Cheers to 2012!

2012.

Crazy that we only have about 36 hours left of it, isn't it?

I feel like it just began.

So much has happened during this year! We have had our struggles and our triumphs.. our beautiful moments and our pains. But through it all, in 2012, we stuck together. We remained a family. 

I thought I'd take a moment to reminisce about this past year with all of you. It's been an AMAZING ride. 

We rang in New Years 2012 with our friends.

Tayler spent the evening with my parents so we had a get-together at our house. This is a picture of the girls hanging out :) From left to right it's: Me, Arena, Lakin, and Carrie. We had so much fun that night and everyone spent the night! It was a great way to ring in the new year! :)

January not only rings in the new year... but it also brings my mom's birthday! We celebrated her birthday at my parent's house this year! We all spent the night and we had such a fun time. I wanted to reminisce about this because of how adorable Tayler looked that night.. and how little she seemed! She snuggled on Gigi--- I'm sure that was an amazing birthday present!

Doesn't she look adorable? :)

We also had a shin-dig at our house for the OHIO STATE BUCKEYES game! I thought Tayler looked soooo tiny here too!

Look how short her hair was! Crazy, haha! :)

February 12th, 2012 brought about a scary day for me: Getting my wisdom teeth out! I think I was a complete nervous wreck. I was SO scared of dying. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it was a huge fear of mine. I've heard of people going under and  never waking up-- made me sick to my stomach. I'll never forget getting put under--- it went by so fast. All I remember is waking up! [And my mom passing out in the car driving me home (we were parked thank God because she felt it coming on, haha. She's not good with medical stuff.) I was trying to save the day by waking her up... while I was still out of it... with gauze all in my mouth.. and Tayler snoozing in the bank, haha! My husband actually understood what I was saying and came back (he was driving to pick up my medicines) and got us home. Poor Mom! LOL]

Here's my sad face before going in:

I HAD BANGS, haha!

About a week after that, Ethan and I went to the Dresden Inn. We celebrated our 1-year anniversary a little late (It's December 28th) but we had just moved in to our house at that time in 2011 and we had no money after that, haha! But we still got to celebrate in February and it was amazing! Here's a shot of us before dinner:

It was hard for me to eat certain things since I just had my wisdom teeth out, haha, but we did what we could! :) It was still a lot of fun!

February also brought about Tayler's 1st Valentine's Day! How cute was her outfit??

I mean SERIOUSLY.

She's adorable!

And February brought...

Tayler's first steps!

Yes, our baby girl started walking in February. 11 months old!

Such a proud moment for us! :)

We got to go out on the swings for the first time in March. We moved in to our new house in the colllllld winter, so when it finally started warming up a bit (although we still needed a coat!) we took Tayler to the park behind our house! She LOVED it.

March 6th, we got to go out for my 25th birthday! I even had a hat for the occasion, haha!

We went to Garfields.. and yes, I drank the entire drink myself, haha! SO GOOD.

March also brought...

Tayler's 1st birthday pictures. I took them myself because our photographer moved to another state (sad face) but I still liked them! Such good memories :) She's holding her wittle feet from when she was just born. Now look at how big she is! :(

March 17th also brought Tayler's 1st St. Patrick's Day since she was born March 31st, 2011!

I loved that little dress we found at Walmart. And look how chunky she was, hehe! I adore those little rolls! So cute!

And then March 31st rolled around.

Our BABY'S first birthday!!! We had a 'Yo Gabba Gabba' themed birthday party at the Golden Corral. So many people came out to show her how much they loved her... and she slept through the entire thing.. until the very end, haha!

Here's her cake:

Anna Marie's Cakery made that. She did such a good job! I LOVED it!! :) I think Tayler did too....

She was eating her smash cake... and loving that Uncle Corey was standing right there! :) She was a mess, but she had SO much fun! I am so thankful we had the opportunity to do this for her! I took SO many pictures!! I hope she looks back at them and always remembers!

April came and brought Tayler's 2nd Easter. She was 3 weeks old at Easter 2011... this year.. she was the big 1!!

Look at that hair, haha! Rough night LOL but there she is opening her Easter basket from Mommy and Daddy! :)

We went to church after that and then went to see Papaw and Gigi and get some pictures with them. I love this one of her!

They bought her a ducky. She just loved it!

Next was Mother's Day. She got all dressed up and we went out to eat with our family at Denny's Diner!

I LOVE that dress on her! This Mother's Day went a lot better than Mother's Day 2011, haha! Ethan got pooped on by her ;) LOL!! She's growing up, haha!

And we finally got our rooms divided. When we first moved in to our house, the upstairs was one big bedroom. It had previously been two rooms, but they combined them to make a larger room. We wanted to have a room upstairs for her, however, so Ethan took the time to divide them, add a door, etc. I think it turned out GREAT!

