reflections on a year gone by

2011

January

Cory & I had our first baby free date on January 1.

February

I bought some paint, hit up Ikea and made a new creative space.

March

Anna is now 4 months old and eating baby foods and cereal.

Anna sat up all by herself for the first time.

April

We left Anna with Gramma & Papa for the first time and headed to Banff for Cory's 38th birthday.

We celebrated Easter and made Anna wear ridiculous bunny ears for ridiculously adorable photos.

May

Anna met her Baba Wolansky for the first time.

Anna is 6 months now and babbling all the time.

She is now super ticklish.

Her favorite food right now is cucumber.

June

My brother & Lyndsey welcomed Brayden into the world on June 6.

Anna got her first tooth.

Cory started working part time at Cabellas and loves it! He gets to talk non stop about fishing...

with people that know what he's talking about. ;-)

July

I finished my second quilt, this one was a gift for Brayden.

My mom & I hosted a baby shower for Lyndsey & Brayden.

I hit the road solo and headed south to Lethbridge to see Kara.

We took Anna to the Calgary Zoo.

August

We spent as much time as we could outside.

We had picnics.

We ate dinner outside every night we could.

September

Cory & I celebrated our third wedding anniversary.

Anna had a trip to the emergency room at the Stollery for a bad ear infection.

Anna ended up getting the baby measles.

Anna stood by herself for the first time.

Two of my layouts were featured on the My Mind's Eye blog.

October

I turned 33 on October 2.

Anna took her first steps on my birthday.

We took our traditional fall family photos.

Anna made a fabulous lady bug.

Cory & I dressed up for the first time for Halloween and handed out candy to 12 kiddies.

November

We celebrated Anna's first birthday on the twelfth.

Anna started walking full time the first week of November.

The week following her birthday Anna got 6 new teeth.... all at once.

December

Cory & I opened gifts together on the 23rd.

We celebrated Christmas at Gramma & Papa's.

Anna got a sled and had her first ride.

Cory worked at 4am!!! at Cabellas on Boxing Day. There were 15 people in line when he got there at 4am!!! When they opened at 6am there were almost 500 people in line.

I laid in bed while all those shoppers got in line all over the city.

Anna tries to run away from us now, especially when I try to smother her in kisses.

She gives high fives and knows where her ears, toes, mouth, tummy and legs are at.

She dances on command and kisses herself in the mirror.

Anna can say Elmo and asks "What's that?"

My girl LOVES chocolate.

This past year was full of joy.

Full of frustrations.

 Full of new discoveries for a little girl.

 Full of learning & teaching moments for a momma &  a daddy.

Full of struggles.

Full of moments of uncertainty.

Full of sweet baby smiles.

Full of unconditional love.

Over the last couple of days I found myself  reflecting on the past yea, on the goals & dreams I had hoped to reach and I was disappointed and feeling a little bit hard on myself. That moment passed when I realized I may not be where I thought I should but instead I spent those days raising the most wonderful, smart, funny, beautiful little girl and I couldn't be more proud of myself. Proud of Cory & I. Proud of Anna.

We say good bye to 2011.

 Hello to new possibilities.

Hello to fresh starts.

Hello to renewed energy.

Hello to new discoveries.

Hello to love.

Hello to courage.

Hello twenty twelve.

To me sweet blog readers,

Thank you so much for joining me here.

For listening to my stories.

For showing your support & encouragement.

I am grateful.

love love love

Nadine

EDIT: All these photos have been removed due to the image size. My apologies.