2012 Christmas Card Letter

Merry Christmas!

This year seems to be continuing our pattern of crazy busyness! The beginning of the year found Nate switching companies for the third time in three years as Numerical Applications Inc. was bought out by Zachry (a construction firm looking to expand its base into the nuclear industry). It’s now a running joke in our family that Nate just isn’t able to hold a job for long. J With new business cards in place Nate also began his year with the first of many (oh so many) business trips to train fellow engineers in the wonders of the GOTHIC code, a nuclear modeling code that is hoped to be the new ‘it’ code in future years. Over the course of the year Nate traveled to exciting places such as San Antonio, Boston, Pittsburgh, Stonington Connecticut, Corvallis Oregon, and Burlington Kansas. Nate will mention that Kansas in the middle of July during one of their worst heat waves of the decade was particularly memorable. In addition, a trip to Atlanta, GA was also partaken as Nate participated in this year’s Nuclear Professional Engineer (PE) statistical grading group. In other words Nate was invited to review this year’s Nuclear PE exam to help determine the statistical score required for this year’s test takers to pass.  It’s amazing that Nate has any spare time, but with what he has he makes the most of it!

Abby's First Birthday

Speaking of spare time, this was the year that we decided to revamp the inside AND outside of our house. When we first moved into our house in 2010 we knew that it would soon need freshening up a bit with new floors and paint, but we were both a little shocked when all the signs were pointing to having this year be the year to do so. The end of January saw us scrambling to pack up boxes and move our household goods to the garage or borrowed horse trailer parked in the driveway as the beginning week of February was our “go” date for a new interior house. Within one week we went from dingy carpets, burned linoleum, and badly painted walls to bright, fresh, and fantastically updated new rooms. It really is amazing what a little paint and new carpet/linoleum can do to make a house look completely remodeled. But our house remodel wasn’t done yet! In July we decided that the outside needed updating too as the paint was so thin we were worried about wood damage.  This time we literally had three days’ notice before our painters arrived. Once again Teresa’s inability to pick out paint colors almost gave us the ugliest color of green (lesson learned: check the paint color AFTER it’s dried if you’re basing your color choice off of the paint numbers from a text of the woman whose house color you like), but through fast driving and stores open with later hours we now have a lovely and inviting look to our house exterior. 

Abby at 15 Months being silly

While the revamping of our house was an exciting moment of our year, the best moment of 2012 was celebrating Abigail’s first birthday with friends and family. Celebrating during our interior remodel made for some crazy scheduling but gathering together with so many important people in our lives was a moment not to be missed. Looking back over this year it’s amazing all the many milestones that Abby has accomplished. Hours after eating her birthday cupcake she had her first tooth pop through, three months later (and in the span of one week) she went from taking her first shaky steps to that initial toddler run, her babbles turned into spoken words and then just today her first sentence (!), she’s now sleeping through the night, yells her “Hi’s” and “Bye’s” to everyone she sees, has the most contagious laugh, and is pure joy to be around. It’s those still, quiet nights when we peek in and see her sleeping so peacefully that we realize how truly blessed we are.

Abby at 18 Months playing with Maddie

Ending out our family story, we are still enjoying the opportunity we are fortunate to have with Teresa working as a Stay at Home Mom. With home-cooked meals and a near-constant put together house she’s feeling like she’s settled into her job quite nicely. She’s so settled that this past year has seen her become more involved in a weekly bible study (JOY) and a monthly Mothers of Pre-Schoolers (MOPS) group. Add in scrapbooking and Bunco get-togethers with the girls and there are days where she wonders at how busy she is for not having a ‘real job’. J

Abby at 21 Months playing on the beach

2012 has been a year filled with travels, growing milestones, and the joys of day-to-day life for our family. To keep up with these daily life stories, please check out our blog at http://takers401.blogspot.com. We hope that your family has experienced its own exciting and wonderful events as well during this past year.

Our Family

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Nate, Teresa, and Abby Carstens

Merry Christmases

Merry Christmas!

This year our family celebrated Christmas by first visiting Nate's family in Portland, OR the weekend before  Christmas and then driving home Christmas Eve to be able to celebrate with my family on Christmas day. Our celebrating got off to a little bit of a rocky start as Abby was just not having an enjoyable time riding in the car during our drive. Okay, who am I kidding? I've decided that Hell is not fire and brimstone but instead a never-ending car ride with a toddler. :-) Our drive, which normally takes 3.5 hours from door to door, instead took 5.5 hours and included three stops and one Exorcist like vomiting episode, plus all the accompanying whining, kicking, fussing, and yelling. But to Portland we did eventually land!

This year we decided to try a different sort of Christmas dinner and instead of spending all day preparing food and then dealing with the cleanup afterwards, we went out to dinner. I thought it turned out great as we sat down to a yummy feast at Sayler's Old Country Kitchen (one of the best stead restaurants I've ever been to) where Abby was so good for the two or so hours we were there (and since Nate and I were sitting at the opposite end of the table from Abby it was almost like we were on a date as well!) and had fun just talking to everyone before we headed home to open presents. Abby was a little funny this year with presents as she had zero interest in opening them (last year she had fun opening at least a few before becoming overwhelmed). We finally got her to open one and once she realized it was a baby (complete with towel, rubber ducky, and other bath assortments) she was done for the day. We kept half-opening gifts in the hopes that she'd eventually get into the spirit but eventually we got to the point where we realized we simply could not get her to open another one. :-) The rest of the time spent with Nate's parents and grandparents was passed by making up a bunch of freezer food, playing cribbage and other card games, and just enjoying each others company. All too soon Christmas Eve was upon us and it was time to head back home. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) our drive back took only 5 hours and Abby did nap a bit of it, but we were still very happy to get home.

