2011 Reflections

Looking back on the year, I'd def say the theme of 2011 was growing families. This year we were blessed with 5 beautiful, healthy, perfect nieces and nephews. Of course our little family also grew by one more as well, although ours has four legs and fur but he is the perfect addition to our family. We were so lucky this year to become an Aunt and Uncle to 5 beautiful children. First was Jayden in February, followed by Miss Olivia in April, and close behind was Isaac in May, and all three of them were 'technically' there for our wedding, in their Mommies tummies of course, but we couldn't have been more blessed to have them 'there' with us, we'll them one day that they were there when Aunt Rachel and Uncle Mike got married.

And if that weren't enough we found out not long after that I was going to be an Aunt to my beautiful little pumpkin, I was convinced all along that she was a girl and boy was she ever worth the wait to find out. One more surprise was that Joe and Gina were also expecting a little girl as well and we had no idea while we were away on our trip to San Francisco. And now all these beautiful children are making all our lives better, they make things so much more fun, to see how big they get every time we see them. I cannot believe that Jayden is practically a year old already, hard to believe all the rest of the kids will be right behind them, it's so much fun to see their little personalities develop. I don't want them to grow up too fast though!

2011 was a big year for us as well in the growing our family department. It's hard to believe how far we came in our family. When I first brought Rocky home, Mike wanted nothing to do with him. It was a rough couple of months in the beginning getting him trained, that was not a fun process, but it was absolutely worth it. It's truly amazing to see how much Mike loves the little guy and how much he is a part of our little family. Life is so much more fun with him here, he can really make you feel better when you've had a bad day, and he's constantly making us laugh, we're such proud parents of him. Now we couldn't imagine him not being here with us and we just love him to pieces. He really is the best dog we could have ever asked for. He has the sweetest personality, he's such a mush and gives us all the love in the world!

We had some fun trips this year as well. We managed to cover the happiest place in the world, Disney,  there was San Francisco (and Napa), and even a cruise around the caribbean to celebrate our first anniversary, Mike even spent a month in Africa (for work).  I still have a lot of places I want to cover, I'm optimistically hoping we can get to Ireland in the spring next year, and we have a big trip planned to North Carolina next year for Nick & Stephanie's wedding, I'm sure I'll come up with some other destinations for us as well.

It's been a bit of a trying year this year work-wise, working from home full time hasn't been the most exciting situation for me. I'm trying to stay optimistic though that 2012 will bring bigger and better things. But one of the things I was most proud of in 2011 was that I finally graduated with my Masters Degree. It was a very long road to get there but it was worth it. I actually miss school in a way, now that I have all this free time I've finally been able to do things I wasn't able to before, like read lots of books on my kindle and do lots of baking and cooking.

All in all, 2011 was a very good year, a happy one for us and all of our friends who have brought these beautiful babies into our lives. We have some more weddings to look forward to next year, and even the following. Next year we have Nick & Stephanie, Michelle & Chris and in 2013 Anna & Dennis, and we can't wait to see their families all grow too (well at least to 2 for the time being, no little pitter-patters for them, or us too, just yet). We're very lucky to have such wonderful friends and family in our lives that have given us so many wonderful blessings and memories, and I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring our way.