365/365

Today I am thankful for all of the pictures and stories of the girls that I have from 2009. I can't believe that one day they will be able to look back and see a picture of themselves from every single day of 2009. That really is pretty cool. Now I just need to figure out exactly what to do with all of the images. I think I will make a very fancy album for each girl with my favorites of each month. I should have time to work on that in January and February. We'll see when I actually get it done. I am going to try really hard to keep taking pictures of them most days because I love that I have all of these.

I thought it was fitting that Lee Lee was in today's pictures since she is my number one fan on the blog. Thanks for all of the comments, Mom. I am quite certain that she has commented on every single post. Sweet momma of mine.

Holly, Adam, John and Wyatt left today. The chaos level at the house went down tremendously since the kids all kind of wound one another up. Right before they left Lucy and John were running wild having a pillow fight. The noise level around here was never low. I know Lucy and Annie are missing their playmates already.

I have no New Year's Eve plans, which is perfectly fine by me. I have never been a huge fan of NYE. And now it just seems dangerous to even be out and about. I am so old and dorky! :)

I hope that 2010 is a wonderful year for each and every one of you. I think 2009 was kind of a hard year, so I have big plans for this whole decade being just fabulous. Happy, happy, happy New Year to all!! This has been a fun year on the blog. Thanks for sticking with me. I am not going to lie, I would love to hear from lots of you since this is my 365th post in a row.

364/365

Today I am thankful for it being time to start a new year. I have so much that I want to accomplish next year and have so many changes that need to be made. I am looking forward to the changes and hope that I can stick to my plans better than I have in the past. First and foremost, I am trying to get dedicated to eating better. I am going to work a lot harder to have a healthy meal plan every week. I am also going to work a lot harder to stick with a budget and start saving more. I want to get a lot done for La La. I really do have big plans for 2010 and I am excited about it.

You would think on the second to last day of my 365 project that I would be on top of taking a picture today. Nope. It is so nuts around here that I forgot my picture today - but I think the sleeping picture of Annie is so sweet.

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You can see evidence of the cold that has been passed around from family to family. Papa and Adam are not feeling well. There are just a few germs being passed around this house at the moment.


Today I am thankful for all of my awesome clients that trusted me this year to capture their families. I still am shocked at how well things went for La La in my first year of business. I have lots of fun things for 2010 and I can't wait to get started. This whole year has been a big learning experience, and I feel confident that things can only get even better from here. Again, thank you to anyone reading this that has had a La La session.

I am going to do what was suggested in a comment and post my favorite picture of the month of each girl from the past 12 months. I feel so lucky to have so many precious pictures of my littles from this year. A few months I couldn't narrow it down to just one per girl.

January:




February:




March:




April:






May:






June:




July:






August:










September:






October:




November:




December:
(Justin will get mad if I don't give him credit for this photo!)

362/365

Today I am thankful for everyone that has read this blog and followed along for the past year. Especially those of you who have stuck with me through the boring times, like lately. Your sweet comments always make my day and I love to hear from each of you. Some of you are especially great commenters, and don't think I don't notice. Your support is greatly appreciated. I wouldn't have stuck it out this year if I hadn't heard from so many of you on a regular basis.

Mom and I kept all 4 kids while Dad, Justin, Holly and Adam went to a movie. Lucy got loads of make up for Christmas so she was playing with it. The boys were interested in it, so I went ahead and put a full crazy face on them. And Wyatt got a ponytail. I really hope Holly and Adam have a girl some day because she sure would be a cutie! My dad was not amused by the boys in make up! Ha.

We are off for a big domino match here. We have Holly and Adam hooked. Cayce - Holly and I came back and won the second match after being down 4 games!! It was so awesome. I know that Justin was shocked we won so many in a row. So, Holly and I have one a round and Justin and Adam have won a round. Tonight is a big night!

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Today I am thankful for getting to take Lucy to her first ever movie theater experience. Holly, Lee Lee, John, Wyatt, Lucy, and I all went to The Princess and the Frog today. Lucy absolutely loved it. She sat perfectly still and quiet in my lap the entire movie. I was amazed at just how well she did. She ate some popcorn and drank some juice. It was lots of fun. We have wanted to take her to a movie for a while, but this was the first one that I didn't think would scare her. She will definitely be a fan of the movie theater from now on.

I really can't believe I only have 5 more days to post. I haven't decided exactly what I am going to do next year. I will say I am not committing to posting every day again. I just can't do it again. I am really tired of knowing that I HAVE to do it each night and I would like the pressure to be gone. I do plan on taking a picture every day - just not necessarily of the girls each day. I would like to work on some more artistic images. We'll see.

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Today I am thankful that on this day exactly 3 years ago we met our Lucy Goose in Vietnam for the very first time. We spent about 2 hours with her in the orphanage and it was such an amazing experience. She was so alert and studied us the entire time. She never made a single fuss. The nannies repeatedly came over and took her from us and cried and cried and cried as they held her. It was heart wrenching, but we felt so confident and happy about the love that she had received in her 5 months in Que Son. I used to really not like December 26th - you are the furthest from Christmas day that you can possibly be. But it has such special memories and meaning to us now.

We actually got out and braved the crowds a bit today. The only thing I cared about was going to this one particular store to get half price Christmas decorations. We called last night to see if they were opening early and the message on their machine just said the holiday hours. I trusted this, but my sister Holly was worried this was wrong. The message said they opened at 10, so we were there at 9:55. Holly was right, they opened at 7 am and EVERYTHING was gone. I had to honestly fight back tears because I had several specific things that I really, really wanted. This place has the most amazing Christmas things that you have ever seen. I am still so sad about missing it all. Ugh. Next year, right?