we love in vancouver.

In 2013,
we celebrated 8 years of marriage - took a road trip down to Portland to meet my new little nephew Finnick - found out we were pregnant - took a family holiday to Palm Springs where Maisy discovered a new love for swimming with water wings - spent many Monday evenings at Hillcrest pool - Evelynn graduated from preschool - we took a few trips out to Cultus Lake where we enjoyed s'mores, tubing behind the boat, delicious meals on the deck and lazy afternoons on the dock - found out we would have a baby boy - had our first annual Trinity & Main camping trip - discovered that I really like beets - Evelynn passed level 3 in swimming - we moved from our cozy little house in Mt. Pleasant to a spacious house in Shaughnessy - Evelynn started Kindergarten at our neighborhood school - on Sept. 2, Leo Martin was born into our family -  my mom came for 2 weeks to help when leo was born - T & M started meeting at our house and we moved to Sunday morning gatherings - Scott turned 34, I turned 31, Maisy turned 2 and Evelynn turned 5 which we celebrated with a fairy princess tea party - we celebrated Nana Carlson's 80th birthday, God gave us a mini-van that we affectionately call the "God-Mobile" - Scott, Leo and I flew to Ottawa for the week to enjoy a church planting retreat - we took the ferry over to Victoria for 5 days on a family holiday - we enjoyed 'Happy Time' every Sunday evening where we chowed down on nachos while watching Full House, America's Funniest Home Videos, or Mr. Bean (our personal favorite) - God patiently taught me about gratitude and thankfulness - I chopped 8 inches off my hair - I held and rocked and cuddled Leo a lot for the first couple months of his life- we celebrated Scott's Dad's 60th birthday with a delicious catered dinner, -T & M kids raised over $500 to buy animals for children in Asia for Christmas - our family frequented White Spot, Nikkyu Sushi, Bon's, and Menchies - my entire family congregated at our house for christmas - we built a giant snowman named Belinda - watched in awe as Evelynn learned to read - experienced generosity like never before - witnessed Leo's first smile and his first giggle

When I look back on 2013, I feel overwhelmed with gratitude at all that I was able to experience and learn. It was not all easy, but I am thankful for all of it.