A Year of Fun, Family and Thankfulness!

Another wonderful year at the Harlien Home! Merry Christmas and Happy 2012!

I usually get out a Christmas letter or I have slaved over which pictures to put on the Christmas card, but not this year...found a couple of pictures on Nana's computer, downloaded to Shutterfly, they arrived in a week and that was it...it felt pretty darn good!

Here's a brief snapshot of our year and our "happenings":

1. First of all, so thankful for Jesus Christ...for His love, forgiveness and providing EVERYTHING we could EVER need or really want!

2. We kicked off the year with the purchase of our fun little lake house at Possum Kingdom Lake (4 hours from Lubbock). We spent most of the Winter/Spring remodeling the house and boy did it pay off...we have had such a great time there! The 4 hours in the car, fly by...just the three of us...chatting it up (maybe Kate and I chatting more than Michael...bless his heart, sometimes he doesn't get a word in!) We have made some wonderful memories there with family and friends. We have made new friends that are so special to us and we have been able to spend time with some of our Lubbock friends at the lake too. We have several friends that have places there and it has been a blast meeting up with them. At the lake, you have no worries! This has been amazing for our little family!

3. Kate continues to LOVE Mrs. Cindy's Pre-School and learn so much! She has been there since a little before her 2nd birthday and will have another year there until she goes to Kindergarten...Cindy is a blessing! Kate continued swim lessons and loves the water. She is her daddy's child...she wants to be in the water, tubing or at least near the water at all times! She started AWANAs (Wednesday evening Children's church) and has learned lots of bible verses so far and is having a good time! She also started dance in the Fall and will have her first recital in June. She does like to get dressed to go to dance...sometimes a little hesitant, but she does have some smooth moves. Not so much of the "graceful swan" moves...more of the "let's get down tonight" moves, but we are getting there!

4. Michael and I are still beyond blessed to be working for great companies like Elanco and Pfizer! We both work with some amazing people that make it all worth while! Michael travels more than me, but he works hard to make it back to all the "happenings" with Kate and he is such a wonderful Daddy! After 11 years of selling a little drug known as Lipitor, I have had to make a product switch...this is just fine! Maybe this Old Dog CAN learn a new trick?! Lipitor has gone generic and I'm just thankful that I did NOT go generic with it!

5. We decided in late September that we would put our house on the market and just see if we could sell it by owner. Not really knowing where we were wanting to go or really wanting to even move out of our neighborhood. We enjoyed updating our older home 2.5 years ago and maybe the challenge of updating the lake cabin was fun?! We had our dear friend, Camille Drake, build the most amazing website for us, stuck a "For Sale" sign in the yard and 4 days later, had a contract! God is good...and good ALL the time! This must have been His plan! Everything went as planned with the sale of our home and we bought a house RIGHT behind us...I mean RIGHT behind us...Michael was able to walk Kate's playhouse through the alley and toss it (gently) over the fence! We closed on both houses on November 7th. Workers were at the new house that afternoon, pulling up the old flooring. We are thankful that Nana and Pappy have let us use their extra bedrooms since then...they probably wonder if we are EVER going to move into our house...we PROMISE we will! The remodel/updating is just about done and we are so excited! It just feels homey and wonderful already!! Michael says that he will LET me live in this home for 5 WHOLE years before he gets the bug again and we have a "For Sale" sign in the yard! They better be 5 LONG years before we do this again!

6. And our big news, if you didn't already know....we are having another Sweet Little Girl in late February!!! We can't wait!! Kate is really excited about being a Big Sister! Michael is thrilled to have another girl because in his words...."I think I really have these girls figured out!" WOW...bless his heart, does he really know what is coming? But good for him...he is still King of the Castle...now he will have 3 girls in the house who think he has hung the moon (he really has!) We are thankful I have had a really routine pregnancy and feeling pretty darn good!

This truly has been a year of fun, family and thankfulness! We are looking forward to 2012!