Looking Back at 2009

The past couple of days I have been trying to think back over the last year and remember all the good things and maybe not so good things that have happened this year and what I have accomplished. I wanted to take some time and reflect on all of this as I set goals for next year.


In 2009

Lauren celebrated her first birthday and that was amazing. It has almost been a year and we will be celebrating her second birthday in less than a month. It is so hard to believe that my baby is going to be 2. I look at her and am so amazed by how much she has grown since she was born, in the last year and honestly in the last couple of months. She has gotten more hair, she has gotten taller and she is so smart! She is talking all the time and I can almost carry on a conversation with her. I know that she is going to be a great big sister!

I started blogging and have met some really awesome people along the way. I think it is amazing that these wonderful people have welcomed me into their lives and have invested in my life as well. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started blogging. Mostly I started just to read other people’s blogs. I read several before I decided to start my own and I am really glad that I did. I had no expectations going into this and blogging is such a great way for me to keep track of all that is going on, things I don’t want to forget about and things that I want to share with everyone. I really do enjoy it and I look forward to 2010 for a whole year of blogging and sharing stories, recipes, photos and my pregnancy with our second child.

I got a promotion at my job and I am truly thankful for that. Brian and I have been blessed this year. Neither one of us has had our hours cut or our pay cut and we both have steady jobs. I may complain about being unhappy at my job but I am very thankful to have it nonetheless.

Brian and I celebrated our 5th which is an accomplishment in and of itself. Ha! Just kidding. I love my husband very much and I am a very lucky girl. I look forward to the next 5 years and beyond.

My photography is getting better and I am getting more opportunities for photo shoots and doing what I love. I must admit that it takes a ton of time because I work all day and only have a few hours a week that I get to work on it but I enjoy every bit.

I am sure that I could go on and on but I will leave you with a list of my favorite post for 2009. 

About Me

Binky Kisses

Coming Home

Red Velvet Cake

Corned Beef

For I Know the Plans I have for You

What I Like About You

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Beef Stroganoff

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Birthday Cake Is the Best

Christmas with the Karels

Christmas is always a very busy time of the year around my house. On the 19th we celebrated with my dad's parents and the rest of that side of the family.  Christmas Eve we braved the begining of the horrible snow storm that we got and went to Brian's mom's.

Lauren likes to hide in between her daddy's legs.  Like we can't see her!

Brian's sister bought Lauren this retro looking telephone.  She walked around with it all night. It was so cute.  She kept trying to call her Uncle Aaron.

Brian's sister also bought her this gigantic doll.  Lauren loved it.  It is taller than she is!  She was carrying it around and it sure was a site!!  The legs just kind of dragged behind her.

Christmas morning I woke up bright and early to finish wrapping Lauren's Christmas presents.  I was such a procrastinator this year.  I blame it on the pregnancy and being so tired and all that jazz!  My mom bought Lauren these adorable Santa jammies so that is what I put on her Christmas Eve.  When we woke up and went into the living room she was so excited to see the tree lit up with presents under it!  I hadn't put any of them out until that morning.

She was such a big girl playing "Santa" for herself. She would go under the tree and pick up the present and drag it back over to wear Brian and I were sitting.  That girl has some muscles!

My awesome gift from my wonderful husband!!! I was super excited about this.  I have been using Photoshop Elements 4 that he bought me for Christmas like three years ago and it was definitely time for an upgrade.

Christmas Day after getting stuck trying to get out of our driveway we finally made it over to my brother's to have lunch and presents of course.  Lauren was so good about opening her gifts and she was clean too.  She would rip a piece of paper off, throw it away, rip a piece off and throw it away and repeat.  Daddy sure has taught her well.

Look MOM NO HANDS!!  My brother and Mollie bought Lauren this doll and it came with so much stuff, including a diaper bag and this carrier.  Mollie said it was to prepare her for the new baby.  :)  We will see.

My mom got this foot massager thing and Lauren was very curious about it and had to try it out.

She was so tired that afternoon.  No morning nap but maybe about 10 minutes on the drive over there.  My mom ended up getting her to sleep in this chair.  How cute does she look with her babies!

Saturday we were all went over to my dad's.  This is Lauren in front of Aunt Mollie and Uncle Aaron's Christmas tree with really cute bows in her hair compliments of Aunt Mollie. 

Before we opened presents my step mom wanted to read the kids the Christmas story so here they are all gathered up on the floor.  Garret is on the left, Lauren in the middle and Lillian is on the right. 

For the most part they all three did really well but they started to get a bit rowdy so grandpa got down on the floor with them.

My dad and Karen bought Lauren this cute table and chair set.  She is checking it out but too bad the box is upside down!

Lillian

Lauren and Aunt Mollie modeling a dress from Papa and Grandma.

And Lauren taking a ride on Papa's feet. 

Just a little look into our wonderful Christmas holiday.  I hope that you all had a safe and happy Christmas as well!

SNOW!!!

