2012 Year in Review

January brought a fun family trip to California. Elia and I joined the hubs on a business trip for a week in LA. We stayed at the beautiful Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, the week AFTER the Golden Globes were held at the hotel. I’m pretty sure that will be my one and only time that I’ll ever be so close to Hollywood royalty. We made quick trips to Malibu, Santa Monica and had a stroll down the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In March, Elia and I joined my parents and niece and nephew for a Spring Break trip to Omaha, NE for a visit to the Henry Doorly Zoo and the Omaha Children’s Museum. We had such a great time and Elia loved seeing all of the animals and playing at the museum.

Also in March, we celebrated my father’s retirement. We are STILL so excited for him and are so happy he’s enjoying himself and making the most of his retirement.

In April we celebrated Easter by attending the Easter Egg hunt in my hometown and then spent the day at the Deanna Rose Farmstead. Elia loved seeing the animals and we all enjoyed the beautiful spring weather.

In May, we made a trip back to Ohio to celebrate our nephew’s Bismillah. We had a wonderful time with family and are so proud of Jibreel.

While we were in Ohio for the Bismillah we also celebrated Elia’s 1st birthday (early) with Zameer’s side of the family. This short little video just cracks me up. As you can hear in the background there’s lots going on but none of it is going to distract her from enjoying her first piece of cake!

I started this blog in June as I thought it would be a wonderful way to chronicle our adventures as new parents and my beloved DIY and craft projects. Oh, and I like to cook too so I thought I’d throw some recipes in the mix (see what I did there?). I honestly thought that I might have a few family members check in every once and awhile but never in my wildest dreams did I expect to ‘meet’ so many wonderful friends and make so many connections. I’m so glad that I started this new adventure look forward to what’s to come.

This was one of my favorite (and first) DIY projects of 2012. I converted a garage sale baby changing table to a fun beverage cart for our new deck. Check out how I did it HERE.

This next project was easily my most favorite of 2012. We took a picture of Elia every day for her first year. Babies change so much and so quickly that we wanted to capture it and keep those changes forever. She truly is our miracle baby. It was a ton of work but totally worth it. I can just see her now rolling her eyes at her 16th birthday wondering why we’re embarrassing her.

Exactly THREE days after hosting Elia’s first birthday party we were scheduled for another embryo transfer hoping to give Elia a little brother or sister (or maybe one of each). We were so excited to find out just nine days later that we were indeed pregnant and that the procedure was successful. We are due April 4th and could not possibly be any more excited. Boy or girl? Click HERE to find out.

As if July couldn’t have been any more exciting, I added one more element. I started doing independent contract work for V3 Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency. This was and still is such a wonderful opportunity–I absolutely love it and my entire team!

In September, I was able to attend the Bloggy Moms Conference in Cincinnati and met so many wonderful women, some of which I had already ‘met’ through blogging. I learned so many new things and have started to incorporate them into my blog and social media strategy. I never imagined that I would even have a ‘social media strategy’ just two months into blogging!

October brings one of our favorite weekends of the year…The American Royal BBQ competition! I have been planning a BBQ post for quite some time, it really is over due. Stay tuned!

We were so fortunate to be able to travel to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico to celebrate the wedding of our dear friends Paul and Danielle. We had such an amazing time with this group of old and new friends and made memories that will last a lifetime.

Meanwhile, back at home and with Ooma and Oompa, Elia trick-or-treated as the sweetest little ghost ever!

Christmas was absolutely wonderful (magical, even). And we shared some of our highlights HERE.

We have so many things to be thankful for, and 2012 although full of challenges, was also full of so many beautiful and rewarding moments. We sincerely hope that 2012 was all that you dreamed it would be and we can’t wait to experience all that 2013 has to offer.