The Twenty-Six Best Things About My 26th Year

Today officially marks my last day as twenty-six years old. In honor of this year, which has been the greatest of my life, I thought I'd look back on twenty-six awesome things and memories of this year. When I wrote a post about my twenty-fifth birthday last year, I love how I mentioned that I had a "slight suspicion" it was going to be the best year yet. It definitely was!

1. I married the absolute love of my life on October 13, 2012. This was, hands-down, the best day of my life!


2. Kevin asked me to be his wife on Tuesday, September 4, 2012. He asked at what I now call our spot on the beach after a delicious picnic dinner. As soon as I said yes, the fireworks went off (really!). It was perfect!



3. We officially became a family. I love my husband and our boys more than I could ever express.




4. I started a new job. And I love it. Forgive me for not talking about my career on the blog, but I like to keep that separate. I work in marketing and advertising and I feel so incredibly blessed to have my career.

5. We spent a week in Holden Beach honeymooning!



6. We spent two awesome weeks at the beach and a few long weekends with our families. We went to the beach for a week with my family in June and Kevin's family in July. We took the boys down to Garden City for a few days during K.C.'s spring break last year and spent another long weekend in Holden Beach for Memorial Day weekend.


7. I ran 9 races. Seven of them were 5Ks (I won five and was second in two) and two were 10K's (I was second in one and third in the other). I really enjoyed the Sports Medicine Challenge I ran a few weeks ago (and the $100 I won!), a trail race I won in January and then a 10K I ran last May the most. When I look over my race times, I'm shocked at how much my 10K has improved. I started running longer distances regularly (like 5+ miles) and I've gotten to a sub 43 minute 10K. I haven't done that in a race yet, but I plan to this year!


8. I joined our church. I grew up really involved in church and attended the same church my whole life (where my grandfather was actually the minister for 40 years and my mom is the music director) until shortly after Kevin and I started dating. Earlier this year, I decided to make it official and joined our church. I'm not as involved yet as I'd like to be and am looking forward to getting more involved!

9. We celebrated birthdays. A lot. I love any excuse to celebrate and we had a great time celebrating birthdays this year. We were pirates for Kaden's third birthday; hung out with dinosaurs for K.C.'s fifth birthday; and had lots of fun celebrating everyone else!

   

10. I got a CWP. Kevin and I took the class and had a great time!

11. I went to my first race - NASCAR that is. With my former position, Kevin and I were offered tickets to the Darlington NASCAR race. I'm not into racing at all, but when Kevin found out they were infield box tickets literally beside the race sponsor's box, he said we had to go. And we did. And we had fun. I cheered for Danica Patrick (I mean, she is a female and her car is lime green!).


12. I watched my sister complete almost her entire senior year! She graduates high school in less than two months. I know there are many programs I'll have to see her in like May Day, Senior Night, Baccalaureate and of course, graduation, but we've had fun going to see her cheer for football and basketball and seeing her senior nights in both. We also celebrated her 18th birthday with a ton of her friends.



13. We found a conch! Kevin is no stranger to conch and other treasure finding while walking along the beach, but I hadn't ever found one myself. We found one when we were at the beach with my parents this summer and two more while we were on our honeymoon. It was fun!


14. Halloween. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I just think it's fun. I've carved a pumpkin with my granddad every year for the past twenty-six years. I love continuing that tradition with him with Kevin now and doing the same with our family. Plus, who doesn't love baking goodies and eating candy?



15. The boys starting preschool and kindergarten. Kaden started 3K this year and K.C. started 5K. I can't believe it! They are both excelling in school and love it. I'm so proud of all their school work, willingness to want to do homework and eagerness to learn!

16. The couples massage Kevin and I got. I don't really think I have to tell you how awesome that was!

17. Family fun time. Playing outside, playing games and just being together is absolutely the best!



18. Family pictures. We had family pictures taken this past summer and I love them! I had portraits done of the boys which are hung in our dining room and then I have some family photos and some of Kevin and me in our kitchen. I love looking at them. They make me smile!




19. Our first snow. It snowed - and stuck - for the first time since Kevin and I have been together this past February. It was fun! We played (despite Kevin having the flu) and just had a great time.

20. Christmas. We love celebrating Christmas and this year was no exception!



21. The blogging community. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed blogging this year. I love blogging to keep a record of what our family has done. I also love getting to know other bloggers (hooray for Kayla!).

22. Watching my boys play sports. I love watching all of my guys - all three of them - play sports. The boys played soccer this past fall and just finished up their spring season, K.C. played t-ball and Kevin is playing flag football. We're getting ready to have them all in baseball again with the boys and Kevin all playing. I love watching them do something they enjoy and cheering them on. I've gotten to see Kevin score some touchdowns in football and K.C. scored his first goal in soccer this season!


23. Vacation Bible School. This past summer was the first one in about five or six years that I wasn't in charge of VBS. Instead, Kevin and I were the leaders for the boys' class. It was fun!


24. Dates with my husband. And the fact that I get to call him "my husband." And that I get to live with him forever and ever. It doesn't matter if we're going out to dinner and a movie, walking around our neighborhood, getting Chickfila or sitting on the floor watching Survivor, we have fun. He's hands down my favorite person on this planet. And the most handsome, too!



25. Photo books. Yes, photo books make me happy. Very happy. I love having pictures to look at on the computer, but I love having them in books. Since I don't have the time to make real scrapbooks of photographs (I do scrapbook the boys' special school work), I use Blurb.com to make photo books. I love the books I did last year - our 2012 family book, K.C.'s four year book, our wedding album, a book that was used for messages at our wedding and our honeymoon book. Kevin thinks I have an addiction. (And I might.) I'm almost done with Kaden's three year book. I can't wait to give it to him!

26. God's blessings and grace. I've seen God's abundant blessings, grace and provisions for my family and me this year. Knowing that I have a Savior who loved me enough (before I was even a me) to die on the cross and rise again to save me from all of my "junk" amazes me. I can't thank Him enough for what He's done for me, is doing in our lives and will continue to do.

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