Year 2013 in Review

I've been doing this kind of post for 3 years now and it's one of my favorite posts to write. (the other two can be found here and here) I love going back and reminiscing about the year and being reminded of what we did and what happened. But it is really hard to keep it to one picture for the month. This year I really notice how my boys have changed. People keep telling me, but looking back I can really see it. The two oldest boys went from being toddlers to little boys! I can't believe how much they've grown. It was also a year marked by lots of change.

January

This month was boring. The biggest thing that happened was I started

watching a baby 4 days a week. She fit right in and we loved her. But it took me all month to adjust to a new routine.

February

We celebrated Valentines day with heart quesadillas, breakfast out, and a date night

We went from  beautiful weather to snow and sledding. This picture

cracks me up from that month.

March

This one I chose 2 pictures. Our firstborn turned 4!!!! And we took a family Easter Picture. 

We also found out we were pregnant with our 4th baby (3rd living one) so that was exciting, but

I was sick the whole month.

April

This month is only marked by a wonderful trip to MN. 

My younger sister and her family was "commissioned" to head as missionaries

to serve in Spain. All original 6 Mayfields were able to be together

and we had a great time. So thankful for being able to take this trip

May

In May we celebrated Mother's day and Memorial Day

This picture is from Boulder on Memorial Day. I've wanted to go for a while

and this year we finally made it. Maybe one day I'll actually run in the big race there!

June

The boys learned how to fly a kite! We also were able to spend a long weekend

in the mountains with our Life group at a cabin! This group of people

have become like family to us. We are so thankful for them and blessed by them.

It's cool to see that "Community", the way God intended us to live, 

really does bless us, challenge us and draw us close to Him.

Richard and I were also able to get away for a night to reflect

on our precious baby that we lost at the end of the year. June 13th marked the

due date I had and it was really nice to be able to get away during that time.

This also marked the month when Richard got promoted at work to Project Manager.

Which you would think would be a good thing, but has been

stressful, and not a lot in return. But hey, trying to not focus on the negative.

July

We were able to take a really fun camping trip with Family this month. We drove over the mountains and camped with cousins and grandparents. It was REALLY fun. 

The boys went fishing with Grandpa, saw 2 bears, and ran around endlessly in the woods. They got super dirty and ate only junk food. And they were in heaven. :) 

p.s. I also chopped my hair off for the first time in my life. YIKES!

August

I had to put two pictures on here as well. B/c we did two exciting things this month. We

Spontaneously made it to a Broncos scrimmage at the stadium

with the boys. And although it got rained out (hail, wind, and rain) we had a really

fun time as a family and it was cool to do that with the boys.

We also took a camping trip with our Life group! It was so much fun once again to spend

time together with them. We love camping!!!

September

(ok, so maybe 2 pictures per month would be appropriate :) )

This month started out with a big move to a different condo in town. I a was like 32 weeks pregnant or something so as you can imagine - not the most fun. But very very thankful for this new place to call our home. It suits us much better.

Also our middle son turned 3!!!!

And on that same day we were prayed over to become a pastor of our church. There is so much to say about this. But I don't know how to quite say it. we are blessed beyond measure

by this church body. We have grown so much and our desire is to be helping in this way. It was

a huge answer to God's calling on our lives. We are still trying to figure out

what it looks like to be bi-vocational and how we will function and what our responsibilities

will officially be, but we are so thrilled with this.

The rest of the month I basically tried to survive and unpack our house!

October

This month was survival. The end of my pregnancy was rough and hard on me. I had a lot of uncomfortableness, tiredness, and pain. I had two showers for my baby which we were totally blessed by. We visited the Zoo (which turns out to be a yearly October thing for us to do). My mom came at the end of the month, and we had fun with a transformer and wolverine for

Halloween. 

November

This month was clearly marked by introducing our 3rd boy into the world.

Peyton was born on November 6th and everything after that is a blur. :) 

The boys love him to death and he fits right into our family.

We had a quiet thanksgiving weekend. But other than that we just tried to figure out life as a family of 5. Richard and I also celebrated our 7th wedding Anniversary! 

December

Honestly I don't really know what happened this month. It flew by. We celebrated Christmas early as our own family entity for the first time ever. That was wonderful and simple and so sweet. 

We also traveled to Grand Junction for a big Christmas celebration and a family wedding. 

Richard also preached this month which is always "all-consuming". So we made it to the end of the year.

My word for this past year was "SERVE". As I look back on the year I can't say I did this well. In the last 6 months Richard has received a lot of responsibility outside the home with work and church. Which has in a way "forced" me to serve my husband and family in many more ways that sometimes I don't feel I can handle or always have the best attitude. Most of the year I felt physically weak and tired (from pregnancy) which deterred me from serving much outside my home!

So in looking to this new year the word I have prayed about and chosen is "GIVE". I want to give unconditionally. I want to NOT hold back. Give of my time, my energy, my resources and my possessions. Give to my children, give to my husband, my friends, my neighbors, my church. Give unreservedly, how Christ gave to us. Give knowing I leave this earth with nothing. Give knowing all I have (energy, time, possessions) all are a gift to me, I don't deserve them. 

I can't wait to see what this new year brings.

How our lives will change. This past year (really only 6 months)

was filled with many changes, housing, job responsibility,

new child, and church/pastor. What will this

new year bring???!!!?!