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2010 Year-End Review

Let’s just remember that 2009 SUCKED TOTAL ASS for me (even on the Very Last Day) so it could really only go up from there.

First of all, this is the Year Of The Babies as there are now THREE NEW BABIES in my family!  Makenna was born in May and her chunkylicious rolls are enough to make me drool.

Fatty Rolls--YUMMY!

This was followed by the birth of my nephew, Liam, in August.  This was my first chance to ‘professionally’ photograph a live birth and I couldn’t have been more squeal-inducingly happy with the experience.

I call this one Motherhood. It's her first sight of her baby boy.

Which resulted in this little monkey!

Liam--4 months

And finally my baby sister’s pregnancy and close to Thanksgiving delivery of my latest niece acquisition, Kylee.

I spent entirely too much of the last three days holding this baby.

I had so much fun photographing each of these maternity/newborn shoots along with about a BILLION other shoots.  My fledgling photography business blossomed from an entertaining hobby for family/friends into a no-kidding paying job.  I love it.  I have entirely too much fun taking and editing photos.  I even managed my first boudoir shot (shhh…no telling).  Families, friends, strangers, babies…whew.  I have been very busy with my venture.

Our computer died earlier this year.  It had been grinding to a slow, painful death for quite some time (we’ve had it for around 10 years) and it finally gave up the ghost.  So, we bit the bullet and got a Macbook Pro which officially transitioned us from regular old geeks to Mac Freaks.  The Mac was followed in fairly short order by iPhones (PINK PUFFY HEART MY IPHONE) and an iPad (BRYAN PINK PUFFY HEARTS HIS IPAD).  Because we are brand suckers, obviously.  We also invested in kick-ass editing software, lenses and a complement of other crap centered around my photography.

We did a few things as a family this year including rekindling our love of rock climbing.  The kids…they’re monkeys.  And took to it with a swiftness that was startling and depressing as my arms and ass did not retake to it quite so painlessly.  I took the kids (and my MIL) on a trip to Florida to visit my family where my kids tasted their first ever sip of a milk shake, firmly solidifying my spot as the Most Evil Mom Ever.  Later, Bryan and I packed them up again and headed to Fripp Island and Savannah where we spent many a day wiling the time away with good friends and later, good photography possibilities.

The Fountain Everyone Photographs in Savannah

We also managed our most recent trip, which was a visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios.  Last year, I vowed that we would have more experiences with our kids and I believe we have made a good start. We still have stuck mostly to The South but it’s a start and a start it shall be.

Let’s not forget that I am now OFFICIALLY EMPLOYED!  And, beginning in January, I will be FULL-TIME!  LIKE A ‘FOR REALS’ TEACHER AGAIN!  Yeah!  That means so much to our family in terms of financial stability, opportunities and the very real bonus of me ABSOLUTELY LOVING WORKING and no longer going INSANE by the drip, drip, drip torture that is staying at home full-time (in my experience, anyway).

This year has had its share of challenges, not the least of which was all of our worry and concern regarding our son, Drew.  All of that worry, angst and money for what basically amounts to not much.  Although we’ve gone through quite a bit of upheaval as a family based on this “not much” non-diagnosis.  I cannot begin to describe how heart-wrenching this process has been and I am ohsoglad that his issues are relatively minor and not future-compromising.

We’ve had our share of illnesses, minor surgeries and broken bones (hmmm…those last two fall squarely on the boy) but we managed to have a blast this summer despite these minor bumps in the road.  This summer saw my boy turn 7 and my girl turn 5.  We’re losing teeth left and right around here and I am truly and utterly delighted by the ages they are.  This has definitely been my favorite time in their lives.  Drew started first grade and is beginning to get his awkward mouth of teeth (squee!  i *LOVE* this stage) to go along with his happy-go-lucky demeanor and Malyn began her academic career in kindergarten already reading.  That girl keeps us dancing with her razor-sharp wit and utter brilliance and her terrifying lean towards drama and manipulation.  All-in-all, I could not be more proud/amazed/content with my kids.

Unfortunately, my best friend in the world (and the women with whom I would unhesitatingly indulge in a coffee and reading fueled affair where she cooked and I made the decisions) suffered the heartbreak and heartache of the loss of her first nephew, Ben.  Her sister, Ben’s momma, by the way, is due with another little boy almost exactly one year to the day of the birth of her first boy.  We are all awaiting his arrival, which promises to be healing and joyous and shattering in every possible way.

Our family has suffered more than our fair share of car accidents as my parents were in a serious one a couple of months ago and I ran into (and subsequently slid across) black ice which resulted in a temporary visit to a deep ditch, a sore neck and, ultimately, a total loss of the car.  It didn’t look as bad as it was (in terms of damage to the vehicle) and Bryan and I are in the process of settling with our insurance company and deciding our car arrangements.  *Sigh*

I think, for our families beyond our central unit, this year has been fraught with difficulties but, as a whole, nothing nearly as serious as the previous years.  Both of my younger brothers lost their jobs within a couple of weeks of each other and right before Christmas.  My Mom’s health has been on the concerning side lately with a visit to the ER which resulted in a lot of still-unresolved MRIs, EEGs and other, acronymy sorts of stuff.  We still haven’t nailed down any answers and this remains a underlying concern to all of us.  I am hoping that 2011 will hold improvements in the financial and personal outlook of everyone in my extended family.

