Year in Review

Ok, ok. I've seen this on no less than 7 blogs just this morning, so I'll give in and do my 2008 year in review, too. Hope you enjoy :)

In my 2008...What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Gave birth
Bought a house

Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't make them

Did anyone close to you give birth?
Do I count? :) Yes, a couple friends

Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no.

What countries did you spend time in this year?
Unfortunately only the US

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
More time with Brandon and Lexi
An actual vacation to the beach!

What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
April 29th - The day my life forever changed (for the better) with the birth of my daughter

What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?
Giving birth (I was scared out of my mind!)
Successfully taking care of a baby for the past 8 months!
Becoming more crafty

What was your biggest failure?
Not spending enough time with those I love

Did you suffer any serious injury or illness?
Thankfully, no.

What was the best thing you bought?
A crib :)

Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Brandon. He amazes me daily at how wonderful he is at being a daddy and husband. I take him for granted way too much.

Whose behaviour made you appalled and/or depressed?
A couple people who I thought I knew. Apparently not.

Where did most of your money go?
Medical Bills, House payments, Similac, and Pampers

Compared to this time last year, are you,
a) happier or sadder? Happier. Much, much happier
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner, but only because I don't have a wee one growing inside me! (though, I still feel as if I look like I'm about 15-20 weeks pregnant!)
c) richer or poorer? Poorer, but I have a house and a baby now and it's worth it.

What did you get really, really excited about?
Meeting my bug
Decorating
Going to Florida

What do you wish you'd done more of?
Spending time with family. Reading. Crafting.

Did you fall in love in 2008?
Have you seen my daughter?? Who would not fall in love with her and her beautiful eyes, smile and laugh?!? I also fell even more in love with my husband...I didn't think that was possible :)

How many one-night stands?
Well, let's see...we have two night stands in our bedroom and one night stand in the guest room...Oh...THAT kind of one-night stand?!? :) None. :)

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Because I completely ditto Trisha's answer, I think I'm leaving it: I'm not sure if "hate" is the right word. I don't tolerate ignorance, short-sightedness, or righteousness. No one every knows the "right" way of saying something or doing something - to each his own. We all need to get over ourselves sometimes.

What was the best book you read?
I honestly don't know. I didn't read a whole heck of a lot.

What did you want and not get?
I got everything I wanted and more (with the exception of being able to be a SAHM!)

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 29 (for real) and had a few friends over for a cookout. We went to our neighbors for fireworks and a rather large bonfire.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Being able to be a SAHM. It's my ultimate goal. I feel so guilty being away during the day.

What political issue stirred you the most?
Honestly? I'm not very political. I don't discuss it and I cannot stand all the banter that went along with politics this year. So, really, nothing.

Who did you miss?
As always, my MIL and FIL :(

Who was the best new person you met?
A couple...Archie and April, our new neighbors, are awesome. We're blessed to have them in our lives and get along with them so well. Sarah. Because I <3 her craftiness, her sense of humor, and the fact that I cannot leave my house without running in to her :) Colleen. Although I don't remember when we actually met, we became better friends in 2008. I strive to be like her and am proud to be able to call her my friend. Not many people can say one of their good friends is an Irondiva! :)

Tell us a valuable life lesson(s) you learned in 2008.
Don't take things for granted. Enjoy every single moment you have with your children. It goes by way too quickly.

What sums up this year? (a word, a quote... ?)
Life changing

Our vacation (in pictures)

In order from above: 1. Lexi likes her stuffed doggy (and yes, that would be a Cabbage Patch Kid in the background!) 2. Sane Aunt Sarah (she has a crazy Aunt Sarah and a sane one...Crazy is who we visited in FL) 3. Sitting like a big girl in a rocker that was her Great Great Grandfathers 4. Opening up presents at Gram and Pap's 5. Enjoying the Florida grass in barefeet 6. Uncle B and Beans playing catch 7. Lexi loves her cousin, too bad he doesn't feel the same yet!! 8. Liz and B at Cinderella's castle 9. I found a Nutcracker bigger than the one I own! :)

Let me say...I know I made cracks about the warm weather and you see that we were wearing warmer clothes at Disney....it was in the high 50's, low 60's that day. (every other day it was 70's and 80's!) It was 0 and below here at home!

