A 2023 Life Recap: Family, Moving and Work

I’ve been doing recaps on the blog all week for clothes, posts, and more fashion-related things, but here is a family recap of 2023.

my outfit above: 

SIMILAR GOLD BUTTON SWEATER, another option HERE and HERE | LULU’S BRONZE SKIRT (wearing size small), almost sold out, similar HERE and HERE | SIMILAR BROWN RIDING BOOTS 

Here’s a little recap of our year, as seen from our family Christmas card we sent out:

It’s been a wild and wonderful year for us!

In February, a job position opened at Enterprise corporate headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, and after lots of prayers, discussion, flying from Dallas to St. Louis to scope out the area, and several rounds of interviews, Philip got the job promotion and we were officially moving! I wrote all about our moving news, with lots of detail, in this blog post.

Philip started his new position in April, and commuted back and forth each week til we moved in June, after the boys finished school.

We bought a house in May, which wouldn’t be ready til August because the old owners were building a new home and we were subject to their timeline, so we lived for two months in what we lovingly called “the summer condo” — a modern apartment on the 20th floor in a cool high rise building in the city of Clayton, MO. With views of the St. Louis arch from our window and free hot chocolate from the rooftop coffee machine, we were all living the good life for the summer.

We were so sad to leave friends and our home we’d built in Dallas, but we immediately felt so welcomed by the people here, and already Missouri is beginning to feel like home. We’ll be renovating our home for the next year or so (and putting in a pool!), so life is a little messy at the moment, but our new home feels a little more like “us” with every project! (You can see updates at #BuildingTheWhiteHouse on Instagram)

Philip: New job as AVP, Global Sales, over Canada. Traveling about twice a month to different provinces and loving all the new places he gets to visit. Managing our home renovations like a second full time job.

Merrick: Full time blogging and content creating at MERRICKSART.com, and clothing designing at MERRICKWHITE.com, and loving living somewhere with four seasons that finally justifies her closet full of coats, boots, and sweaters.

B (13): Currently in 8th grade, grew out his hair from a buzz cut for the first time in his life(!), was most nervous about the move but is thriving at his new school, and now that we have a basement and can put our ping pong table down there, he’s been practicing diligently and can smoke everyone in the family!

Fos (11): Started 5th grade this year, is loving his new teacher and school, and made the 5th grade basketball team. Currently obsessed with solving Rubik’s cubes and has grown his collection to over 15 different styles of cubes — we never see him anymore without a cube in his hands.

San (7): In 2nd grade this year, played flag football in the fall, is our only LEGO lover still standing, and finally convinced Mom to read Harry Potter #4 to him after a year of begging. He continues to outgrow everyone despite turning his nose up at 95% of all meals.

We had some amazing trips this year to a darling cabin in the woods in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, a trip to St. Louis for Easter weekend to introduce the boys to our new city before we moved, an incredible kid-free trip to Europe for PW’s 40th birthday (I wrote about it HERE and HERE), our annual trip with cousins to visit grandparents in Las Vegas, a trip to Puerto Vallarta with PW’s family (I wrote about that HERE), a trip to Bear Lake with my family (I wrote about that HERE), and a couple of trips to Kansas City to see the Chiefs and the Taylor Swift concert. It was a busy but fun year.

We’re grateful for you, and especially our Savior this time of year, and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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