"Ten Things from 2010" Photo Edition

Our Christmas family newsletter (yes, I'm one of those) but complete with pictures...

1. On March 19th Austin Lee was born at 8 lbs 8 oz and 20 inches. The newest addition to our little family quickly filled a void we didn’t know was missing and we’ve settled fairly seamlessly into a family of four.


2. Bella is a fantastic big sister to Austin – she simply loves to love on him. She's so proud of her ability to trap his attention and he's more than content giving it to her.


3. Justin and I celebrated five years of marriage with a weekend trip to Chicago. Joined by my sister, Andrea, and brother-in-law we went on a boat tour, caught a game at Wrigley Field, ate deep-dish pizza, went to the top of Sear’s Tower and spent time on Magnificent Mile shopping. No one could tell we were tourists I’m sure.


4. Bella’s vocabulary increased abundantly and we are the receiving end of her hilarious, rambunctious and independent spirit that’s newly evident through words and phrases she’s learned.

okay, no picture for this, but you can watch her sing "bringing home a bumblebee" here

5. Austin has smiled throughout each and every day he’s been alive and has blessed us with every single one of them. It’s not uncommon to get stopped when we go out from people commenting on his smile.

6. We were blessed and thankful for the opportunity to give the Lord what is His in September when we dedicated Austin at church. It was one of the first moments of truly relinquishing ownership of our child and recognizing that he is the Lord's.

((no photos of this one but the video of his dedication is here!))

7. Because we didn’t have enough on our plates, we put our house on the market two days after Austin was born. We’ve had multiple open houses and a few showings but no love from buyers. If you know someone looking, tell them to buy our house. but seriously…

this was taken the day we bought our house in March 2005

8. Acquiring the attention span to (almost) watch a full-length movie, Bell’s love of Disney Princesses has increased despite Justin’s best efforts. fine, despite mine too.

9. Bella and Dana recently enrolled in Mommy and Me gymnastics (or to Bella: “doodastics”) and it’s become the perfect outlet for her extra energy. She loves it and I love watching her obvious pride of the new tricks she learns weekly.


10. In the middle of November I left the Cleveland Cavaliers and took my talents south to Olmsted Falls, officially becoming a stay-at-home mom. A month later we’re still in the process of adapting to one another on a fulltime basis, but I’m already sure the right decision was made!