2009 in Pictures! 1-2-3

I thought it would be fun to do a quick year in review through photos. Enjoy!
January-
We finally got to see a bunch of cousins that we hadn't seen forever. It was such a fun evening and it was so nice to catch up with everybody. Hopefully next time I won't wait so long to see them all again!
Kourt, Travis and Will

Emery, who you might recognize from way back here

The twins, good friends of mine since birth. The one of the Left is Nate and the one on the right is John. (he he, I wrote that for my mom, who still has problems telling them apart!)

My cute cousin / college roommate Erin with her cute little girl...

whose hair I just LOVE! Seriously, I would just sit and play with it all day, irresistible!

When we got back from California there was a ton of snow to play with! A bit of a shock to the system, lol.

February

I love it when our Amaryllis finally blooms! Bryan's paternal Grandparents give us one every year and it always gives us so much joy when it finally blooms!

I started writing/creating patterns. One of my first ones was a bottle cover. We've switched over to glass bottles, so I thought this would be really useful... maybe once we start making more outings?? We'll see.

I started a quilt for Daniel. He got to choose the fabric and the colors. I've gotten pretty far on it, but definitely need to get back to work on this one!

I spent a lot of time sewing. I made a bunch of bibs for my sister and some for me to just have on hand. Love making bibs. So relaxing.

Daniel started taking piano lessons. He really liked it, but it didn't last long. He was still a little bit too young to pay attention for 1/2 hour. I'm wondering if we should try again now, but for like 15 mins at a time? Anyone have any ideas what we should do there?

Daniel learned how to write his entire alphabet and his name! He was so proud!

March

We learned all about primary colors and secondary colors with food coloring and pop bottles.

A leprechaun visited us!

We spent some time in the German area of Columbus. This is by far our favorite part of Columbus.

Schmidts's

This is the crazy big bookstore that has over 30 rooms of books. You can find anything here! So fun.

2 Months!

I cannot believe that our little Samy is 2 months old already! I've got so much blogging to catch up on, but can't seem to steal myself away from his scrumptious little cheeks! I'll be back soon, I promise! (ICPC still has not cleared, which I'm not going to talk about because I'm tired of whining! lol)

Forever Thankful

I'm totally bummed that I didn't finish my month of Thankful posts. I still have a lot that are in the "draft" stage and may post them later. It's never too late to be Thankful, right? You may be asking yourself why I couldn't keep up with such a small task. I have asked myself that same question time and time again. Maybe I've been having too much fun with the freedom afforded me by a second car? Oh yeah, the car! What a wonderful creation! I'll just show you some of my favorite things about this car. First, as you can see it is immaculate! I always worry that buying a used car means that it'll be all gross and stained. Not so. We've lucked out twice with both of our cars and I am sooo soo happy with this one!

It's got all of the standard amenities of an Odyssey. It even has the little flip up cup holder in-between the two front seats. Love that.

All the knobs and dials work and again, they are so clean!

But my all-time favorite feature on this baby is the sliding doors! I'm sure you think I'm a bit of a geek for loving these so much, but I really do!

I mean, how great is it that you can be walking with your arms full and press a button and by the time you get there it's open and waiting for you?

See what I mean? Look ma' no hands!

Oh, uh, oops.... I forgot that was in there.....

Nothing to see here folks.... just uh, keep scrolling.....

Wait, what? You've already seen it, so I have to tell you what it is?? Really?

You sure you want to know?

This folks, is a baby. OUR baby. And he is most definitely the reason I didn't keep up on my Thankful posts this last month. ;) Can you forgive me?

Because once I saw this face I was a goner.

We still have until 5pm December 4th until he's definitely ours. (they've already signed, it's just an additional waiting period)

We are waiting (definitely waiting, I'm stuck in Tennessee forever) and praying. If you'd like to add your prayers to ours I know it couldn't hurt. ;)

Samuel 11/17

We had the best Thanksgiving ever, with so much to be greatful for and will be forever Thankful for Sam and his loving Birthparents.

Thankful #10

I am thankful for our library! We have one of the best library systems here in Ohio. When I first got here, I couldn't believe it. They've got an incredible inter-library loan system and I have never searched for a book that I couldn't find. It has helped me out so much in our fertility pursuits and our journey through adoption. Whenever a new movie comes out, I can reserve it and as soon as it's available they send me an email. We have seen so many movies for free! It's awesome.

I am constantly amazed by the amount of information that is at our disposal. I always think about the vast amount of effort and struggle that people have put forth in the past to make this information available for me to gain just by reading! It almost feels like cheating, doesn't it? I will forever be thankful for the efforts of others that make me a happier, healthier person. I so admire people who have a gift for writing. Beautiful writing resonates with me just like music does. I love that the written word still gives space for interpretation. There is no inflection or intonation given by an audible voice. It can transport you into worlds and situations that would never be possible in real life. Words have a certain magic and power to them I think. I am so grateful that I am (for the most part ;)  ) literate and able to feast on the beauty that others create.

Thankful #9

I am grateful for a fully functioning car! I'm probably going to jinx myself by saying this, but I am soooo thankful for reliable transportation! I get to go and do so many wonderful things because of it. I can only imagine my pioneer ancestors marveling over the fact that I can run to the store, the library and the fabric shop all within one hour! (ha! If only I didn't always spend so much time at the fabric store this would be true!) Right now I am especially thankful that we just made the leap and are now officially a two car family! Whooo hoooo! I'm pretty impressed with us being able to tough it out through 2 1/2 years of med school with one car. (if I do say so myself... ;)  ) But this year it just wasn't working. Bryan has such odd hours all the time and I'd have to wake Daniel up waaaay early in the morning to go. He's started not being able to go back to sleep in the mornings once he's up and sometimes he wouldn't be able to go to bed early enough to get enough sleep. I was wrecking havoc on his behavior at school and his attitude at home. ( he honestly wasn't too too bad at home, he just knew which buttons to push) We were able to find a good deal on a Honda Odyssey and jumped at it. It still took tons of red tape and tracking down paperwork to make it all happen, but it's finally ours! Bryan and I can finally both go somewhere different at the same time! I've been amazed at just how liberating it all is. So yay! I'm thankful for cars!