A Reflection on 2014!

 Happy New Year!

~ From our family to yours :) 

2014 has been quite the roller coaster... We started and ended the year with tragic, painful losses. However, we also started and ended the year with amazing, beautiful new life!
In January, Peter's brother Jonathon passed away. We were shocked and we miss him so much!

Just 6 days later, we found out we were expecting our first baby!  We were so thrilled, but struggled with the fact that our baby would never know Uncle Jon (Appleton).

Over the next couple of months, we had the joy of sharing this news with our family and friends :)

In May, we went on a great vacation/"babymoon" to an inclusive resort in Mexico.  It did not go at all how we had planned due to plane delays, etc., but it was still a wonderful time together!

We came home and had an ultrasound done to find out that our baby was A BOY! We shared this exciting news with our families on Mothers' Day :)

In the beginning of June, we found out that my brother and sister-in-law were expecting their 4th baby!  We were so excited to find out that Baby Junior would have a cousin so close to his age :)

(This was obviously from when we were much further along!)

In the end of June, we purchased our first house!  We've been working ever since to make it into a wonderful home for our little family.

As my belly grew and due date drew near, we eagerly anticipated the birth of our son.  We had baby showers, went shopping at yard sales, chose a name, picked paint colors, and prayed A LOT!!

We celebrated my 25th birthday in September, while I was 37 weeks pregnant :)

I was unexpectedly induced just shy of 40 weeks.  It wasn't exactly how we had hoped it would go, but I was still able to have the natural labor we had aimed for, despite being induced.

Caleb Eugene was born on October 9 at 1:41 in the morning.  He has completely changed our lives and stolen our hearts <3

In November, we celebrated Pete's 27th birthday with my family on Thanksgiving, his first birthday as a dad :)

Photo courtesy of Nick Dantonio Photography

In December, my Grandma Lonneville sadly passed away.  My heart broke because she was never able to meet Pete or Caleb.  We rejoiced, however, that her suffering had ended and that she was reunited with her husband <3

Just 3 days later, we welcome our beautiful niece, Jillian Hope, into the world!  She is so teeny tiny and so precious... It'll be such a blast to watch her and Caleb grow up together, being merely 10 weeks apart!

It was a blast celebrating Christmas with each of our families!  Caleb is the first grandchild for Pete's family; he sure livens things up and makes life exciting :) Caleb has 4 older cousins and 1 younger cousin (Jillian) on the Lonneville side; that was a very active Christmas day! :)

Jillian was not born yet, 

so add another itty bitty to this picture to get an idea of our Christmas day!

Photo courtesy of Nick Dantonio Photography

Photo courtesy of Nick Dantonio Photography

Last year, we had no idea of the ups and downs we would face this year.  We entered 2014 with the hopes of having a baby this year.  We now enter 2015 with joy and expectation to see all the things Caleb will learn and do :)

We are looking forward to 2015, believing God for amazing things!