There is so much snow here and it is still coming down.  I wouldn't say that we are snowed in but we might as well be.  Yesterday we were backing out of the driveway and got stuck because the city apparently doesn't think the road we live on it important enough to plow.  Luckily my husband and one of the neighbors got us back into the drive way.  My brother came and got us on the road so we could get to his house where we celebrated Christmas with him and Mollie, my mom and uncle and my nephew.  We stayed the night and tried to go home today but our road has STILL not been plowed.  My dad owns a snow blade so he did our driveway and part of the road but only after we got stuck in the ditch and had to wait for over 40 minutes for him to get to us so he could pull us out!  So we packed some bags and headed back to my brother's with my dad since they live right across the street from one another and we are going to celebrate Christmas with my dad tonight. 

I don't ever remember getting this much snow.  I know when we were kids there was a ton of it but in the last 5-10 years we haven't had a snow storm like this.  I didn't grab my camera cord or I would show you all some pictures but I am betting if you live in the Midwest you are seeing exactly what I see.  Snow drifts taller than Lauren!! And more snow falling from the sky.  If I weren't stuck it would really be quite pretty!!

Merry Christmas

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.  I hope that your day is filled with family, fun and good food! 

Lauren also wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!



Last night we spent Christmas Eve at Brian's Mom's house. Today we are going to my brother's and tomorrow we are going to my Dad's. We have a lot of celebrating to do. Lauren is so into Christmas this year. She loves ripping the paper off the gifts and she wants her toys opened right away! So cute!!

Wilderness Chapel

My dad and my step mom have been married going on 10 years. They eloped and got married in Branson at the Wilderness Chapel in Silver Dollar City.  When we went there over Thanksgiving it was beautifully decorated for Christmas so I took some pictures for my step mom.  I got her a frame that has 3 5X7 spots and put these three pictures in it for her for Christmas.

Good thing she doesn't read my blog or I would have just totally spoiled it for her!!

Not Me! Monday

Here it is, that time of the week again.  We all have hopefully recovered from last week and enjoyed a nice weekend and now we get to return to work. BOO!!  At least this week is a short week because Christmas is Friday, (just in case you didn't know)  Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.




Last week I did not drink an entire bottle of Sparkling grape juice all by myself.  I really had intended to share it with my hubby but we were visiting my brother and my sister in law and I was drinking it out of these HUGE wine glasses that I had given her for Christmas a couple of years ago and two glasses and it was gone!  I knew I should have bought more.  :)  We had went over there to spend some time with my step brother and his wife who are in town for the holidays.  You may or may not remember me mentioning that my step brother is a Marine!  Thankfully he and his beautiful wife and three children were able to make it home this Christmas.  My two nieces have gotten so big.  I hate only getting to see them a couple of times a year. 

Yesterday while at church I did not lock my keys in the car. Nope not me!!  I always make sure that after I hit the lock button that I firmly place my keys into my purse or into my pocket and I certainly never just lay them on the seat, even if I am trying to get a sleeping baby out of the car!  Luckily Aaron and Mollie had come to church with us and my brother was able to get it unlocked for me.  But only after I went shopping with them for a few hours.  One of the stores we went into had Santa there and Lauren got so excited.  When she saw him she just squealed and ran over to him and crawled up on his lap and gave him a great big hug!!  You would think for liking him so much that I would have gotten a great picture but the little stinker wouldn't smile so the picture didn't turn out any better than the one that was taken at day care.  BOO!  Oh well, at least she wasn't screaming and crying because she was afraid of him.  :)

I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas.  I am looking forward to this week as I try and finish my shopping, wrapping presents, preparing food and oh yeah the short work week!!!  Which we will have two of since New Year's is next week.  Thank goodness. 

No I Didn't

Lauren got in trouble the other day at daycare. I know, surprise, surprise. Brian picked her up and he said that she got two write ups. One for biting and one for scratching. So when I got home from work I was sitting at the dining room table with her and I said. “Did you get in trouble at day care?” her response was, “No I didn’t” combined with some head shaking. I thought perhaps she didn’t hear me so I asked again, “did you bite someone at daycare?” she says “no I didn’t.” I then was getting persistent and asked, “who did you bite at day care today?” she said again, with a little more enthusiasm this time “NO, I didn’t” I couldn’t believe my ears. Here my not even two year old daughter has already learned to lie and is doing it straight to my face!! AAAAGGGGHHH!!! I am in big trouble. So Brian says to her “Lauren you have already been in trouble and Mommy just wants to hear the truth from you, you aren’t going to get in trouble again.” So I asked, “Who did you bite at daycare?” and this time she finally responded with the nickname of the kid. I seriously about fell off the chair. I mean it is kind of comical that she even shook her head no but my goodness. If this is any indication of the future then I am in serious T-R-O-U-B-L-E!!!

The Christmas program was good. They dressed all of Lauren’s class up as angles and they were all so stinking cute. If you have learned anything about me by reading my blog it should be that I have horrible turn around! I will get the pictures posted…eventually. I have about 20 posts that I could do with all different pictures and I am just so slow at getting them edited and posted. I will probably end up not editing and just posting them straight out of the camera. :) I still have pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend in Branson that I need to post. I am WAY behind!!

