New Year 2015!!

We loved ringing in the New Year with the Davis clan!

We enjoyed Aaron's BBQ for dinner, Alex's celebration decorations and Bryan's games - Ticket to Ride and Settlers. 

Oh, and Dallas' Mouse Trap game!

Oh, and decorating cookies!

While the adults played games, the boys enjoyed movies in their pjs. 

We all stayed up way too late, but the memories were worth it! 

The past few weeks in pics...

When Eli goes to bed at night, I look through pics of my phone and think, "Oh, I should post these on my blog!" So, here you have it - phone pics over the past several weeks!

Before Eli's hair cut 2 weeks ago, he was waking up with hair like this...

At the end of December, Aaron and I enjoyed a date to the Denver Temple. (Thanks, Alex for babysitting!) We haven't been back to the temple since we were married there almost 3 years ago. Of course we reminisced about our wedding day and how it was the perfect day with all our family and friends!

I've been dreading 1 o'clock church since I found out we would switch to that time with the new year. Turns out it actually works great for us! Eli takes a little snooze from 11 - 12:35 p.m. and then I wake him up, throw on his shoes and we run out the door. He's relaxed during sacrament meeting and when his energy level kicks back in, he goes to nursery! He loves nursery now and last week didn't even cry when I left. Last Sunday he all of the sudden looked so grown up to me.

We love Colorado because one day it snows and the next day it's 50 degrees! On one particular warm day, we ran to the park to enjoy the sunshine!

After Eli's bath a few weeks ago, he kept asking for a "hug." I melted. And cried a little. He's extra cuddly these days after bath time and I don't even mind.

You may get sick of me saying this, but I'll keep saying it as long as we live here - living by family is the best! We've had slumber parties at the Davis home the past two weekends. 

My parents gave us a Bosch mixer for Christmas and I'm in love. I tried it out last week and it's changed my life forever! I tried Parker House Rolls and they turned out pretty good - the bottoms were a little too brown, but we still ate them!

And finally - we live literally 3 minutes from Bass Pro Shops and it's become our favorite family activity to visit often. I wish you could see Eli run to the back of the store yelling, "FISH!!!!!" He's always excited for a Bass Pro adventure! 

Hope you're having a great 2015!

Family Pictures!

Before leaving Maryland, we had a friend from church take family pictures for us! 

These are a few of my favorites:

{We used this one for our Christmas card.}

Also, I was trying to figure out where to save a copy of our Christmas letter and decided my blog would be the best place. So, here's what we sent to our family and friends this year!

 Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We’re grateful to have you in our life and wanted to send a note of thanks for your love, example and friendship.

We enjoyed the past two and half years living in Maryland close to the Nation’s Capital and exploring and learning all that the area has to offer. The best part was living close to Aaron’s parents and watching Eli come to understand what a blessing grandparents are in this world! We also grew to love the people of Maryland as we served and were served by them in various church responsibilities.

We have relocated to Colorado Springs where Aaron is working at the Air Force Academy. Colorado!! We are excited to live closer to even more family and enjoy the sunshine and mountains.  We’ve purchased our first home and love visitors, so please let us know if you will be in the area. You’re always welcome to stay with us!

In March, a baby boy will join our family and we look forward to meeting him!

How grateful we are for this Christmas time to celebrate the birth of our Savior. We know as we strive to pattern our life after His, we will be blessed.

With Love,

Aaron, Amanda and Eli Volk

Part II: On Setting Goals

For 2014, I set a goal each month and loved it so much, I plan to do the same for 2015!

I blogged here about my goals from Jan. - June. 

Here are the rest of the goals I completed for the year. 

July - Earlier in the year we were given a sewing machine that our church wasn't using so I wanted to put it to use! I found a simple pattern on Pinterest for Christmas stockings and brushed up on my sewing skills. It was a fun little project that I may have not made time for if I hadn't set this simple goal. 

August - In August I was released from the RS Presidency and asked to help the primary children with music time. My goal this month was playing through the entire Children's Songbook. I haven't worked in primary before so playing the songs helped refresh my memory of the songs I learned as a child and learn new songs I could teach the children. I enjoyed making time to play the piano each day to complete this goal. 

September - This goal wasn't too exciting, but at the beginning of the month, we subscribed to a free month of Netflix. We canceled it at the end of the month, so I decided to spend more time this month watching TV/Movies than I probably did all year. :) I enjoyed having the TV on while I folded laundry or relaxed after Eli was in bed. I forgot to mention that I also tried to work on Spanish this month and tried to read from "Preach My Gospel" in Spanish each evening. 

October - Aaron and I spent a lot of time this month researching homes in Colorado and figuring out if buying a home was a good option for us. We both spent a lot of time on various websites looking at homes and compiling lists to send to our realtor of things we liked/didn't like in a possible home. We also flew to Colorado for several days to look at homes. The goal was a success as we made an offer on our home at the end of Oct! Additionally this month I set a goal to not check in with social media on Sundays. I waste too much time with social media anyway, so this month, I took time to write in my journal and call my loved ones. 

November - I focused this month on doing prenatal yoga each Monday - Friday. I found several videos on YouTube that were simple and short and a perfect way for me to stretch and relax my growing pregnancy body. Putting aside time for yoga each month was also helpful as I was packing boxes and preparing for our move to Colorado.

December - I love sending out Christmas cards so I made time this month to write a Christmas letter and address envelopes to 100 family members and friends. (I did organize our Christmas list and order the cards before we moved so I would have everything ready to go once we got to Colorado.) 

And that's the end! Here's to 2015!!

Part II: A Merry Christmas 2014

As our family continues to grow and job opportunities may take us around the world, I often wonder how many more Christmases there will be when ALL of us will be together! This Christmas was one of my favorites because everyone was able to be in Denver. Thanks, Alex and Bryan for hosting all of us! 

Before we all headed up to Denver, Angela and Mike came and stayed with us for a few nights in our new home! We loved having them visit and finally meeting baby Karlie!

Christmas Eve traditions: Pizza, playing the bells and acting out the Christmas story.

Christmas morning gets better and better with little ones!

Karaoke plus dance party. Eli couldn't get enough! 

I'll cherish these special times forever!

Part I: A Merry Christmas 2014 {from my phone}

Our military friends we met in Maryland stopped by the Saturday before Christmas!

 Look at these two!

This kids table was part of Eli's Christmas present. We let him open it early so he could enjoy it with his little cousins. :)

The train Papa brought to put around the Christmas tree was magical!

Sweet babies that I love.

My favorite Christmas decoration that my parents made for me several years ago.

Visiting Santa at Bass Pro Shops. Eli was a little skeptical at first... hahaha...

The in-laws took a snowboarding trip!

The girls went to see The Nutcracker. 

And Eli loves playing with his new tools!