2018 was a big year for our family. Expanding to a family of five, both continuing to work full time, an exciting 7.0 earthquake close to home, and the ups and downs that come with being new parents.

The key things I learned throughout this past year:

1. The most important thing is family. I’ve always enjoyed having a job and a career, and definitely put that in the import category in my life, when really, it’s not nearly as important as your little ones and spending time with your family.
2. Friendship: it changes when you have kids. Some friendships can handle the big life change while some can’t; and realistically, thats okay! Life is about growing and changing. Sometimes people will surprise you!
3. Patience is a thing. I’ve never been a super patient person, but with kids you just have to suck it up and go with it. I’m working on it…should have it down by triple toddlerhood. You’ll also find me eating chocolate and drinking wine in the bathroom for that life phase.
4. Teamwork is a necessity. The day to day is really hard. Working together on each task drastically improves EVERYTHING. It also makes one appreciate their spouse in ways they may not have noticed pre-babies.
5. Enjoy the little things- that hot cup of coffee, brownies baked by a friend, a quiet morning sitting by the Christmas tree (even if it’s at 4am), baby giggles or snuggling a fussy baby to sleep.
6. Embrace your community! For me, it’s not just the multiple moms that I have things in common with, but just moms in general. We are all in the thick of it together!

The girls learned a good amount of things this past year too! Their list is far more interesting than my life revelations, including how to:

1. survive “outside” in the real world!
2. eat out of their bottles and almost hold them. So close.
3. sleep through the night…and un-sleep through the night this month. Working on that one…
4. laugh, smile, growl, and happily enjoy the world around them.
5. grab and play with toys while sitting up.
6. And lastly, to continue to grow, change, and advance into 2019!

We finished off this year letting the babies test out some beef broth. Needless to say, they are not fans of it (yet) so we followed it up with the well liked mango. Enjoy and happy new year!