our yearly family update!

Just wanted to share a short and sweet update on the family for anyone who still may stumble upon and read this blog! 2013 was a great year for us, and we're looking forward so much to all that this new year might bring.

Josh and Suzi celebrated their 9th wedding anniversary this year and welcomed their littlest, Thomas Charles. It's unbelievable that he is seven months old already! Anna and Becca turned 8 and 7, Bennie is 5, Sara Kate is 3, and Eva turned 2 this last year. They're very involved with their church, school, piano lessons, and of course, the endless everyday work of living on a beautiful farm.

Sara met and married a wonderful man named Lucas this year. Introduced by a mutual friend, the two were pretty much inseparable since the day that they met. They were married outside on a chilly, beautiful day in October. They're blessed to be building a new home right next door to Lucas' mom [and only 20 minutes from the rest of us!] and are hoping to finally be able to move in sometime before the end of February. They love working with the high school youth group at their church, being involved with AA and NA, and are thrilled to be expecting a baby in early September!

Stefanie and Ethan will celebrate their 3rd anniversary in a couple of months, and their little girl Esme just turned 1 year old. They are expecting baby #2 [it's another girl!] in early March, and the Army is moving their little family to Germany at the end of April for a few years! We're sad that we'll be so far away from all of them, but it'll be fun to be able to visit them overseas!

Skyler proposed to his beautiful girlfriend, Jessica, in Florida on Christmas Eve, and they are planning an August 2014 wedding. We're so happy to welcome Jess into our family!

Samuel [15], Seth [11], Silas [9], Savannah + Sophia [7], Shiloh [5], and Spencer [3] are growing fast, loving life, learning new things every day, and since they've been indoors a lot lately due to one snowstorm after another, they are playing lots of board games and eagerly anticipating summertime again--we can foresee many days spent at Luke and Sara's pool this year!

Perhaps one of the greatest "achievements" of Mom and Dad's this year is having embraced a more healthy way of living + eating, and they've lost a combined weight of over 70 lbs since they started! Of course, the rest of the family has benefited from all of the healthy, delicious meals as well. It's been an interesting and exciting journey, but the rewards have already been more than worth it!

God has blessed each one of us far beyond what we could have imagined. We are so, so grateful to be a part of a big and loving family, and are so thankful for the friendships that He's given us from all around the world! Even though our blog may suffer because of the inherit busyness of our lives, we're really appreciative of the time that you all take to keep up with our family. So much love to all of you, and come visit us anytime!

[Also, the easiest way to keep up with our family is via Facebook and Instagram! Our family's IG usernames are somanyblessings, _suzanneelizabeth_, imsarajane, embracing2day, sknelson24, and the1blackfox]