A LOOK BACK AT 2016

Every year I do one of these posts where I look back at our highlights.  2016 had highs and lows, pretty much like all years and like life in general.  I think in the big picture of our nation, 2016 was rough and divisive, and I've been heartbroken watching people tear one another apart and only see their own perspective.  Thankfully, that does not dictate all factions of our life.  Here are a few of our highlights!


(fam pictures by Main Street Studios)

Lily turned seven years old and had a super fun Lego party.

I began and *mostly* completed a Magical Tidying journey in our home.  (I need to round out this in 2017, mainly in my craft room, as Lily keeps reminding me.)

Bella trusted Jesus to be her Savior!



John and I enjoyed our trip to CFA Next and Harry Potter World - though it was not without a ton of drama on the home front.



We traveled with friends for Spring Break to Memphis - so much fun!



William and Violet turned three years old and celebrated with a Very Hungry Caterpillar party.

John and I managed a super quick trip to NYC and got to see Jimmy Fallon's monologue rehearsal among other fun things!



We spent a lot of time on the lake this summer, first going to Hot Springs with some of our college BFFs, then going with some of our Little Rock friends and then again with our Hot Springs friends.  Thanks, friends!





We also saw Falling Waters in AR for the first time, again with friends.  I'm sensing a theme here - we love hanging out with our friends. 😂



John and William had their first big Father/Son Getaway to St. Louis to see the Dodgers play.

We hung out with my family in Kansas and spent even more time on the lake.  It truly was a lake summer for us.



All of our children went to school in August, which I was highly dramatic about for many months in a row.

We have survived the advent of school, and I might even go as far as to say that we are thriving.  Turns out, God really does know best for our family.

September was a wild and crazy month with a lot of travel - first we headed to the Dominican Republic with good friends which was such a FUN trip and actually relaxing!



Then, I joined a group of like-minded women to visit Africa New Life based in Kigali, Rwanda - it truly was an amazing trip.



Bella turned six years old and had a 101 Dalmatians Jumping Party.

We saved the world for Halloween this year!



The last couple of months have been a whirlwind of holidays and cookies.  It's been truly great, but also rather exhausting.  And when I look back at the rest of the year, I can see that it's had a lot of fun moments for us, but this post misses out on a lot of the hardness.  The sum total of both leaves us tired at the end of 2016.



We are looking forward to seeing what 2017 holds for our family and trusting God with what he has for our family.  He is so faithful and good in all things, and I'm thankful to know him.

Happy New Year from the Spenst family!

HITTING UP THE ER TWICE IN TWO DAYS

We drove home from Wichita Monday night only to leave John, three kids and most of the stuff at the house so Violet and I could drive to the ER to get her breathing monitored.  This seems to be a common occurrence when we travel, which sucks, since we love traveling.  Hopefully it will be something that she grows out of and that we learn how to better manage.

Monday night we were there from about 9:45 pm - 1:15 am.  We got the usual treatment for respiratory distress.

Sadly, by late Tuesday afternoon, I could see that she was not improving the way she should with the medications that she was receiving.  After dinner and more breathing treatments, I called the medical exchange line, and they told me to head back to the ER. 😞😩😩



While I did NOT enjoy having to spend almost eight hours there over the course of two evenings/early mornings, Violet and I did get a lot of sweet time together.  She was mostly very cooperative and pleasant - though she detests being suctioned.  And she only fell asleep at the very tail end of Tuesday night.  We left the second night with a better plan and more recommendations of what to do next.

Parenting really is SO tough.  There are a million things that I could have done better along the way to avoid the situation that we found ourselves in, but because life happens, and she was doing fine, some of those things fell by the wayside and some of them have never come up before.  It's easy to blame yourself or second guess your actions when you become an ER regular two nights in a row.

And it seems so unfair that a child who already is fairly high engagement would have myriad medical issues that also need to be addressed.  There are so many things that she deals with, and John and I have to constantly remind ourselves that it is much worse for her than it is for us.  Selfishly, I just want her to be better, because it is a lot of work for us.  I spent a full hour this morning doing all of her medications and treatments (which is not at all the norm).  Then, I feel guilty, because some parents deal with so many more things.  There are guilt and selfishness traps set all around this situation, and I am prone to falling in them all.

So I try to return to the truths that I know.  God has a perfect plan for her, and we were placed as family for one another for so many reasons that I don't even know yet.  We need each other, and I feel privileged that taking care of her has been entrusted to us.  We love our Violet with all that we have, and she loves back just as hard.  I'm so thankful.

It does seem that she is currently on the mend, and it helps me breathe a sigh of relief to see her breathing normally.  Here's hoping we can skip the ER for the foreseeable future!

CHRISTMAS 2016

While certainly not without it's fair share of drama, this year's Christmas was a sweet one.  I'm giving a run-down mostly in pics - there are a lot of them!  We made a quick trip to Wichita to celebrate with my family - here we all are at the Christmas Eve Eve service at church.  (All except my sis-in-law who was needing to get fluids at the hospital . . . like I said, this was not without drama or hospital visits. 😂😬😫  Also not pictured are my step-brother, sis-in-law and their new daughter who couldn't make it from New York this year.😞)



Our travel there and back was not so awesome, mainly because one of our children is not a fan of sitting still, and since that's sort of the name of the game when you road-trip, it turns out to be a bummer.  But we survived, and we did remind ourselves repeatedly that it was not the worst trip ever - a low bar, but still helpful to know for sure.




We had lots of fun hanging out with family right away and celebrating Mom's December birthday.

(These are for sure my sisters, since they are eating buttercream flat out.)

The Christmas Eve Eve service helped remind us of Christ's great gift of coming as a baby to save us all.

Christmas Eve day was spent mostly around the house doing things like watching movies,



kissing the dog,



loving on cousins,



making salt dough ornaments,




running last minute errands for stocking stuffers,



taking a family walk,

marveling at the wall of stockings mostly sewn by my over-achiever younger sister,



and acting out the Christmas story. 😂😂😂

Plus each child opened one present.  This picture pretty much accurately sums up how it felt.



Also - we did not plan this, but we should have!

Christmas Day brought stockings and a cinnamon roll breakfast to start.

Then we opened what felt like truck-loads of presents.  Maybe that's more representative of the fact that we had a hoard of people.

(from my Mom and step-Dad, ultimately gifted from my step-sister, the girls received some of the original American Girl dolls with their books and lots of accessories - they were a hit!  Especially with the big girls.)

On Christmas night, we went and saw Rogue One with all the siblings and spouses - it was a late night, but such a fun movie!  I'm still sad that we missed getting a pic of us all together.



It was quick, but it was so good.  We've had a rough couple of days since then, so its been fun to write this blog post and remember all of the fun we had on the holiday!