2014 in review

Have I ever mentioned how much I love getting Christmas cards? Well, I do, I LOVE getting them. My New Year's resolution? Send out Christmas cards in 2015! But this year, digital will have to do.

 

2014 was a big year for the Andersons. If you read our blog regularly you already know most of this, but if not here's a little recap:

Last Christmas Ed was hired by the 73rd Reserve Airlift Squadron at Scott AFB. That was enough for him to put in his paperwork in January to separate from active duty. 12 1/2 years was enough for us, he was ready for new adventures. About the same time he was made Chief of Stan/Eval at his C-130 squadron. Between that and getting our house in Arkansas ready to rent out he was quite the busy beaver for the first half of the year.

In June our sweet Karoline Kaye was born. 5 days later the movers came and packed us up to move to Illinois. In July Ed officially left active duty and became a Reservist. While our new home was still full of boxes, we took a long and wonderful trip home to Idaho at the end of July/beginning of August. September - early November Ed went to Miami to learn to fly his new plane, the C-40 (a 737). Just before Thanksgiving he interviewed with Delta Air Lines and was hired. He begins training in January.

We are so thrilled that at the end of this very stressful year full of preparation and lots of hard work that everything is working out the way we only hoped it would. New job, new baby, new house, new plane, new title (landlord), another new job...I think Ed is pretty happy with where he's at, but hopes his next mid-life crisis only results in a Porsche and a tattoo or piercing like normal people.

Karoline is 6 months old already and is definitely the family favorite. She has been such a joy to have in our home and has adapted well to all the craziness of the year. Before she was even 1 month old she had already lived in 2 states and traveled to 7 more. Her goals for the new year are to start crawling...then walking...then running. I think she just might be able to do it.

Kassie just turned 5 and is often the life of the party at our house. She is doing home-school preschool with me and loves her letters and computer time. She started reading this summer and gets a kick out of figuring out particularly hard words during our family scripture study of the Old Testament. She often sighs and talks of how she misses her Arkansas friends, and then asks if her new best friends can come over.

Krista turned 8 this year and was baptized! She loves her new earrings and Activity Days at church, and suddenly thinks she's old enough to stay up late. She is loving 2nd grade and is working hard to try to be the first to reach the top of the behavior chart. She just moved up a level in piano, and if you can't find her you can bet she is holed up somewhere reading a book.

Keira reached double digits in the middle of our move - she thinks 10 is pretty big stuff. She has made lots of good friends in her 5th grade class, and we often have a whole crowd of them in our big backyard. Every day she comes home and gives me the update on what happened during their recess soccer game - if no one ends up being taken away by ambulance or having teachers break up the game then it's a good day! Keira begs for piano lessons every week - she loves to find new music for me to teach her and worked really hard to play "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" for her grandparents who are in Buenos Aires on a mission.

Kimberlee turned 12 and started Young Womens! She was also very sad to leave her friends in Arkansas, but has found an awesome group of girls here to make up for it. 7th grade has been a little overwhelming, but she has handled it like a champ. She enjoys her choir class and wishes her math class was a little more challenging. She has always enjoyed doodling, but when we moved and got rid of cable, drawing became her outlet and hobby, and she now has notebooks full of her art.

I feel like I have just been along for the ride...a very wild and crazy ride. Here's to a new year of settling in and getting the hang of this new life we've put ourselves in. Happy New Year and many blessings to all our loved ones!