2008 in review

2008 has truly been a good year. A forever life changing year. As I reflect on this year it is full of joy and beauty and love and excitement. A new chapter in our lives as we become parents and a new chapter of our marriage together. There is so much to be thankful for and to celebrate. And 2008 for us was a year that we will always look back on as a year of celebration! Thank you for sharing in this beautiful chapter of our lives!

So this posting is just a bit of recap of our happenings in 2008.

Jen turns the big 3-0.....a fun surprise party organized by Randy and I was so surprised....I had no clue! A night of fun and lots of dancin' on the limo bus that we had for the evening!!

Randy turns the big 3-0! Of course we had to have a theme party for his birthday celebration....which was not a surprise since I was 9 months preggo at the time! The theme was late 70's/early 80's....Randy for sure won this one with his crazy goodwill attire and mustache! Always fun to have a dress up evening! Then we did a little kayaking in the afternoon of his b-day.....must have helped things progress a bit since we had Norah just 4 days later! I'll have to remember that for next time!!!!

2008 got off to a great start with a fun last minute trip to Aruba! Ahhh....sand, ocean, sun..what more needs to be said! We LOVE warm weather....oh and palm trees! Great little anniversary trip to celebrate our 3rd anniversary.

Our hearts totally melt as we get our first glimpses of our little girl!

Summer time is the absolute best! This is why I love Michigan! And this summer was so fun hangin' out on our new deck that Randy built, doing some gardening, relaxing in the hammock, reading, grilling out, picnics, laid back time with friends and still having some time to take a long weekend to do some backpacking and camping (our midwife wasn't overly excited about this last trip since I was like 34 weeks or something....but hey in the end it all worked and Randy didn't have to deliver the baby!)

Our friend Jason was so gracious to take lots and lots of preggo pics for us.....I LOVED my baby bump! I had such a smooth pregnancy and loved it so much! I look forward to it again someday!!!

And I really believe the reason I had such a smooth pregnancy is that I did lots and lots of yoga! I've loved yoga for a really long time but being pregnant has only made me love it that much more! So great for pregnancy and the birthing process!!!!! (these shots were about 3 weeks before I had her! ) Crazy I know!

And so thankful for girlfriends! They certainly add so much to my life! My lovely friend Laura and her fab. hubby got married this summer! So this was us on a nice relaxing spa day. I also learned a little belly dancing this summer! We hired an instructor to come in and give us a belly dancing lesson for Laura's bachlorette party! Fun, Fun, Fun!!

And then enters our sweet Norah Grace! Our lives will never be the same!

We even had our first family dress up theme for Halloween! We were beach bums but only Norah had the grass skirt to sport! Hopefully she will continue to love to play dress up as much as her parents! We've got our own costume bin now so we'll have to work on hers as she gets older!!

So really this sums it up....this is the most beautiful and precious gift we could ever dream of!


Now our days are a bit different but they usually involve lots of snuggles!

So we enter 2009 full of gratitude and joy and excitment to what this year might hold!