I am posting our Christmas card picture and letter for all you blogger readers who may not have received a card via snail mail. Don't know if I will get back here before Christmas so have a wonderful holiday season!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! What a busy, crazy year it’s been. We’ll do our best to catch you up on anything you may have missed about us over the past year.
Chase turned 1 on Jan. 26 and I find it hard to believe that we are quickly approaching birthday number 2 for our little guy. Chase really got into NASCAR with his daddy this year. If he sees the number 24 in fluorescent yellow he immediately starts saying “go! go!”! He is starting to talk up a storm and constantly amazes Howard and me with the new words he comes out with. Chase loves Matchbox cars and spends hours playing with them. He also spends a lot of time going through his books and reading to himself or asking us to read to him (yay!). Chase is also becoming quite the little helper around the house and loves to vacuum with me when I am cleaning, help his daddy with anything pertaining to cars or the outdoors and feed our cat. Chase was diagnosed with a severe egg allergy in February so we’ve had to make some changes to our diet and closely monitor what he eats. We carry an epi-pen with us everywhere and so far we thankfully have had no emergencies!
As most people probably know by now, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the start of my second pregnancy. I started with insulin shots and quickly have progressed to the insulin pump. It allows me much more flexibility and control over my routine. With the pregnancy and the diabetes together it has proven to be a very trying and stressful year for me. Howard has been a wonderful support and encouragement and helped me keep things in perspective. I’ve run the full range of emotions and have come to terms with the fact that I just have to adjust some areas of my life to accommodate this disease. Otherwise, my year has been full of motherhood. I love staying home with Chase and have enjoyed watching him blossom. We spent hours outside playing, taking walks and meeting neighbors this summer. We also spent one day a week at my parents keeping my grandmother company, as she is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's. I made a point, whenever possible, to get to the library and keep up on my reading this year, since I am such a voracious reader. I always come home excited when I find new books!
Howard got a slow start to his work year due to the economy affecting funding for roadwork. He still was able to make it a decent year at Guidemark and has high hopes for next year. He was able to get out golfing a few times throughout the year and has found some guys at work to golf with when their schedules allow. Howard fully enjoyed the 2008 NASCAR season, although Jeff Gordon didn’t do anywhere near as well as he had hoped. In addition to the sports stuff Howard has also been reading and studying up on the stock market and is quite excited to have some time during this layoff to try a few different options the stock market offers. He has the mind for it so we’ll see what happens.
Our second child, Alexa Kathryn, made her debut on December 2, 2008, via c-section. She has been such a great baby so far. She is very content and easy going. We’re hoping that continues in the weeks ahead!
With Howard working and me being pregnant, we didn’t take any vacations this year. We planned weekends together and got outside whenever we were able. We enjoyed taking Chase to various playgrounds in our area and watching the Phillies win their second World Series Title! Chase is a great fan! Now we are all enjoying our little girl. Chase is making such an excellent big brother.
We helped my parents move in April and then helped my grandmother move in with them in July. My brother Peter and his wife Kendal just purchased their first home in November so Howard and I helped them move as well. Lots of transition for my family this year!
Howard’s sister Steph and her kids, Austin and Gwen, flew in from Washington state for a visit in August and we got to spend a day with them. It was really nice but much too quick! The kids are doing well and appear to be thriving
We are looking forward to spending time with family this Christmas season. It’s going to be a lot of fun watching Chase during this time of year! We’re also looking forward to growing closer together as a family. We hope each of you has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Love,
Howard, Sarah, Chase & Alexa Hackelton
Chase gave Alexa a bottle and suddenly she wasn't so scary anymore!
And this is our family having fun with the camera one night. We were trying to get Chase to stick his tongue out but everytime the flash went off he'd close his mouth. This was the best we could do. We finished off with a nice picture for good measure. Can't believe we're closing in on the last few weeks of it just being the three of us!
There are moments when Chase decides the cat would much rather wear Chase's sunglasses around his stomach. (If Chase will give him attention Smokey is more than willing to put up with this. The glasses incident didn't even faze him.)
I can't believe how fast 4 years can go by! Our actual date is Sept. 18, 2004 but I am only getting to our blog today AND we have a babysitter today so that Howard and I can actually go out and celebrate.
Through a lot of effort and hard work not to mention a ton of communication Howard and I both agree that this has been our best year of married life so far. When two people really commit to figuring each other out and working to resolve misunderstandings that easily crop up in everyday life something special starts to happen. We aren't the crazy in love couple we were 7 years ago when we first met but we have reached something much better. It's so hard to explain where we are right now but I will try to keep this short and sweet. We're learning to forgive and really forget, we're learning so much better how to truly listen to one another and be attentive to what they are saying, we're learning how much fun everyday life together can be and that it isn't always candlelit dinners, romance and flowers. It's five minutes of shared time when Chase is in bed where we compare notes about our days, laugh about something simple Chase did, catch up on the Phillies score or share something funny from work. It's where me meet one another daily in the real world and find that we are growing more in love from those few stolen moments than we ever were on fancy dates. This is life, our crazy, wonderful life and right now it is very good...
Second day climbing. He doesn't concentrate this hard to get up. He was laughing so hard one day when he climbed up it that he fell right off! Probably one of the best freebies we've picked up in a while. Mommy can sit down for a little rest and Chase still gets to burn some energy!
Secondly, Howard's sister Stephanie and her kids, Austin and Gwen came in for a visit in the beginning of August. They live in Washington state now so we don't get to see them too often. The only person missing from the photo is Steph's husband Jason who was unable to fly in for the week. We had a nice visit with them, still can't get over how much the kids change and grow in a year!
We've been having a great time enjoying the sunshine and being outside. Chase never wants to come in so we take frequent walks. He's become an expert at pointing out the birds, trees, airplanes and the moon whenever it is out during the day. He doesn't miss much and it's often a challenge for me to pick up on what it is that he's pointing out to me!
