~2010~

These pictures don't even begin to sum up our year, but I thought it would be fun to choose a couple from each month to try to give an overview at least. I can't even begin to describe how completely blessed we are. Healthy, happy, together. I don't take it for granted.

January

SNOW! (Look how little they are!)

February

Gracie Claire turns 5 and Sydney turns 3!

Somehow I have no pictures from March?! Weird. Anyway...on to--

April

Easter

Gracie Claire donated her hair to Locks of Love!

May

Paul and I celebrate 9 years of marriage!

June

We all LOVED Summer Spectacular at The Hills. :)

Celebrating Father's Day with the best Daddy ever!

July

Lots of pool time and the big girls finish their first swimming lessons!

August

Gracie Claire becomes a Kindergartner!

September

Paul celebrates his 34th birthday!

Paul finishes his 2nd Ironman 70.3 in Branson!

October

We celebrate Dad's and Mom's 35th wedding anniversary! This picture was part of our gift to them!

The Pumpkin Patch

Molly turns 2!

Our Little Clowns

November

I turn 32!

We celebrate Thanksgiving!

December

Our Family is Blessed!

Merry Christmas 2010

It's been a great year with many JOYS and some trials, but the Lord has never left our side! He is faithful and we are so thankful that we have an Everlasting Father. Thank you Lord for always being there and having a plan!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! MAY YOUR 2011 BE FULL OF THE LOVE OF THE LORD!

Random Thoughts and Resolutions

I realized that I never posted about a few important (in my opinion) things that I really meant to. So...these are the random thoughts.

NO TV

A while back, we decided to turn our TV off. Meaning we got rid of cable. We don't even have an antenna for local networks. We still watch movies and play games on the Wii, but we don't watch TV. It was partially a financial decision as we started looking at our budget and figuring out things that we could get rid of because we don't "need" them. This one was hard for me, because I love TV. It was my way to relax after the girls had gone to bed. It was also something we gave up for the Greater Things campaign. It was part of our sacrifice. Some might think that sounds corny to sacrifice watching TV, but don't sneer until you try it. It's amazing how much time we give to it. I have to say that we, all of us, haven't missed it. We've spent so much more time just playing and talking and being together without that distraction. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not standing on a "no more TV forever" box or anything. I'm just saying that it's been more of a blessing than anything else to not have the distraction.

ISABELLE CUE

My precious niece Isabelle Cue was born October 13th to my BIL Jeremy (Paul's brother) and SIL Sharon. How I missed posting about this, I will never know. She is such a sweet baby...easy going, cuddly, and just perfect. She, to me, is the spitting image of her big brother Parker, except for her eyes. She has her mama's eyes. Sharon said that someone told her that Jeremy has really strong genetics. Agreed. The above picture is right after she was born when they were still at the hospital. The picture below is more recent. I stole it from Sharon's FB. :) Isn't she sweet?! I love my beautiful niece!

RESOLUTIONS

I don't know that I'm a huge fan of making resolutions for the new year, but I don't see a reason not to set some goals. So...here we go. Short, sweet, and to the point.

• Maintain my weight loss and get into a regular exercise routine.
• Read More (I've done way more of this since getting rid of the TV. I know. Who'd of thought?
• Leave work everyday at a normal time. I tend to spend way too many hours there. I'm not saying I don't want to continue to strive for the best in my teaching, but my husband and girls come first. Period.
• Continue to get rid of things that cause clutter in my house. We've done a pretty good job of this recently and I'm feeling much better about it.
• Go on a date with the hubby at least once a month.
• Grow in my relationship with the Lord...prayer, study, worship.

That should do for now. :) 2011 is going to be a year of answers, I hope, for us. It should be exciting and faith building. I pray that your year is full of great blessings from the Lord. I know I couldn't make it without Him.

~A List~

• 2010 Wrap-Up
• Random Thoughts
• Resolutions

Just a few more posts until we wrap up another year. *Sigh* How can another year be gone?!

Love This...

This is Paul's whole family minus only 6! How cool is that?!

Christmas Day

We got to spend Christmas day at home this year for the first time ever! We started a tradition a few years ago to spend Christmas morning at home, but we've always headed out after we were finished. Somehow we had all of our family Christmases before Christmas day this year. We had a great day starting with breakfast, singing Happy Birthday to Jesus, reading the story of the birth of Jesus, opening presents, watching movies, playing, and having BigPa and Gigi over.

Waiting for Molly to wake up...

(L) Yummy! (R) Ready to eat...especially Molly! :o)

The Chef

Much better with some food in her belly! :o)

My Most Precious Gifts

(L) Singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus (R) Paul reading the Christmas story

Best Presents Ever!

Stockings!

This one loves her some Elmo! :o)

She got her cheerleading "costune!" One of the items at the top of her list! :o)

(L) She thought she got a box of corndogs! :o) You can see how she feels about that! (R) It's not corndogs...it's Toy Story 3! HA!

She was pumped to get "Despicable Me"...another item on her wish list.

Showing off her "La La Loopsy Doll." Sent all the way from Colorado (Thanks Em!)

One of my gifts...no judgements. ;o)

I surprised Paul with a Kindle! I think this is the first year I've really surprised him!! I heart giving! It's just so much fun!

The infamous mermaid "costune." This one likes to make believe! :o)

They gave each other pink boas this year...too hilarious! Work it!

(L) Love my parentals! SO thankful for Daddio and Momina! (R) Love it!