My New Years Resolution is to Not Look Four Months Pregnant By This Time Next Year. Well, Unless I Actually Am. In Which Case, Yay For Me!

January! We started 2011 off right with the New Year's wedding of some of our very favorite people. I got a new camera (that I LOVE by-the-by), and I told you about the whacky things hubby and I did to keep our long distance relationship fun. Stephen finally learned to walk, but still chose not to, and of COURSE we did our annual family photo.

When February rolled around, my kids were still wearing their Halloween costumes, and I went ahead and explained my general blogging philosophy (hint: rainbows and sunshine abound!). I gave myself an ulcer about whether to home school our oldest, and I took my boys out for a tasty Mexican Valentine's meal.

Then there was a brief departure from my blogging philosophy to talk about our fertility struggles and my need to feel in control. I started Clomid, hoped for the best, and took my kids to the park. Stephen got his first real taste of discipline, and we had an impromptu (and enlightening) picnic at the airport.

In March I showed you a whole mess of pictures from my childhood (yay for sisters!) and we made my dad babysit on his birthday. Stephen sat on a desk looking cute, and Jonathan got (another) black eye. The big boys got awesome haircuts and you folks helped me scrutinize about eightybajillion pee sticks.

The kids were introduced to the wonderfulness of county fairs, and my sweet little Jonathan turned three. We celebrated some more (because birthdays are special) and then finally gave up on winter and pulled out the slip n' slide.

At the end of the month I kicked Wesley out of the house, which may or may not have been related to him introducing our children to video games. And we ended the March on a down note, saying a sad goodbye to our beloved Grandma Bonnie.

April confirmed I was indeed carrying another bean, and that it was exactly what we needed for the family. My sister talked about Lupus and I showed you how ridiculously stylish Wesley and I were as children. Casey worked on his math skills and Stephen worked on his attitude. We celebrated Spring, planted a garden, sang without clothes, and then played some basketball.

May started off with hope and gardening, but took a sudden and terrible turn for the worst. Our anniversary was spent being quiet and thankful and we continued the thankful sentiment with a fun charity walk honoring my sister. Life got back toward normal and I revamped Wesley's office into a prison cell for Kelly. Then Jonathan potty trained and we all did some preparing for the apocalypse.

June brought full blown summer, which meant swim lessons and a visit from Kelly! We hit the beach for a spell and then spent Father's Day in Gainesville. More swimming and a little bit of torture at The History Center.

In July we had a grand celebration for Independence Day then took a jaunt over to Downtown Disney. I passed the pregnancy halfway point and admitted it had been a bit of a rough sail in the beginning. We visited Melbourne and south Florida and finally got a good peek of the new baby's face!

August came out of the gate at full speed with my birthday, Wesley's graduation, and Kelly's departure. We did our best to stay cool and gave The History Center a second try. I took another belly picture, showed you what a horrific dancer I am, and introduced my love of art to the boys.

In September we took an epic road trip. It started with mountains and caves in Kentucky, led to family in Indiana, then friends in Ohio and fish in Tennessee. We rounded things out with animals in South Carolina and landed safely in our beds a week later. I also gave you another peek at the inside of my growing belly, and just for good measure we visited Disney.

October was a race to do as much as humanly possible before the baby arrived. We had a birthday party for my grandfather then panicked about how little time was left. It rained for like eleventybillion hours straight, and I gushed about my husband. There was a whole mess of cooking and then some fun in the tub. More belly pictures and angsting about the impending arrival along with some popsicles to make it all better.

There was a meeting about the baby and my kids blew off steam by learning to bull ride. Stephen turned two (TWO!!!) and there was more talk about the baby. We went to the park, blah blah blah baby, then had one last hurrah at Disney. We ended the month with a spectacular super hero Halloween team.

The month we've all been waiting for, and finally a decision was made! November saw the arrival of OMIGAAAAAHHH!!! A GIRL!!!! Baby Josie, to be exact. Surely the prettiest baby ever, who made one heck of a crazy arrival.

We settled into our new normal and tried on some dinosaur hair to pass the time. Casey turned five (gah. my heart.) and went swinging from the trees to prove that he has indeed grown up SO much. We spent a leisurely Thanksgiving in Gainesville and then celebrated just a teensy bit more.

December proved that I am indeed a terrible mother, with my head all wrapped up in our holiday traditions. Josie slept. A lot. And I gave new moms a whole mess of unsolicited advice. We didn't send out our year-end cards, but we did go to the park again.

Christmas came and we played at the beach. We also took our annual pajama picture, went to a party, ate Christmas Eve dinner and opened some presents. Ate some more dinner, took another picture, and went to another party.

Thank you 2011, you were (mostly) good. Great, even.

But let's make 2012 even better!

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[Want to keep reminiscing? Check out the 2010 recap and the 2009 recap!]

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Tired Doesn't Even Begin to Describe My Post-Blissdom Fatigue. But, It's a Good Tired. Really.

Flying scares me (a lot), so my lovely mother was kind enough to come along with me to Nashville. She hates flying too, but at least she's more practiced at it than I am. And, it's better to be scared together than scared alone. Right?

