2015 Wrap Up
Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends! Thanks for coming to read this letter - it's our way of putting a nice little bow on 2015. We're so glad you're here, and part of our lives!
This has been a big year for us, as have most of the last few! It was our first full year as a two parent working home, our first full year with two sweet boys, Luke's first year of school, Eli's first birthday and many other memorable moments!
I moved from orientation on day shift, to night shift, back to day shift in October. I now work weekends and one day during the week. Though this schedule isn't always ideal, it has provided much more consistency and continuity to our often crazy life. And, I won't lie, sleeping at night has been life changing! Dave is amazing with the boys, and they have a great time on the weekends. He has also been able to volunteer more at church this way, since we're not all over the place on the weekends now. This isn't our ideal, as it limits the time that the four of us have together, but it's certainly more ideal than when I worked night shift! We are also so blessed that Dave has a flexible job that allows us to do family things on the weekdays, and allows him to be flexible with his time -- it's a tremendous benefit to our family. This was also his first full year on the management team at his software company (he's Director of the Project Management Office at Auctor Corporation), and he has excelled, as usual, in that role as well!
Luke is growing like a weed, he's about the size of a 5 year old at age 3 :) He goes to preschool at our church (Traders Point Christian Church) on Tuesday's and Thursdays and absolutely loves it. He's doing well and has a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Evans. He has made lots of new friends and has a great time every time he goes. They had their Christmas Show earlier in December, which was really awesome. Luke sang some of the songs, but not all of them, but was a rockstar on the hand motions. :) He loves to play with his friends Charlotte and Grace and our neighbors Shane and Liam ,and he LOVES it any time he gets to see Bowen. He is loving the new swing set in the backyard, wrestling with his brother, and has a new found love of all Disney movies, taking showers instead of baths, staying up late to watch basketball games, and helping mom and dad with grown up jobs.
Eli is now 15 months! Not sure how that is possible. This kid. He's walking around like a little Frankenstein, babbling like crazy - all sorts of unintelligible things, as well as mama, dada, dah (dog/Dexter), and baple (apple), his current FAVORITE fruit. He loves to eat really anything, then throw it all on the floor when he's done, chase his brother around, eat dog food off the floor and splash around in the bathtub. He has eight teeth, is starting to grow a sweet mullet and loves so much anything that Luke is doing. He is starting to LOVE to read books, and is very snuggly and smiley. He and Luke are now sharing their room, finally, and it is really going very well. We are so proud of them! And we are so happy to have our laundry room back :)
While we have been gifted so much, we have also battled a lot of ups and downs this year: some family issues, schedule challenges, the stress of having young kids, and many other things that life can throw at you. In those times, we continue to try to lean into our faith in Christ. His love and grace are what help strengthen our life and our marriage every day, and with Him as our foundation, we have weathered these storms and been strengthened because of them. As our faith grows, our sense of joy and peace continue to deepen, and for that, we are very grateful. As we set priorities in our lives, we continue to look at where we are investing our time, treasure, and talent. We've been challenged by a recent passage that our pastor preached on.
"..Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of [those] in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." -Joshua 24:15
I hope that each of you reading this knows that we are so thankful for our relationship with you. Our prayer for all of you is that you enjoy the holiday season, that His love blesses all of you in the coming year, and that His truth and grace are ever present in your lives!
With love,
-Dave, Kara, Luke, and Eli Yaraschefski
This has been a big year for us, as have most of the last few! It was our first full year as a two parent working home, our first full year with two sweet boys, Luke's first year of school, Eli's first birthday and many other memorable moments!
I moved from orientation on day shift, to night shift, back to day shift in October. I now work weekends and one day during the week. Though this schedule isn't always ideal, it has provided much more consistency and continuity to our often crazy life. And, I won't lie, sleeping at night has been life changing! Dave is amazing with the boys, and they have a great time on the weekends. He has also been able to volunteer more at church this way, since we're not all over the place on the weekends now. This isn't our ideal, as it limits the time that the four of us have together, but it's certainly more ideal than when I worked night shift! We are also so blessed that Dave has a flexible job that allows us to do family things on the weekdays, and allows him to be flexible with his time -- it's a tremendous benefit to our family. This was also his first full year on the management team at his software company (he's Director of the Project Management Office at Auctor Corporation), and he has excelled, as usual, in that role as well!
Luke is growing like a weed, he's about the size of a 5 year old at age 3 :) He goes to preschool at our church (Traders Point Christian Church) on Tuesday's and Thursdays and absolutely loves it. He's doing well and has a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Evans. He has made lots of new friends and has a great time every time he goes. They had their Christmas Show earlier in December, which was really awesome. Luke sang some of the songs, but not all of them, but was a rockstar on the hand motions. :) He loves to play with his friends Charlotte and Grace and our neighbors Shane and Liam ,and he LOVES it any time he gets to see Bowen. He is loving the new swing set in the backyard, wrestling with his brother, and has a new found love of all Disney movies, taking showers instead of baths, staying up late to watch basketball games, and helping mom and dad with grown up jobs.
Eli is now 15 months! Not sure how that is possible. This kid. He's walking around like a little Frankenstein, babbling like crazy - all sorts of unintelligible things, as well as mama, dada, dah (dog/Dexter), and baple (apple), his current FAVORITE fruit. He loves to eat really anything, then throw it all on the floor when he's done, chase his brother around, eat dog food off the floor and splash around in the bathtub. He has eight teeth, is starting to grow a sweet mullet and loves so much anything that Luke is doing. He is starting to LOVE to read books, and is very snuggly and smiley. He and Luke are now sharing their room, finally, and it is really going very well. We are so proud of them! And we are so happy to have our laundry room back :)
While we have been gifted so much, we have also battled a lot of ups and downs this year: some family issues, schedule challenges, the stress of having young kids, and many other things that life can throw at you. In those times, we continue to try to lean into our faith in Christ. His love and grace are what help strengthen our life and our marriage every day, and with Him as our foundation, we have weathered these storms and been strengthened because of them. As our faith grows, our sense of joy and peace continue to deepen, and for that, we are very grateful. As we set priorities in our lives, we continue to look at where we are investing our time, treasure, and talent. We've been challenged by a recent passage that our pastor preached on.
"..Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of [those] in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." -Joshua 24:15
I hope that each of you reading this knows that we are so thankful for our relationship with you. Our prayer for all of you is that you enjoy the holiday season, that His love blesses all of you in the coming year, and that His truth and grace are ever present in your lives!
With love,
-Dave, Kara, Luke, and Eli Yaraschefski
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