2011- a year in photos

January

We visited Lou Gardens, played outside at the park a lot and celebrated our sweet little Jay Bird’s 1st Birthday.

Februrary

We decorated a bunch of cookies, reorganized the kitchen and we harvested a large crop of carets and beets from the garden.

March

Jay really started walking on his own, we picked a ton of Strawberries and made Jam, hosted the crawfish boil and found out we were expecting our second kiddo!

April

We frequented the zoo, picked and ate a ton of strawberries, we played outside with the water table frequently, hunted for Easter Eggs, finger painted for the first time and got to tell our family that we were expecting again.

May

Jay started coloring a lot, we played outside in the hose frequently, we celebrated Mother’s Day by playing outside in the kiddie pool, picked and ate peaches off of our tree in the backyard, Jay started swim lessons and he had his first haircut.

June

We played outside in the rain, I hosted a bridal shower for Nicole and we spent a week at the Beach with Jamie’s family.

July

We went to cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-a, we visited Mom and Ed at their condo in south Florida, we celebrated our 5th Anniversary, Jay discovered cars, we celebrated my 29 birthday and announced that we were having another little boy!

August

We took our first trip to the splash pad, Jay’s obsession with cars grew, he began using utensils on his own and Jay completed his Infant Survival Swimming Course.

September

We flew to Canada to celebrate my Grandma’s 85th birthday, Jamie and I survived a very long plane ride with a toddler who wouldn’t nap, we made considerable progress with putting together Jay’s big boy room and Dolce got really sick and had to have major surgery.

October

Jamie celebrated his 31st birthday, we took a rode trip to North Carolina to celebrate Jamie’s sisters wedding, we carved pumpkins, Jay took his first pony ride, went trick-or-treating and Jay decorated cookies for the first time.

November

We finished up a few projects around the house in preparation for our second little one to arrive and we welcomed Charlie into our family 10 days earlier than we had expected!!

December

We adjusted to being a family of four, Jay slept in a big boy bed for the first time, we decorated our house for Christmas (which included a tree with only lights on it), and celebrated the holidays with lots of family and friends.

a favorite

Life has been busy lately and honestly there are a ton of photos of our little family of four that I would like to post; however, until I can find a spare second here is a glimpse of what the really good moments look like at our place.

nothing better

There is nothing better than having a dear friend love on one of your babies like it is her own.  We don’t get to see the Knights nearly as much as I would like to since they moved home to Mississippi last May; however, when we do get to see them it feels like not even a day has gone by since we saw them last.  That in my opinion is the test of true friendship and man are we blessed because of it :)

2011 the end

As each year comes to a close, I usually end up regretting the the things I didn’t get to finish, wondering where the time went and making grand plans regarding the new year. Not today, not this year. This year I won’t make promises I can’t keep or “resolutions” because it is what you do at new years. Instead, I will take a more gentle approach and create a list (it wouldn’t be me if it wasn’t a list) of hopes, hopes for the new year…

I hope to cherish the present and to not worry about what has yet to come.
I hope to trust more in God’s plan.
I hope to be good to my family, and to be the kind of friend my friends are to me.
I hope to enjoy the small moments with my small children who won’t be that way for long.
I hope to appreciate the moments I get with my husband and to constantly remind myself how lucky I am to have found him.

a self portrait of me and the three most important people in my life

Happy New Year everyone, here’s to a wonderful 2012!