lookin back on 2010...

Whew. That's all I can say about this past year...Yes it was a good year, I spent it with the two people I love most.  We were blessed in many, many ways this year.  BUT it was also a difficult, stressful, hard year for us...

January-SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!!! We saw more snow in the month of January than I can remember for a long time! We spent alot of time snuggled up indoors.  Essie also had her first AND LAST pageant experience!!!!

February-In February we celebrated my 29th birthday, Valentine's Day and on Feb. 19th our life took a complete unexpected turn when Travis was laid off.  On the bright side we had an official crawler on our hands!

March-Spring came, and we spent ALOT of time outdoors at the park and walking around the neighborhood.

April-Essie's first Easter...oh she still melts me to pure butter in that Easter outfit!!! (sigh)

May-School was winding down and we watched my best friend Julie graduate from Lyon College!

June-oh the month of June!!! We got to spend the entire summer together since Travis was still off work.  We started working on his parents' old house in Batesville for extra money.

July-Essie turned ONE and I had a blast planning her party! She also started walking

August-School started back and I got my first catering gig.

September- football, football, footballlllll!!!!

October-Oh my lil bumblebee, Travis turned 28, and we started doing vinyl work for people making Halloween buckets...we ended up making 78 in total!

November-I received the news that I had been chosen for the "Rockin Apple" award! I was so pumped! Essie was also officially diagnosed with "Duane's Syndrome" at ACH!

December- BUSY month of baking, vinyling, and getting ready for Christmas!

I LOVE looking back at the blog for the past year and I cannot help but bawl my eyes out when I see how tiny Essie was back then!!! I hope and pray that 2011 holds GOOD, POSITIVE changes for our family!!!

Happy New Year

Little Rock

Yesterday Travis had an interview in Little Rock.  We are still praying HARD that he gets the job at the City of Jonesboro but we won't know about it for a few more weeks.  So meanwhile he still has to go on and interview/apply else where just in case.  He said the interview went well and it would be a great job...it's just in Little Rock and he would much rather be here at the city!!! Please join us in praying that he gets the job at the city...it would literally be an answer to a year's worth of prayers!

Anyway, Essie and I went with him and decided to just make a whole day out of it.  We went to lunch at Tropical Smoothie...Essie slept the whole way home and was soooooo happy and good!

Then we went over to The Wonder Place and that's where Essie and I stayed while Travis interviewed.  She had sooooooooo much fun!

Her favorite part of the playplace was the sand table...she loooooved it! After we went to the playplace we did a little shopping and ate dinner with Aunt Tanya.  On the way home Essie decided she wanted a bottle (we are trying to break her of the nighttime bottle) and started screaming.  She screamed, heaved, gagged for over 30 minutes straight.  I was never so happy to get home before EVER!!!! It was awful, awful, awful! I'm not sure HOW we are going to get rid of that stinkin bottle at nighttime!!!

What we did today.

So today is our 7th wedding anniversary. Essie did not sleep well at all last night and kept us up most of the night. But she woke me up this morning with a big ole sloppy wet kiss right on the mouth so that made up for it! We started our day off by going to a local Christmas store and racking up on some decor for next year for 70% off. Then we ran a few errands and tried going to lunch. Lunch ended up being a complete, total disaster. Essie was too tired to sit still so she was jumping, screaming, throwing food. Once our food finally arrived our hamburgers were raw...we gave up and left. On the bright side the meal was free! We've spent the remainder of the day watching Sex and the City 2 (which is AWFUL!!!!!) and taking down Christmas decorations. Oh and of course watching Elmo! Here are a few pics from today...I love this outfit on Essie and her pigtails make me sooooo happy! Somebody is finally building a house across the street from us. We've been the only people on our street for 2 and half years and we are glad to finally have neighbors. But the trucks and machines make the dogs bark constantly! But they do facinate Essie...she loves to watch them...even though they scare her everynow and then!!!

 

Seven.

7 years ago today I married my best friend...

and I'm proud to say that 7 years later we are STILL best friends!

Christmas in Batesville...

We got into Batesville Thursday night and pretty much took Essie to see Nana & Pa's decorations first thing!

They always go ALL out at Christmas! They had 4 trees indoors and their entire yard lit up!

Christmas Eve we all drove over to Heber Springs to spend some time with my dad's side of the family.  It's a tradition we've done for years and years.  Essie was still not feeling great..she is cutting all 4 of her canines right now.  She and her cousin Chloe did have some fun together!

 Our little family at my parent's house on Christmas Eve!!!

 Christmas morning Essie found this tricycle under the tree for her. I love this pic of her!

 And she found Elmo stickers in her stocking!

 She and cousin Haley had so much fun tearing into the TON of gifts they received!

 After gifts we had a yummy breakfast of biscuits and gravy...Essie was covered in gravy so a bath was needed!

 Then we bundled up in our new ELMO hat and mittens to go outside to look at the snow! It snowed lightly all day! It was so pretty!

 This hat makes me smile! I think she looks soooooo funny in it!

 One of Essie's gifts that we loved!

 She was plum worn out from all the excitement!

 These are out of order but on Thursday night we drove around Batesville looking at all the beautiful lights...they did an AMAZING job downtown and along the river! It was gorgeous this year!

We have had such an amazing Christmas with both sides of our family and feel so blessed to have such wonderful, giving, loving families to spend it with!!!