Santa HO HOOOOOOO

I think that I am finally starting to get into the Christmas Spirit. It has taken me a while but yesterday I really started to get excited about it. It helps that I have finally starting my shopping and Lauren is really into it. On Thanksgiving we introduced her to the Santa Claus 3 movie and she has been walking around saying “Santa” for weeks.

Brian pulled the tree out of the basement finally and Lauren is amazed with it. She loves the lights and tells it bye every morning. She says, “bye bye Chrrrristmas Tweee” Not sure exactly how to describe how she says Christmas but she does this crazy throat thing with the first part of the word. Cracks me up everytime.

Last week Santa came to daycare to visit the kids and Lauren loved him. Her teachers said that she was so curious about him and was touching his beard and his hat. She even sat on his lap. Too bad she didn’t smile when they took her picture!! For the rest of the day she would run around saying “ ho ho” not ho ho ho but “ho ho” and she puts emphasis on the second ho so it sounds more like “ho HOOOOO” She likes to say this all the time and at not so great moments. We were in church on Sunday and she belted it out during a prayer. I know everyone heard her but they all kept their composure. I on the other hand was laughing quite a bit!

She says “merry Christmas” in her crazy way and also says “happy new year” only is comes out more like “happy moo moo”

Tonight is their Christmas program at daycare and I am quite looking forward to it. Little kids singing, what could be better!!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.




I have not been a horrible blogger. I haven’t written any posts, read any posts and so that means I definitely have not commented on any posts for almost a week. I have not been super busy and just exhausted when I get home that the last thing I want to do is get on the computer. I do not feel like a huge slacker for not being able to keep up on my blogging! Something that I do not thoroughly enjoy doing.

Last week when I was getting ready to bake my mom’s birthday cake I did not set my oven on fire. I had dropped some pizza in it the week before and didn’t think twice about it. There I was, standing there putting the cake mix into pans and my mom says, “Sonya, Why do you have flames in there?” I look down and the whole entire door was filled with flames. Thanks to my quick thinking mom, who grabbed the baking soda and poured it onto the fire when I opened the door. She surely saved the day and the cake!!

I have not been in a bit of a funk, again. Just when I thought that I was coming out of it a bunch of junk happened at work and put me right back into it. I do not hate complaining all the time. I am sure that you all think that I have nothing good to say and honestly that is part of the reason for my hiatus from the blogging world. I hate to complain and I hate reading about complaining so I am sure you all do as well. I am grateful for things in my life. Just this morning we had another doctor’s visit and we got to hear the heartbeat! The nurse found it straightaway. A very strong heartbeat at about 160 and the doctor said that everything is growing and is right on track. Such a relief!! I love hearing the baby’s heartbeat. I remember with Lauren that I looked forward to it at every appointment. Not just because that meant that everything was still ok but just because it is such an amazing sound. My sonogram will be at my February appointment so stay tuned to hear what we are having.

I ♥ Faces - “Sweet Dreams” Photo Challenge

I feel like I have been MIA lately. Last Friday was a horrible day for me and I was getting a post all ready to go about it and don't you know that soemthing else went wrong. Well Friday led into a busy weekend and so I just didn't have time to post or get anything else posted for that matter. So I am going to try and get back on the wagon with my I ♥ Faces entry for the week.

This is a picture of my sweet Lauren that was taken the day after she was born but before she was even 24 hours old.  We were getting her ready to have her hospital pictures taken and she just looked so beautiful that I was taking pictures of her myself.  This is my absolute favorite picture of her from January 26th, 2008!  :)

Isn't she the most beautiful thing you have ever seen!!  I love you Lauren.

10 weeks

I am not going to start posting belly pictures just yet, although I probably could because my waistline has already started expanding, much earlier than it did with Lauren. I came home from work last night and Brian said “your belly is already starting to poke out.” In this cute excited voice. I was like yep it sure is! This weekend I will probably pull out more of my maternity clothes. I have pulled out a few of my sweaters and a pair of jeans, but I only have one pair of work pants that I can wear right now and I just don’t like the thought of wearing those 4 or 5 days a week.

Other than that I don’t really have an update as far as the pregnancy goes. I don’t go back to the doctor until the 14th. What I can tell you is that the morning sickness is getting better. I was sick constant for a week and since then it has seemed to just come and go. It is more going than coming now and for that I am grateful. I also have been on an emotional roller coaster the past several weeks. I just don’t feel like myself. One minute I am good and the next I am well, let’s just say not good. I cry at the drop of a hat and just feel like everything is going crazy around me. I shared this with a friend yesterday and let me tell you it made me feel so much better. Her words of encouragement and understanding were more than I could have asked for. I feel much better today and I hope that I just continue to feel better and better. So thank you Kim for all of the kindness that you have shared with me.

Class of 2010 - Kayla

A couple of weeks ago I got to do my second senior shoot.  This is Kayla.  Her mom works with Jen, my friend who I did the engagement shoot for a while back. 

When we were doing Jen's shoot I was looking for some really cool grafiti, if only we would have went like two streets over from the railroad tracks we would have found some.  Jen figured out where it was, after the fact, so I decided to try it out on this shoot since we were already there.