almost 2011

I can't believe that Christmas is over and it is almost 2011. Mr. Wonderful and I started dating on New Year's Eve 2001, so this year makes it an official 10 years together. I know that because we've been married over 6 years some may consider it a bit silly to recognize a "dating" anniversary, but I plan on celebrating anyway! We waited much too long to be together for us to not enjoy every second of it!! I'm hoping that our sitter will come through for us so we can have a date night. I absolutely love spending time with Mr. Wonderful and the girls, but after such a difficult year, I'm ready for some alone time with him.

  I hope everyone has had a great holiday season. We certainly did. We spent Thanksgiving in Nashville and came home just in time for me to shop with my mom and sister the day after. We spent Christmas Eve with the grandparents and Christmas day with my parents. Christmas morning was extra special for us this year. Because we stayed up so late wrapping gifts for the girls, we slept a little late before getting up to finish cooking for lunch. We had been up for about an hour before the girls got up. Mr. Wonderful was in the middle of something, so I took the girls straight into our room to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. Just as we were getting ready to bring the girls into the family room, Addie looked down the hallway and shouted, "I see a baby stroller!" Actually, it was a baby car seat. It took them over an hour to open all the gifts. Addie's were all wrapped in red princess paper and Avie's were in purple Tinkerbell paper. 

I always say that my sweet little girls are completely opposite, and I mean it. Even their approach to opening gifts was different! Addie opened them all as quickly as possible and didn't really pay attention to it all until after the paper was gone. Avie, on the other hand, wanted to play with each thing as she opened it. We had to persuade Addie to slow down and Avie to speed up! It was so much fun watching them. They were so surprised by it all. Everyone had been talking to them about it, but they just didn't know what to expect. This was the first year the girls were both old enough to really have fun and play with their gifts and we spent the entire morning together, just the four of us. It was such a special time.

Mr. Wonderful started some new meds last week and we are praying that they work. He seems to be feeling okay on them, just not as great as we had hoped. I am so ready to put all of this behind us. I know that God has a plan and a purpose for everything. I believe that with all of my heart. I'm not sure what His plan is for all of this, but I am certain that it has made me appreciate my little family even more. Every night we put Addie and Avie in bed and I think that it just wouldn't be possible to love them any more than I already do. Then every morning when I first lay eyes on them that love grows even stronger. The sound of their voice makes me smile and their sweet face makes my heart sing. For me, being a mother is the absolute greatest blessing in life. And as much as I love my precious little girls, I love my husband even more. He is the perfect partner for me to share my life with. Having him beside me makes every experience in life even better.

I'm not really a believer in making new year resolutions. It just seems that if a person were really going to do all those things then they wouldn't wait until the new year to start. I do, however, want to carry this "extreme appreciation" of my family throughout the year. I want to be able to look back not have any regrets about how I spent my time. I want to live in the moment, every moment. I want to drop what I'm doing and play dolls with the girls every time they ask. I want to run outside with them and teach them to ride their bikes. I want to jump on the trampoline until I can't take it anymore. I want to go out on more dates with Mr. Wonderful and us not feel guilty about leaving the girls. I want to spend our entire Spring doing yard work and our entire Summer at the lake. I want to cook and read and sew. 

But most of all, my prayer for the new year is that Mr. Wonderful will be healed. I pray that his symptoms will be relieved and that he will feel like enjoying life with us!!