Your World: Healthy and Natural: Happy New Year From Us

15 Fun Facts About 2015 With the Nitz Family

1. Our sweet baby Ashton Benaiah was born at home on January 6^th. If you are interested in the whole story: click here. He came a whopping 3 weeks past the due date, but that was no surprise to us. He is just as stubborn as his siblings. Now he is walking and chatting up a storm.

2. We had a great trip to the Black Hills – seeing Wind Cave, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Needles Highway, Bear Country, Spearfish Canyon. We also had fun panning for gold, hiking Harney Peak (Malachi, Ashton, Adam and I), getting close enough to buffalo to touch them, and playing with Biebert family that went along.

3. Besides hiking Harney Peak all by himself, Malachi has had a lot of fun stuff going on this year. As a second grader, he is learning more responsibility. He has a hard time concentrating on other things when he could be reading a book or throwing a football, so we are working on being responsible about homework and picking up after himself. He loves his Green Bay Packers, his family, and his Savior.

4. Kailana has been enjoying doing preschool at home with mommy. She is just like a mini-me! From teaching fitness classes to her dollies and sister, Brynn, to taking care of little brother, Ashton, like he is her own, she sure is a little mommy already. She CANNOT wait to get to Kindergarten next year, but I cannot even imagine my days without her.

5. Brynn brings a lot of laughter and drama with her wherever she goes. While she still seems to carry that Terrible 2 attitude around with her, she also has a very hilarious side. She sure knows how to make us laugh. She also started a new Sunday School class that she can attend without her mommy, but she still requests I stay with her, which is just fine by me!

6. We had a huge garden and an especially large amount of pumpkins! The kids helped out a little more with the picking and weeding, and they were overjoyed to see how much food came from just tiny seeds.

7. We were able to take another longer trip as a family to visit Grandma and Grandpa Nitz in Nebraska. It was nice to see cousins and family there, while we celebrated the 4^th of July.

8. Adam and I had the police pull us over in our own yard. Turns out, our neighbors called the police on us for walking in our own yard. Scandalous!

9. We started having a family coloring night once a week. The kids love doing their very best and it is very relaxing – that is, when Ashton isn’t eating crayons, ripping up someone’s paper, or screaming.

10. Adam is still working like a mad man. He gets up very early each day to write his second book, I Was There When Jonah Was Lost. Then he works 11-12 hour days as a plumber. On top of all that, he has to deal with me. Ha! Biggest job of all!

11. Adam and I, along with my sister Marissa and her husband Josh went to the TobyMac concert last month. It was awesome energy and music!

12. I had a blast planning the 4th annual Biebert Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt. We did a photo scavenger hunt, with a few more ideas on ways we could serve others. Needless to say, we were writing down a lot of encouraging notes as fast as possible.

13. I have been continuing work as a personal trainer at the Maplewood Community Center, working in my several health and wellness businesses, and just began as the social media director for Attention Era Media. They are all things I love, so it is a balance being a full-time mommy and doing extra things.

14. One of our favorite places is…surprise, surprise…the library! I take the girls and Ashton there every week for story time and to pick out books for the whole family. We got a new children’s librarian this year, so there were a few tears shed when Miss Tammi went to a different library.

15. The girls are now sharing a room. They chat into who knows what time of night, but I know these are memories they will always treasure.