Mom brought her best friend, Joan, along. They have this (not so) cool trick where they harmonize their snoring. It's kind of like finishing each others sentences, but while sleeping. Joan is really cool peeps. We may or may not have teased my mom (a lot). That makes her okay in my book.

Despite my (totally and completely rational) fear of flying, I still think the view from our window was beautiful. Maybe moreso considering the anxiety it provokes just to look at it.

SNOW!!! I adore cold weather and snow. Unfortunately, it was gone by morning so I never got to play in it. Still, the sight of a real winter was nice.

On our first night (Wednesday) I was assigned to arm bands and drink tickets at the kick-off party. It was a nice gig because I was able to familiarize myself with names and faces without being all weird and stalkerish. Also, Malia kept me company, and she brought The Awesome.

And, by 'The Awesome,' I totally meant alcohol. Specifically, the Blissdom Blossom, which tasted like fruit punch. Mmmmmm. Not that Malia isn't awesome, because of course she is.

In the morning, Linney and I (okay, mostly Linney) gathered the tribes for a pow-wow before opening keynote. It was fun to finally identify in person all the ladies I've been emailing relentlessly over the past couple months.

I was feeling a teensy bit lonely and lost on the first day, so Wesley sent me hilarious pictures. He's a good guy like that. He also didn't complain at all about my jetting off for four days. Love him.

I also met cool new peeps like Amy (and Jana, and Alycia, and so many more), which meant I wasn't lonely and lost for long. Not long at all.

Fashion was kind of a big thing at Blissdom. I'm not so much good at the fashion. I brought one necklace and one pair of earrings. Also, I wore the same boots every. single. day. (And only brushed my hair once). But, I love my $19 clearance rack dress. So, whatevs.

This is Angela. She's my boss-lady at Blissfully Domestic. She brought two of her babies. I stole them as often as possible. They were unbelievably yummy. Wish they lived closer so I could love on them more often.

At the end of the conference, after the final keynote, Alli and Barbara were love bombed by a flash(dance)mob. It was pretty spectacular.

Saturday evening was Girls' Night In. I worked the door again, which gave me the opportunity to flirt with Chris Mann, and get hit on by some seminary students. Eventually I wandered in for pizza, karaoke and a few pretty ladies.

On Saturday morning during tribe meetings, I was finally able to spend some time with Jennifer, one of my first bloggy crushes. She's been a really great interweb friend over the last few years and I'm so glad we were able to meet in person. (Casey's photobombing us, I guess she thought it was a costume party or something).

I also met the amazingly talented (and tall!) Heather, who I've been harassing on Skype for the past several weeks. She is every bit as lovely in person as she is online. Which, by the by, is *very* lovely.

Before hitting the airport, Mom, Joan and I went to President Andrew Jackson's home and took a tour. I'm a little bit of a history nerd, so this was great. The property is quite expansive, so unfortunately we were not able to see the whole thing. How gorgeous is this fireplace, though? It's in the slave quarters. I feel a little guilty for liking it, but I just do.

Our flight home only had thirty passengers. I once read somewhere that full flights almost never crash so, even though it's probably totally bogus, I was completely freaked out. I made my poor mom sit next to me the whole time, even though there was plenty of room for each of us to have our own aisle. Sorry, Mom.

And as inspiring as my days at Blissdom were, I am so unbelievably pleased to be home with my little monkeys.

The 2010 Recap.

I cannot thank you all enough for joining my family on this journey. Another year has come and gone, too quickly. Please, sit a moment and relive a few of my favorite memories.

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In January we took the boys to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom for the first time ever! Casey was none too keen on the rides, but the boys sure enjoyed the giant cookie courtesy of the big mouse.

February confirmed how well I know my children. Specifically, Jonathan's affinity for tasting things that probably shouldn't be tasted.

Then in March I admitted to being a liar liar pants on fire. I also took my kids to the library.

When April came around, Casey started (and finished) preschool. I still get weepy thinking about it.

In May I gave up caffeine, and that made me cranky. Also, the kids painted each other.

By June we were neck deep in summer. Which, of course, means trips to the grandparents, swimming, ice cream and air conditioned malls.

July called for dancing in the rain.

In August, Wesley totally out-parented me with his cardboard skee-ball contraption of supreme awesomeness.

At the end of September I was so fortunate to meet my friend Desiree in person for the first time.

October brought lovely weather and our yearly trip to the pumpkin tent.

In November there was bowling!

And December was just plain epic.

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Still want more? Check out last year's recap!

I Don't Usually Blog About Blogging, But When Blogging Intersects With Real Life, Then It's Okay. Plus It's My Site, So I Can Break the Rules.

One of the fun things about this medium is that it comes with a community. Mostly a virtual community, but occasionally we get to step outside our computers and meet in person. And that's really special. This past week I joined up with Angie's family and Brittany's family for dinner at Downtown Disney. Unfortunately, my gang wasn't able to come along because they're a bunch of sickies, but it was still fun.

Thanks gals, for letting me tag along!