Eating Christmas dinner at Country Kitchen. Notice how Nate and I are FAR away from Abby. We like to say it's to give her time with Grandma and Grandpa. Yeah, it's totally just for that. :-)

Opening the one present we were able to convince her to open.

Look at her face! She loves her new doll.

Swinging on her 'swing'. A $2.00 garage sale steal repurposed into a great swing.

Our plan Christmas morning was to wake up and head to Christmas Mass before joining up with my family but someone (ahem, Abby) decided that sleeping was for the weak and ended up waking up at 3:30am and refused to go back to sleep. At 6am I pulled her in to bed with me and decided that Mass wasn't going to happen this year. Instead we slept in until almost 9am before getting up and slowly starting our day. When we got to my parent's house the snacking was in full force (Chex Mix, pepper jelly with cream cheese on crackers, sausage balls, cookies and candies galore, and dinner just going in to the oven) so we ate and hung out while waiting for my brother David to wake up and come downstairs (he's home from college) and for Katie, Bo, and Haylee (sister, boyfriend, and daughter) to arrive. When they did they also brought the snow with them! It was going to be a White Christmas!

Abby almost got her princess skirt up and over her tushie. :-)

Haylee and Abby love each other so much. They're great cousins!

Soon we commenced with opening presents, which turned out really nicely even with the change we instituted this year. This year we decided to only buy gifts for the girls (Haylee and Abby) and not for each other ((well except Mom and Dad who still decided to buy for us kids as they said that since we're their kids it counted as only buying for kids - sneaky) and David as we didn't think it was fair that he buy for the girls and not 'get anything' for himself since he doesn't have a kid yet to buy for). So while it looks complicated on paper it really wasn't and we all agreed that it was nice not buying for the others when no one really needs anything anyways. I think we liked it so much that we'll continue this for next year as well! Anyways, after opening presents it had snowed enough that we decided to take the girls out in the backyard to play. Then Bo found two sleds. Then Katie got the idea of using the riding lawnmower/tractor to pull the sleds. What happened next was just an old fashioned "white trash" sledding party. Oh, the girls had SO MUCH FUN! Even us big kids got into the spirit of things!

Abby following Haylee's lead and walking on top of the garden wall and feeling so proud of herself.

Walking in a snowsuit is hard! "I've fallen and I can't get up!"

Then the girls had fun riding in a sled together, although Nate soon tired.

Katie's brilliant idea saved the day! Bo shows up his snowboarding skills, too.

The girls' giggles could be heard from far away. They thought this was such a fun ride! (Or really rides as they were probably pulled for a good 20 minutes before we stopped.) I love how Haylee is holding Abby's hand so Abby doesn't get scared.

Then Nate took over driving duties!

Eventually we took to the hill/driveway for some real sledding. Abby wasn't so sure about this and after a fun slides down the hill decided she wasn't quite big enough for down-hill sledding.

So Nate drove her around on her new bike from Uncle Bo, Aunt Katie, and Cousin Haylee!

All too soon the weather was getting colder (and so was Miss Haylee without her snow pants) and so we ended the day by watching How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Foo Panda before we all said our Merry Christmases and Good-byes. After talking with my family we agreed that this was the best Akers' Christmas we've had in a long time, in fact it's one of our best holiday memories ever (right up there with skiing on Thanksgiving where we would, literally, ski down the mountain and onto a chairlift as we were five of the twenty or so people on the mountain).

Overall this was a wonderful Christmas celebration with both of our families. We enjoyed being with each other and celebrating this special time of year together. Merry Christmas!

Abby's First Birthday Party Invite

Abby was recently invited to her first "friend's birthday party" (I don't count Haylee's birthdays as Haylee is family.) I'd like to say it was a low-key affair where Abby sweetly played with the other children while I lovingly sat just out of sight and had deep, meaningful conversations with the other moms. Instead I was smacked in the face with the reality of a birthday party with 15 odd children from ages 1-6 and how LOUD they can be. Holy Hannah! Abby dove right in and had a great time while I cowered in the corner with my drink grasped firmly in hand as if to hold off whatever hooligan might make their way towards me. :-)

She had a great time playing with the other kids (or, really, playing near them), eating pizza while sitting on the floor, and having yummy ice cream and cake. All too soon our no-nap-day caught up with us and we were saying our good-byes, but I consider this birthday party attendance a success. Here's to many more years of having fun celebrating the birth of her friends!

She thought she was so special to not only be sitting in the room with all the other big kids, but to also be big enough to sit and eat without mommy hovering nearby. I'd say she got half her pizza down before the call of the toys became too much for her to ignore. 

I did exert my mommy powers and decide that ice cream and cake were to be eaten away from the boys running in circles around the house. Plus, the TV was showing YouTube clips of all the Christmas movie songs so she was pretty happy where she was.