Some new year cuteness

Just wanted to share some of our first photos of 2011!

Our boy has very good taste in TV shows...


(No worries, we put Firefly away before Joshua could do any serious damage!)

He also really, really, really loves cheese.  (It took him a few tries, out in Indianapolis, to get used to it -- perhaps we shouldn't have started him out with extra sharp cheddar and a very smoky Gouda...)



[Nerdy photography note: all of the above taken with the 24mm f/1.4L -- SO incredibly excited about this lens!!  Thanks for selling it to us, John and Lucy -- we'll take very good care of the precious.  :)]

2010 year in review

2010 has been an incredibly blessed, full, amazing year.  I mean, we went from this:


To this:


So yeah.  It's been a literally life-changing year.

I can't even begin to sum up this year in single post -- this whole blog just barely begins to scratch the surface!  But we'll continue the tradition from last year, and pick just one photo from each month in an attempt to pull this year's blog book to a close.  :)

JANUARY


The birth of our beautiful baby boy!

FEBRUARY


Learning how to be parents, and loving every trepidatious, sleep-deprived, wonderful minute of it.

MARCH


At six weeks old, Joshua went on his very first road trip!  Many sweet moments with his great-grandparents and grandparents, but this is one of my favorites.

APRIL


Joshua got taken to his first Easter sunrise service and baptism.  I'm afraid he wasn't terribly impressed; but at least he looked good!

MAY


Mama got a new camera (that handles low-light photography much better).  And Joshua continued to charm all the ladies at both of our grad student small groups!

JUNE


The annual staff fun night to celebrate the end of the school year!  (OK, so Joshua may not be IN this photo, but I was wearing him in our front carrier when I took it, so, um, he helped?)

JULY


A trip to North Carolina, where Joshua taught Uncle Eric his trademark skydiving move.

AUGUST


A road trip to Poughkeepsie, where we crossed the pedestrian Walkway Over the Hudson, which you can see parts of in this photo of Joshua's beautiful, beautiful eyes.  :)

SEPTEMBER


Joshua's first experience of the beach, on the beginning-of-the-year beach retreat at Ocean City, NJ.

OCTOBER


Cutest tiger ever!

NOVEMBER


Loving on my parents' silverware at Thanksgiving dinner down in NC.

DECEMBER


Filled with Christmas glee at Grandma and Grandpa's -- walking and everything!

*****
Like I said, this is necessarily only the tiniest of samplings of this incredibly full year... I just checked our SmugMug, and we have 5283 photos uploaded for 2010!  (Which is actually fewer than for 2009, but I think that's because we *only* went to six weddings this year...)

We have so much to be thankful for this year.  And we're so looking forward to what God has in store for us in 2011!  Wishing all of you a wonderful new year!

Easing our way into the new year

The first few days of 2010 were such a relaxing and refreshing time for us! Both David and I had the entire week off between Christmas and New Year's, so we took advantage of the downtime and really got to enjoy just spending time together. No demands on our time, no work obligations -- just time together reading, cleaning, cooking, and whatever we wanted to do. It was so much fun!

We also finally got ourselves on a good cooking routine. Generally speaking, I love to cook. But my old M.O. was dominated by over-achieving perfectionism -- I needed to make sure I was cooking the best version of whatever recipe I was trying, all from scratch, using the best ingredients, etc. Making a beef stew? I'd get a good chuck roast and cut the beef myself. Roasted carrots with thyme? I'm plucking the thyme leaves by hand off the fresh stems. Spaghetti and meatballs? You better believe I'm mixing the ground beef (sometimes with a mix of ground veal and/or pork) into the best possible meatballs myself, then searing them, then adding them to a homemade tomato sauce.

So yeah. Cooking a meal usually meant at least an hour or two of prep time -- which meant that I only cooked for big company meals. The rest of the time, we ate takeout. The guys at Teriyaki Boy know us and have our usual orders done by the time we get to our turn to order...

But last week, we finally broke the cycle! Inspired in part by the blogs and Facebook statuses of my young mom friends, I decided it was high time to start building an arsenal of simple and fast recipes. Spaghetti and meatballs (which, incidentally, is one of David's favorite meals) using jarred tomato sauce, frozen meatballs, and pasta -- ready to eat in 25 minutes! We also discovered that using the packaged "stew beef" from the meat counter resulted in a beef stew that was just as good as the one made with the roast I painstakingly cut up myself. And frozen broccoli cuts (with the convenient microwavable steam-in-bag technology), plus the simple addition of a little grated cheddar cheese, makes for a great and healthy side dish for a frozen pizza dinner!

And I'm pleased to announce that we've continued in this cooking at home pattern! This may sound so silly, but it's a big deal for us. It's one more little step towards being proper grown-ups, in preparation for the transition to parenthood...

So we kicked off 2010 with a nice burst of domesticity. And reading for pleasure, and sleeping in -- but hopefully at least the domesticity will stick after the baby is born. :)

2009: The Year in Photos

2009 was a really great year for us. And it's been such fun sharing many of our favorite moments with all of you! To close out the year, we've decided to do a "year in review" -- one photo from every month, to showcase some of the highlights of the past year. Enjoy!

*****

JANUARY
We bought our new camera! And had tons of fun fooling around with it!

FEBRUARY
Perhaps my favorite course from the Titanic dinner: merlot sorbet with frozen sugared grapes.

MARCH
A wonderful trip out to Albuquerque to visit Erik and Erin, and meeting baby Luke for the first time!

APRIL
Gathering together for the Easter sunrise service.

MAY
My kid brother Eric's graduation from UNC-CH!

JUNE
Announcing our pregnancy! (The photo was actually taken in May, but we didn't go public with it until June, so I think this counts as a June milestone...)

JULY
The River Arno as it flows through Florence, as seen on our amazing Mediterranean cruise babymoon.

AUGUST
Our favorite shot from Diana and Brian's wedding -- one of the many weddings we were privileged to attend this year.

SEPTEMBER
Me and Casadi trying to get a pregnant ladies photo on the PEF beach retreat. :)

OCTOBER
Fun times with dear friends at our YAC/small group Halloween party!

NOVEMBER
"Birdie on a Perch" at the PEF hoedown (which I'm just realizing I never blogged about... whoops!).

DECEMBER
With the amazing hostesses of my baby shower -- one of innumerable moments this year where we realized again what wonderful friends we have.

*****

This is necessarily just a tiny sampling of the many good times we had with friends and family over the last year. I mean, this whole blog is itself just a small window into how blessed and full our lives are! We're so thankful for all of you, and we're looking forward to sharing a new year with you!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2009! The last year of the -- Aughties? Naughties? 2000s? We're almost at the end of the decade; we really should have a name for it by now!

I'm easing my way back into the grind of the working world, by working from home today -- I had originally planned to take the full week off, but we're filing a motion in one of my cases next week, and I've been given the responsibility of writing the first draft of the brief. Which is actually a little exciting -- it's not a huge brief or a terribly thrilling issue, but it's still the first time I'm being given a whole brief to draft. Yay for incremental career advancement!

So I'm sitting on the couch, in my comfy sweats, half working from home and half surfing the web and hanging out with my dear husband. Life is good. :)

Here's to another year filled with blessings and growth!