All in all, it’s been a pretty good year for our family. Our biggest news revolves around our newest little member, William Lawrence. We actually found out he was coming last Christmas, and on the first of August, he burst on the scene (sorry for the imagery…couldn’t resist)! Like his older brother, Will’s entrance into the world was “interesting”. What was going to be a calm, intimate water birth via midwife became a frantic 14 hour ordeal in the hospital with every intervention short of a c-section. Turns out Maria had a placental abruption, so Will’s entrance definitely wasn’t ordinary! But, in the end we were able to walk out of the hospital a few days later with our beautiful baby boy. Our time at home was short lived, however, as a few weeks later Will started projectile vomiting blood. We rushed him to the hospital where they diagnosed him with Pyloric Stenosis, a condition that prevents food from being digested. Luckily, this is fairly common and permanently fixed via a simple surgery (though no surgery seems simple when it’s on a 3 week old). But, everything went well, and little Will is now right as rain and eating like a pig! Three months later, we are now fully enjoying this new little addition and his calm, smiley demeanor.

Henry, has had a good year. He’s surprisingly adjusted very well to being a big brother. He didn’t make a peep when he saw Will using his old swing, crib, and other baby stuff. He also loves helping with the baby, bringing diapers, throwing bottles in the sink, feeding, and even trying to burp him. It’s been pretty cute watching them interact. Henry’s also starting to take a step out of toddler-hood. His near constant tantrums (alright, it wasn’t that bad!) have started to dwindle and a polite, little boy has started to emerge who says “please”, “thank you”, and “your welcome” to not only his parents, but even the clerk handing us our groceries at the store!! But by far his biggest accomplishment of the year……NO MORE DIAPERS!!! On a whim, Maria decided enough’s enough and in 5 days, the boy was completely potty trained. All in all, it’s been fun seeing Henry develop into a little boy. He’s got such an amazing amount of personality that engages almost everyone he comes across….hopefully he doesn’t become a politician or a used car salesman!!

Tom’s job is going well. He still enjoys it, and has now been with the company a whopping 10 years. He was recently promoted to a team lead position, and has been putting in a lot more hours, much to the chagrin of the Mama Bear. But truthfully, we’re lucky he has such good, solid employment in these uncertain times. Maria also got a promotion this year from a mother of one, to two! But depending on the amount of chaos during the day, she sometimes considers it a lateral move!

Trying to beat Will’s arrival, we were able to do some more renovations to the house. Last winter, we churned-out our brick side patio in 6 days. The thing came together really well and we now have a nice little area to enjoy our new fire pit (for the whopping 4 weeks a year where it’s actually cold enough to appreciate a fire)! The most notable improvement, however, has been the renovation of our master bathroom. Like our kitchen renovation, we took it down to bare bones. We even got a little plucky and decided to tear into the concrete foundation (I know…we’re crazy)! Now the bathroom is it’s own room, complete with nice new fixtures and tile. All in all, it looks amazing, and we’re definitely happy to have something worth cleaning more than twice a year!!

Our climbing season was a little shorter than usual, but we did get to go on a few trips to our bouldering haven: Hueco Tanks and a few day trips to a nearby area called Cochise Stronghold. But now that Will is born, our physical efforts have not been in climbing, but rather a new motivator to get into shape…a special forces-inspired obstacle course spread across 11 miles called the Tough Mudder. Filled with freezing cold ice baths, 10-foot walls, rope obstacles, barb wire, electric shocks, and fire, we’ve been training daily, running, biking, and doing all sorts of workouts to try and get ready for it in January. Yeah, it’s crazy, but hey…crazy is what we do best!!

We also took a few road trips this year. Most notably, was a July trip with Henry out to San Diego to see the ocean and the zoo. It was the first time he has seen that much water…and definitely not the last (if he has anything to say about it)! He absolutely LOVED it. He would go charging into the water with no care in the world about the waves, and stay in until he was purple and trembling. He would then throw a fit when we hauled him back to the beach to warm up in the sand. As soon as he was normal color…back he went into the water. I guess if he isn’t a politician…maybe he’ll be a Navy SEAL (Mama’s dream come true!).

As this year comes to a close, we hope yours has been a good one, filled with good health and cherished moments among friends and family. We also hope you’ve enjoyed our new interactive Christmas letter and Maria’s Top 10 Pictures of the Year. Be sure to bookmark or subscribe to our site so you can keep up to date on all our adventures! Merry Christmas!

Love,
H,T,M,W