It is with a heavy heart that I reference the passing of Pauline's beloved Grandmother, Marjorie Larson. She passed away on Christmas Eve, which happened to be her favorite time to get together with family. My memories of her are all very positive, over the past 11+ years I got to see her interactions with her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and even great great grandchildren! She was very loving and always did what she could to keep her family as tight-knit as possible. Her house was a staple for family gatherings and I know personally, I loved going there, because I love the Northeast Minneapolis area. It's wonderful to know that she was a believer in Christ and that she is in eternal happiness in heaven because of her relationship with him! She will forever be in our thoughts and memories until one day we are reunited!
I'll be honest, the next several paragraphs were supposed to be a Christmas newsletter that we were going to send out, but didn't end up happening, which is fine, only because I would have had to trim it down to fit on one page, which is hard to do for my long-winded writing style.
We are so happy to have you in our lives and celebrate the
wonderful holiday season, the joy of Christmas, where we celebrate God’s son
being born on earth and ultimately sacrificing Himself to cover our sins. And
of course the New Year, where we can celebrate accomplishments and fun times
from 2014, but also look forward to the new goals and wonderful times of 2015!
Two thousand fourteen was a wonderful year for our family and brought a lot of
blessings and joy that we can only attribute to our Heavenly Father.
In February Benson turned 1 year old! We decided it would be
a good idea to cram all of our family and friends into our, what seemed to be
tiny, house to help celebrate our son turning 12 months. It was a little hot
and crowded at times, but overall a great success. Walking tacos seemed to be a
big hit and Benson had a great time playing with his cousins and friends, not
seeming to mind the amount of people. Thank all of you who were able to attend
at the time; it was a lot of fun!
April was a wonderful time, not only because it’s spring and
my Birthday month, which is very important, but not what I am referring to. We
found out that we were expecting twins as opposed to just one baby, a surprise
to say the least, but an awesome surprise! Words can’t describe how wonderful
we felt to know that we were going to have two more instead of just one. Some
other highlights from the month were Benson’s first haircut. He was a champ and
didn't squirm too much, but that’s what you can expect if your mom is a
hairstylist!
As summer approached, we went to one of my all-time favorite
places in the world, the place of my birth, the place where my dad’s side of
the family lives, the place where all of the best sports teams play, etc.,
etc., etc., if you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m talking about Pennsylvania!
At the end of May/beginning of June our whole immediate family, listed here by
family, Gary and Ann; Stephen, Liz, Elias and Lucy; Bryan, Pauline, Benson, and
unborn twins; and of course Erik, made the trek out to the wonderful state, for
not only vacation, but also my cousin Brandon’s wedding, which was an awesome
time, congrats again Brandon and Corinne! Also a quick shout out to the
families that took us in for the trip, thanks again Uncle Ken and Aunt Linda,
as well as Diane and Bruce, we had a great time with both of your families and
appreciate you letting our families take over your houses for the time! Apart
from the wedding, we had an awesome time catching up with family, going to a
Phillies game, seeing the Liberty Bell, and of course all of the Dunkin’ Donuts
Arnold Palmer slushy’s (we don’t have Dunkin’ Donuts in Minnesota, yet).
Summer itself was such a fun time with a newly walking
toddler. Whether it was going to the beach (which Pauline did with Benson and
her good friend Lindsay more than I was able to), watching Benson dance at the
weddings we were able to attend with him, or just hanging out at the park,
overall the summer was such a fun time to remember. I was so proud of Pauline
as she did the leg work to find an appropriate automobile for our growing
family. She was able to find one that wasn't a mini-van, but still would be
able to fit the three car seats that we needed. The fact that it had a built in
DVD player was just a nice bonus.
One of the weddings was for one of Pauline’s longtime
friends from hair school Emily Dudycha (now Sander), which we were able to take
Benson to. We were able to stay with Pauline’s grandpa, Larry, in Ironton,
since that was near where the wedding was. It was fun to catch up with him and
even stay up late watching Jimmy Fallon, thanks so much for hosting us Larry!
Benson was dressed as the “lady killer” and had several girls swooning over him
on the dance floor at the wedding reception, but in his own words and actions,
he just “wanted to dance!” For videos of these dances, you can check out my
YouTube channel www.youtube.com/user/BizzK18 (shameless plug), most of the
videos aren't that interesting, but at least you get to see Benson dance.
The fall was a fun time to see Benson really blossom into
his own personality and just enjoy being a kid. Some of our fall activities
included going to an apple orchard with our small group, it was so fun to see
all the kids run around and have fun together! Pauline and I celebrated our 4
year anniversary of marriage and 11 year anniversary of dating in September; it
was fun to take her out to one of our favorite restaurants, Blue Door
Longfellow in Minneapolis. Dadchelor party, thanks for all who attended and
brought diapers, thanks for my father-in-law Dave and my brother Stephen for
help with putting it on, fun times! In October we were able to attend another
wedding, this one for one of Pauline’s good high school friend’s Emily Bitner
(now Oberfoell), Benson again kill’t it on the dance floor and the ladies
appreciated his moves!
One of the best parts of 2014 was that I again, if you read
my blog post October 13th, predicted the date of the twins’ birth!
On 11/7, Wyatt and Ryder joined the ranks of our family. They are such a
blessing and truly God given. We appreciate everyone who has already helped
with bringing us food or coffee or helped us around our house with things we
have needed, we feel so truly blessed to call you our friends and family!
Which brings us to the last wedding we were able to attend
just in November, this time for Pauline’s childhood friend Ben Mauthe (still
Ben Mauthe), we were able to take all three boys to the reception and had a lot
of helpful hands with the twins. Benson, as you may have guessed it, continued
his streak of demolishing the dance floor (sorry any Bethel alum, I know how
you are with dancing). But overall such a beautiful wedding ceremony and
reception.
We capped off the end of the year with a wonderful Christmas, Benson was excited about his gifts and took the time to appreciate every one that he got. The twins had no idea what was going on apart from feeding, sleeping, and going to the bathroom, so they were less than impressed, maybe next year. It was wonderful to be able to share our joy with great family and friends the past couple weeks! It was especially exciting for Uncle Erik (high emphasis on the k, which is the way Benson says it, sounds like "ccKk") to spend time with Benson and meet Wyatt and Ryder!
New Year's Eve was a blast with us having a few of our friends over and actually playing games (something Pauline doesn't normally like to do). Unfortunately since NBC wasn't working (thanks digital antenna), we had to ring in the new year with Pitbull and the "best dancers in the world"........................................... Not. But we appreciate everyone who spent their New Year's eve with us, Yasha, Christa, Curt, Carrie, Sarah and even Erik for a little bit!
What a blessed year it was, we are so grateful to how God
used us throughout the year. As we think of Christmastime I have a slight
challenge for you all: remember the reason for the season, what God did for us
is truly remarkable, sending his only Son as a baby, to eventually grow up and
display a multitude of miracles, preach several sermons, but eventually be
crucified, sinless, for the debt that is our sin, sealed with his return from
the dead, we can find hope in our Savior in that, if we believe in Him we can
live with him for eternity in heaven. If you haven’t thought of this before,
please just think about it, if you have questions, please reach out to me!
We
pray that God blesses you through the year
2015!
–BPBWR Keeler
P.S. Random other pictures! :)