Overall, though, I would say that there were more ultimately happy events defining 2010 than unhappy and I suppose that’s all one can hope for.  Working has been such a positive for me personally and for our family.  The addition of three babies makes me very happy.  I am at the point with my photography where I am going to have to pick and choose my gigs.  Working full-time changes my availability and that makes me sad but it also means that I can focus on those sessions that I truly want to shoot rather than feeling obligated to do anything, anywhere, at anytime.  Hopefully, we’ve settled into the situation (school-wise) for the kids that will meet Both of their needs.

2010, you BY FAR outstripped that Bitch 2009.

2011, it’s you and me.

Oh yeah, it's all good.

Bryan generally has the same Christmas vacation schedule as our local schools do.  That means that last week, he worked almost all of Monday but doesn’t have to return to work until after the new year.  On Tuesday, we were piddling around on the internet and I suddenly remembered that there was something I wanted to do a little research on.

We are Harry Potter fans.  We both read all of the books, we’ve seen all of the movies (except the latest) and we are in the middle of reading the third book to the kids.  Yes.  We know we’re nerds but since we don’t actually own robes and hats, I think we’re still toeing the “acceptable” line.

We had talked about the Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios and how cool it would be to take the kids there as soon as we heard of its opening.  We did not, however, want to go when it first opened in late spring.  So that is what I was researching…I just wanted to see what it had to offer in case we wanted to go in the future.

Well imagine my surprise when a great deal popped up!  I offhandedly mentioned to Bryan that it seems they were running a special.  He asked what it involved and as we looked into it, we realized it was too good to pass up.  We decided to investigate further and realized that this was a great opportunity for us to do something we’ve been wanting to do and we both had the time off to make it happen.  So we pounced.  We booked it for arrival the next day and started preparing for our spontaneous adventure.  As we were scrambling around to wash the clothes and take care of necessary errands, we were grinning ear to ear, fist pumping and basically humming with excitement and we realized…we are this kind of people.  We’re ‘decide last-minute that we’re going to a theme park’ kind of people.  I prepared scrolls with Harry Potter-esque writing for the kids to look like the letter Harry Potter received in the book inviting him to attend Hogwarts.  That evening, an owl must have delivered them to the kids as the actual mail had already come and they lost their minds when they realized they were actually going to Hogwarts Castle.

Malyn obviously figured it out first...

So off we went the next day.  Our package included hotel accommodations on campus, three days at the parks, Express Line Passes (skip the lines on almost every ride), breakfast at the Three Broomsticks on Christmas morning and early entrance into Harry Potter every day.

We had a blast.  The kids got magic wands at Olivanders.

The wand shop

And spent several hours practicing spells.  Malyn spent a lot of time directing roller coasters through their loops to safety much to the delight of many passersby.  Good thing she was there muttering her magical enchantments or else those coasters would have fallen right off the track.  In fact, I am sure they had to shut down the park upon our departure.

Another one safely landed

As you can tell from the previous picture, Hogwarts Castle was magnificent.

Gorgeous

The kids tried butter beer.

Butter Beer...frothy!

And neither one liked it very much.

Errr...no, thanks!

Not quite as blatantly disgusted...

Yummy.

They got sweets from Honey Dukes and even got to visit Santa on Christmas Eve which was a huge relief to Malyn who was worried The Big Guy would not be able to find us on Christmas.

Whew! Our whereabouts were adequately communicated!

She had a plan to write a note and tape it to the window of our hotel room but ended up just leaving him some notes reminding him to go ahead and go down our chimney at home and to remember that next year we would be at home.

Christmas morning found surprises:

Kissing his Pokemon Wii Game from Santa

Perfectly happy with her stuffed reindeer

I got past this little issue by explaining that Santa no longer delivers live animals as presents so she shouldn’t get her hopes up for a real reindeer.  Santa supplied the perfect solution with a stuffed reindeer and a note explaining his position.  Later, we had Christmas breakfast at the Three Broomsticks.

Yummy

OF course, this was after dealing with Malyn’s case of MORNING HAIR!

Y'all, we have Serious Morning Hair Issues

A perfectly wonderful time was had by all and we are so glad we did it.  It was a little weird to miss out on the family celebrations back home but boy, it was nice to do something crazy and fun.  I hope your celebration was as lovely as ours…

Dinner one night

Merry Christmas!

Big Boy Teeth (sniff)

Future Stars

Waiting for the parade

Macy's Parade--complete with floats at Universal!

Me and My Kids