Out with the Old, In with the New!

Another year has come and gone. This weekend, James and I will be celebrating our second anniversary! The time has flown by, it seems. In keeping with our tradition, we mark the New Year with a poster outlining our goals for the coming annum. But first, let us review our accomplishments from 2014:

Apologies for the shadow, this poster lives on the wall next to a bookcase

Our family goals we met 100%. We had a baby--go us! :) We went on a family camping trip (a couple, actually). We started preparations for our Black Belt Testing, which is coming up at the end of January. We took Joel to the zoo. We planted a fruit tree, an apricot which shot up like crazy over the summer. We went on a date every week this year. We visited the temple at least once a month, including a trip up to Brigham City.

Our individual goals were a little more hit-and-miss. James has indeed graduated from BYU (we're still waiting to hear on a few grades, but he's on track for magna cum laude). He has just completed his goal of reading 10 new books this year. Weight loss goals for the both of us didn't quite happen, unfortunately. He didn't learn to do a popup, though it's something he's still working on, and Joel has not yet learned any ASL. However, James met his goal of getting at least a 168 on the LSAT by scoring a 171!

I did referee at Nationals, and earned my B2 referee certification. I have not yet completed The Seventh Guardian (sequel to The Tale of Telsharu and The Scourge of Narak) but it is in progress, at least. Pre-baby weight is close, I'm hoping within the month. I did compete at the Utah Summer Games. I am nowhere close to learning how to do a back walkover, although I did learn how to do a headstand! :)

Which brings us to our goals for 2015:

For James:

• Go to Law School
• Earn 3rd Dan
• Successfully change oil in my car
• Read 10 more new books
• Prepare for and run a Ragnar

For Valerie:

• 4th Degree Black Belt
• Write The Seventh Guardian
• Compete at the State Taekwondo Championships
• Read 10 new books [I liked James's goal, so I copied it for myself]
• Learn to make sushi 

For both of us:

• Move to ___________ [We'll fill in the blank once we know where we're going for law school]
• Go skiing/snowboarding
• Family camping trip
• Teach Shadow to sit
• Go on 1 date per week
• Visit the temple monthly prior to the move, and at least once during the fall semester

We are excited about the coming year. While there promise to be some pretty major alterations to our lives, we look forward to the adventures and challenges ahead. In the meantime, we look forward to enjoying life with our little family!

Our Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas!

The biggest event of 2014 for our little family was the birth of Joel Riley Holley on April 15^th. He was born at home, a healthy 7lbs 12oz. He has grown so much since then! Now 8 months old, Joel's favorite activity is crawling around and getting into everything! He also enjoys pulling himself up to standing. He's still getting used to solid food, but loves peas and especially bananas. Joel is generally a very happy baby. He gets along very well with our sweet dog Shadow. Sometimes Joel pulls Shadow's fur, but Shadow usually repays him by licking his face (which we try to discourage!) 

 

James graduated from BYU this month, magna cum laude with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science, and a minor in Computer Science. He has done very well in school, but is definitely ready for a little break! He took the LSAT and got an excellent score, so has applied to several of the top 10 law schools. We should be hearing back in the next couple of months. It is very likely that we will be moving next summer for James's schooling, which will be quite an adventure!

Both of us continue to be busy at our taekwondo studio. Valerie cut back after the baby was born, but we each still teach about 5 hours a week, in addition to the classes that we attend ourselves. We love our work at the dojang, and enjoy seeing our students progress and grow. We also enjoy competing together, especially on our studio's demonstration team. We competed at several local tournaments this year (including one when Valerie was 8 months pregnant!). Valerie also had the opportunity to referee at several events, including the National Championships in San Jose during July. James and Joel got to spend some quality time together that week, and they did great—better than Mommy did away from her boys!

We are loving our beautiful house, and have made a couple of big improvements this year. In the spring, we renovated our back deck. It was in pretty rough shape when we bought the house, but now is quite lovely. Then this fall we hired Valerie's brother Kyle to tile our kitchen. He did an amazing job, and we absolutely love having the tile floor.

Our big adventure at the moment is preparing for Black Belt Testing, which will take place at the end of January. Valerie will be testing for her 4^th Degree and James for his 3^rd Degree. There's a lot of work that goes into it beforehand, and the test itself is going to be pretty intense! We're really looking forward to it.

Thank you for reading, and thank you especially for being a part of our lives. We love you very much! We hope that you and yours have a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year!

Love,

The Holley Family

Christmas 2014