Year in Review

2010 was definitely an eventful year. Here's a list of some of the big things:

-Enjoyed time with my wonderful husband and adorable daughter
-Bought our first house
-Got pregnant then sadly miscarried
-Began developing a budget and being more mindful of our spending
-Started to cook at least 3 nights/week
-Started a 529 for Hannah and Roth IRAs for both of us

We are hoping that 2011 brings us a new baby to love and the purchase of an investment property.

I also have a New Year's Resolution: To lower our monthly grocery/household expenses

We currently spend at least $650/month on food and household items. My goal will be to drop that to a maximum of $500/month in the next year. That would save us $1800/year. Here are some ways we will be saving:

-Using coupons & shopping the sales
-COOKING (greatly reducing pre-made dinners!)
-Checking what we have regularly and not wasting food

Here's to a great 2011! Happy New Year!

Christmas

Ours was lovely! We spent Christmas Eve with my mother-in-law & family and Christmas with Dave's dad and my family later on in the evening. Here are some pictures:






In other news, we have started cooking more of our meals. We typically would eat processed meals like Digiorno's, Stouffer's Lasagna, Tyson pre-cooked chicken, etc. We would only cook pasta or Kraft Mac & Cheese. We now make MUCH less of that and are cooking things like Chicken & Rice, Baked Smothered Chicken, Pork Chops, Pasta Pizza, and more! We use basic cookbooks and Meijer Mealbox. Overall, we have made some pretty good meals! Once December is over, I will total up our grocery bill to see if we saved any money. I hope so!

Where I spent my day

Today I went with my mom and sister to tour Western Michigan University. AKA my alma mater.



The tour was AWESOME. I went there and know the good and bad, and I was honestly impressed with the school today. There are several changes just since I started there in 2004, and they make campus much more convenient and better equipped.

I even was able to get together for lunch with one of my friends from the area. She was so instrumental in helping me develop my relationship with God my senior year of college. I can't even express how great it was to see her-it had been nearly 2 years! We talked about our churches, small groups, and just how our lives are going.

I took Hannah with me, and she did fairly well! She stayed in her stroller for nearly 1.5 hours and even slept for about 20 minutes. Once I took her out to walk though, she was happy as can be. She thought it was hilarious to walk down all the campus hills!

Thoughts

I think a lot. That sound ridiculous, but it seems like my mind is constantly running. Most of it with plans. And not daily or weekly ones, but future goals. I have this running dialogue of "We will have a baby in April 2011 (nope not pg yet), we will have Dave become a stay at home dad, I will look for additional employment, oh yeah maybe I should PRAY ABOUT THIS!"

I like to be in control. I like to know what's going to happen and at least attempt to plan ahead. The idea of not knowing what my life will look like in a year's time is overwhelming. It's the sin of Eve, and I definitely inherited it.

I'm struggling with just learning how to relax. Learning to stop thinking months and years in advance and just living each day. It's not easy, but I don't think anyone ever said it would be.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer." Psalm 19:14

Christmas & milestones

Hannah's first Christmas went so well! We spent the Sunday before at Dave's mom's where Hannah got new clothes, bath toys, a bath tub, sippy cups, and so many generous presents! She loved eating the wrapping paper. We spent Christmas day with Dave's dad and with my family at my grandparent's. Hannah loves playing with her new toys. It was so nice to have Christmas morning with just the 3 of us too.

I can't believe it's nearly 2010. It will no longer be the year that Hannah was born. But I think we'll start trying again in 2010-and sometimes it takes every bit of control to wait until summer. Hannah is so easy to deal with; it really makes us want another baby...

Anyway, I don't think I've really recorded her milestones so here goes:

Smiled socially at 5 weeks
Rolled over at 4 months
Tripod sitting at 4 months
Sitting unassisted at 5 months
Sat herself up at 6 months
Crawled at 6.5 months

And she is trying to pull up on things so I'm sure that will come soon.

In other news, we are getting ready to feet with a mortgage officer to get going on buying our first home. We met with a financial adviser to figure out a down payment so now we just have to wait and see on the loan. We are very excited to get things going!

Today was a hard day

Dave's grandmother passed away on Thursday October 29th, and today was the funeral. It was a beautiful service, and it brought all the family together. I remember meeting his grandma. It was at one of his high school band concerts, and she gave me a hug and was so kind. Dave tells me how much he enjoyed spending time with her growing up. She really was a generous, caring, godly woman.

It was just a long day for the both of us and we ended up snapping at each other more than we should. It's so easy to take your frustrations out on the one you love the most! We had a nice talk tonight though so all is well.

In other news, Hannah is now 5 months old. I totally teared up yesterday because she held her own bottle for most of her feeding. It just seems like a lot is going on with her at once. In the past 2 weeks we have put the swing in storage, started solid foods, seen her sit up unassisted, and seen her hold her own bottle. I do not miss her newborn days at all, but I'm still a little sentimental about all her new skills. Dave's even worse. I had to convince him that putting away her swing does not mean she is getting ready to get married or even start kindergarten! I can't imagine what we'll be like when it's our last baby.

Unfortunately though, Hannah has been having stomach problems lately. Lots of spitting up, fussiness, and just seeming uncomfortable. I don't know if it was the squash or the new formula. We had been using Similac to supplement, but got a free sample of Enfamil, and I figured I would give it a shot. She seemed to like it, but I'm wondering if it's not agreeing with her. At this point, we're going back to Similac and just plain rice cereal for solids. We'll try squash again in a couple weeks to see how she does then.