April also brought Ethan's 22nd birthday! We went to Garfields... again, haha! He's such a copy cat ;) LOL But I think he had fun!

Then came the warmer weather. We started being able to take Tayler outside to enjoy the weather. Summer 2011 she was only 3-6 months old, so she didn't really understand the beauty of it, but this year-- she was LOVING it!

Tayler loved going on walks.. and loved being outside in general! :)

May brought Tayler's 2nd Memorial Day. I loved her little outfit! :)

She had so much fun, but let me tell you--- it was SO SO hot. Poor baby just got worn out. I remember Memorial Day 2011 was burning up too because she stripped down that year too, poor thing. She doesn't handle the heat well-- just like her Momma, haha! But how cute is she??

June brought about Uncle Corey's graduation from the Ohio State University. We were SO proud of him! And Tayler got to go see him graduate too! She did amazing. We sat in the shoe the entire time and let me tell you-- it was pretty hot, but she was sooooo good! She had so much fun :) 

I love that shot of my family with Uncle Corey, hehe! :)

And then came Tayler's 2nd 4th of July. Of course, she had an outfit for that too! Hey-- I'm a mommy of a little girl. I HAVE to do it!! ;)

We went to a local grocery store and sat to watch the fireworks. Tayler was much more in to it this year than she was last year! I LOVED her outfit. She has SO much fun. We walked down town and got food and got to listen to some good music. She was so amused. Like I said before, she loves being outside. This was a great time for her. Can you tell by that face?? ;)

Then it was time for VACATION!

We went to the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, OH. We went last year as well, but Tayler was only 3 months old so she didn't get the full experience. This year though, she didn't want to leave the kid's play area, haha! She had SO much fun!

Papaw took her to the outdoor kid's area too! She was in HEAVEN. I don't think she wanted to leave, haha! :)

She even enjoyed the ice cream there ;)

Goodness gracious-- I love that little booger!

Then it was time for Uncle Corey's college graduation party. We tried to get a picture of Tayler with her Aunt Marie and Uncle Corey, but she was a little too interested in what was going on elsewhere, haha!

Crazy note about Uncle Corey's graduation party:

We had to reschedule it because we had a terrible derecho come through here. For those of you who don't know what that is: A derecho is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms

Here's a link about it if any one is interested in reading about what happened here.  It happened just before July 4th.. my parents had to stay with us for 5 days because their power was out. I'm not sure why we didn't lose power, but thank God we didn't because we were a haven for a few people who did lose power. 

We also had family reunions during the Summer of 2012. Tayler had a blast. We had them at a park nearby and she got to 'meet' our family again (some we don't see except for that one weekend each year.) Last year, she was only about 3 months old when we had our family reunion, so she was a little more in to it this year!

August brought an amazing thing for our family:

On August 24th, 2012, I took a pregnancy test and sure enough, I was PREGNANT. We had a miscarriage (that wasn't exactly publicized because I started having problems from the start) in July... I took another test almost a month after thinking there was no way I could have conceived that quickly, but sure enough, God blessed us another time!! :) I went to the doctor shortly after that for my doctor to confirm it and he did. He gave us the due date of May 5th, 2012 (although it got altered to May 8th, 2012 after an ultrasound.) We were so excited!

Next came Tayler's 2nd Fall! My favorite time of the year! The one thing I wanted to absolutely do with her was pick out a pumpkin. So, we took her to the pumpkin patch on the ickiest day of the year (it was freezing and rainy haha!) but she had a blast!

We decided to pose together.. then Daddy got in for a picture too!

We let her pick out a few pumpkins and we helped her put them in the wagon. She had SO much fun! I can't wait to take her back next year! :)

Next came her 2nd Halloween! She was a duckie for her 1st Halloween and this year she was....................................

FOOFA!!

She LOVES LOVES LOVES 'Yo Gabba Gabba' so we thought this was absolutely fitting for her. It was really rainy on Halloween, so we decided she would just hang out with us in my parent's garage and hand out candy. She was perfectly fine with that, haha! I just loved seeing her all dressed up :) 

After Halloween came the end of our 1st trimester with Baby #2.

We still didn't know what we were having, but we felt so blessed that God took us through that first trimester.. especially with how hard July was! :) We were SO excited for the future!

November 10th brought my brother Corey's wedding to his awesome now-wife Marie. They had their wedding in Dublin, OH and it was just beautiful! Here's a shot of Tayler getting ready to head to the wedding:

Didn't she look adorable?? I got that outfit from Vintage Couture (my sweet friend Alex sells it!) It was TOO cute to pass up and perfect for a wintery wedding.

