Happy New Year! Welcome 2011!

Our little 2010 gift!

Corey, thanks for being in our lives. You are such a special little addition.

Two Thousand Eleven....Twenty Eleven....however you plan to say it....WOW, just wow!  Can hardly believe we are 11 years into the century!  Which means the beginning of my life as a real adult started 11 years ago...the year I met Paul. Sheesh!  2010 was a great year, but also a sad one.  Paul's family suffered a lot of loss - among them being precious Papaw. But the year also brought new life...our adorable little Corey.  This past year, Ashley started growing into a little girl and less like a baby, and I feel that I truly reconnected and fell in love with my husband all over again.  :)  We shared fun experiences as a family through the seasons and had fun traveling back home for some events.

Paul and I rang in the new year at home with the kids which was exactly how we wanted it to be. Paul got out the large air mattress and put it in the living room and we had a slumber party with the whole family! It was a blast! We had the pack and play for Corey and Ashley just LOVED having the big airbed out there to play on.  We busted out some decorations I had from a party we had a couple of years ago, and picked up some noise makers and "Happy New Year" tiaras.  Ashley and I baked "clock cookies".... an idea she got from one of her favorite TV shows, Max and Ruby.  We even went REAL basic and had cereal for dinner and snacked on Chex Mix.  We had a late lunch earlier that day, so we really weren't that hungry and I just wasn't up to cooking. 

Clock Cookies

Even though we live in the Central Time Zone now, we still celebrate the countdown to New Years' on East Coast time.  It just feels right to us!  So it was nice to say "Happy New Year" at 11pm, because we barely made it to that time as it was!  Ashley almost made it too! She conked out just 10 minutes shy of the ball dropping.  Poor thing...  She was sooo excited to see it, so thank God for the invention of DVR so we could replay it in the morning.  She loves the song "Like a G6" and we recorded that performance for her as well.  Corey of course was a doll, and he just nursed himself to sleep and was out by 10:30pm.

Almost made it...

New Years Day...I made "virgin" (sort of) Mimosa's to go with ham and cheese omelets.
We were too tired to toast with the sparkling grape juice the night before. 

The first couple of days into the New Year, we put away all the Christmas decorations and then took the kids to the park. Paul even took Tater over to the new dog park by our house. (sorry no pics) Poor Kitty stayed home because it was too hard to juggle the kids and both dogs.  Kitty will get her chance soon!

Checking everything out...first time at the park.

Poor Corey...he couldn't quite sit in the swing. :) He did love it though!

just want to squeeze that face!

"Look at me Mommy!!"

Learning how to swing on her own...my big girl!

She went so fast on that horse! I remember I used to LOVE those things as a kid.

This coming year we will celebrate Corey's 1st birthday (craziness), among other milestones.  I hope that the new year will be good to us and that God will continue to bless us with good health and more wonderful times with family and friends.  My word for the new year.... patience.  I need to work on it and it will be my mantra for this year. Please pray that I can keep it up. It's really hard for me, but I know it's important.  I need to be more patient with my kids, and just with life in general.  I get so caught up in the fast pace of life that I just need to slow down and be patient for what is next. I also need to be better at listening more.  Listening and patience, listening and patience, listening and patience....

I will be posting about our Christmas soon. It was wonderful celebrating Corey's first Christmas.
What a year, what a year....