The year in Pictures...

Better late than never, right?!  I just haven't had time to put this together, but I have been wanting to!  So, with two snow days in a row (today and tomorrow), I finally had time to give a little glimpse into the year. So happy to be in the year 2011...exciting to know what is to come!
Tomorrow, I have my second home study (I scheduled it when I found out school is a 'snow day', because my social worker is at work rain or shine!)
Here it goes, here is 2010!
January

 A kentucky basketball game at Auburn (close to us!) with my brother and sister in law....made me smile at the beginning of 2010!

Kentucky vs. Auburn....

February

February was a chill month, mostly spent crafting and playing around in the house.  Sorry for the poor picture quality. Obviously photography has become more important to me throughout the year as well...

March 2010

Blurry little picture in Savannah....the day before we found out we were pregnant...

SHOCKED, excited...hopeful....naive :)

The joking way we told my mom and dad about Briar...
We always said we would have to get rid of Buoy when we had a baby, and my parents always said that they wanted him.  I don't know if we really will, but it was a good way to announce it... :)

Self portraits are not my biggest strength :)

Brandon leaving for deployment #4...

April 

11 weeks preggo

15 weeks 

in April, Brandon was still deployed and his friend was killed in a helicopter crash.
It was very sad, and still is.  He is a dear friend.  

Sweet friends , celebrating our friend Jimmy's life in DC at Arlington National Cemetary.

 May

Brandon came home early from his deployment because of Briar.  It gave us some wonderful time to talk things over and really have a great time together, even though he hated leaving his guys overseas.

Taking a tube ride with our pastor's wonderful kids.

Ashley making sure Mr.Brandon had nice clean feet.

 And at the end of the month, we got to meet our dear friend Emma Jane...

EMMA JANE...OUR SWEET LITTLE FRIEND WHO IS NOW 7 MONTHS...

I love how happy Ashley looks here :) to be with Mr.Brandon...

Jd isn't having as much fun as Brandon...

JUNE

Date nights were what kept me sane through the summer....no school and trying to enjoy my time with Briar...

Off to Kentucky for a Summer Wedding...

Typical moment of 2010....my hubby and his brother smashing pie on the face of their cousin.  

and then the aftermath of that...

20 weeks....the extra fluid is beginning...

21 WEEKS

JULY

Moving along...the little guy is growing! 

A trip to sanibel island with the hubs and briar.  24 weeks.

Briar's love shower...where my amazing friends made me feel so very loved...
I was 25 weeks here...

 August

Really fun maternity pictures...

Our first adoption fundraiser!!

My inlaws came and we took a trip to the Wild Animal Safari. At this point, Briar was building up lots of fluid...and I was almost 30 weeks.

September



Obviously, no words can due justice the amount of thankfulness we feel about this part of our year.  Nor can we express how much it truly changed our lives for the better.  I feel like there HAS to be a statement here. It's almost as if life is BEFORE BRIAR and AFTER BRIAR.  Having children in general is just a MIRACLE. And Briar was a special one.

With a fever (and infection) after I had Briar, I had to stay in the hospital the rest of my birthday and two days following.  They had hoped to let me go on the same day.

The celebration of life was beautiful and perfect!

On September 16th we had Briar's celebration and I had several college friends make the trek in town....which meant SO MUCH.

It just so happens...right around the time of Briar being born, Brandon shaved his facial hair into this...coincidence...or his way of grieving?? :) haha!!

My sweet dad.  My mom and dad were here to support me as well as my in laws.  September could be qualified as one of the most amazing and heartbreaking months of my life.

October

 Three weeks after Briar was born, attempting to get away a little and "escape" everyday life (which felt so tough without being pregnant or having the baby at home that I had just given birth to...), we traveled to Europe on Space A.  We had a great time, but in hindsight, it was definitely a challenging trip to take three weeks after giving birth.

Very happy to be in Italy..

Enjoying Switzerland

Hiking in Italy....excuse my blurriness. :)

 We were gone the whole month of October pretty much.  So it is weird to look back on Halloween and think about it only being six weeks after we lost Briar. That seems crazy. I seemed really 'okay' back then...I felt farther out.  Since I didn't have any sweet baby to dress up and take photos of, we went to hang out with dear friends and I took pictures of THEIR kids :)

November

I was lucky enough to be in Austin for Hayley's birthday celebration (one month after her actual b'day).  Hayley is one of my best friends in the entire world who lives in Austin, Texas.

Photo exchange with the Allens. So glad we did this!

Outdoor Thanksgiving! It was so warm, and it was just my mom, dad, Brandon, myself and an exchange student working with Brandon.  So we decided to take the dinner outdoors! 

December

Christmas Cruise

This is on the cruise, blurry because I was laughing....Brandon and his brother in front of one of the backgrounds.  Those aren't our kind of photos....so Brandon and his brother took a ridiculous one... :)  

Looking forward to a beautiful 2011!!!