The Carstens: 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.