2015: A Year of Blessings & Lessons Learned

I've had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that 2015 blissfully sailed away, and we have entered into the world of 2016. In some ways, I was very happy to see last year fade away, yet in other ways, I feel like it went by so very fast!

January::

The year started off with our crawling baby girl who learned to say "Dada, and Daddy" in one day. It was her first word, and she lit up like a candle whenever she said it. It was as if she truly understood that it was her first word. Who knows! Maybe babies do understand. Ha! ;-)

February::

In February, I turned 30. I thought it would have felt a LITTLE different, but of course, it didn't. I think we celebrated with coffee & chocolate. I also started toying with the idea of shutting down Mrs. Southern Bride (my former blog), and creating a fresh new place to "blog". Hence, Joshua's Girl was born, and it's been a wonderful transition.

March::

I wrote my first blog post! We had a lot of winter weather, so we spent a lot of time at home. It was a rather slow, and bliss filled month.

April::

We celebrated 6 years of marriage with a day trip to Hot Springs, a small, toursity town not to far from our hometown. We ate, shopped, and drank way to much coffee. It was also the first time Evie spent the weekend away from us. I may or may not have cried a few tears on the second day she was away from us. We also painted our living room/great room which turned out lovely! We also payed off Josh's car which was a HUGE blessings for us.

May::

Our world turned upside down when I figured out that I was expecting again!!! I ended up taking four tests before I got a positive. We waited another day before telling our parents. We bought a cute "Best Sister Ever" shirt for Evie to wear when our parents came over. It took a bit for them to figure out our secret. We were over the moon, but also madly scrabling to figure out how we were going to handle a second pregnancy so quickly! The Lord has a great humor is all I can say. ;-)

June::

Evelynn Grace turned one years old!! We had SO much fun planning every little detail of her Minnie Mouse party. Josh designed the announcements, my mom made the cupcakes, Josh's mom made her famous pasta salad, and tons of family helped us celebrate. I shared some of her party details here.

July::

I had nausea during the 7-10 weeks of pregnancy, so I layed pretty low. Most days we watched a LOT of tv to keep little britches preoccupied. Lemon water was my saving grace once again! We also got to see a tiny heartbeat for the first time. :)

August::

The dog days of summer arrived. My little brother visited us for a few days. I spent most of the month reading, cleaning, and prepping our home for fall cleaning.

September::

We found out another little girl would be joining our family!! I think Josh all but passed out. ;-) We finalized her name. I also blogged about my fall bucket list!

October::

My favorite month of the year arrived, and I dove head first into all things pumpkin. Imagine that! I participated in the 31 Days of Blogging event in hopes to challenge myself. It was fun! I also participated in my first ever blogging Fall Swap. :)

November::

We started gearing up for the babies arrival but knocking out a ton of last minute shopping, nusery prepping, and further "baby proofing" the house for our toddler. My doctor reminded me to start toning it down, and we agreed to monitor closely for any signs of pre-term labor (I had Evie at 36 weeks). Thanksgiving was cut short when I came down with Strep, and had to spend a lot of time at home over the course of the weekend.

December::

We enjoyed celebrating the season early on with some of our close friends by hosting an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party. It was so much fun! We found out I was already dialating at my 34 week appointment, so my doctor told me to cool it down a few notches. We spent most of our time at home for a few days, before I ended up in labor. I spent 24 hours in the hospital on Christmas Day, and returned home on strict bed rest. We watched alot of movies, and Netflix throughout the last week of December.