2012

 

So I was inspired by my lovely SIL's blog to take a look back on the last 12 months. It's been a crazy year and it's gone by so quickly.

The picture above is the one we used for our Christmas cards last year. We'd had a roller coaster year in '11 and were so ready to see a new year rung in and start fresh.

 

The year began with another group of friends returning home from yet another deployment and doing our first family 5k for dear baby Rowan. Doing both of these things felt wonderful to do together and made us very happy.

 

I also got a chance to use our fancy camera to take some pretty emotional pictures of the homecoming. You definitely don't have to be a professional to get good pictures when there's so much emotion happening right in front of you.

 

 

In March, we got the opportunity to go to Hawaii with my family. We got to mooch off their flight and hotel suite to see a place together we might not have seen for awhile. We feel incredibly blessed to have gotten this much needed vacation and family time. We went hiking up volcanoes, saw our favorite band play in Maui, saw whales jumping out of the ocean, and visited Pearl Harbor. I had been once before (exactly ten years previous), but this was my husband's first time and I could tell it meant a lot to him to get to see it. His degree is in history and he loves when history collides with anything that has to do with the military, so this was a special treat.

 

 

 

 

The beginning of 2012 was also full of lots of fun dates and projects. We got involved in what our group of friends calls "Suit Night". Where we randomly get dressed up once a month and treat ourselves to a fancy dinner. We had a blast!

 

We also made some headway in decorating the house. We finally stained our hutch we've had forever AND FINALLY found a kitchen table we both loved. We also stained it ourselves. We found out that staining wasn't very difficult and we actually really enjoy working on these projects together. It's nice to break up the monotony of what we normally do together for fun and try something together for the first time.

 

On April 29, 2012, we got the news that I was pregnant again. Only this time, I was ready for it with meds to make it last. We were terrified and esctatic. A feeling that's difficult to describe to anyone who hasn't experienced it themselves. We decided to keep this wonderful secret to ourselves until we got safely into the 2nd trimester. Which happened to fall pretty close to Father's Day in June. Telling our parents that they were going to have their first grandchild is something we will never forget. It was amazing and moving. I've never seen four people more thrilled! Soon after, we got to tell the rest of our family and friends. It was a great month and we were relieved to not have to keep it a secret anymore.

 

Did I mention there was also yet another move in there? To Little Rock, AR for training! We stayed in a tiny crappy rental house that eventually drove us crazy! It was a long 5 months being pregnant there, but we made it through and couldn't be more appreciative of our nice big house in West Texas!

 

 

Sept 22, 2012 was the day of my first baby shower! It was beautiful and much more than I ever could've imagined for myself. I truly have the best friends and family and I'm not sure what I did to deserve them!

 

 

 As the days and weeks passed us by, we watched our baby grow! We found out we were having a little girl and did a lot of planning for her arrival in a very short amount of time once we got back to our house.

 

 

Once we were finally home, we had to rush to get things ready before the holidays and our daughter's arrival! This included maternity photos and our 3D ultrasound. Little did we know that our daughter had plans of her own to try to sneak out early on us! Thanksgiving was quickly followed by a week in the hospital and two and a half weeks of bedrest at home. Before we knew it, it was Christmas time and we barely got ready in time for it!

 

 

We ended up staying in Texas via Dr's orders this year, but, as usual, we made the best of it and had a great time. We got to spend quality time with our close friends here in town on Christmas Eve and then had Christmas morning all to ourselves. It was perfect. We got to end the week with a visit from my amazing in-laws and will hopefully be meeting our daughter very soon.

 

 

2012 had its fair share of trials and triumphs for our little family. Though we feel that it's been a year spent preparing ourselves for the next great adventure our journey together. We are days away from becoming parents and have lots of goals set for ourselves for 2013. Obviously the most important one is transitioning successfully into parenthood together and navigating through our next chapter. As much as I'm looking forward to becoming a mother and allowing that to more or less dominate most of my life, I still think it's important for me to think of myself and challenge myself to get better. I know I'll have lots to work on physically in the new year and I'm actually really looking forward to it. I want to continue my hobby of baking and improve my recipes. I want to positively contribute to getting our little family through another deployment together. This one won't be easy for us at all, but I know that we can get through it and come out stronger and with more love than we did before. Having Elise there will make time go by faster and make the homecoming a thousand times more special for all of us.

 

Here's to 2012.....and looking forward to 2013!