Mike & I always make goals for the next year. Mostly because he does his business goals & planning + some personal included. However, I am thankful for this because it allows us to really think "where do we want to be in a year?" Including health, spiritual, vacations, house upkeep, babies... of course business & us as a couple!
To remember how much the Lord has blessed us & everything we have gone though just in this year alone we decided we want to make a "year in review" note to have all of those memories to look back on! Instead of some piece of paper that will get lost of some word document that will sit in some folder, we decided the blog would have to do!
Here we go...
January: We rang in the new year with Alisha's family at the Osthoff in Elkhart Lake, WI. Such fun to be somewhere else on NYE! Plus this was the last one without a baby... {this year we are not even staying out till midnight}. Also in January Mike has his central regional conference - this includes everyone from the central region {duh} from Northwestern Mutual. It ends with a black tie event for his specific network of offices - The Effner Financial Group. I was pregnant and wore flats and went to bed earlier than anyone else - however I do recall staying up pretty late! I even danced on the dance floor :)
February: Alisha had her family baby shower! Something she was looking forward to for a long time. Such fun! Mike got his new car early Feb & then went to Vegas with some work people! He was there for the Super Bowl.
March: Alisha had her friends baby shower. Such a blessing to have the girls do a super fun shower! Mike was even featured in a video :) This month Mike went to a Blackhawks game and was in the 5th row. How great!!!
April: Well lets see... Alisha's birthday in early April as we anxiously awaited sweet Mackenzie. A little under two weeks later Mackenzie was born! Right on her due date. As you can imagine from this point on our year was focused on pretty much her, family, church/small group and learning how to prioritize our lives all over again with a newborn!
May: This month was learning what day to day life looked like with M. Going on some walks. Getting no sleep. Loving our baby. Mid month is when we took a little visit out to go see the Great Grandparents - Bob & George Anne. Alisha also had her first mothers day :)
Mothers Day <3
June: Lots more walks, Fathers Day! More walks..... lol Actually we did go to Lake Geneva. Mackenzie was only 6 weeks old and we had been in the house so much! We wanted to get away for alight so we went to Lake Geneva and stayed near Lake Como. Looking back I honestly can't believe we did this. But I am so thankful we did. It helped us learn what we needed going out with her, that she pretty much slept through anything & that we could make it work! I even figured out pretty clever ways to pump every 2/3 hours and feed her in public which was a huge fear! Mike and I celebrated out 4th anniversary. We went out to Ruth's Chris and this was the first major date out! Another big accomplishment :) This month was hard however with Alisha's grandpa passing away. We had his funeral late June. He will be so missed and was so loved. We are so thankful Mackenzie and him met.
July: Mikes sister & brother in law came to visit with their 3 kids! How fun for them to meet Mackenzie and us all to spend some time together. We went to the Des Plaines parade and Mackenzie slept through the fire trucks. On the 4th of July we ended up going to my {Alisha} parents and seeing some fireworks out on the lake! Mackenzie slept through that as well :) The whole summer we had been doing small group as people hosting socials. We were able to go to all of them with little M - she was so good. This month we went mini golfing and Mackenzie came with. She slept in the stroller as we golfed and even took a bottle which had become a little bit of a challenge at that time. Every July is Mikes annual meeting. This year I only went up for one night and Kyla came too. Mackenzie took her first trip to the zoo! The end of July Mike and I went to Chicago! Mike was gifted a night at the Peninsula. Such a nice nice hotel! We were so excited to go and this was our first night away from Mackenzie. Alisha's mom/sister & dad watched her. We spend the day at the spa, had dinner, went to a surprise birthday party & ended the next day at the Cubs game!
August: Mike & I did a day trip to see the Chicago Bears play! So fun to go once a year even if they are so so bad!!! This month we went on a one night stay to Lake Geneva, The Abbey Resort for a wedding. This was only the second time we left Mackenzie all night but she did great!
September: Fall is starting and we went to an Apple Orchard with Aunt Kyky. She {Mackenzie} enjoyed it, minus the bees. We also went to another cubs game! This time with her!!! It was her first one. She enjoyed looking at all the flags and all the people. She did get a little startled when we would all clap :) At the end of this month Mike & I went to Sea Island Georgia with his work. We stay for 3 nights 4 days. This was the longest we have ever been away from sweet baby! It was hard, but we had fun while we were away. Of course, I got up dates every day 2x a day :) Once again she were a champ! M even slept through the night one night when we were gone!
October: We celebrated Mikes Birthday this month! He had a guys weekend as well playing gold at Geneva National. We also went to go pick some pumpkins. On the 19th we had M's dedication and family & friends came over to the house to celebrate with us! It was a celebration of her being such a gift from God to us. This month we also met Great Grandpa Wally & Suzanne. How fun to see all of your immediate family! For your first Halloween M was a strawberry.
Out for Mikes Birthday
Great Grandpa
November: This month we used Mikes present from his parents and went over night to the Heidel House on Green Lake in WI. We had a spa day, went out to dinner & then came back the next day. This was a great little get a way for us. We have made is a commitment to once a quarter do a 1 night stay somewhere away from home :) Mike had a trip to South Carolina with work. It was a golf trip over a long weekend! He loved it. We celebrated our first thanksgiving as a family with Mikes family the weekend before. Then we had a friends thanksgiving + Alisha's family thanksgiving. These couple days were super busy but fun to see the family.
December: The night before our NYC trip we had Mikes holiday work party on the Odyssey - Lake Michigan. Freezing but fun to be on the deck for couple minutes and look at the sky line. I am super thankful for Mike working so hard + his work offering cool trips and incentives for him doing his job well! We took a 2 night trip to NYC. It was so fun to be in the city and see all the Christmas lights, Rockefeller Center, 5th street & some different shows! The NYCB was fantastic and we are thankful we decided to see the ballet! Mike took another trip to South Carolina (A different golf trip - different work guys - different course). Of course, he loved this too! This month included cookie baking for Alisha + her mom & sister, M visiting Santa, Christmas with Alisha's moms side, Christmas Eve with Mikes family & Christmas day with Alisha's family. So many gatherings & fun filled days with family, friends, christmas music & the hope of the season - Jesus. We were so excited to share in this season of Christmas with Mackenzie. Now only... 357 more days till Christmas next year when she is 20 months old :)
This year has flown by. We look forward to going through another year as a couple, a family, with our friends & family by our side. Some of our spiritual goals are to be in the word together (in our new life essentials bible) at least 1x per week, to be in the word individually majority of the days per week, to be memorizing 2 verses a month! Church is a priority every week! Some other goals are for Mike to be home 2 days a week before 4:30 so he can spend time with M {early bedtimes are hard}, Mike and I to have one date night per month, one night away every quarter, to be available to each other, our family and our friends. Some goals for me are to get our of the house with M at least 2 times a week, we are joining MOPS and to do something else! Happy New Year!
Love,
Mike, Alisha & Mackenzie Lankford