We even got our picture taken at the photo booth during the reception :)

And the day after the wedding, we went to Ultrasona to find out what were having a bit early ;) I was 14 weeks, 4 days pregnant. I know some people wait until 20 weeks.. or even until they have the baby, but I do not have that kind of patience LOL! And we found out that we were expecting a...

  

A BABY GIRL

on May 8th, 2013 (or somewhere around there, haha!)

We were so excited! I think everyone and their brother thought we were having a boy, but God blessed us with yet another baby girl. I was so happy because I'd saved everything from Tayler! I just couldn't wait to dress up a little girl again! 

After that came Christmas 2012. We took Tayler to see Santa. It was a little better of an experience than Christmas 2011 LOL She screamed and cried when we put her on Santa's lap last year. This year, she just kind of analyzed him, then wanted down, haha!

At least she didn't cry, right? :)

And she got to wear her cute little shirt that her Gigi bought her for Christmas Eve. It says, 'Who needs Santa when you have Grandpa?'

I love that little smirked/binky smile. She was a bit of a cranky pants because she hadn't napped much that day, but oh well, haha! We still had fun!

Christmas morning.. she wasn't exactly IN to it, haha! She wanted to play with the boxes, but not really the toys, haha! But we still had a blast opening up gifts with her :)

She's so precious. I cannot believe she's ours. I had such an amazing Christmas with her and Ethan and our families. We are such a blessed family! Tayler got so many things from her family... it was just wonderful and I am so grateful for everyone who helped make this Christmas a memorable one!

Kind of crazy to think we are adding another kiddo to the mixture next year. We absolutely love spending holidays with Tayler.. I cannot imagine how it's going to be with two of them next year!

2012 closed out with some awesome snow. It just kept coming! 

Tayler LOVED it. She would climb up on the couch and just sit on the back of it and watch the snow come down. It just mesmerized her. I loved just sitting there with her... watching her little eyes go back and forth across the sky.

She even got to go sled riding for the first time. She LOVED it. She loved going down all by herself. (She's little Miss Independent, haha!)

It was sooooo much fun to see a smile on that face! She was in heaven and didn't want to come inside. She pitched a fit, but we didn't have good, insulated gloves for her so her little fingers got soooo cold so quickly! But how cute are those Foofa gloves her Papaw and Gigi bought her?? :) I thought she looked absolutely adorable... as I always say, haha!

And 2012 is closing out with being 5 and 1/2 months pregnant with our gorgeous baby girl Quinn Makenzie. We couldn't be more excited! 

'What to Expect' estimates that she's about 8-9" long and about 1 pound by now. I am SO excited to meet her one day! :)

On December 29th, 2012, Ethan and I went to the 'Inn at Dresden' for our 2nd wedding anniversary. We celebrated 2 years of being married on December 28th, 2012. I'll never forget our wedding. I was 7 months pregnant and we did it on a whim without telling everyone. We got our marriage license and headed to the Mayor's office. He married us. Ethan was in his work clothes. I was in jeans and a black t-shirt, but it was exactly what we wanted! I am so thankful I said 'I-Do' and got to marry him and be the luckiest girl in the world ;)

Here's a shot of us at the 'Inn at Dresden' this past weekend:

We had a delicious dinner with cheese and crackers, salad with buttermilk ranch dressing, and amazing bread! I had the Monterey Chicken (AMAZING) and Ethan had the garlic shrimp and pasta. For dessert, we had strawberry cheesecake. It was delicious! I am glad we got to go away for the weekend because it was sooo much fun! This was our view at breakfast:

Breathtaking, right?? :)

Crazy to think that 2013 will bring decorating the girl's bedrooms, Tayler's 2nd birthday, the birth of our 2nd daughter, all of Quinn's firsts and all of Tayler's 3rds. I am SO excited and I feel soooo thankful that God has blessed me with all that he has.

Looking back, I never would have thought my life would have ended up where it's at, but God has blessed me abundantly. I have a husband that is my rock. He is my best friend. He seems fearless in my eyes. I know that I can depend on him in every situation. I have a daughter that lights up my whole world. I am so thankful that I get to spend every single day with her. I love watching her learn.. and take everything in. I love her cuddles and when she rubs my arm with her hand. I have another daughter that I can finally feel moving around and kicking. I love laying in bed at night and just feeling her roll around. It's one of the best feelings in the world. I have an amazing family that I can turn to regardless of the situation. And I have an incredible God that I TRUST and DEPEND on! He has given us sooo many blessings this year-- things I didn't even ask for! And I couldn't be more grateful for it! 

I am looking forward to 2013... in more ways than one. Life just gets better and I know it's because my faith is in HIM!

I love You Lord and I appreciate 2012! I pray peace and blessings over 2013!

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man." [Benjamin Franklin]

 Happy 2012 All! On to 2013!