Year end reflections

2010 was an amazing year. One I think we'll always remember. Here's some highlights:

January - We took our honeymoon to San Pedro, Belize. We snorkeled, swam, slept on the beach, cave tubed, ziplined, and visited ancient Mayan ruins. It was gorgeous and perfect and I want to go back everyday.

March - I chopped off all my hair, for the first time since grad school! It was about a foot, but I've loved how easy the new 'do is.

May - We attended a session at the Houston Temple. This was our first time to go to any other temple than the San Antonio one, and we loved it! It made us want to visit every temple in the world. For the second year in a row, we have attended the temple every single month (sometimes a couple times in a month). It's amazing the blessings you can see in your lives from regular temple attendance. If you have a recommend, I strongly urge you to make it a point in 2011 to visit the temple each month. If you don't have one, work to obtain one. Your life will be blessed in ways you cannot imagine.

June - We closed on our first house!! What an incredible blessing this has been. We love having a place to call our own, a place to put down roots. We are so thankful for all the circumstances that fell into the right places to allow us to take this huge step this year. And, of course, we've had so much fun fixing it up, and we're not done yet!

Also June - My little brother left to serve a two-year mission in Bangkok, Thailand! We are so proud of him and the amazing work that he's doing and look forward to his weekly letters. It's amazing to see how much he's grown already, and while we miss him terribly, we're so proud of all that he's doing.

July - My "other" brother, Aaron, married his beautiful sweetheart Karina in the Salt Lake City temple! They are such a cute couple and so in love. I'm so glad he found such a wonderful woman to share his life with. And Hans and I are so thankful that we were able to attend their wedding! Not only was the wedding perfect, but it was great to visit the Salt Lake temple and to visit with our family in the area (including my awesome Grammy!)

August - We were blessed to help out in the wedding of our good friends Tom and Molly. It was a lot of fun and we're so happy those two crazies finally tied the knot.

Also August - After two years, I left the Austin American-Statesman to take a new job in the nonprofit sectors. I miss a lot of things about the newspaper (especially the people), but I'm loving the flexibility of the new job and feeling like I got my life back.

October - My old roommate Liz left on her mission to Kirtland, Ohio! We miss her everyday (I think Oliver's still in withdrawal), but we are so happy for her and this wonderful experience she's having.

As we look back at the past year, I'm almost embarrassed at the richness and fullness of the blessings we've received. It has truly been an amazing year, in large part to the wonderful friends and family we are blessed with. Our Heavenly Father has truly been good to us, far more than we deserve, and we can only hope to return his goodness with increased diligence and obedience.

As 2010 ends, I pray that each of you are well and that you, too, may find an embarrassment of riches in 2011.