Year in Review: 2010

I wanted to recap 2010 like I did last year for 2009. We really have had a great year. God has been so good to our little family. Of course the biggest blessing we received this year was an addition to our family. Growing our family is the most wonderful, joyful thing I can imagine. We also got settled into a new house, went on a trip or two, and hosted several family gatherings in our home. I'm getting ahead of myself, though :) So, without further ado, here is a summary of 2010.

January was a fun month because the cat was finally out of the bag that we were expecting another baby! We started taking weekly belly pictures of our sweet little baby. Unfortunately, we didn't do this nearly as diligently as we did with Aubrey. It really is true what they say about taking less pictures of your second child. At least it has been for us. Here is Jude's belly debut. I think I was about 12 or 13 weeks along. We also were very busy unpacking and getting settled into our new home. We did lots of work around the house right after we moved in like replacing the carpet, painting, and having the backyard fenced. I definitely did NOT enjoy living in chaos and was just so ready to feel settled. Our dining room (and most of the rest of our house) looked like this for a while:Aubrey was a cute as ever and never seemed bothered by the move or our crazy, unorganized house. She was constantly doing cute things to keep us laughing (and that definitely has not changed!). In February, our crazy dog, Knightly, started getting out of our backyard. Apparently he didn't like our new house, and he would just jump right over the fence. This went on for quite some time and caused us some stress and frustration. (We finally had to put an electric fence around the gate, and he hasn't escaped since.) We also got a big snow (for us) that month. Everything looked like a winter wonderland, and it was so beautiful!Aubrey absolutely loved playing in the snow even though we don't really have snow appropriate apparel and she was freezing. We had to make her go inside after a while to warm up, and she was not happy! This month was especially exciting because we found out our sweet baby was a boy! We hosted a gender reveal party at our house to tell our families the exciting news! Everyone was thrilled to find out a baby brother was on the way!It was nice that we had the gender reveal party because it gave us a deadline to get a lot of stuff done around the house. It was finally starting to feel like home! March was a big month for "halfs." I reached the half-way point in my pregnancy with Jude, and Aubrey turned one and a half years old! :)We took our first trip to the zoo that month, and Aubrey was good but unimpressed. Jude (who's name we still hadn't announced) was really starting to make an appearance!In April, we went to my uncle's house for a cookout, and Aubrey saw a horse for the first time. She thought the big "puppies" were pretty cool!We hosted both of our families for Easter lunch after church. That went well, and we loved being with both of our families for Easter. Here is Jude in my Easter dress ;) After much consideration, we finally decided to tell everyone what we had named our sweet little boy.

Sadly, David's grandmother passed away in April, and we traveled to Tennessee for her funeral towards the end of the month. Aubrey loved riding the elevator while at the hotel and playing in the crib. Not sleeping in the crib, just PLAYING. At the beginning of May, David and I took a trip to Seaside, Florida. This was our babymoon, and so we left Aubrey at home with my parents. We missed her, but we had SUCH a wonderful trip! It was so restful and fun, and it was great for David and me to have some one on one time. Of course, we were so excited to get home to see Aubrey, and we had a joyful reunion! Well, we were glad to see Aubrey at least. She had had a super fun time with her grandparents and didn't seem to care that we were home.Haha! We got to work painting Aubrey's "big girl room" that she would move into before Jude was born. And I had one last girls' night with Ashley and Sarah Denley before Ashley moved.
In June, David's best friend from highschool got married, and David was the best man.
David spent a TON of time painting Aubrey's new crib, and my grandmother made Jude's beautiful crib bedding. We were really starting to feel the pressure to get things done before Jude was born!We finally moved Aubrey to her new room and bed, and it was a painless transition, much to my surprise and delight. We started painting Jude's room after we moved Aubrey out, and she "helped" us paint her baby brother's room. Aubrey modeled one of my old dresses in July and looked adorable doing it. Our great friends, the Arants, came over for the Fourth of July and Aubrey loved having her boyfriend Carver over ;) I looked like I was about to POP on July 15th...... and then Jude was born on the 16th after a relatively short but painful labor.Aubrey fell in love with her baby brother the first time she laid eyes on him and cried to hold him whenever we would take him away. I was SO happy and relieved that she loved him! A couple of weeks later, David's sisters came to meet Jude and my grandparents had a 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration! That was a BUSY weekend!

Jude was finally able to have his first real bath after his cord fell off in August. He was not a fan.

He WAS a big fan of the Moby wrap, though :)Aubrey was one adorablely sweet big sister...And Jude turned one month old and started really smiling!

In September, we continued to adjust to life with 2 babies.

And our first born baby turned TWO! We had a fun little party for her, and she got tons of new loot!Aubrey also got sick that month, and David took her to the doctor in a rather interesting ensemble. Haha. Jude was growing like a weed and quite a laid back little fellow.

David celebrated his birthday in October, and Aubrey seemed to really enjoy the cake I cooked for him. Haha. David and I, along with two of my brothers, took Aubrey and Jude to the fair for the first time that month, and it was a fun family outing!Aubrey watched several football games with her daddy and really got into saying "War Eagle!" David said football season was even more fun and exciting with a little buddy to watch/cheer with :)

We attended the fall festival at our church, and I think Aubrey and Jude were the cutest little cowgirl and cow I've ever seen!

We finally got our dining room furniture in November after painting, and painting, and painting some MORE! We got it just in the nick of time since we had said from the first day we moved into our house that we wanted to host Thanksgiving and have our dining room done by then.I had a little impromptu photo shoot with Aubrey and Jude one day and realized that getting a picture with two kids and having them both looking at the camera AND smiling is pretty much beyond my skill set. Ha!And then we hosted my family for Thanksgiving. It was a great, laid-back, fun day. Aubrey was quite the little helper ;) I was so excited when December finally rolled around! It's by far my favorite month! I was thrilled to get to decorate our house for Christmas for the first time. Last year, I didn't get to decorate since our house was still in chaos from the move (see picture above. ha!). I had fun deciding where I wanted to put all of our Christmas decorations. Aubrey looked precious posing in front of the tree.We went to a festival of lights at a nearby town with the Arants one weekend. I helped my Bible Study group throw a Christmas party for my dad's ministry, Son's of the King.
Finally, we celebrated a wonderful Christmas with our families (post still to come). It was a sweet time to remember our Savior's birth and be thankful that He humbled Himself and dwelt among us so many years ago.2010 was not without hard times, but we know that everyday of the past year, the Lord was with us. Through the good and the bad. We are so thankful that He will continue to be with us as we embark on a new year. He is so good, and we pray that we will bring glory to Him throughout 2011 and our whole lives!