if you climb a mountain and you turn around

(^the cute neighborhood around our rental home)

1:

- Joe, Chelsea, James, Caitlin, Landon, and I (and bonus baby Ellie) piled into my brothers car and drove to St. George to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Denhalter.
- We took the first big adoption step and did a home study and started all our paperwork
- Our second puppy, Penny passed away and it was pretty heartbreaking
- We went to our 7th supercross together
-I got promoted and transferred to the Kierland Commons Anthropologie
- Laura and I went to Peter and the Star Catcher, forever my favorite (Laura and Peter)

(^Gilbert Temple open house) 

2: 

-We played a giant kickball game with the Ray-Siens

- A last minute camping trip with the Joe Denhalter's and my parents

- We finished all our adoption certification paperwork

- A mini staycation with the Denhalter girls

- We toured the Gilbert Temple open house 

(^Landon being... Landon)

3: 

-I left Anthro and started working full time for Little Green Notebook 

-We spent a weekend hiking in Sedona with James and Caitlin 

-Drove to Flagstaff for Ezra's baby blessing 

-I did a solo Snowflake trip to hang with my Momma (and cousins lunch, duh) 

(^Easter Egg hunt at Great-Grandma Lines) 

4:

-Jess and Darrel moved from Flagstaff to Mesa, into our ward! 

-My parents bought a 1970's trailer near Roosevelt lake and we spent a couple weekends down there fixing it up 

- The Romney's came into town for Easter 

-Laura and I saw Once at Gammage 

(^My Grandparents house in Parowan Utah) 

5:

- My cousin lost her baby boy in a tragic accident. She spoke so beautifully at his funeral and I'll never forget her words. I learned a lot about Christ that day

-Laura and I went to St. George to see the Grandparents and check out Dixie College. We did a driving tour trough Parowon and cried most of the time

- Yet another lake trip or two

- Lots of afternoons spent at the LeSueur's playing ninja with Eli

(^the family in the hospital waiting room) 

6: 

- We celebrated our 7th anniversary! Hiking by day and St. Francis by night

- Lacey had her baby, Raelyn! We were all instantly in love

- June was our busiest month at work by far. We spent lots of weekends and late nights prepping Jenny's house for the Domino Magazine shoot. 

(^my outfit for day one of the Domino shoot) 

7:

-3 whirlwind days of the Domino shoot. It was such a freaking cool thing to be a part of!

-10 day road trip to Idaho with James and Caitlin, we covered all our old stomping grounds and hiked, camped, ate, and rafted the days away

- I joined the Lines for a few days in California

-More weekend trips to the lake, proving how old we are by our continued level of soreness from wakeboarding

-We finally got our certification paperwork and we were FINALLY approved to adopt

(^rooster and aunt kate boat selfie) 

8:

-We put our profile up with LDSFS and got an email from S the next day

-I went to New York for a week with Jenny, as if I need to say it... but I have the best job in the world

-Landon turned 29! 

-We went to Mexico for Camden's baptism 

-We put an offer on a house in Gilbert

(^the night we got some very good news) 

9:

-S picked us as the adoptive parents and officially put us on hold 

- The same week, we closed on our little fixer-upper 

- I heard our baby's heartbeat for the first time 

(^midway through the kitchen reno) 

10:

-October was renovation month. We spent hours and hours (and hours) working on the house before we moved in

-My mom and brothers came in to town and spent 3 days knocking out a huge chunk of our renovation list 

-I turned 26!

-We went to the Phoenix Temple open house with the whole Denhalter Clan 

(^my mom and sisters and my baby shower) 

11: 

-I went to weekly doctors appointments with S

-My sisters and Jenny threw me the most beautiful baby shower

-We spent a very warm Thanksgiving with the Lines family 

-We worked and worked on our house getting it ready for the baby 

 12:

-Our baby Lula Colette was born. The best moment of our lives. (Believe me, this is not all I have to say about it)