Baker Family Top 14 for 2014

Merry Christmas & Happy New Years from the Baker Family!

In honor of the New Year we thought we would highlight some of our top memories of 2014 and share them with you.

 

1. We got a puppy!

And then we sent her back. I may never live that one down.  Miya joined our family this past spring and stayed through August.  We loved having her but we quickly realized that, in a small house with dad gone all day, Miya was more like the 3^rd child we weren’t ready to have.  So, since we couldn’t understandably get rid of either of our human children, Miya is now just a frequent dog sitting guest.  It’s safe to say the only other family member as thrilled about this decision was Belmont ;)

2. Jeremy received a mountain bike for his birthday! Biking has become a new hobby he loves and it’s allowed him to get out and into the mountains with friends.

 

 

3.   We spent lots of time as a family exploring Colorado.  Family trips to Vail (which has become our favorite town for weekend getaways), hiking, swimming in the mountain hot springs and so on… Colorado is nothing short of breathtaking and as funny as it is for me to say this—I’ve become more of a mountain girl than a city girl! 

4.     To celebrate our 8^th anniversary Jeremy & I attempted to hike overnight to the top of Mount Evans— unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the top on foot.  We got lost along the way and ended up watching the sunrise from midway up the mountain.  We both agreed that our trek was a fantastic metaphor for marriage.  Often times scary, rocky and easy to lose your way--but the payoff of doing life together is some amazing sun rises and triumphant moments.  We’re looking forward to re attempting this hike in 2015—but in broad daylight this time!

 

5.     Some big career changes went down in our house this year. After 10 years with Starbucks, Jeremy finally burned the green apron strings (literally—we hosted a huge bonfire to celebrate and burned the aprons to a crisp).  In August he went from part time to full time with Cornerstone Christian Counseling and is now seeing a full load of clients.  This has been a huge praise for our family and we couldn’t be more thankful to God for bringing us to this place after such a long awaited dream.  Likewise, I began to work with seniors again after taking a full year off and it has been incredibly refreshing to get back to doing something I am so passionate about. 

6.       Levi got his first taste of the ocean!  Levi and I took a day trip to California and spent part of our time on the beach playing in the sand and sticking our feet in the cold water.

 

        7.  We became soccer parents!  Mackenzie joined a soccer team and we became the crazy fools screaming from the     sidelines.  Never-the-less, she’s a born natural and we will continue to cheer like banshees until she’s old enough to ban us from her games!

 

8. Levi turned 1 & Mackenzie turned 5! We celebrated with a big pirate & princess themed party and we were thrilled to have three sets of grandparents and all of the aunts and uncles fly into town for the big event!

9. Mackenzie started kindergarten and she LOVES it.  Her favorite parts of school are being a social butterfly (mommy’s words) and learning math.

 

 

10. I traveled to San Francisco & Sonoma with a group of girlfriends for a long fall weekend.

 

11.        We did some home renovations! Jeremy’s dad flew out to Colorado and the two of them redid our laundry room. Then we got really brave and tore down the awning off of the back of the house.  Slowly but surely we’re teaching ourselves how to do some renovating and it sure has been nice not to pay for outside work!

12. I was involved in helping to start a taskforce in Denver for the organization Love146 which acts to bring awareness and fight to end human trafficking in our city. I’m excited to continue my involvement this upcoming year.

13. We visited Anderson Farms as a family to pick pumpkins and celebrate fall!

 

1.        We traveled home to the Midwest for Christmas and then celebrated New Years back in Denver!

 

 

So, there you have it.  A highlight reel of our year in a nutshell.  If you’ve followed along this far we would love to share some prayer requests for the upcoming year.

-          We would love prayer for Levi’s health.  He is chronically sick with colds and double ear infections and it makes for a pretty miserable winter.  This went down last year and is the pattern so far for this winter too.  He is scheduled for a tubes consult in January but we’re praying for first and foremost for healing—of Levi’s little body and mommy’s sanity!

-          Prayer for wisdom for Jeremy and he continues to balance his workload and home life.  While his job is a huge blessing it is also time consuming and a heavy commitment and he’s gone long hours of the week.  Pray for rest for him and overall wisdom in how we as a family balance work and life at home.

-          Pray for direction this coming year as we make decisions on if we should keep or sell our home.  We really love our home but we are quickly outgrowing it.  We would love prayer for a clear sign from the Lord on when and if we should sell.  We want to be content in what we’ve been blessed with but we also know that sometimes God opens doors to move on. 

We hope you’ve enjoyed a little peek into our lives.  Please know that you are loved!