2012 Review

I suppose now would be the time to look back at this last year. It's been a doozy of a year. When I think about where I was a year ago and what I might have expected to see in the next year I don't think I ever would have imagined what happened. Some things I knew were coming, but there were a couple of curveballs thrown in there.

I haven't been shy about complaining about how awful this past year has been. Seriously, I cried more this year than I have in my entire life. It was rough. But there were some good things too.

Good things to remember this year by:

- Bryan's sales improving and his future in sales is amazing. I can't wait to see what happens.

- Three trips to New Orleans, spending time with Allyn and Josh in Franklin, our Virginia trip

- The amazing friendships I made with my Skyline girls

- Implimenting our garden in the backyard!

- Our lovely bathroom!

- Roux!

I know it's going to be a good year. I'm being super optomistic about it and trying to take things a little more lightly. (One of my main goals for the year is to drink more Champagne for heaven's sake!)  Sure, there are still areas in which our lives can improve. (My career, I'm looking at you!) But after what we've been through in 2012, I know we can make it through and come out a little bit stronger.

What I'm looking forward to in 2013:

- Trips to Bourbon country, New Orleans, and maybe even the beach

- Planting spring crops in the garden and watching it grow

- Learning. This year I hope to read more non-fiction and practice my photography skills

- Learning more about myself.

- Curtains. This year I am for sure going to have curtains and window treatments in the front four rooms of the house. I'm hearby implimenting my self-imposed deadline of March 31st.

- Kitchen changes. As our Christmas and birthday presents from my parents we are getting some changes done to the kitchen island. I hope this sparks a design direction for the ktichen so we can start moving that way.

- Family bonding. I hope that in the next few weeks our family of 6 will bond a little more. Tigger and Roux are still not buddy-buddy.

Snow 2012

The morning after Christmas we woke up to nearly an inch of snow. I still had to go to work, but it was a beautiful ride.

One More Christmas Post

This Christmas was packed with lots of family and gatherings. Here is our schedule along with a few more pictures.

We kicked off the holiday weekend on Friday, I stayed home from work to rest up and ended up at the Harvest Christmas party.

Saturday I cooked all day and Sunday after church did some more cooking. We had the Grubbs family over for a good pasta dinner.





Saturday morning Bryan and I opened presents we bought for each other.







The Baddorfs came over for brunch at 10:30. We kicked them out in time to go to the Christmas Eve service at Independent. Afterwards we went to Panda Garden for the required Mitchum Chinese feast.



Christmas Morning we woke up early as we had a big day ahead of us. We did stockings and Santa presents for the kids before showering.





Poor Roux was a little confused, but Motley knew what to do. (Tigger was hiding in the guest room.)



After getting our stuff together we went to my parents house to do our Christmas with them.





We then went over to Gram and Gramp's house to open presents with them. Afterwards we went to Bo and Lisa's house for my favorite meal of the year.

Due to an earlier meal we were home a little after 5 pm and had the evening to ourselves which was really nice.



It was a great Christmas, busier than I would have liked, but good. We have so much to be thankful for.

Grubbs Christmas

Sunday, two days before Christmas, we had the entire Grubbs clan over for dinner. It was a fun, relaxed night to just hang out and not have to worry about presents or schedules and whatnot. I didn't take pictures. Oh well...

We stopped by Gram and Gramp's house Christmas morning to see the fam and open presents.

Baddorf Christmas

We had the Baddorf's over again this year for brunch on Christmas Eve.

I made monkey bread and cheese grits. Aunt Karen sent a ham, which didn't thaw out in time, but we were grateful for anyways.













Roux was a bit nervous about all the commotion, but settled in Bryan's lap to nap through the present opening.

Starry Nights

Last night we took Roux to Starry Nights. She was not impressed. Oh well

Christmas from my phone...

We had a very merry Christmas season this year. I am so thankful for 5 full days of time with my family. There will be other Christmas posts to come, but for now I'd thought I'd post pictures from my phone.