Every year I take some time to reflect on the memories from the past year. Each year has it’s own special moments and ones that I enjoy returning to from time to time to see how things have changed. From the good to the trying times, each moment has a special place. Here are some of our favorites from this year, in no particular order!
January – February
With lots of help from family, we put the final touches on the nursery including setting up the crib and rocker, moving furniture around, getting a bookshelf set and installing a new ceiling light / fan.
My mom hosted a great baby shower for family and friends. One thing is for sure – little one is loved and very spoiled! We received so many items to help get our life started as parents as well as many books to stock the shelves in her room. One of my favorite things we did for the baby shower was ask for books instead of cards!
Celebrating my birthday and our last date before little one arrived. Spencer made steak with potatoes for dinner and a few days later we went to one of our favorite brunch restaurants in the Grand Rapids area – Noble!
Sneaking in those last few workouts before little one arrived! I was consistent on working out about three times a week between cycling workouts or strength combined with cardio (10 minutes upper, 10 minutes lower and 10 minutes cardio). Each day we would walk in our backyard because it was too slippery to walk on the road throughout our neighborhood. I actually did a spin workout the night before going into labor!
Little one was born! This story itself could be an entire blog alone and definitely a day we will never forget. Starting bright and early around 4:00 AM, my water broke while turning over in bed. I remember going to the bathroom thinking ‘We get to meet our baby girl today!’ and feeling overwhelmed with comfort and joy. I had no idea what to think of labor and the moments to come however we were excited and ready to go. By 10:25 PM we had our little girl in our arms and were over the moon with joy.
Stella was able to stay with our family while we were in the hospital and the first day we were at home. Little one was able to meet her grandparents within a few days after she was born and it will forever be a engrained in my brain as our parents eyes filled with tears seeing one of God’s greatest miracles.
March – May
Spencer and I soaked up all the newborn firsts and cuddles while we were on parental leave. Spencer was able to split his paternity leave into two sections, allowing him to watch little one as I went back to work and delaying the time before we had childcare starting after July 4th. Our time off was filled with lots of relaxing with little one, walking, working on projects around the house and setting up our first garden!
First Mother’s Day and Father’s Day as parents. What a special time. My parents joined us on both occasions for the weekend and we were able to sneak away for a bike ride together – one of our favorite hobbies!
The first days back to work were tough. Leaving little one was one of the hardest things I have done and I did not feel ready. A lot of tears were shed and I questioned multiple times my place within the workplace and leaving her. It did not sit well with me for quite some time but I knew she was in good hands and was so thankful for twelve blissful weeks together.
Before I went back into the office, one of my projects was making sure the landscaping was up to my standards – which included pruning and removing plants from the prior year, fixing anything which broke, sprucing up the landscaping, planting flowers in the window boxes and adding in plants to our porch (boxwoods). I loved the pop of color these flowers made against our gray shutters!
June – August
Spencer and I have had a five year goal of owning a home where we would have a garden. This year was our first year having a garden and boy, did we learn a lot. Gardening is a new challenge and seeing something develop from seed to food was fulfilling!
Spencer started with tilling the land with a plow we rented from our local Ace Hardware store for the day. He then got sick and I was unable to remove all the weeds which were turned under as I was watching little one while he recovered.
This created a bit of a problem when we went back to plant our crops because everything had re-seeded and with a vengeance! We were able to plant zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, peppers (green, red and serrano), green pole beans, cucumbers, pumpkin, spaghetti squash and sunflowers.
We spent many evenings pulling weeds and watering the garden, which led to killing the grass around our house and all of our squash, pumpkin, spaghetti squash and cucumbers because of an infestation of squash bugs and powdery mildew. Lessons learned – do not water your plants at night as soil will not have enough time to dry before the following morning..
Over the summer, Spencer perfected smoking ‘all the things’ on the Traeger. We had smoked eggs, queso dip, brisket, chicken drumsticks, chicken thighs, peppers, onions, burgers, steaks, flatbread pizzas and armadillo eggs. Delicious!
We made a few trips between our parents houses and condos throughout the summer to soak up the time with family and the warm weather / sun. Some of our favorite memories included little one going in the pool at my parents for the first time and walks on the pier in Grand Haven.
Little one enjoyed many fresh foods from our garden as she started solids. She had peppers, tomato and cucumbers – savoring every bite. We kept laughing at the sound of cucumbers against her gums as she used it more as a teether than consuming it in the early months.
September – October
We bought a solo stove to enjoy in our backyard. It was the perfect addition to have a fireplace without smelling like smoke and enjoying it under our patio lights by our home. An added benefit was having a fire close by as opposed to going out to our fire pit in the back of our lot and risking not hearing the baby monitor. We enjoyed plenty of marshmallows by the fire too.
For the first time in years, I added apples back into my diet. When I was younger, I would get a scratchy throat and feel like I could not breathe each time I consumed apples or an apple produce. This was one of the many food I had an intolerance to over the years. Thankfully, I was able to build tolerance to through time. What better way to add them back in than to pluck apples off the tree at a local orchard – Crane’s – located in Fenneville. This was a staple for Spencers’s family to go to each year and we purchased many including Honeycrisp, Johnny’s and Ada Apples. Little one even tried to pull one off the tree!
Starting this blog. was one of my personal favorite highlights from this fall. While Spencer and I were biking one day, he encouraged me to take the leap. For years I have pondered with the idea of documenting some of our favorite memories and having a platform where moms can learn something, even if it is comfort that they are going through something similar to others. Over maternity leave I developed the idea and within a day, I ran with it. Rooted at Heart was born and I am loving every second.
Our neighbors had success growing pumpkins and squash. Of course we had to have little one pose by them! Peek at those little two bottom teeth emerging!
This fall we started family game night! It has been a blast having dedicated time each month where the family gets together and plays a game. Everyone brings something to contribute to the meal (lunch, dinner or appetizers) and adult beverages of choice. For the warmer fall months, were were able to enjoy games outside including corn hole and bocce ball.
November – December
Spencer had ankle surgery to kick off the month. For the past few years he has had a mass on the back of both ankles and after having the pain for too long, he had it removed from one side. The recovery was roughly two weeks and we missed his extra help every moment!
By November, Thanksgiving rolled around and we spent time out at my mother and father in law’s condo in Grand Haven. The weather was warm and we able to enjoy walks outside around town and relax with the family. We had Thanksgiving lunch of steak, smoked turkey, potatoes, vegetable casserole and lots of dessert.
We did not do much for the rest of November and December as we wrapped up work for the remainder of the year. Our plans to split the holidays between our families homes came to a halt when Little one and I were sick and spent a majority of our week to rest and recoup.
On the last day of the year, Spencer and I had our first date night out and went to a wedding at Baker Lofts in Holland, MI. The wedding was for Spencer’s childhood friend Alex who married Paige, who he met at GVSU. It was a great way to wrap up the year and we made it back just before the ball dropped (with 2 minutes to spare)!
Thank you for joining us on many of our favorite memories. What was one of your favorite memories of 2022?
