the way and mortgage rates at an all-time low, it was time to decide whether we stay and refinance, or sell. We decided on selling, which meant a long to-do list of clean-up and repairs here and there. The end of April we took advantage of a nice weekend and got the outside looking, quite possibly, the best it ever had in the time we've lived here. We enlisted the help of Trenton, who happens to be GREAT help! The three of us decided to play some Skip-Bo to unwind from the day before heading to bed and tackling the inside projects on Sunday. A spring storm rolled in that evening, so it seemed we finished the outside projects in just the nick of time. HOWEVER, our game was abruptly interrupted with the loudest crash I've ever heard which shook the whole house...we ran to the basement as fast as we could!
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| Turns out God wasn't ready for us to put our house on the market yet, so he sent a 100mph wind gust, ripping the carport right off the side our house (see photos below). |
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| It pulled the siding off on it's way up and over the house. Yes, OVER the house, there was significant debris left on the roof, as well as "wound" marks on the trim and window peak. |
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| This is an old pic (before we even owned the place) showing the carport intact. |
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| Trenton was a HUGE part of the clean-up in the days/months following the storm. |
Insurance sure brought, well, insurance to the entire situation. We were able to joke that had we known what the storm was going to do, we certainly would've worked on the inside projects Saturday and left the outside clean-up for Sunday. :) It took nearly the entire summer to clean-up and make the repairs from the storm. Contractors were a very common site at our house. We actually just completely wrapped up the claim a couple weeks ago.
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Matt wanted a sign in the yard before the baby came...it's official!
(with 4 hours to spare before we needed to be checked in at the hospital). |
I know now why our realtor asked, "Are you sure you want to do this?" as we signed the papers the same day we headed to the hospital to have our first child. I will admit that it's been great for getting some good cleaning habits in place with a baby in the house. I'm not certain how well I would've done if not forced to keep the house within an hour of being ready to show at all times. But I certainly wouldn't recommend it to first-time parents. Haha.
The Greatest Things in Life Aren't Things
Our friends and family were, and are, such amazing supporters, encouragers, and helpers. You all were there during the preparation/anticipation of and the weeks following Hayden's arrival! We can't thank you all enough. We were blessed with three baby showers, a bunch of Matt's friends opened up and shared their best fatherly advice with him which I compiled in a book that I gave him for Father's Day, and so many of you took the time to come meet Hayden either at the hospital or at our house, and some of you even helped us with meals and other day-to-day care!
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My boss, Bree - Me - My co-worker, Abby
Lincoln Shower hosts |
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| My parents brought my two oldest nephews with them for the shower weekend in Lincoln...and then my sister SURPRISED US ALL by coming with the other two boys! |
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Our wonderful friends hosted a couple's shower for us mid-July.
Kjersti - Me - Michelle - Aubrey - Jessica |
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My fabulous aunties hosted a shower for us in Minnesota a month after Hayden was born.
Aunt Katherine - Aunt Teresa - Me |
Mr. Hayden Don
I'll try to keep this short...we checked in to the hospital at 8 p.m. on Monday, August 19, to start the labor process. My doctor broke my water on Tuesday morning around 9 a.m. We continued to watch and monitor contractions, and get pumped full of good-feeling drugs until 7 p.m. when my body was finally ready to start pushing. After pushing for 2 and a half hours, we made the decision to deliver Hayden via C-Section. I slept through much of the C-Section process, which is fine by me, and Mr. Hayden entered the world at 10:11 p.m.
I've done a pretty good job blogging about our life with Hayden, so for those of you interested who haven't red my other blogs, check those out. :)
- First Nickname
- Breastfeeding
- The 3-hour Routine
- Mommy Brain
- My first outting with Hayden
- My first outting without Hayden
- Walks in the Park
- This Too Shall Pass
- First trip to the Sand Dunes
- The Stats
- Being a Mom
And here's a few other pictures from other miscellaneous events throughout the summer...
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| Meeting our niece at the hospital, just 12 days before we were at the hospital having Hayden. |
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| Cousins Hayden and Lily meet for the first time |
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| Kayla's Family at the Larson Get-Together |
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| We enjoyed several summer evenings watching Trenton (and his brother, Chase) play baseball. It was a little too warm for this pregnant chick a couple of the evenings, so we did miss a few. |
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| My mom and Trenton went on a 9 mile bike ride while we were in Minnesota for the 4th of July. My mom said he was a natural. |
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| At the races in Alexandria, Minnesota |
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Trenton helped us out a couple of times with the simulators. It's been fun teaching him the value of work.
We're looking forward to hosting Kayla's family for Christmas this year, and celebrating here in Kansas with Matt's family. The holidays always fill our hearts with joy--music, parties, giving, friends, and family--all in celebration of the one responsible for all of it...Jesus Christ!
Merry Christmas & God Bless You!
Matt, Kayla & Hayden
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