Chapter Nine

 I'm terribly ashamed to say that this will be my first blog post in nearly a year. Well, here's to starting over... or to a new chapter, rather. Let me catch you up on the happenings of the last year.

Chapter 1: Sold

We bought a house back in September of last year. Home ownership has been wonderful. Aaron has a long honey-do list of projects. Currently he's in the process of building a built-in desk/wardrobe/bookshelf for our study. And now that the construction outside of our home has resulted in new neighbors, we've spent the last year getting to know the many fantastic families around us. This was such an answered prayer.

Chapter 2: Draper & Dillon

Our tiny little twins are not so tiny anymore. These dogs are crazy! I'm so thankful that they have each other to play with. Our pups have completely destroyed our backyard though - to include building a 'friendship tunnel' to share toys with the dogs next door. Did I mention how thankful I am that we have nice and forgiving neighbors??

Chapter 3: Pabst

In December, we found out we had a little one on the way! My sisters, who were of course ecstatic, took no less than two days to come home from the bookstore with a... helpful book on unique baby names. And since we decided not to find out the gender, the baby's odd little nickname stuck.

Chapter 4: Wolf Creek, CO

We spent Spring Break snowboarding in Colorado. Yes, I went snowboarding at 4 months pregnant. Yes, I was still awesome. Yes, it is entirely possible that my cute preggo self got overly dehydrated and had to get IV fluids at the ER. Yes, I subsequently (and repeatedly) kicked everyone's butt at Monopoly Deal while resting in the lodge.

Chapter 5: Reading Railroad

Work has been going great for both Aaron and myself. After a bit of a rocky season with several changes in management at Aaron's job, we were blessed by a great promotion for him. My job afforded me the opportunity to begin working with our international offices in Reading, UK. I spent a very cold and rainy week in London! While there, I received a (very unexpected) promotion, as well! God has been so good to us through our careers.

Chapter 6: Love

Our sweet sister (via Aaron) was married this year.
We are so excited to have Travis and his son in our family! 

We joined a young-married couples small group with our church. It's a breath of fresh air to have quality friends who are in the same life stage as we are. 

Chapter 7: Showered

With the impending arrival of Baby Pabst, our friends and family completely, absolutely, and staggeringly overwhelmed us with love and gifts for our new little family. It's amazing that so many people love a kiddo they've never met because they love us. Seriously... I cannot say THANK YOU enough. I hope we are able to bless people like that, too.

\Chapter 8: Birthday

 And then it happened... a beautiful little boy was born on my 24th birthday! Weighing 7 pounds 5 ounces at 20 1/4 inches long, our sweet baby Graham entered the world at 4:14 pm on August 4th, 2013.

Becoming parents has brought so much love into our world, and not just love for our son but for each other. God has been so good to us this past year. I only hope that people look on our family and, whether or not believe He exists, see how much my love for my God affects my life. 

Now that my little one gives me the motivation I need to document more of life's happenings, you should see the posts coming more regularly. We'll see.. I'm going to consider this a start to a new episode, Chapter 9.