Don't blink!

Bet you didn't realize that it's already time for another month birthday, did you?? I don't know WHERE time has gone! Little Miss Lexi is 8 months old today!

She is growing up so fast. We were so blessed to spend the past 10 days together as a family. I wish I could take more time like that with her.





Lexi is now proficient at going from laying to sitting. In fact, Daddy had to move her crib down yesterday because she was sitting up and starting to pull on the side of the crib!!

She has actually done some crawling, but it's been few and far between. That's alright by me!! She gets around fairly well with army crawling. I keep telling everyone if they want their floors cleaned to let Lexi come over and she'll do it! LOL


Over Christmas, we got our first waves from her. So sweet. It is amazing to watch all the new things she does! We're in the midst of her top teeth coming in, so it hasn't been the best in our household (throwing in all the travel doesn't help, either!). We're anxiously awaiting them!!!

Let's see...anything else?? Oh! We're now taking baths in the big girl tub! She loves it. Last night, she kept smacking the water as it went down the drain. Here's to another month!!

Finally home

What a whirlwind it's been!! We finally got home at 12:30 today from all of our travels. I'm beat. I'll hopefully post an update with some pictures later. I'm busy cleaning, unpacking, putting presents away and doing our mound of laundry!!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Florida?

Did someone hear me mention Florida?? Why, yes, I believe I did!! You know it's 80 degrees down there right now, right? And it's what? A whopping 20-something here? With ICE? Yeah...I'm looking forward to this :)

We head out Friday morning for a 5 day vacation break. We get to spoil our 4 nephews and our niece. And B gets to play video games to his heart's content! This will be the first time that 4 of the 5 will meet their newest cousin (they live out in California with their mom) AND Lexi's first official plane ride!!! (she did fly when she was in my belly last Christmas!)

Coming home Wednesday...only to turn around and head to Grandma's immediately upon arrival. Our cats are going to hate us!

Bananas = No go

Is it bad that every time I spell bananas I always think of the Gwen Stefani song...it's the only way I know how to spell it!!

We've tried the last two nights to give Lexi some bananas. Just a little bit mashed up. She apparently thinks of them just like her mother..blech. She makes the absolute FUNNIEST face when trying them, though! Of course, Monday night, B gave them to her while I was out and last night, he was out when I gave them, so no extra hands for a camera. We'll give her tonight off and get back to it tomorrow. I was hoping that we'd be able to grab some down in Florida and it would be an easy lunch or dinner for her. We'll see...

All by myself

I'm going to be all by myself after I leave work. At least until I get home on Saturday night. I have a ton of stuff that I want to get done. My guess is that most of it won't get done, but oh well.

Baby girl and B are taking a trip back to T-town again this weekend. Which means I'll be getting a second Christmas tree to put up. :) I'm excited for that!












They'll have fun without me...as they get to see and play with the other cutie in our lives...Mr Alexander :) He's staying with Grandma until my SIL comes back from Hawaii (rough life being in the military, huh?). Will be interesting, though, because he wasn't too fond of "baby" taking up mommy and daddy's time last weekend.....

And just in case you didn't know....my baby girl turned 7 months last Saturday. I <3 her!

Just a tease...

Last Sunday, I co-hosted a baby shower for my good friend, Trisha. Since she's such an avid Buckeye fan and alum, we decided to do a Buckeye themed shower. I thought I would throw up a tease for her on one of the pics I took :) She'll get to see the rest tomorrow.

This is mommy and daddy to be comparing bellies! :)

Merry Christmas to us!

Our contract was up with Verizon so we were in the market for new phones. Unfortunately, our first choices (the Storm for B and the Dare for me) were crappy and neither one of us liked them. So we "settled" for the latest and greatest....the iphone.

B is in phone heaven now :) (and I'll admit...I'm quite liking it too)

Getting into the Christmas sprit

I mean, how could you not get into it when you see this little cutie?? :) Lexi got Christmas pictures taken by Dawn last night. She did FABULOUS! (both Dawn and Lexi!) We got some great shots of her and I can't wait to see them in print. It's kinda cool to have Dawn do them since she did our engagement and wedding photos.

I have several more posts that I hope will be coming today...stay tuned!! :)