State of the Family 2014

2013 was a crazy year for us.

Kyla finished her Master's of Science in Nursing degree just days after giving birth to our first child, Jaedyn Amara Carlson. She received her Pediatric Nurse Practitioner certification in the summer. She's still working at Dell Children's Hospital part-time and is starting another part-time gig as a PNP at another clinic here in Austin for a few days a month. We are grateful that she is in a position to spend most days with the baby. On days that she is away and I'm onsite with a client, we have a nanny part-time that is working out great.

I finally graduated with his Communication (Graphic) Design degree after 12 long years of [mostly part-time] school. About three weeks before Jaedyn was born and just finishing up my final semester, I tore my ACL playing soccer. Two days later, our house guest tore his ACL as well. So poor Kyla was nine months pregnant and having to wait hand and foot on two gimps. Luckily, I was able get to the point of walking by the time the baby was born. I had my ACL surgery a couple weeks after. This time my parents were staying with us to help take care of me during my recovery while Kyla took care of our brand new baby. If that weren't enough, I got gallstones just before Thanksgiving and had to have them removed. With school out of the way, I've had more time to focus on my business, which has kept me very busy.

Needless to say, we're looking forward to taking it a little easier in 2014. We can't wait to see Jaedyn grow and learn. She's almost crawling, so we'll be dealing with her being more mobile. Kyla hopes to get a half-time job that utilizes her new credentials so she can keep spending time with the baby. I am happily contracting full-time and look forward to seeing what new opportunities this year brings.

And yes, we are going to try to post more on this blog this year.